By Arun Kumar
Washington, Dec 21 (IANS) President Barack Obama won a major victory in his push for healthcare reform as the Senate voted early Monday morning to end debate on a package of controversial revisions to a sweeping $871 billion bill.

The 60 to 40 party-line vote, cast shortly after 1 a.m., kept Senate Democrats on track to pass the bill on Christmas Eve. Healthcare reforms, a goal that has eluded several presidents before him, are Obama’s top domestic priority.

If it passes, the measure will then have to be merged with a roughly $1 trillion plan passed by House of Representatives in November. The Senate went into recess until noon Monday shortly after the vote.

The vote brought Obama close enacting the biggest expansion of federal healthcare guarantees since the enactment of Medicare and Medicaid over four decades ago.

“Today, the Senate took another historic step toward our goal of delivering access to quality, affordable health care to all Americans,” Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, said in a statement.

The vote was the first of three this week requiring Democrats to win the backing of 60 members-enough to break a Republican filibuster. Final passage of the measure, in the contrast, will require a bare majority in the 100-member chamber.

But Republicans ripped the majority for passing the measure in the middle of the night and accused Democrats of ramming the bill through despite growing public opposition.

“Make no mistake: If the people who wrote this bill were proud of it, they wouldn’t be forcing this vote in the dead of night,” argued Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.