GOP senator: 'Very good chance' health bill passes under reconciliation

Senate Democrats have a "very good chance" of passing healthcare legislation if they use budget reconciliation rules, one Republican senator conceded Tuesday.

Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) said that while the bill's fate is "very much in play," if Democrats use the budget maneuver, which sidesteps the 60-vote filibuster rule, they would almost certainly be able to pass their bill.

"There are two schools of thoughts, and I believe the odds these two are about 50/50 for each one," Crapo told Idaho reporters during a conference call this morning.

The first scenario would see the public option removed in order to win Democratic votes, Crapo said.

"The other notion is that people will continue to see the heavy government intrusion in the legislation, will see the expensive taxes and the high price tag of the bill, and will have the same kind of reservations about it, and that that will cause the Democratic leadership to be unable to pass their version in the Senate," the Idaho Republican added.

"That then raises the question as to whether they would move to reconciliation, where they didn't have to get to 60 votes, and only needed 50," Crapo explained. "If they do move to reconciliation, I do think they actually have a very good chance of passing that."

Crapo said that he credited the August recess protests with having created enough of an impression among his colleagues for them to have voted down public option amendments in the Senate Finance Committee, but he worried the protests haven't had enough of an impact as the debate moves forward.

"I'm concerned that that impact is not as deep as they thought it would be," he said.

Overall, the senator maintained that the fate of the legislation is "very much in play," and that Republicans would work to stop the public option from becoming law.