Health Insurance Bailout Vote Sunday, No CBO Score today

Ruh roh !   Somebody might have to delay their trip Down Under.

The Congressional Budget Office did not release a score today, after all, on the proposed “fixes” to the health insurance bill,  which means that the 72  hour countdown clock hasn’t started ticking yet.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.c…

And this pushes the vote back to Sunday, March 21st, at the earliest.

h/t to BrianBeutler who bothered to stay and see what was going on, none of the other on line news sources, even (shudder) Twitter,  have much up about this yet.

Okay, now the Hill has something up.

http://thehill.com/homenews/ho…

No CBO Score Wednesday night, Saturday Healthcare vote unlikely

Rep. Robert Andrews (D, NJ) :

“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.”

“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.”

Richard Trumka the Union leader was called back to the White House this afternoon for an emergency meeting, which would lead one to guess that the Union deal they had made about removing much of the dreadful excise tax on health care benefits worth over a certain amount,  might be in peril.  If the CBO is taking this long to score the bill, it may be that the reconciliation tweaks to get the House happy with the Senate version, are doing unexpected things to the financial impact.

Or perhaps the WH just needs more time to twist more arms.   Having succeeded in getting true single payer advocate Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, who was holding out for the Public Option,  for an airplane ride in Air Force One,  some more domestic rendition flights may need to be scheduled.  

4 comments

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  1. …. you eff with their vacation time.  So this is going to get more entertaining tomorrow.

  2. They don’t have the money yet and they never will without the Public Option.

    Read TheMomCat’s and my pieces.

    They are screwed and are going to lose OR they’re going to pass the most unpopular bill in history and commit suicide.

    Your choice “Democrats”.

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