Hee, here's a post I was working on, but Russell beat me to it:

After the stunning upset win of Scott Brown in Massachusetts, the US Senate swung from 60 votes in the Democrat causus to 59, leaving the Dems without a filibuster proof majority against strong unified Republican front. Health care reform seemed dead, after a year of intense debate, threatening to make the Democrats, with a majority in both Houses of Congress and the Presidency, a laughing stock and sitting ducks in the 2010 elections

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wasn't having it. She's managed to use her super duper powers of persuasion to convince President Obama that health care could still be done, that she and Senate Leader Harry Reid could rangle the votes to get health care done, but they needed him to join the right in earnest. He did, traveling to cities, holding a health care summit, working Congress members by phone and meetings, repeatedly meeting and personally persuading some Democrats to vote for the bill.

All of that is coming to head today, Sunday March 21, as the House prepares to vote on reform and in the process, make history in the United States with the passing of an actual health care reform legislation that will be law of the land. OpenCongress.org has the skinny on what's happening today, starting at 1pm EST, here's the short version if I'm reading it right: First, there will be debate about the rules of debate about the bill, a vote on ending that debate, then a vote on the rules, THEN the health care debate actually begins, a vote on budget points of order, then vote on the Senate bill that passed in December (but never made it to conference committee with the House bill, due to Scott Brown's win), then vote on a series of fixes for that bill. Technically the Senate will vote to agree to those changes next week via reconciliation, meaning they only need 51 votes, not the filibuster proof 60 and Harry Reid says he has the votes to do it. The House Democrats got a pledge from Senate Democrats that they would agree to the House's fixes (which helped the House agree to today's vote) so once the House votes today, reform will essentially be the law of the land. Republicans will be trying various procedural tactics, but with the House Democrats saying they have the 216 votes they need, it looks like a done deal.

Major news networks and the talking heads will be covering everything starting around 9am EST, but the actual action in the House doesn't start 'till 1pm EST, which should be carried by CSPAN in its entirety. If you really want to review the history of the current health care fight, Slate has a head spinning collection of links and references in a handy timeline. Ezra Klein has created a Twitter list of important peeps to follow today.

How could I forget Stupak and that dance? Representative Bart Stupak (D) is said to hold eight votes, and he previously voted no, saying the bill will allow federal funding of abortions. He was sent to hold a press conference yesterday to announce how he was voting, that was called off at the last minute. Negotiations are still ongoing

I've got family in town, so I can't obsess on this all day. Counting on PoFi to bring me up to speed when I get back to the little screen around 5!

Finally got through to my rep's office. Fat lot of good it will do me.

I was shocked when the phone rang and then was answered.

Ok, it's John Larson, head of the House Democratic Caucus, who's says they have the 216 votes, but there's conflicting reports from other leaders, such as Steney Hoyer, who says they don't quite have the votes. Stupak called for and then again canceled another press conference.

The actual vote on the actual bill estimated to be sometime between 6-10pm. I'm guessing it's going to be later, just 'cause that's how Congress rolls.

Coverage has started on CSPAN.

Mostly it's just the predictable chest beating from each side. Democrats are trying to save us all, Republicans are fighting for the American people again a government take over of our souls, yadda yadda yadda.

Oh God, CSPAN is now taking calls from people. There are three lines, Support (202) 737-0001, Oppose (202) 737-0002 or Undecided (202) 628-0205, while the House fiddles around with the procedural votes.

I'm off to make guacamole, gonna be a long day.

Holy crap, CSPAN is asking a person who opposes the bill, what they oppose about it. When she responds that no one knows what's in the bill, the anchorwoman asks her if she's looked at the various bills online. Who knew there were still reporters?

It's not a one way street either, she's asking supporters what they like about it or expect to see from the bill that'll improve their lives.

Interesting, everyone who has called in want some form of health care reform, they just disagree on whether the current bill is any good.

Congressman Marsha Blackburn just hit on all the Republican talking points: loss of freedom, it's not paid, government take over etc, in a fiery speech.

