The House Budget Committee on Sunday evening released text that will serve as the base legislation for the changes the House will seek to the Senate bill this week.And after a long, ugly, painful year-plus long battle, we're heading into the home stretch. When the chips are down and the hands are shown, will the Dems have the votes in the House to pass the Senate bill? We still don't know. But this is the week where this will be decided. President Obama heads to Ohio again to stump for health care reform while the House prepares to go to work this week.
Specifically, the Budget committee released a 2,309-page effort that had been previously recommended to the Education and Labor Committee and Ways and Means Committee last year.
The measure posted online does not include the substantive changes to the Senate healthcare bill that House Democrats will seek. Those changes will be offered during the markups in the Budget and Rules committees, which the budget panel hopes to begin on Monday afternoon.
The House is expected to approve the Senate's healthcare bill along with the package of changes. The Senate would then be expected to approve the package of changes under budget reconciliation rules.
Because the bill will be considered under budget reconciliation rules in the Senate, GOP senators will not be able to filibuster the package and Democrats will not need 60 votes to move the legislation through the Senate.
The House has demanded the Senate approve changes to its healthcare bill in exchange for the House voting for the Senate bill.
House Democrats hope to complete their work by this weekend, before President Barack Obama begins an overseas trip he delayed for several days to focus on healthcare.
The markup by the Budget Committee is the first step toward bringing the measure to the House floor.
The pieces are in place. The forces are on the move. And the final battle is nigh. Which side will win? And at this point, what does "winning" mean?
More on that as the week progresses.
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2 comments:
In the end is a political nightmare for the Dems whether they win or lose because of how they got to this point. In the end Americans don't want this, so while I have no doubt the Repubs don't have my best interest in mind, by their stance of "No fuck you Dems" it's actually doing what the American people want.
Also if they are so sure that this is so good why are they looking at any alternative way to pass this rather than just flat out voting on it?
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