Does AHCA need 51 or 60 votes to pass the Senate?

[underpants]

Lazy question but I wanted a quick answer.

I thought since it's a spending bill the Byrd Rule applied (60 votes) NPR said this afternoon that they only needed 51.

????

[DemocratSinceBirth]

1. That is going to be litigated.

[underpants]

2. ?

Do the Republicans have to change the rules to get it to 51?

[tenorly]

5. Yes. That may indeed happen.

They need 60 in theory (cloture rules); but if push comes to shove Bitchy Mitchy has already shown he is not above suspending almost any rule in order to get his way.

But as it happens, even his GOP caucus in the Senate has already announced that they will not treat the House bill at all. They will instead draft their own version - and that version will inevitably have lots of Democratic input.

Then, of course, it will go back to the den of iniquity that is today´s House, where it is almost certain to die because the Senate version will no doubt be far too sensible for the House tea baggers.

[LeftInTX]

3. It needs a CBO report first

I guess it would depend on what the CBO determines.

The last AHCA passed the CBO.

If it passes the CBO then it will only need 51.

Unlike the March non-vote, the House did this one before the CBO report.

[haele]

6. Depends. The Senate has already indicated it's not about to vote on the House bill as is.

I suspect that McConnell's Minions are trying to figure a way of getting something that replaces the ACA through on budget reconciliation, which only requires 51 votes and can be filibuster proof with the minimum of involving the Democrats.
But there's a whole lot of "revenue/cost neutral" and other rules that go along with the budget reconciliation path, which makes it difficult to make the Senate Patrons (i.e., the .001%) very happy; they're not going to get a trillion dollar tax cut for the wealthy and business interests out of it.
They also can't touch Medicare/Medicaid or any other federal program on budget reconciliation.

As an actual bill, there's a lot of chance for Democratic input. And McConnell doesn't want to play at all with the Dems; he wants this to be a GOP triumph - doesn't want any hint of anything that might be traced back to Obama or the original bill.

Haele

[Demsrule86]

7. It depends on the CBO Score ...if it raises the deficit it needs 60 if it doesn't 50 and Pence

breaks tie.

[Ohioblue22]

8. the gop says it saves money ,880 billion, so they can use reconcilliation

so the gop says

but the Senate wants to write it's own bill which the teabaggers probably won't vote for

[Demsrule86]

9. We will see...it may since they are taking the taxes out and giving it to the rich.

Even so, there is doubt they can get 50 votes...can only lose two...the bill passed today will not pass...I guess we will see what does.