Well, it looks like we finally might be getting down to it. After all this time, there might soon be an actual health care reform bill for the President to sign. According to Karen Tumulty at Swampland, the House is looking to schedule a vote on the Senate’s health care bill for next Friday or Saturday. The main hold-up at the moment is the CBO score on the reconciliation package. Assuming that comes back in the next few days, and with favorable numbers, the vote can be scheduled.
The original most recent deadline of St. atrick’s Day (in honor of O’Bama’s heritage?) was set primarily because the President was scheduled to fly to Indonesia and Australia on Wednesday. Due to the historic and imminent nature of the House vote, Obama has decided to delay his departure to the land of the vegemite sandwich until Sunday.
How exactly the House will pass the legislation is still up in the air. They may just simply vote on the Senate bill, send the reconciliation package to the Senate, and trust that the upper house will promptly pass it. But, since the two houses don’t much trust each other and sound like two teenagers hanging up the phone (“You pass it first….No, you pass it first…No, you pass it first…OK, we’ll pass it together — one, two, three….”) there are a couple little maneuvers the House could try. Either way, it looks like maybe next Saturday we’ll all be glued to C-SPAN to watch the vote. We will all be glued to C-SPAN, right?