Paul Ryan: This entire process has been a disgrace

Eight minutes from this afternoon’s Budget Committee charade, at which the “shell bill” was duly passed and sent to Madam Speaker so that she can start adding all the happy little backroom deals she’s making with wavering Democrats to get to 216. I’m paraphrasing when I call it a “disgrace,” but only very slightly: This is an attack on both the process of the bill and the substance, with fiscal minutiae set in a broader ideological context (note the bit about the dependency culture around four minutes in). My hunch is that Pelosi’s going to abandon the Slaughter strategy in the end as there’s already enough anxiety among fencesitters about public perceptions of dealmaking that they won’t want to compound it with a dubious procedural move. But for now, everything’s on the table:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is leaving the door open on using a controversial procedure to move healthcare through the House.

The process would allow the House to “deem” the Senate bill passed when it votes on a package of changes to that legislation, perhaps as early as this weekend…

Pelosi said at a Monday press conference that no final decisions have been made, but that having the Rules Committee write such a rule for the reconciliation bill is “one option.”

“When we get our CBO score and our decisions from the Senate Parliamentarian, when we have the substance, then we will decide on the process,” Pelosi said.

The One admitted tonight to Jake Tapper that they don’t have the votes yet, which I guess explains why he had to needle Kucinich — a rare liberal no vote thus far — from the podium today in Ohio. Believe it or not, single-payer advocate Dizzy Denny really could be the tiebreaking vote on this one. As goes Dennis Kucinich, so goes the Republic.

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