Blanche Lincoln is still deciding whether she will allow debate on the Senate bill to go forward now that she was successful in getting “abstinence only” funding inserted into the bill.  That’s not going to be much help to Arkansas resident David McDonald, who is hoping to be seen at the Olberman clinic today.  He has been in pain for two weeks because didn’t have the money to get treated.

Eve Gittelson is in Little Rock covering the event today.

I think the entire progressive blogosphere can get behind the Senate Majority Leader on this one:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) Saturday morning criticized a Washington Post columnist who called Democratic healthcare bills “budget-busters.”

“Now, Madam President, to focus on an editorial written by a man who has been retired for many years and writes a column once in a while is not where we should be,” he said in his speech on the House floor.

In his column this week, the Washington Post’s David Broder said that the Congressional Budget Office’s score of the House and Senate healthcare bill did not paint a full picture of the negative effect they would have on the federal budget.

Reid was reacting to Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who read parts of Broder’s column aloud on the Senate floor today.

It’s worth taking a look at Broder’s mess of a column. Here are the sources for his claim that the House and Senate health care bills will bust the budget:

It is important to remember that this is not the debate about the Senate health care bill, the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.” This is a debate about whether to allow the bill to come to the floor where it can be debated and amended. The Republicans are threatening to use the Senate’s unlimited debate clause to prevent the bill from coming to the floor where it then can be debated. They are threatening to never stop debating (this is what a filibuster technically is) the vote on the motion to proceed. This is how the Republicans plan to use their right of unlimited debate to actually stop any debate on health care reform. When trying to explain how the Senate has become a broken, undemocratic, unconstitutional perversion of its original self, I recommend using this as an example.

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The debate on whether to allow a debate on the Senate health care bill is talking place right now on C-SPAN 2. The cloture vote is expected at 8 pm. For the most part this will be a serious of senators from both sides giving speeches based their sides talking points.

The Republicans are calling the bill terrible using buzzwords like “tax increase,” “Medicare cuts,” “rationing,” “new entitlement spending,” “government takeover,” etc..

The Democrats are saying how great the bill is. They are using the talking points of “deficit reducing,” “cost containment,” consumer protects,” “expanding coverage,” “banning deny based on pre-existing conditions,” etc…

Most of the speeches are not going to be newsworthy. There are a handful of conservative Democrats and maybe two Republicans who might use this time to explain what amendments they must see adopted to gain their final vote on the bill. It is also possible, but very unlikely, that a few of the most progressives members of the Senate will draw a line in the sand about what changes they will not accept. If any of those senators make news with their speech I will bring it to you here.