After surviving the first cloture vote last month, "debate" on the final Senate health care bill officially kicked off this week. Republicans are up to their usual tricks, railing against "Medicare cuts" they have previously supported and spinning the latest Congressional Budget Office report that reaffirmed reform will bring down the cost of health insurance for millions of Americans. As has been the case for most of the year, however, the real debate is taking place inside the Democratic caucus.

One sticking point in the fight for 60 votes will be reproductive rights. Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) has already announced that he will carry the restrictive Stupak amendment in the upper chamber, which limits elective abortion coverage from both private and public insurers on the health insurance exchanges. Without his vote, the Democrat's reform effort could quickly unravel. During an appearance on KTRS radio in St. Louis, Sen. Dick Durbin already said that he is trying to reach "common ground" on the issue, but it's not clear what leverage he has at his disposal.

Pro-choice advocates are way more invested in passing legitimate health reform than is Nelson, who has complained about the size of the bill since the beginning of negotiations. Given a choice between no bill and decent bill with one horrible amendment, liberal Democrats will probably swallow the bitter pill. Nelson and his ilk, on the other hand, won't lose any sleep if it goes down in flames.

Meanwhile, Sen. Roland Burris told Essence Monday that he would support the legislation in its current form. Burris was the only senator who publicly stated he would vote against health care reform if the public option was eventually stripped, although he never vowed to vote with Republicans if they filibustered. Here's what he thinks about the opt-out compromise:

It's not a perfect bill, but it has a lot of good parts to it. It certainly carries a public option, but I'm not happy with the opt-out provision. When it's debated on the floor, I certainly would like to improve it. If we can't improve that, since the bill has so many other favorable parts to it, then we'll go along with that. But if for some reason, the public option is amended out then it would not get my vote.

Burris, however, probably won't get the chance to cast his lot with the opt-out advocates. This morning, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has asked Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) to "come up with a Plan B approach" to the public option compromise. Durbin and Reid can't seem to find 60 Senators willing to vote for the opt-out option. Details of the new approach will be unveiled next week, but Carper is working closely with Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) who favors a trigger option.

Check out the entire Burris interview here.