Senate Passes Health Care Reform: Christmas Eve Edition

‘Twas the crack of dawn before Christmas, and one hundred angry, vitriolic (also determined) politicians have aroused themselves at the crack of dawn in order to vote on the health care reform bill that most of the nation may or may not understand, but are willing to fight about anyway!

In a last minute Christmas spiritish move the Senate moved the vote from 8am to 7am in order to let everyone — including President Obama, who is going to Hawaii for his first extended vacation this (very long) year — attempt to get home for Christmas. Good luck with that, Joe Biden! In the meantime, as far as we can gauge from our Tweetdeck Salon’s Mike Madden and (of course!) Mark Knoller are one of the few peoples up early enough to take in all the Senate floor festivities (also, Karen Tumulty has an open thread running at Swampland). So while we wait to see if the nation gets a new health care bill for Christmas (the president will give a statement at 8:45) take it away Mike and Mark (refresh for updates):

UPDATE: The bill has been passed. Along strict party lines: 60-39. You can read the most current version of it here.

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