Arena: The road to 216

The main result of all the twisting and turning will be to raise the price of the final handful of votes needed to pass it all. Obama and Pelosi have made it clear that they will pay any price that they have to, whether it takes the form of future earmarks or campaign funds or other deals, to get a bill. So it will indeed pass, with (I predict) exactly the minimum number of ayes, in order to minimize the political (not economic) costs.