We've been hearing this for months, but it looks like we are finally hitting the homestretch on the health care reform debate, with a vote expected to come later this week.
Yesterday, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs went on Fox News and declared that:
... we'll have the votes when the House votes, I think within the next week, and I think whoever sits here this time next week, you will be talking about health care reform, not as a presidential proposal but as something that will soon be a law of the land.
At the same time, Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) says the 216 votes the Democrats need in the House aren't there, although he "very confident that we'll get this done."
And if the last-ditch efforts to derail the bill are any indication Clyburn and the White House's confidence must be well-placed:
The yearlong legislative fight over health care is drawing to a frenzied close as a multimillion-dollar wave of advertising that rivals the ferocity of a presidential campaign takes aim at about 40 House Democrats whose votes will help determine the fate of President Obama’s top domestic priority.
The coalition of groups opposing the legislation, led by the United States Chamber of Commerce, is singling out 27 Democrats who supported the health care bill last year and 13 who opposed it. The organizations have already spent $11 million this month focusing on these lawmakers, with more spending to come before an expected vote next weekend.
And from the other side of the fight, MoveOn.org:
... is set to blast out an email to its five million member list Monday asking recipients to pledge anywhere from $25 to $200 (or more) for the purposes of defeating conservative Democrats who help defeat the legislation.
Meanwhile the President, who has "making daily calls to wavering lawmakers," travels to Ohio today to make his pitch just down the road from Dennis Kucinich's district.
And where are the Republicans?
House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) pledged to do "everything we can to make it difficult for them, if not impossible, to pass the bill."
In other words, the same place they've been since January 20, 2009.