I wrote this weekend's column about the risks Democrats and President Obama would be taking by getting the health insurance reform bill through Congress on a legislative maneuver known as "deem and pass."
You can read that column here.
Word this afternoon is that the Democratic leadership of the House has determined not to pursue that strategy. Instead, they will schedule an up-or-down vote on the bill itself:
Instead, multiple Democratic sources told CNN that they will have three independent votes - a vote on the rule, a vote on the fix package, followed by a vote on the Senate bill.
Of course, that means that they believe they have -- or will have -- the votes to pass it straight up, which they did not when they were considering the maneuver.
It also underscores the risks for Democrats that I described in the column: By pushing a tremendously divisive bill into law by means of an obscure, though legitimate, legislative tactic, they risked exacerbating the wrath of the bill's opponents.
There's a reason conservatives had already begun referring to deem-and-pass as "demon pass."
It's still unclear where the 216 votes are going to come from. Word this morning was that there was still question about the abortion-related language in the bill. I heard this afternoon that U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, who leads the pro-life Democrats in the House, had scored a compromise with President Obama: In exchange for Stupak's support (and that of the group he leads), the president will sign an executive order that clarifies that federal taxpayer money is not to be used to fund abortion or abortion-related services.
Then again, maybe not.
This situation is still fluid, and it's likely that bartering and bargaining will continue up until the boards open for the vote tomorrow.
But the big news today is that there will be a big vote tomorrow -- and that's better for everyone, regardless of your position on the bill itself.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement