Health Care and the Budget Process

Wonk Alert: If you're interested in the prospects for Health Care reform in the Congressional Budget, read Ezra and Jon Cohn. Then brush up on the Budget Reconciliation Process. In short, there's no specific Health Care dollars in either the House or Senate version (to avoid it being riddled by interest groups), Reconciliation is included in the House version but not the Senate version (which forces Senate Republicans to play ball or risk having reconciliation inserted in Conference and having health care rammed through with only 50 votes).

Also, here's what Congress Daily had to say about the Budget up on the hill today:

BIG PUSH. The governmental equivalent of a three-ring circus plays at the Capitol today, with the budget in the spotlight. In the center ring, President Obama meets for lunch with the Senate Democratic caucus. Meanwhile, the House and Senate Budget committees will offer their budget resolutions and, with them, the first detailed looks at changes they want to make in Obama's blueprint. Obama will push moderate Democrats to back his plan instead of stripping out such things as the middle-class tax cuts and the cap-and-trade emissions plan. OMB Director Orszag tried to downplay the differences, saying Obama's plan and the House and Senate budget resolutions are "98 percent the same." Or, as he put it in a conference call, "The resolutions may not be identical twins to what the president submitted, but they are certainly brothers that look an awful lot alike." But while Orszag tried to paint over the differences, Obama seemed eager to crank up the pressure on lawmakers! . In addition to today's meeting with Senate Democrats, he'll be back at the Capitol Monday to twist the arms of balking House Democrats.