The House is now voting on the “rule.” Now what does that mean? It’s not “the” vote. That will come later. Rather it’s the vote that sets up the ground rules for the next two votes. Sort of deep into the procedural mumbojumbo but a very big deal.
Late Update: And it just went over the 216 required for passage.
David Frum explains how today is turning into the GOP’s Waterloo.
See video below the fold. Read More
NOW says it is “incensed” over the abortion deal President Obama has struck to get health care reform passed.
AFL-CIO Richard Trumka tells TPM that the unions will remember which Democrats voted against health care reform. Responding to our question about the decision by Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) to vote no, Trumka said: “[T]hat’ll be part of what we look at when endorsements comes. This will be a big one. This will have more weight than a lot of the other little ones.”
Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) discusses the gavel he used during the Medicare debate and passage in 1965 and how he plans to use the same one this evening.
With regard to the sequence of votes this evening, some changes since what we reported yesterday. The House has taken up the Senate bill first and will vote on it after two hours of allotted debating time. Then they will move immediately to the reconciliation bill that amends the Senate bill they will have, presumably, just passed. The final votes are expected sometime after 10 p.m.
Rep. Sensenbrenner (R-WI) was just on the floor saying the abortion compromise goes to the heart of the ‘executive order abuse’, which he claimed was a major Dem issue in the last election. Not sure he was trying to confuse that with the issue of ‘signing statements’ or talking about secret executive orders. Who knows? He managed to get in references to Democratic complaints about Bush era detention and torture policies using executive orders. Sad.
From TPM Reader LW …
It’s fascinating to watch the debate. All of the Rs have very long, very disappointed, very glum faces. None of them seem able to even conjure up a bit of good old-fashioned outrage for a decent rant. They know what’s coming. They know they can’t stop it. They look defeated.
As a decades-long C-SPAN junkie, I don’t think this debate will have nearly the kind of fireworks that we might have been expecting. After all of this, I believe this is going to end with a whimper. There’s just no heart in the Rs for a fight anymore. I wonder if the same is true with the tea partiers. Will they be angered or deflated?
For what it’s worth, I strongly suspect LW’s comments will be prescient about the Senate debate.
From a short time ago, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) on the House floor. By passing health care reform, Democrats “will finally lay the cornerstone of their Socialist utopia on the backs of the American people.”
“For most of the 20th century people fled the ghosts of communist dictators. And now you are bringing the ghosts back into this chamber.”
As the reality dawns, the Crazy ™ intensifies.