Crunch Time for Health Care

President Obama, in a fired-up, emotional speech, urged Congress to seal the deal on the massive health-care overhaul that took up much of the first year of his presidency. Democrats were nailing down the votes, securing the last holdouts before Sunday’s vote. After the House announced a plan to approve the bill without actually voting on it (called “deem and pass”), Republicans were outraged, and Democrats quickly changed their minds. The House will first vote on the changes to the Senate version of the bill, which includes many measures that House Democrats intensely dislike, before approving the Senate bill itself. Haggling over abortion language lasted much of Saturday. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected adding abortion language into the bill, instead working toward a compromise that would have Obama issue an executive order preventing the government from subsidizing the medical procedure. That move might not win over the most vocal congressman on this issue, Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), but Democrats hope it will win over likeminded representatives. Pelosi is working to win over about eight of the last 19 Democratic fence-sitters and looked extremely confident she could do so, saying, “We will have the votes when we bring it to the floor.”