“Reconciliation” on The Daily Caller

Senate Republicans succeeded early Thursday in forcing Democrats to take another vote in the House on the reconciliation bill that will change certain provisions in the health-care law passed Sunday. (more)

After an epic and suspenseful fight in the House to pass President Obama’s health-care bill, Republican resistance to passing changes to the law through the Senate looked Wednesday like it would go down with little more than a whimper. (more)

Senate Parliamentarian Alan Frumin late Monday ruled against a Republican challenge to the health care reconciliation package, a Senate aide confirmed. (more)

Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday that lawmakers will be assured before voting for health-care legislation this weekend that senators will pass the fixes demanded by liberal House members in the reconciliation bill — but Republicans in the Senate are preparing to make sure that’s not the case. (more)

The National Republican Congressional Committee’s Code Red project, which is aimed at stopping the passage of the comprehensive health care bill, released this video earlier this week to explain as quickly as possible how the process of reconciliation works. The clip comes just days after the National Republican Senatorial Committee released an aggressive opening salvo against House Democrats in the midterm election cycle. (more)

Now that the Health Care reconciliation-fix bill has been posted on the Internet, the 72 hour clock begins counting down to a possible mid-afternoon vote on the House floor this Sunday. This 72 hour “rule” was loosely implemented by Speaker Pelosi back in September of 2009. This was when House members were about to garner enough votes to pass a discharge petition that would require any legislation to be posted on the Internet for 72 hours before a final vote could occur on the House floor. When the Speaker saw the writing on the wall, she embraced the new timetable and thus this 72 hour timetable has been an informal rule in the House ever since. While the clock is ticking, Sen. Coburn and other GOP Senators have directed some of their staff to begin pouring over appropriations bills that will be coming through the House and Senate later this spring. These staffers will be looking for any projects in states or districts of Members of Congress that support the upcoming Health Care bill. In his press conference on Thursday, Sen. Coburn promised to “out” any Members of Congress that might sell his or her vote on the Health Care bill for projects in their state. (more)

Vice President Biden said today that that the fact that President Obama cancelled his trip to Indonesia and Australia next week is not an ominous sign for the prospects of the health care reform bill on Capitol Hill. (more)

Rep. John Boehner (R., Ohio), the House minority leader, tells National Review Online that as of late Thursday afternoon, Democratic leadership “still doesn’t have the votes” to pass their health-care bill, and that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) is “prepared to sacrifice her members, and her speakership, so that she can plant the flag of universal health care in the ground.” Boehner says this weekend will be a waiting game — “If the speaker doesn’t have 216 votes locked down, she will not go to the floor. If she’s short, she knows that there is no way she can pick up two or three votes on the floor.” On that same point, he admits that “if this comes to the floor, it’s already over …though I still don’t know how she can get there [to 216].…I’d never put myself in this box.” (more)

UPDATE – 6:21 p.m. – Lynch told me just now his meeting with President Obama went “really well,” but that the president did not change his mind, and he remains opposed to the health care bill. (more)

The National Council of La Raza (“Private, non-profit, and non-partisan organization focused on reducing poverty and discrimination, and improving opportunities, for Hispanic Americans”), is still opposed to the current manifestation of health care: (more)

Rep. Mike Pence, Indiana Republican, was sitting on a couch outside the House chamber Wednesday morning, and The Daily Caller asked him about his claim Tuesday that it is unconstitutional for the Democrats to use a self-executing rule to “deem” the Senate bill passed once a reconciliation bill passes. Why did he vote for self-executing rules three times when Republicans held the House? (more)

Jon Ward interviewed Rep. Mike Pence today about deem and pass (AKA “demon pass”), the whole thing is worth a read, not least of which for enigmatic exchanges like this one: (more)

The stock market does much worse when filibusters are not available. Since 1934, in the 15 years whenever the Senate Democrats held a filibuster proof majority, the Stock Market (using just the price change of the S&P 500 Index to measure) went up on average by 2.6 percent. In contrast, in the 60 years where the minority could successfully filibuster, the market appreciated 7.6 percent, an annual difference of 5 percent. (more)

Over the past several weeks President Obama has made the line “Congress owes the American people a final up-or-down vote” central to his pitch for final action on health care reform. It’s how he describes the complicated process of reconciliation. It’s very smart. (more)

Democrats Tuesday were on the defensive as Republican outrage grew over the possible passage of health care without a vote, which one House lawmaker called “un-American.” (more)

The goal is to speak to someone — anyone — other than a congressional member’s receptionist. And thanks to a memo from Democratic leadership, Tea Partiers may not only make it past the front desk, but also get a cup of coffee. (more)

I can’t believe that!” said Alice. (more)

Editor’s Note: Daily Caller High is a group of young writers cutting their teeth in the world of political punditry. This week, the authors’ reflect on events of the past few days. (more)

Republicans now expect Democrats to pass health care through the House with a trick only Capitol Hill could dream up: approving the Senate bill without voting on it. (more)

Are Democrats marching toward a health-care bill behind the scenes, or are they slipping backwards? (more)