Here's a list of undecided Dems who have said how they're voting (via WashingtonMonthly)

* Marion Berry of Arkansas, who voted for reform in November and is retiring this year

* Rick Boucher of Virginia

* Jerry Costello of Illinois, a Stupak ally

* Kathy Dahlkemper of Pennsylvania, a Stupak ally

* Joe Donnelly of Indiana, a Stupak ally

* Steve Driehaus of Ohio, a Stupak ally

* Paul Kanjorski of Pennsylvania

* Dan Lipinski of Illinois, a Stupak ally

* Alan Mollohan of West Virginia, a Stupak ally

* Earl Pomeroy of North Dakota, a Stupak ally

* Nick Rahall of West Virginia

* And Bart Stupak of Michigan

Yes there's a lot of Stupak allies there, but several reports (Reuters, Wall Street Journal and MSNBC) say Stupak will vote yes, though nothing official has been announced.

Lots of shushing of the noise in the Congress and reminders that there are decorum rules for the House while someone is speaking. Yes, you read that right, your elected officials are being shushed for talking too loudly while others are speaking.

Rep. Paul Ryan made the case that the legislation is the ultimate in unfunded mandates.

House is voting now the rule of how to debate the bills. The vote was first going to a voice vote, with Yeas winning, but Paul Ryan challenged that and asked for an official vote, which should take about 15-20 minutes.

CSPAN is saying there's 209 firm no votes and 193 firm yes votes, with about 25 undecideds.

CSPAN is talking calls again, as Rep. Devin Nunes is listening to the calls also and commenting. He's calling the tactics totalitarian, three guesses which party he belongs to.

Nunes is lamenting the buying of votes on the Democrat side. I thought that was politics as usual?

The House just finished debating the points of order, are taking a vote now. Again, an official count was requested over the voice count. It got a bit contentious at the end as Republicans argued with the person overseeing the debate over time and points of order within the debate. It was pretty hilarious as various congresscritters had 45 seconds to speak, then only 15 seconds.

Stupak is FINALLY giving a press conference. He just walked out onto the stage, said he's waiting another minute or two for a few other members.

Stupak is still waiting. The press is cracking jokes about the other members possibly having changed their minds. Stupak says they probably couldn't get in the room 'cause of the number of press people in the room.

Stupak says an agreement has been reached, getting to details...

Stupak says he's proud to have stood on principle, protecting the unborn, expects the Hyde rule to apply in health care reform. Says the President will sign an Executive Order to further reinforce no federal funding for abortions.

Evidently Stupak is trying very hard to prevent any source of federal funding to in anyway apply to abortions, be in via community centers, hospitals or any other way they can think of. He then goes to champion the health care bill, saying how totally awesome it is, congratulates Congresscritters Waxman, Dingell and the President working with him,helping the deal.

Here's the text of the Executive Order:

EXECUTIVE ORDER

- - - - - - -

ENSURING ENFORCEMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF ABORTION RESTRICTIONS IN THE PATIENT PROTECTION AND AFFORDABLE CARE ACT

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" (approved March __, 2010), I hereby order as follows:

Section 1. Policy.
Following the recent passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ("the Act"), it is necessary to establish an adequate enforcement mechanism to ensure that Federal funds are not used for abortion services (except in cases of rape or incest, or when the life of the woman would be endangered), consistent with a longstanding Federal statutory restriction that is commonly known as the Hyde Amendment. The purpose of this Executive Order is to establish a comprehensive, government-wide set of policies and procedures to achieve this goal and to make certain that all relevant actors--Federal officials, state officials (including insurance regulators) and health care providers--are aware of their responsibilities, new and old.

The Act maintains current Hyde Amendment restrictions governing abortion policy and extends those restrictions to the newly-created health insurance exchanges. Under the Act, longstanding Federal laws to protect conscience (such as the Church Amendment, 42 U.S.C. §300a-7, and the Weldon Amendment, Pub. L. No. 111-8, §508(d)(1) (2009)) remain intact and new protections prohibit discrimination against health care facilities and health care providers because of an unwillingness to provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortions.

Numerous executive agencies have a role in ensuring that these restrictions are enforced, including the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

Section 2. Strict Compliance with Prohibitions on Abortion Funding in Health Insurance Exchanges. The Act specifically prohibits the use of tax credits and cost-sharing reduction payments to pay for abortion services (except in cases of rape or incest, or when the life of the woman would be endangered) in the health insurance exchanges that will be operational in 2014. The Act also imposes strict payment and accounting requirements to ensure that Federal funds are not used for abortion services in exchange plans (except in cases of rape or incest, or when the life of the woman would be endangered) and requires state health insurance commissioners to ensure that exchange plan funds are segregated by insurance companies in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, OMB funds management circulars, and accounting guidance provided by the Government Accountability Office.

