Below The Beltway

It looks like the deal with Congressman Bart Stupak that I wrote about this morning may be off. First, the press conference that Stupak had scheduled for this morning was postponed/canceled.
At NRO, Robert Costa reports that Stupak is done dealing with the House leadership:
Two pro-life GOP members close to Stupak tell NRO that any Stupak [...]

John Boehner’s remarks this morning sound an awful lot like something a guy who doesn’t think he will win might say:
House Minority Leader John Boehner (Ohio) for the first time admitted that Republicans were not likely to defeat health care reform legislation.
Boehner continued, however, to lambaste Democrats over pushing through the health care overhaul with [...]

Over at The Liberty Papers, I’ve posted an essay titled Is “Deem And Pass” Constitutional ? Neither The Question Nor The Answer Are As Simple As You Think
Go check it out.

At The New Republic George Washington University Professor Sara Binder provides one of the clearest explanations to date of what “deem and pass” a/k/a the self-executing rule is all about:
So how is the process likely to unfold? We can’t be entirely sure of all the details yet, but it will likely start on Saturday when [...]

There’s been much discussion in the past few days about the so-called “deem and pass” procedure that the House of Representatives will apparently use on Sunday when it finally takes a vote on ObamaCare.
A December 2006 report published by the Congressional Research Service provides some much-needed perspective. As the article notes, the self-executing rule has [...]

Allahpundit passed along this piece of information last night:
A friend of the site e-mailed us about an hour ago to say that he spoke to a Democratic congressman he’s pals with earlier tonight. Quote:
He tells me with certainty that they have plenty of votes and that some yes votes will be allowed to vote no [...]

Late last night rumors began to surface of a deal between House Democrats and the pro-life group of Democrats led by Michigan Congressman Bart Stupak:
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 [...]

With less than 48 hours to go, the fate of ObamaCare still seem to be unclear.
Over at FireDogLake, David Dayen’s Whip Count shows 205 yes votes, 211 no votes, and 15 undecided.
The Washington Post, meanwhile, shows 207 no votes, 170 yes votes, and 54 undecided
The New York Times shows 200 yes votes, 202 no votes, [...]

The Associated Press did an excellent job earlier this week of fact-checking the claim that ObamaCare will lead to lower health insurance premiums:
WASHINGTON — Buyers, beware: President Barack Obama says his health care overhaul will lower premiums by double digits, but check the fine print.
Premiums are likely to keep going up even if the health [...]

Yesterday on MSNBC, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli talked about potential legal challenges to health care reform should it become law:

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Cuccinelli also appeared on Fox News later in the day talking about the lawsuits: