By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS Staff Journalist A major Washington DC think tank has confirmed a four-part plan by Congressional leadership that if used, could allow “Obamacare” to be rammed into law by Thanksgiving without anyone knowing what is actually in the bill. The Heritage Foundation has confirmed that leaders in the House and Senate have a plan that will enable Congress to pass President Obama’s sweeping health care reform by Thanksgiving.   The first part of the plan involves passage of a bill forged by Sen. Max Baucus and the Senate Finance Committee, which was stalled pending an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Although based on preliminary numbers which most expect will rise before the bill’s completion, the CBO’s analysis is favorable, saying the plan will cost less than $900 billion and reduce the deficit by $81 billion over ten years while covering 94 percent of all Americans. The next step in the process will be for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to take this bill and merge it with another Senate bill produced by the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) Committee. CNSnews.com has confirmed that “the actual final text of the legislation will be determined by Reid himself, who will consolidate the legislation approved by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee . . . Reid will be able to draft and insert textual language that was not expressly approved by either committee.” This means Sen. Reid will be able to write the final version of the bill which will be considered in the Senate with no input from the American people. “This is an extremely complex procedure that will not be done in public, or in the form of a hearing, or a public conference committee,” the Foundation writes. “And only Senator Harry Reid, some other Senators chosen by Reid and Obama Administration officials will be allowed to read the bill before the Senate debate starts.” The merger of these two bills is currently “in progresss,” the Foundation reports. The third step will be for Sen. Reid to take House bill 1586, which imposes a 90-percent tax on bonuses paid to employees of certain bailed-out financial institutions, and which passed the House in March, and use this bill as a “shell” for enacting the final version of the Senate’s health care bill. In this way, the Senate can avoid the Constitutional mandate that all bills involving taxation originate in the House. According to the Foundation, a senior aide to Sen. Reid confirmed that it was “likely” this procedure would be used. “The final step in this plan is for the House to take up Obama care, without amending the legislation, and then sending that bill directly to the President for his signature,” the Foundation writes. According to Matt Cover at CNSnews.com, “House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) won’t rule out having the House vote on the Senate health-care bill without making any changes in it, which would allow the bill to go directly to President Barack Obama without having to pass through a House-Senate conference committee and another round of votes in the House and Senate–and a longer period of public scrutiny of what the text of the proposed law actually says.” This scenario is currently in the process of being implemented and, if successful, will result in health care reform being on the President’s desk in time for Thanksgiving with minimal participation of the American public. However, many experts are saying that any number of snags could occur along the way to derail this process. For instance, merging the two Senate bills by Sen. Reid is much more thorny than it appears because support for the bills is so fragile. With one Senate bill containing a public option and the other excluding it, Reid will be torn between trying to win the votes of moderate senators who won't vote for a plan that includes a public option, and liberal lawmakers who say they won't vote for a bill that doesn't include it.  And this is just one of several major issues that could cost support in a Senate where one or two votes can make the difference between success and defeat. © All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly®/Women of Grace®  http://www.womenofgrace.com