I hear Hoyer this afternoon and from what he said, I am still confused about what they are doing.
If they are forgoing the "deeming" does that mean it goes back to the Senate before it goes to Obama?
A short timeline
1. Senate passed a bill on Christmas eve.
2. Congressional Democrats hate the bill, and want their own Ponies added.
3. Scott Brown wins an unlikely contest in Massachusetts, Giving the Senate Republicans back the filibuster.
4. Congressional Democrats know that because of Brown, they can't railroad changes they make to the Senate bill back through the Senate. Democrats in congress are feeling pressure from both far left and moderate Democrats back home who both hate the Senate bill for differing reasons and they don't really want to vote on this bill at all.
5. Obama leans hard on Congress, claims his presidency rides on this bill.
6. 'Deem and Pass' is considered - meaning that the Congress gets to vote only on the reconciliation, not the actual bill - if the reconciliation passes, the bill it reconciles passes automatically- this would toss the hot potato back into the Senate's lap.
7. Apparently, the people who listen to the wrong talk radio, and watch the wrong channels on TV have made enough of a stink about this that this move is now considered more toxic than the original bill.
What congress does now ? who knows.. I suspect it will pass followed by an amendment bill. Obama signs the Senate's healthcare bill, and then when the Senate filibusters the amendment bill, Congressional Democrats can finally blame Republicans for something - which will make them all happy.
