The House Energy and Commerce Committee is scheduled to resume its health care mark-up session this afternoon, after winning over four of the seven Blue Dogs who had been holding it up for several days.
That means three of the Blue Dogs still oppose the legislation, though. And that means committee Chairman Henry Waxman is still working to squeeze the bill through a very small window. There aren’t very many progressives on the committee but if more than a couple of them are unhappy with the details of the compromise leaders struck with Blue Dogs, it could once again leave Waxman without enough votes to pass his bill.
Speaker Pelosi has been meeting with progressives to allay their concerns, so that things can proceed as planned.
My sense from conversations with some House aides is that another blow up’s not terribly likely. But as you may have noticed if you’ve been paying attention to the process thus far, just about anything can happen. And, for what it’s worth, that’s the political math.
