The House health care debate: What to watch for

[Are_grits_groceries]

The House begins debate at 9 a.m. Saturday on a massive health-insurance overhaul, with a final vote expected by the evening. In the intervening hours, there will be several key moments that will provide a foreshadowing of the final outcome.

As Lori Montgomery and Shailagh Murray mentioned in their Washington Post story Saturday, not a single Republican is expected to support the legislation, so House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) needs at least 218 of the 258 Democrats -- about 85 percent of the caucus -- to vote yes to reach victory.

Here's an insider's guide to the day's big moments:

<snip>
* Rules of Debate: The first hour or so of debate will not technically be on the nearly 2,000-page legislation, but instead will focus on what is known as "the rule". Slaughter's committee establishes the rules governing the debate for every key piece of legislation -- how long each side gets, how many amendments can be offered, which amendments can be offered.

In addition, the Rules Committee makes last-minute changes to the overall bill, and this time around Slaughter inserted language designed to be a compromise on abortion. A bloc of two dozen Democrats, many of them anti-abortion Catholics, held out support because they believed the original draft would open the door to federal funding of abortions. The "rule" vote is routinely along party lines, but some Democrats may try to vote against the rule because they don't back the compromise on abortion. This vote is expected between 10 and 11 a.m.

* Beware of the blue screen: Pelosi has exuded confidence that she will have the requisite 218 votes for passage, but sometimes potholes appear out of nowhere that put the bill in grave danger. This sometimes leads to emergency meetings of the Democratic caucus, halting proceedings in the House. On C-Span, viewers would see a note saying the House has been "recessed."

Lawmakers and aides call this a "blue screen" moment because their televisions, set to an internal station, will suddenly show a picture of the Capitol dome with a nice, sunny, blue sky behind it. These are anything but pleasant moments, though, because usually, somewhere inside the Capitol, a tense meeting is underway that will decide the fate of the legislation.

<snip>
* The Bellwethers: Certain lawmakers will signify whether the legislation will pass, and by what margin. One such key player is Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-Ariz.), a freshman who took the seat of a retiring, scandal-plagued GOP incumbent and now faces a tougher test in her first reelection bid next fall.

Another pair of key votes are Reps. Zack Space (D-Ohio) and Baron Hill (D-Ind.), both members of the Blue Dog Coalition, a collection of more than 50 Democrats hailing from rural districts. Pelosi does not need every Blue Dog vote for the legislation, but she needs some. Space and Hill supported an earlier compromise version at the committee level in July, but the legislation has been altered since then.

There's more: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitol-briefing/?hpid=topnews

I didn't know about the 'blue screen.'

[annabanana]

1. fix your link, dear... (you are directing to your "post" screen). . n/t

[Are_grits_groceries]

2. Done. Thanks!

I was weeding out freeper trolls.

[annabanana]

3. Thanks SO MUCH!.. I've printed the article out to use as

kind of a "cheat sheet" while I keep an eye on CSpan today.

[Cirque du So-What]

4. Zack Space & Baron Hill

I've had both these guys as congresscritters. Space is on notice that he WILL face a challenger in the primaries next year if he fails to deliver on HCR. Funny that local teabaggers try to portray him as 'Pelosi's puppet,' although he's in the pocket of Big Coal & American Electric Power.

[Are_grits_groceries]

5. This will be interesting.

People on all sides will be taking names.

[glinda]

6. So the Bill has a Third World view of Abortion in it? Not even for the life of the mother?

Not even for rape? Incest? Deformed fetus? Not even allowing people to pay for it themselves??????? Do I understand that right? And this self-centered and thoughtless part of the Bill might be what holds it up?

[annabanana]

7. not yet. . . n/t

[glinda]

8. whew! all too confusiing...