I rolled over and the first thing I see is cat butt . <| sep |> You ' re right , since writing that post I did more research and realized that no republicans actually voted for the ACA . But it is true that the senate bill was drafted with input from republican senators . r ealstoryofobamacaresbirth 397742 A few relevant quotesBut with Obama ' s blessing , the Senate , through its Finance Committee , took a different tack , and became the fulcrum for a potential grand bargain on health reform . Chairman Max Baucus , in the spring of 2009 , signaled his desire to find a bipartisan compromise , working especially closely with Grassley , his dear friend and Republican counterpart , who had been deeply involved in crafting the Republican alternative to Clintoncare . Baucus and Grassley convened an informal group of three Democrats and three Republicans on the committee , which became known as the Gang of Six . They covered the parties ' ideological bases the other GOPers were conservative Mike Enzi of Wyoming and moderate Olympia Snowe of Maine , and the Democrats were liberal Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico and moderate Kent Conrad of North Dakota . To be sure , the extended negotiations via the Gang of Six made a big difference in the ultimate success of the reform , but for other reasons . When Republicans like Hatch and Grassley began to write opeds and trash the individual mandate , which they had earlier championed , as unconstitutional and abominable , it convinced conservative Democrats in the Senate that every honest effort to engage Republicans in the reform effort had been tried and cynically rebuffed . So when the crucial votes came in the Senate , in late December 2009 , Harry Reid succeeded in the nearimpossible feat of getting all 60 Democrats , from Socialist Bernie Sanders and liberal Barbara Boxer to conservatives Joe Lieberman , Ben Nelson , Mark Pryor , and Blanche Lincoln , to vote for cloture , to end the Republican filibuster , and to pass their version of the bill . All sixty were needed because every single Republican in the Senate voted against cloture and against the bill . Was this simply a matter of principle ? The answer to that question was provided at a later point by Mitch McConnell , who made clear that the unified opposition was a ruthlessly pragmatic political tactic . He said , It was absolutely critical that everybody be together because if the proponents of the bill were able to say it was bipartisan , it tended to convey to the public that this is O . K . , they must have figured it out . So the original intent was to create a bill that a few republicans would vote for , but those republicans later turned heel and began opposing it . It was just fortunate coincidence that every single democrat independent finally came around and supported it .