By Fester:
Reuters reports that the outlines of an initial deal on healthcare has been reached. This matters because the process is important, but the true significance is that something has to come out of the House, and something has to come out of the Senate that both vaguely look like a healthcare bill. Once that bastard child has emerged, the two chambers will appoint their conferees where the actual healthcare deal will be reached.
Senate Republican and Democratic senators negotiating a healthcare reform deal also got a boost from congressional budget analysts who priced their bill at less than $900 billion -- below some cost estimates of $1 trillion or more.
In the House, members of the so-called "Blue Dog" conservative coalition on the House Energy and Commerce Committee reached a deal with Democratic leadership after days of long negotiations.
Getting a bill to conference means the marginally decisive Senator moves from either Ben Nelson, Olympia Snowe or Kent Conrad to Claire MacCaskill, Mark Warner or Kay Hagan. A Conference bill only needs a 51 vote majority to clear the Senate. There is no such change in the minimal winning coalition in the House, but the House has a bit more structural party discipline enforcement mechanisms as well as fewer marginal Democrats who benefit from defecting.
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