Start The Clock

With the CBO score out and the bill released, President Obama has canceled his Asia trip in order to finish health care reform legislation.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs announced that Obama will postpone the trip until June and that he phoned the leaders of those nations to express his regret but to say that the health care vote was too important to be out of town.

"The president is determined to see this battle through," Gibbs said during the first ever press briefing held in the White House Rose Garden.

Gibbs cited the timing of the legislative process, and that the final health care bill is being posted online today, starting a 72-hour clock for public comment. That sets the vote at mid-day Sunday at the earliest, and the president had been set to leave Sunday early evening.

Obama has been having face-to-face discussions with individual wavering House Democrats to help leadership secure 216 votes needed to pass the plan. The White House and Democratic leadership haven't said when the Senate would be expected to vote on the legislation to send it to Obama's desk for a signature.

"This has been a long hard process," Gibbs said. "The president believes that the House leadership wanting to talk to the full caucus and get a CBO score was the right thing to do."

So, with a vote possibly as early as Sunday evening, the process now turns to getting the votes...which the White House does not have yet.  Still.

We may not know the outcome of this until late this weekend.