Bloggers are rushing to put in their two cents before the House’s scheduled vote on a landmark health overhaul bill late Saturday afternoon. But questions remain on whether leaders have enough votes, and Majority Whip Steny Hoyer admitted to reporters that a delay was possible.
Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey calls the scheduling of the vote a “Hail Nancy play. She couldn’t afford to wait too long for the vote after dropping 2,000 pages on members last week, and having them see the results of the elections this week. Pelosi and Hoyer thought that rushing a vote would allow them to bully recalcitrant moderates into support.”
Wonk Room’s Igor Volksy compiled a table comparing amendments on two key issues holding up votes: abortion and immigration.
Cato’s Michael Cannon in the National Review Online calls the bill a “$1.5 trillion fraud,” zeroing in on the off-budget costs of an individual mandate.
The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein says House leadership is “mired in negotiations with three different types of Democrats who are proving restive at the eleventh hour.” According the Klein, those groups are the “controversialists” (lawmakers concerned with “electric” issues like abortion and immigration), “centrist skeptics” (general concerns about ideas like taxes or a public option) and lawmakers “worried about the process” (they don’t want to vote for a more liberal bill then the Senate.)
And Erin Kanoy of the Heritage Foundation looks at what might be happening in the Rules Commiteee: who set the guidelines for tomorrow’s debate: “The rule being debated today will not only cover HR 3962 but will also apply to HR 3961, the Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act, also known as the Doc Fix. This is a procedural gimmick that allows the costly Doc Fix bill to be combined with H.R. 3962 after the bill passes the House. This allows Congressional Leaders to avoid a stand alone vote on Doc Fix in the Senate.”
Stay tuned to KHN this weekend for more coverage of the House vote.
Tags: abortion, cost, doc fix, house bill, immigration, mandate, medicare, pelosi
