The House passes the reconciliation bill ...

... by 220-211 votes. Now it goes to the Senate. In all probability, the health care reform package will soon be complete.

Back at 4:39 p.m., when the announcement of by Stupak and the other anti-abortion Democrats that they would vote for health care reform made it clear that it would almost certainly pass, Paul Krugman put it this way:

There is, as always, a tunnel at the end of the tunnel: we’ll spend years if not decades fixing this thing. But kudos to all involved, with special praise for Nancy Pelosi, who is now a Speaker for the ages.

--Jeff Weintraub