Democrats kept the Senate working until almost 3am on Thursday morning, rejecting amendment after amendment from Republicans on the health care reconciliation bill, drawing supporters closer to a second legislative victory on health reform.

Just before 3am, the two sides announced a deal that paves the way for a final vote on the health care reconciliation bill after 2pm this afternoon.

The bill will have to go back to the House for another vote, because the Senate Parliamentarian has ruled that two minor provisions dealing with Pell Grants violate Senate budget rules, and will be stricken from the bill.

Still, it put Democrats - and the White House - on the verge of a major victory later today.

"For the first time as a nation, we are recognizing that people have a right to not be destroyed by sickness," said Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL), who announced his support for the reconciliation bill.

While Democrat after Democrat trooped to the floor to speak in support, Republicans also kept up a drumbeat of opposition, skewering the bill on a number of fronts.  

"Cutting Grandma's Medicare by half a trillion dollars and spending it on a new program at a time when Medicare is going broke is not real health care reform," said Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN).

"President Obama will not have to live under the Obama health care reforms, and neither will the congressional staff who helped to write the overhaul," said Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), who had an amendment on that angle shot down last night.

"The message to the people at the grassroots is that it's good enough for you, but not for us."

But no matter the arguments, as the clock rolled towards midnight on Wednesday, it was clear that the GOP was outnumberedand soon to be on the losing end of this legislative battle.

The only question was how many more votes, as Democrats stuck together for another day of GOP amendments.

"I'm not voting for any of them," said Sen. Mark Begich (R-AK), "because the whole tactic is just to delay this."

Meanwhile, the White House was more than happy to dump on the GOP at every opportunity.

"I think it's clear there's a lot of game playing going on," said White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, who labeled the repeated votes a "political distraction".