There'll Be Time Enough For Countin' When The Dealin's Done

Alex Bolton at The Hill reports that according to Sen. Tom Harkin, health care reform was done and on the way to the CBO to be scored when Scott Brown won, effectively killing it.

Harkin (D-Iowa), who attended healthcare talks at the White House, said negotiators were on the cusp of bringing a bill back for final votes in the Senate and House.

Harkin said “we had an agreement, with the House, the White House and the Senate. We sent it to [the Congressional Budget Office] to get scored and then Tuesday happened and we didn’t get it back.” He said negotiators had an agreement in hand on Friday, Jan. 15.

Harkin made clear that negotiators had reached a final deal on the entire bill, not just the excise plans, which had been reported the previous day, Jan. 14.

Harkin said the deal covered the prescription-drug “donut hole,” the level of federal insurance subsidies, national insurance exchanges and federal Medicaid assistance to states.

Senate Democratic aides declined to confirm Harkin’s account. A White House spokesman also declined to comment.

That's as expected, frankly.  Sidecar reconciliation could go ahead at any time, but isn't.  We need action out of the White House to go with this talk, and I'm just not seeing it.

I keep hearing "We're almost there, we're moving along, we'll get it passed" and now we're hearing "it'll get passed this year".  We heard that last year, frankly.  Anything past April and it's over.  Hell, February may be too late.

It's time for action.  Pass the damn bill.