The House has just passed the Health Care Reform bill by a vote of 220-215.

Democrats voted 219-39 in favor

Republicans voted 176-1 against.

Lots of cheering on the Democratic side.

However I wouldn’t get so excited yet.

Assuming for the sake of argument the same proportions held up in the Senate then the vote on cloture would be:

Democrats 50-10 in favor

Republicans 40-0 against

The vote would fail with just 50 votes, ten short of the required 60. Indeed it would be barely enough to pass a simple majority vote with VP Biden breaking the tie.

But it is a major step, though we don’t have any clear idea yet of exactly what the bill contains, presumably that will come out in the next few days and weeks.