As of 9am Thursday, we still have NO public release of the fix package and NO CBO score.
Why this is important....
In order for this to work, a reconciliation bill must REDUCE the cost of the original bill by at least $1.
It is presumed that many of the undecideds are waiting for a score to declare their support...
Pelosi: CBO score will be 'helpful' in winning votesSpeaker Nancy Pelosi thinks the estimates from the Congressional Budget Office will be a powerful tool in her bid to win over wavering Democrats.
“We need those figures, and that I think is going to be very helpful,” she said Wednesday night as she walked to her office. “But we’re feeling pretty good about it.”
http://www.politico.com/livepulse/0310/Speaker_CBO_score_will_votes.html?showall Under the Dems self-imposed rule, they must wait 72 hours after a bill is publicly released to vote on it. This means (if they hold to the rule; there would be a lot of blow-back if they didn't) the EARLIEST the vote could happen would be 9am Sunday. Robert Gibbs said earlier in the week that "Air Force 1 is wheels up for Asia at 10am Sunday!"
We were hoping for a scoring Tuesday evening. That came and went. Then Wednesday was to be the day and yesterday has now come and gone. And here we are....
No CBO score released Wednesday; Saturday health care vote unlikely
By Jared Allen and Molly K. Hooper - 03/17/10 08:02 PM ET
House Democratic leaders on Wednesday night said the long-awaited Congressional Budget Office score of the reconciliation bill will not come out until Thursday, forcing an acknowledgment that a Saturday health care vote is likely off the table.
But leaders are still hoping for a score on Thursday, and are still preparing for a possible vote before the end of the weekend.
The release of a CBO score on Thursday – triggering the Democrats' 72-hour clock – would mean that voting on the reconciliation bill would “most likely happen on Sunday, if that scenario plays out,” Assistant to the Speaker Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) told reporters after leaving Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) office Wednesday night.
Rep. Robert Andrews (D-N.J.), leaving that same meeting, said that the delay is the result of numerous technical issues involved, and stressed that, despite any rumors to the contrary, the delays are not the result of policy problems.
“My understanding is this has been much more technical than substantive,” Andrews said. “It’s not like what tax has to go or what spending has to go.”
Andrews did say, though, that the CBO is also taking extra time to protect the legislation from invariable legal challenges to the reconciliation process, if not the eventual law itself.
“The reason it’s taking so long, in part, is that we want to be sure that we have a score that’s solid as a rock for procedural purposes and potentially litigation purposes down the road,” Andrews said. “We all assume that the same forces that fought this so vociferously in the Congress will fight it in the courts, and we want to be prepared for that.”
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/87517-no-cbo-score-wednesday-saturday-healthcare-vote-unlikelyBut he also said...
The reason there's a student loan overhaul package in the recon. bill is that the recon bill doesn't HAVE to be related only to health care, it just has to be budget related. They're pairing a student loan overhaul with it to try to gain more support for the overall package. This is a common practice. More on that here..
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/16/EDKM1CGOU3.DTLAnd so here we are, twiddling our thumbs with the latest news is that the bill is expected "closer to brunch- than to breakfast-time," today (
http://twitter.com/brianbeutler/status/10668205511 )
And the wait continues...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItLzdZV004s">ONE MORE TIME TOM!!!!
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