Health Care Reform by the End of the Year?

Can the Congress meet President Obama's goal of having a health care reform bill on his desk before year's end? Sen. Evan Bayh says that reconciling a Senate bill and a House bill could be expedited by the leadership working with White House staff behind closed doors before the conference committee ever meets, as was done on the stimulus bill. Bayh told Politico “If they have behind-the-scenes negotiations, go into the conference committee to keep up appearances, ... but it only lasted a day or two, and then it came back to both houses, you might be able to do that,” Bayh said. He added that a “full-blown conference” would be almost impossible to finish by Christmas. But Bayh and Sen. Bill Nelson said the more likely scenario is that the Senate will pass a bill by Christmas that is finalized and on the president’s desk in January. Read more at Politico.