I hereby direct the Director of OMB and the Secretary of HHS to develop, within 180 days of the date of this Executive Order, a model set of segregation guidelines for state health insurance commissioners to use when determining whether exchange plans are complying with the Act's segregation requirements, established in Section 1303 of the Act, for enrollees receiving Federal financial assistance. The guidelines shall also offer technical information that states should follow to conduct independent regular audits of insurance companies that participate in the health insurance exchanges. In developing these model guidelines, the Director of OMB and the Secretary of HHS shall consult with executive agencies and offices that have relevant expertise in accounting principles, including, but not limited to, the Department of the Treasury, and with the Government Accountability Office. Upon completion of those model guidelines, the Secretary of HHS should promptly initiate a rulemaking to issue regulations, which will have the force of law, to interpret the Act's segregation requirements, and shall provide guidance to state health insurance commissioners on how to comply with the model guidelines.

Section 3. Community Health Center Program.

The Act establishes a new Community Health Center (CHC) Fund within HHS, which provides additional Federal funds for the community health center program. Existing law prohibits these centers from using federal funds to provide abortion services (except in cases of rape or incest, or when the life of the woman would be endangered), as a result of both the Hyde Amendment and longstanding regulations containing the Hyde language. Under the Act, the Hyde language shall apply to the authorization and appropriations of funds for Community Health Centers under section 10503 and all other relevant provisions. I hereby direct the Secretary of HHS to ensure that program administrators and recipients of Federal funds are aware of and comply with the limitations on abortion services imposed on CHCs by existing law. Such actions should include, but are not limited to, updating Grant Policy Statements that accompany CHC grants and issuing new interpretive rules.

Section 4. General Provisions.
(a) Nothing in this Executive Order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect: (i) authority granted by law or presidential directive to an agency, or the head thereof; or (ii) functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This Executive Order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

(c) This Executive Order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity against the United States, its departments, agencies, entities, officers, employees or agents, or any other person.

THE WHITE HOUSE,

It kinda reads like the White House promises to follow the laws already in place, so it looks like Stupak did a great job of getting a lot of attention.

Meanwhile the Stupak presser is still going on, as other people speak, basically saying how awesome Stupak is for standing up for this issue and how great it is that federal funding of abortions won't happen, just like before, but now it really, really won't thanks to the awesomeness that is Bark Stupak.

Stupak just said that the Dems are well over 216 now.

When asked who came up with the EO idea, Stupak shrugs and says he can't remember. Also says, the Dems probably had 216 without him.

Stupak says he wishes the bill was stronger, but the current bill is good enough.

White House says they have 220 'Yes' votes.

Back to Congress.. Currently debating the actual health care bill I think, as opposed to points of order.

Edit: Nah, they were still debating the rules that will govern the actual debate.

The crazy is coming out in force: Rep. Virgina Foxx (NC) just said that the bill allows elective abortions.

So we'll maybe get something like the Swiss or German systems, then. Sigh. Better than what we have now, anyway.

I am not thrilled about the concessions made to industry in order to get this thing on the table, and I don't think it's going to do much good for anyone who already can't afford real health insurance (rather than high-premium, high-deductible disaster coverage, which is all many "insured" people can afford now), but this has to pass. Kucinich said "any opportunity we have to impact health care policy after this bill is really going to depend on whether the bill passes or not. If the bill goes down, we may not see another opportunity in our lifetime to have a serious discussion about expanding health care, about redefining it, about transforming it, about making it more comprehensive.” This is so important.

and I don't think it's going to do much good for anyone who already can't afford real health insurance

Last I saw it was guaranteed issue and community rating, so yeah, it will make private insurance a financial possibility for many people who have (potentially) expensive conditions like diabetes, severe asthma, MS, heart disease, history of cancer, etc. The costs of community rating should be controlled by expanding the pool with a requirement that everyone should be insured now.

Individual Republicans are now requesting consent to revise and extend their remarks "in opposition to this flawed health care bill". It's a long line about 30 members. It only cost the Republicans about 5 seconds in time, which the they jokingly request if they could get back.

Rep. Spencer Bachus (AL) is complaining about the bill allowing federal funding of abortions. Don't tell Stupak!

Isn't there something supposed to be important to these guys written down somewhere about bearing false witness?

dilettante, no one has to time to read that 1000+ page godly take over of our souls!

Nothing much new on the floor, more of the same as Dems say they're awesome and Repubs suck and Repubs just say Dems suck. Peeling paint would be more fun.

