House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has made a deal with Rep. Bart Stupak in order to secure his vote and that of other anti-choice Democrats for the health care bill, which is scheduled to be voted on this Sunday. According to a member of Congress who was briefed on the matter, Pelosi has agreed to let Stupak have a vote on his amendment either before or after the House votes to pass the Senate bill. It instructs the Senate to substitute the language in his amendment for the Senate language on abortion.

FDL has obtained a copy of the concurrent resolution. . . .

Tags: abortion, Alan Grayson, Alan Mollohan, Bart Stupak, Dan Lipinski, Health care, Joseph Cao, Kathy Dahlkemper, Marcy Kaptur, Marion Berry, Nancy Pelosi, Nick Rahall, reproductive rights, Sanford Bishop, Steve Driehaus, Stupak Amendment

We’ll certainly know in the morning, but Nancy Pelosi is fast running out of options without members of the ubiquitous Stupak bloc.

Harry Teague, one of the few remaining undecided votes, will vote No again as he did in November, blaming cost controls.

Tags: Harry Teague, health care reform, Reconciliation, whip count

Hey, remember last year when it seemed like everyone was repeating FDR’s “I agree with you. I want to do it. Now make me do it.” mantra to suggest that despite Obama’s apparent lack of enthusiasm for progressive policies, he simply needed us to push him so he’d have a pretext for doing the right thing?

How’d that work out for us?

Tags: Barack Obama, Ben Nelson, Congress, Democrats, health care reform, House, Joe Lieberman, public option, Republicans, Senate

Harry Mitchell (D-AZ 5) has told Channel 12 News in Arizona that he will vote “yes” on health care.

Tags: Arizona, Harry Mitchell, Health care, whip count

I have explained how if just one single senator that supported the public option offered an amendment during reconciliation, it would force an up or down vote on the matter. This means it would only take 51 votes to include a public option, and, at the very least, we would finally get to see on the record the senators that stood up for the American people, and which ones were fighting to protect the profits of the health insurance industry. Only a week ago, Bernie Sanders (I-VT) promised to stand up, if no other Democratic senator would, to offer a public option amendment and provide the country with a measure of accountability on the issue.

Tags: Bernie Sanders, flip-flop, Health care, public option, Reconciliation, Senate

The topline news is that Scott Murphy (D-NY), who has gone back and forth on health care, has come out in favor of the legislation. Murphy was a “No” last time. His vote makes it seven Democrats who voted against the bill last time coming around to voting for it this time.

That means that Democrats could survive a Stupak bloc as big as eight and win this thing, if you do the math.

Tags: Bart Stupak, Health care, Scott Murphy, Stupak bloc, whip count

For now, confirmed Yes votes hit 200, with 209 opposed. With leaners, we’re at 207-212. And if they get all the Yes votes who voted that way the last time, they have 217.

Tags: Health care, Henry Cuellar, Suzanne Kosmas, whip count

Ellsworth’s Yes vote is one of the key ones needed by the leadership. That makes it 198-209, 206-212 with leaners. And importantly, under my metrics outlined in a previous post it could make Democrats as close as two votes away from passage.

Tags: Bart Stupak, Brad Ellsworth, Health care, Stupak bloc, whip count

This is the first major news of the day. Allen Boyd, a Blue Dog from the Florida panhandle, will vote for the health care bill.
U.S. Rep. Allen Boyd, who voted against national health care last November, said today he will vote for the new bill when it comes to the House floor.
The Monticello Democrat [...]

Tags: Allen Boyd, Health care, Jason Altmire, whip count

Tom Perriello has decided to vote for the health care bill, per CNN. I had him as a lean Yes in my whip count. So that makes it 196-208, with still 204-211 with leaners. None of the true undecideds have announced today.

Tags: Bart Stupak, enrollment correction, Health care, Tom Perriello