A LITTLE LANGUAGE PROBLEM – AT 7:47 P.M. ET:  As they used to say in the Army, "Sorry about that."  It turns out that one of the big promises made in the health-care bill may evaporate because of sloppy drafting.  You can't make this up:

You've seen a lot of hype about a provision in the health bill that will bar insurance companies from rejecting children with pre-existing conditions, to be effective this fall.  Uh, apparently, there's a bit of bother with the language in the bill, and the provision is actually effective in 2014. 

How many months did they work on this bill?  How many months?

So now the White House is scrambling to come up with an explanation, and assurances that the problem will be fixed.  But it reflects the mess that we've seen in the creation of this not-so-brave new world.

UPDATE:  Just an update on the health saga.  The Senate, later tonight, will begin what's being called a vote-a-rama, about nine hours of voting that will presumably vote down every Republican amendment offered to the reconciliation package.  The package is designed to fix things in the health bill that the House didn't like.  It doesn't look like the GOP will be able to stop the plan.

March 24, 2010