TURN LEFT AND COUGH – AT 8:15 A.M. ET:  President Obama is scheduled to leave for Asia at noon on Sunday.  The House, at least according to the Pelosi Plan, will vote on health care no later than Saturday.  But are the votes there?

Actually, no one seems to know.  But momentum, as of this morning, appeared to be with the opponents:

Washington (CNN) -- Five more House Democrats said Tuesday that they will vote against Senate health care legislation, which puts opponents of reform just 11 votes shy of the 216 needed to prevent President Obama from scoring a major victory on his top domestic priority.

An ongoing CNN analysis shows that opposition in the House to the Senate health care plan has reached 205 members.

A total of 216 would be needed to block the bill.

Dem leaders are floating a controversial plan to have the House pass the legislation without actually voting on it.  Under this maneuver, members would vote on only certain provisions of the Senate bill, avoiding a vote on the entire, unpopular package.  The bill would then be "deemed" to have passed. 

As we reported yesterday, many Constitution experts consider the maneuver unconstitutional, but Dems may try it anyway so Obama can sign the bill before going on his Asian adventure.

We're following this hour by hour.  The whole process is a shambles.  Human lives depend on how we run health-care "reform."  Foreigners must be impressed by what they see.  That is a joke.

March 17, 2010