Today’s the day when we should start to get our first read on the health care debate end game. The key hold-outs have pegged their willingness to allow the bill to come to a final vote on the scoring from the CBO — and specifically how the bill affects short and long-term deficit numbers. That scoring is out now. So the ball is in their collective court.
Thus far we have Sen. Nelson (D-NE) and now Sen. Bayh (D-IN) signaling they’ll allow the bill to clear at least the first procedural hurdles. Lincoln and Landrieu have yet to show their hand. But that should be coming shortly.
What it looks like at the moment is that we’ll have a handful, a small handful of conservative Democratic hold-outs keeping up the same guessing game at each key procedural hurdle while Sen. Reid (D-NV) keeps the threat of budget reconciliation — i.e., forcing the bill through with 51 vote majorities — quietly in play.
We’ll be bringing you updates through the day on the latest. And here you can see a preview of some of the press conferences and appearances we’ll be at.
