Looks like the HCR show will go on.
Senate Republicans have successfully identified two minor violations of reconciliation rules in the final piece of the health-care package. The violations will force the Senate to change the reconciliation bill and ship it to the House of Representatives for final passage.
Donate.
media browski
#GOPfail: On Tuesday everything changed. The fact the GOP doesn’t realize they’ve given an invigorated and freshly spine-implanted Democratic Party a second bite at passing a PO, even as just a test of our cohesion, is hilarious.
I swear the GOP Senate leadership are all secretly playing for our team.
Llelldorin
Go Republicans! Way to defend the original Senate HCR law that was indefensible last week!
(These guys do realize that HCR is already law, right? And that wasting a day of the House’s time to pass a trivially-changed law isn’t even a moral victory, it’s just annoying?)
Stroszek
And I see the Firebaggers have regained their footing again, vigorously pushing the CT that Obama and Ted Kennedy were against the public option all along… it was all a brilliant ploy to win progressive support by making unpopular compromises… or something.
This is based on a year-old New York Times article in which provider groups (or AHIP, according to some enthusiastically uninformed Firebaggers) told White House representatives the widely known fact that they were opposed to Medicare rates (secret backroom cigar deal)!
Ash Can
@Llelldorin: The Republicans of today live to annoy.
Napoleon
@media browski:
You can not possibly be serious. Only if she has suffered a stroke since Sunday night could Pelosi have become dumb enough to do something that only a complete moron would try at this point. They are going to vote on and pass exactly what comes back from the Senate and only a complete incompetent would do differently at this point.
geg6
I’ll repost this from Anne Laurie’s morning thread since the changes that make this have to go back to the House are in my area of expertise.
I’m going to quote my professional organization’s website, NASFAA (National Association of Financial Aid Administrators) and I can’t post the link because you have to be a member to log in. So this is what happened (note that this isn’t some giant victory for the GOP):
“But after nine hours of voting, around 2:45 a.m., Senate Parliamentarian Alan Frumin informed Senate leaders that a minor provision within the bill dealing with Pell Grants violated budget rules, Roll Call reports. The disputed provision would prevent any reductions in the Pell Grant maximum award, according to the New York Times. (As of this morning, NASFAA had not yet seen the revised bill language.)
Republicans challenged multiple provisions within the reconciliation bill on the grounds that they violated strict budget reconciliation rules. Frumin is charged with issuing rulings on whether provisions pass the “Byrd Rule,” which prohibits the consideration of extraneous matter as part of a reconciliation bill.
“These changes do not impact the reforms to the student loan programs and the important investments in education,” said Kaye Cyrul, an aid with the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, to reporters. “We are confident the House will quickly pass the bill with these minor changes.”
The Senate is scheduled to resume work on the bill this morning with final votes in the Senate on the reconciliation bill expected by this afternoon. The House is expected to revote and pass these minor changes within the next day. ”
This is a relatively minor thing and I don’t see this creating any problems. There are many in the House that only went for a yes vote because of the student loan reforms and I expect this change won’t bother them. Especially since NASFAA is signaling that they don’t see it as a problem (pending perusal of the final language, that is).
Robin G
At least it’s just dumbshit procedural stuff. No substantive changes at all.
I wonder if the death threats will have any effect on the House members, though. I’m hoping that they’ll be even stauncher defenders of their votes, but you never know if Stupak might suddenly roll after getting faxes of nooses. I doubt it, but with Dems, anything is possible.
Napoleon
By the way, the local morning news ran a piece on the violence happening from the right against Congresspeople and the announcer used the phrase “tea party extremist”. If that catches on the right/Republican parties newest effort to re-brand the same old crap they peddle will be in serious trouble.
eric k
I wonder if the Reps realize that every time they cause a minor change that requires the House to revote that the Dems will get another signing photo-op
dmsilev
I got a fundraising request from the DNC just now, for money to support the recipients of the various death threats etc. That was one money-beg which I was happy to support.
-dms
Bulworth
So the House can vote for HCR again, this time on some bullshit procedural gobbledygook, which won’t have any meaning beyond giving Republicans another chance to be assholes and losers. Sounds good to me. Let’s do it.
Paul L.
Crooks and Liars gets it wrong
Ann Coulter Speech Cancelled After Thousands Protest At University of Ottawa
2 Thousand were in attendance and about 200 were protesting.
Fern
@Stroszek: Now Ted Kennedy wasn’t enough of a supporter of health care reform for them?
Charity
I just contributed $25 most of it going to the IL and IN congress-critters and I live in IL and grew in IN. I plan on writing my rep (Jan Shakowsky sp?) a very nice note for her vote. Figure it might be a nice change from the evil calls and letters. Going to donate to the DNC too.
Stroszek
@Fern: By their reasoning, he was “in” on a secret deal to kill the robust public option, because the only reason you wouldn’t include a robust public option in your bill is if you hate progressives and the public option.
flukebucket
Project wonderful is wonderful.
That is all.
mike fitz
Did someone here actually quote the NASFAA? What a useless, marginalized and irrelevant organization – especially now.
The NASFAA has been on the wrong side of every issue. They have been the lenders friend, the FFELP defender, the apologist for corrupt fin. aid directors such as Frishberg, Thomas, Charlow, Burt, Pinch, Lehman, and Cathie. They are buddies with Buck McKeon, the biggest whore to the student lenders. They have been against re-consolidation because they know who pays their bills – the lenders. When someone shines a light on the corruption, they call it a “witch hunt.” They try to hush up when their CEO is indicted on 8 felonies and resigns in disgrace (even altering wikipedia entries).
But today – the NASFAA became completely and utterly irrelevant. I imagine a bunch of hypocritical dumb shits will be knocking on the door of the NDSLC. Bye-Bye FFELP, you sucked, you cheated, you committed fraud – and now your dead.