New Health Care Plan To Be Crafted In Secret

Remember all those promises of televising negotiations and transparency? Not so much:

Despite their claims to the contrary, the way that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have handled the healthcare bill has been anything but transparent. And, if the left-wing blogosphere is to be believed, the two congressional leaders intend to keep the deliberations secret as they try to merge the House and Senate versions of the legislation into something that will pass both chambers.

The Talking Points Memo website reported Monday that Democrats in both the House and Senate are saying the process will likely follow the path of the House taking up the Senate-passed legislation, amending it and sending it back to the Senate, which will have to pass it again.

I don't understand how the House can take up the Senate bill and amend it without voting on it, but we'll see what happens. If Scott Brown wins the Massachusetts election for Senate, that'll make it that much more difficult for the Senate to pass this health care takeover.