Charlie Rangel is speaking in the House Rules Committee on the House health care bill. This session will set the rule for the floor, i.e. all amendments allowed and the terms for the debate. Rangel is giving a prepared statement right now. I’ll be following along.

…George Miller, chair of the Education and Labor Committee, is now speaking. C-SPAN must not be used to covering Rules Committee sessions, because he’s not on mike.

…Miller’s just talking about the bill in general terms, talking about the deliberation among the three committees. He mentions that 3,000 town hall meetings were held on the topic. “This legislation will set this country’s health care system on a more sustainable course.”

…Best C-SPAN chyron ever: “Audio Difficulties.” This is playing live on CSPAN-2, by the way.

…”This bill will cover 97% of Americans by 2019,” says Miller. Incidentally, Majority Leader Hoyer put out a neat tool that explains extremely simply what benefits all Americans will see from the bill.

…Dave Camp (R-MI), the ranking member on Ways and Means, is up. It’s what you’d expect. Interestingly, Henry Waxman (D-CA), the other committee chair on the bill, isn’t in the session yet. Camp is talking about how the bill cuts Medicare, which he voted to eliminate and privatize earlier this year.

…Here’s a new talking point: the bill will raise taxes by $700 billion dollars. Since when? There’s a millionaire’s tax, and some minor taxes on industry stakeholders.

…Camp is actually touting how the Republican health care bill will “reduce premiums by up to 3%” for most people That would be 0-3%, and that’s an average, where costs for the sick rise and costs for the healthy don’t. And he says that CBO hasn’t said the Democratic bill wouldn’t lower premiums, when CBO hasn’t scored that yet.

…now we have John Kline (R-MN), ranking member from Education and Labor. The usual nonsense. He’s basically talking about a “health czar.”

…Joe Barton (R-TX), ranking member of Energy and Commerce, is giving remarks.

The White House has delivered a “statement of Administration policy,” basically their view of the House bill, and they strongly support it.

The Administration strongly supports House passage of H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act, a bill that represents a critical milestone in the effort to reform our health care system. H.R. 3962 will provide needed insurance reforms for Americans with insurance, expand coverage for those who do not have insurance, lower costs for families and businesses, and begin to reduce the Nation’s deficit. It meets the President’s criteria for health insurance reform: it assures that all Americans have access to quality, affordable health care that is there when they need it and does so without adding a dime to the deficit.

This legislation is the product of unprecedented cooperation and countless hours of hard work by Members of the House of Representatives who share the President’s conviction that the Nation cannot wait another year for health insurance reform. They have forged a strong consensus that represents an historic step forward.

The House legislation includes critical reforms to the insurance industry, so that Americans will no longer have to worry that they will be denied coverage, or that their coverage will be dropped or watered down when they need it most. It covers virtually all Americans and ensures that all Americans with health insurance are protected against high out-of-pocket spending. The Administration is pleased that the bill includes a public health insurance option offered in an exchange. As the President has said throughout this process, a public option that competes with private insurers is one of the best ways to ensure the choice and competition that are so badly needed in today’s market.

The House bill also includes important health care delivery system reforms, and would extend the solvency of Medicare’s hospital insurance trust fund. Its Medicare and Medicaid policies promote integrated care, quality care, and primary care. It invests in research on the most effective treatments, prevention, and the health care workforce. It also makes critical improvements for Medicare beneficiaries including closing the coverage gap in the Medicare drug benefit known as the donut hole. In addition, it provides new options for long-term care. Moreover, the House bill is fully paid for and will help to reduce the deficit in the long-term.

This bill provides the necessary health reforms that the Administration seeks – affordable, quality care within reach for the tens of millions of Americans who do not have it today, and stability and security for the hundreds of millions who do. The Administration appreciates the hard work of the House on this bill, which contributes to transforming the health care system. The Administration looks forward to continuing to work with the Congress on this legislation and urges quick action on this landmark bill.

…Barton’s whining about a bunch of amendments from committee that were voted down. He wants those amendments considered as well as a substitute amendment (that would be the Republican health care bill). He’s calling for enough floor time for the debate so that “every member wishing to speak can speak.

Louise Slaughter (D-NY), Chair of the Rules Committee, says as an aside that the Republican amendment will be allowed, and that there will be ample time for debate.

…Slaughter: I have a lot of people in my district losing their jobs. The stories we get daily are almost unbelievable. The time has come to make this change. Republicans: what did you do in the last 12 years to alleviate this issue themselves?
Dave Camp tries to answer, mentions preventive screening in Medicare and the prescription drug benefit. “Except for the donut hole,” Slaughter said. Camp defends Part D. (I hope his constituents are listening!) And he touts Health Savings Accounts and says “we have had a number of improvements in health care.
Slaughter: do you have the price tag on your bill?
Camp: We have a CBO score. We cut the deficit $63 billion. (Less than the House bill)
Barton: Our bill scores as a cost saving. It would save about $8 billion over a ten-year period.
Slaughter gets the figure that the Democratic bill would save $100 billion over a 10-year period.
Rangel: I found it easy to work with Dave Camp. Hoped we’d work together. We have been restricted because of partisan atmosphere in the House. I was hoping for Republican substitute and the opportunity for debate. I didn’t know there was a Republican bill until this week. Had I known about the Republican bill, that would have made this moment “even more exciting than it is.”
“Pinch-hitting” for Henry Waxman is Rep. Frank Pallone. David Dreier (ranking member on Rules) wants to know where Waxman is. Pallone doesn’t know. “For me, this is the most important legislation I’ve ever been part of.”
OFA, the organizing arm of the DNC, is kicking off a Tweet Your Rep tool to allow people to use Twitter to urge their Congressmembers to support the bill.
Slaughter and Dave Camp agree on lifting the annual lifetime caps on health insurance. Slaughter mentions that CBO can’t score a saving.

…One reason why Republicans aren’t getting the most from activists is that this Rules Committee Hearing has incredible importance, and yet the big story on the right is that the Fort Hood shooting proving that Al Qaeda has infiltrated the military. They cannot keep their eyes on the ball.

…I’m informed that Jon Walker is live-blogging as well. Not wanting to be duplicative, I’ll leave him to it. If anything important happens I’ll check in with a standalone story.