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You’ll recall that House Republicans unveiled a resolution two days ago that would force a vote on the Slaughter Solution and call out the Deem-and-Pass-ocrats.

The vote on that resolution had been anticipated at around 12:30-1pm Eastern this afternoon. The time came and went. The vote is now expected at around 2:00pm Eastern. Is Pelosi scrambling to make sure she can defeat it? I said yesterday on Hannity that there’s so much arm-wrestling in Washington right now it looks like a yoga convention.

We’ve graduated from yoga to full-scale WWE wrestle-mania.

Stay tuned…

Update 2:13pm Eastern. Ok, the vote is happening right now. House GOP source: “House voting NOW. A ‘yes’ vote on the previous question is a vote to authorize Speaker Pelosi to use the Slaughter Solution to ram ObamaCare through the House without an up-or-down vote. A ‘no’ vote on the PQ [previous question] is a vote against the Slaughter Solution. ”

Update 2:26pm Eastern. Final vote 222-203 with six not voting. Remember in November.

More from The Hill:

All Republican lawmakers who voted opposed the measure, which had the effect of ending the GOP’s effort to force a vote. They were joined by 28 Democrats, who broke with party members on the vote.

222 Democrats supported the measure, though, meaning enough to proceed. Three members of both parties did not vote.

Republicans had hoped for the separate vote to get Democratic lawmakers on record on the Senate bill, which includes some provisions on abortion, excise taxes, and other issues that House lawmakers find distasteful.

As this stand[s], Democrats plan a vote on a rule on Sunday that would make changes to the Senate-passed bill while deeming the original legislation to have passed the House.

Update 2:46pm Eastern. Here’s the roll call vote.

Those who didn’t vote:

Dem Ackerman
GOP Hastings (WA)
GOP Hoekstra
Dem Lofgren, Zoe
Dem Stark
GOP Westmoreland (Update: Was on his way to ICU for grandson, according to a constituent who contacted his office)

The 28 Dems who joined Republicans in opposing deem-and-pass cramdown:

Adler (NJ)
Arcuri
Boren
Bright
Carney
Childers
Cooper
Costello
Dahlkemper
Davis (AL)
Giffords
Herseth Sandlin
Holden
Kosmas
Kratovil
Lipinski
McIntyre
McNerney
Melancon
Michaud
Minnick
Mitchell
Nye
Perriello
Shuler
Stupak
Taylor
Teague

Question: Why did Democrats Jason Altmire and Stephen Lynch, who both have voiced public opposition to Deem-and-Pass tactics, support the Slaughter House resolution?

Jim Geraghty breaks out the vulnerable Dems including Altmire and Lynch who cast seppuku votes.

Ace of Spades: “I am getting really worried, because if 222 Democrats voted for this unconstitutional, very-unpopular maneuver, doesn’t that mean that all 222 will also vote for the bill itself? Why vote for this if you’re not going to vote for that?”

***

Update: From the GOP leader’s office…

Boehner: House Democrats Endorse “Slaughter Solution,” Vote to Protect Themselves Instead of Their Constituents

GOP Leader: “The ‘Slaughter Solution’ is nothing more than an incumbent protection program for Democrats afraid to stick their necks out because they know how much the American people oppose this bill.”

WASHINGTON, DC – House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) issued the following statement after House Democrats voted to authorize the use of the controversial “Slaughter Solution” to force a massive government takeover of health care through the House without voting on it:

“Today, House Democrats voted to protect themselves instead of their constituents, who are fed up with the lack of accountability and transparency in Washington. The ‘Slaughter Solution’ is nothing more than an incumbent protection program for Democrats afraid to stick their necks out because they know how much the American people oppose this bill. Speaker Pelosi, who promised to lead the ‘most honest, most open, and most ethical’ Congress in history, gave rank-and-file Democrats a chance to pass this job-killing monstrosity without actually voting on it and they jumped at the opportunity.

“This legislative trick has been around for a long time, but it’s never been used for a bill so controversial and so massive in scope. Republicans will continue to stand up for taxpayers and fight to ensure they get a clean, up-or-down vote on the Senate-passed health care bill. The American people won’t let House Democrats hide from this vote.”

NOTE: This “deem and enact” maneuver has been in existence since 1933, but used just six times in the history of the House of Representatives and never in this manner.

***

From WaPo:

The House voted 222-203 Thursday to set aside a resolution that would have required an up-or-down tally on the Senate health bill, halting a Republican effort to block Democrats’ preferred method for getting a reform measure through the chamber.

The resolution — offered by Democrat-turned-Republican Rep. Parker Griffith (Ala.) — would have prevented Democrats from using a “deem and pass” strategy to approve the Senate measure. Under this scenario, the House would “deem” the Senate bill passed when the chamber approves the rule governing debate for health care, and then would vote on a package of “fixes” to the Senate bill negotiated between the two chambers.

The bill to ensure an up-or-down vote on health care was itself denied an up-or-down vote. Technically, the House voted Thursday for “the previous question” — in favor of proceeding to a rule vote for the day’s calendar of bills. A vote against the previous question was a vote in support of bringing Griffith’s resolution up for its own roll call.

Though Democratic leaders urged their members to stick together, 28 Democrats joined every Republican present in voting to bring up Griffith’s resolution, but their effort failed.

***

Michael Barone at The Examiner sifts through the roll call vote for signs:

An analysis of the votes cast for and against the rule, together with an examination of members’ public statements and political situations, suggests that the House leadership is still significantly short of 216 votes on final passage, and that opponents of the view have a reservoir of potential noes from more than the 38 Democrats needed to defeat the measure.

Read the whole thing.

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