Well, there. That wasn't so bad, now was it?
The Senate stayed late, late, late to plow through amendments and points of order against the reconciliation bill, and now seems poised to pass it today with only very minor and technical changes made to the bill -- and those only to the student loan portion. Health care was completely untouched by the awesome Republican procedural juggernaut.
The Senate will return today to deal with another few amendments still pending, but all indications are that the Republican resistance is collapsing. And why wouldn't it? Recess is coming! Well, that plus the fact that the main health care bill is now the health care law, and the reconciliation bill was always a considerably less-important appendage, and Republicans stood to gain next to nothing by trying to block it. In fact, they risked provoking Democrats into cutting their efforts off at the knees and setting new precedent with which to fight future Republican obstruction in the process.
The bill will have to go back to the House, with just 16 lines of text removed from 150+ pages. And if the House chooses, it can dispatch with the whole thing with a rule it can debate and pass in an hour, and a motion to agree to the Senate changes in an hour after that.
On the other hand, Democrats could charge a fee of sorts for the trouble Republicans put them through, even though it really didn't amount to much. Since the bill goes back to the House no matter what at this point, there's no longer any disadvantage to, say, offering a public option amendment. At least there's no disadvantage procedurally. Will they do it? Well, they'll probably opt for the path of least resistance, which would tell you no. But it's certainly worth considering. Democratic counter-planning for the Republican filibuster-by-amendment appears to have sapped GOP resolve. It might not be a bad time to at least give the public option (or some other similar item) a road test with the Byrd Rule. If it doesn't work, you've learned important lessons in advance of writing the next budget resolution and any attendant reconciliation instructions. And since you've always got the option of having the House agree to the Senate changes with nothing added in about an hour, you can always just double back and pass that instead and close out the game.
So in the end, Republicans will have threatened all-out war over a bill they claimed was an assault on every last remaining shred of American liberty, but will have spent less time on their epic Battle Royal than they did protesting and "occupying" the House floor on behalf of the poor, little oil companies, back in their "Drill, baby, drill!" days. Congressional Republicans know where their bread is buttered, and the Teabaggers ain't it, folks. The "patriots" are left holding the teabag at the end of the day.
They said there'd be a "nuclear option!" They said there'd be a "demon pass!" They said there'd be an onslaught of amendments and points of order that'd "bring the bill down!" They said there'd be death panels! They said there'd be socialized medicine! They said they'd pull the plug on granny!
But the sun still rises, Americans are still going to work and playing with their kids, and there are still 31 flavors.
All that, and Congress dispensed with health insurance reform and the companion reconciliation bill in under a week.
Wake up, traditional media. Someone's been pulling your leg.