See You in September

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced today that the Senate will not consider health care reform legislation until September. This decision allows the Senate Finance Committee to complete its work. More suprising is the Hill newspaper's report that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi "said Thursday that the House can go home for its August recess without passing a massive overhaul." The Energy and Commerce Committee has not met since Monday to mark up the House reform bill due to Blue Dog Coalition concerns about the bill. The Wall Street Journal reports that "White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel on Thursday met with House Democrats from the fiscally conservative "Blue Dog" coalition, which is delaying the [health care reform] bill's passage over concerns about spending."