Another House Dem A “No” On Senate Bill; A Previous “Yes” Now Undecided

Okay, a bit more bad news for the prospects of passing the Senate bill out of the House.

Rep Frank Kratovil of Maryland, a previous No vote who was now said to be undecided, will vote No on the Senate health reform proposal, his spokesman confirms.

“He would vote against it,” the spokesman, Kevin Lawlor, says. Crucially, Kratovil would vote against the Senate bill even if there’s some kind of verbal guarantee that it would be fixed via reconciliation later, Lawlor says.

The only way Kratovil — one of the targets of a barrage of NRCC robocalls hammering the reform proposals as “dangerous” — could support the Senate bill is if it’s fixed first via reconciliation, before the House votes on it. But no one expects this to happen.

Kratovil is one of a group of lawmaekrs who voted No last time that Dem leaders had hoped to flip to Yes.

Separately, Dem Rep Kurt Schrader, a freshman in Oregon who voted Yes last time, is now unwilling to commit to supporting the Senate bill, reports The Oregonian. Schrader, too, is getting bludgeoned by the NRCC robocalls.

So where does that leave us? The math is too in flux to make any pronouncements. Bottom line: Every Dem who flips from Yes to No (as Schrader may do) must be made up for by flipping a No to Yes (as Kratovil almost certainly won’t do). Long road ahead.

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Update: Kratovil is not retiring; I was thinking of someone else when I wrote that. My apologies.

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