The House just finished debating on the rule governing debate of the health care bill. The voice vote went to the Nays, so the Democrats are requesting and official vote. They're also voting on a few non health care things, before getting back to health care.

And the House has approved the rules of debate, so they'll proceed to general debate on the healt care bills. With 4 minutes left for voting, it's 222 yeas, 202 nays.

Final vote is 224 to 206. Things look good for the Democrats on the final vote.

General debate on the bill has begun. Steny Hoyer is delivering the opening speech for the Democrats. He's been talking for 5 minutes. Grilling steaks sounds like much more fun.

Pausing to watch debate while Harry Potter is on commercial. A Republican is complaining about the 2,000+ bill. My ears beg me to switch the channel, even if it's Jersey Shore.

Too bad I can't favorite comments, Brandon .... Jersey Shore, yikes!

To be clear, the House is debating the Senate bill, vote on it, then debate and vote on their fixes to the Senate bill, which the Senate had agreed to pass.

A Dem Rep just got challenged on rules of decorum. He appears to be apologizing and asking his remarks be stricken. I missed what he said though.

Where is there a live stream? Not finding it on house.gov

cspan had it live all day.

Ok, I've given up on my Congressman's facebook page. It's a virtual wake now.

<small> creepy stalker guy had nothing to do with it, I swear!</small>

Oh, that was embarassing.

Talking about TennCare. I know that's been in trouble. Was it handicapped, or what?

Huh?

Oh goodie, I tune in just in time for Eric Cantor.

That was succinct and nice of her but this bill is not affordable health care for all Americans. Just one step away from crazypants unaffordable health care.

We were saving you a surprise!

Every congresscritter should wear pink leather.

Again, I go away and come back just in time for Boehner. Augh.

I think Orange Boehner is going to cry!

How dare you legislate?! FOR SHAME, Congress.

This bill will unmake the Union! Mark his words. Congress's 16% approval rating was not earned by Congress doing what they want.

Pelosi is speaking, must be time to do something.

Well, if she would stop talking, they could do something.

Yeah, boo the President. So much for comity.

And they're off... Fifteen minutes to vote on the Senate bill passed on Dec 24th.

5 minutes in, it's 184 yeas, 160 nays. 216 yeas are needed to pass.

7 minutes left, 200 to 178.

I'm glad I took my chill pill, this is driving me nuts.

4 minutes left, 209-192

Share chill pills please!

3 minutes left, 211-204

216

Yay! I think. I hope.

Final tally: 219-210!

Next up is a vote on the reconciliation bill and once that passes, the bill is the law of the land.

My faith in humanity is restored.

Small prob? The Repubs are trying a procedural tactic, the Dems are complaing about not having a copy of the point, I think that's what's happening.

Repubs are saying the Senate bill violates the Hyde amendment about abortion. Sounds lime bs, they're stalling and trying to force...somethingon the abortion point. Ah, they want the Stupak amendent which passed before, then stripped, to be made to pass again.

I'm guessing it's a bs tactic which they know will fail, but makes a great talking point.

Stupak is speaking now and calling the move bs. Lots of shouting in the background as he's trying to speak.

The tactic doesn't work and the House is off to vote again, they have 15 minutes.

10 minutes left, 182 yeas, 219 nays

Brandon: They're voting on the motion right now. If they vote to recommit, I think it pulls the reconciliation bill off the table and sends it back to the reconciliation committee.

Oh, they're voting on the tactic the Repubs were trying, so the nays have it. Next they'll vote on reconcilition package.

Note: learn to preview.

This is the vote on reconciliation now?

Ok, NOW they're voting on the reconcilition bill.

11minutes left, 200 yeas, 192 nays.

9 minutes left, 208 yeas. You'd think they'd want go home by now.

212

6 minutes left, 213 yeas.

Score! Who wants some healthcare?

Final vote: 220-211

I watched cspan all day and all I got was a headache.

Joe Biden Thinks Health-Care Reform Is a ‘Big F—ing Deal’.

yah, I call it BFDHRC now.

It's gotta be hard to be Obama. First black president, trying not play into any stereotype and along comes Biden, the drunk uncle.

I have a feeling he has a private convo with Biden every week, something along the lines of "Look, Joe, you're VP now, that means certain things can't be done, stuff like...are you going to turn the tv or not when I'm talking to you? And for god sakes it's 3 in the afternoon, put on something besides the wife beater!!!"