Are there enough votes in the House to pass the Senate’s health-care bill? As of today, it’s clear there aren’t. House Democratic leaders have brushed aside White House calls to bring the bill forward by March 18, when President Barack Obama heads to Asia. Nevertheless, analysts close to the Democratic leadership tell me they’re confident the leadership will find some way to squeeze out the 216 votes needed for a majority.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi has indeed shown mastery at amassing majorities. But it’s hard to see how she’ll do so on this one. The arithmetic as I see it doesn’t add up.

Gallup’s annual update on Americans’ attitudes toward the environment shows a public that over the last two years has become less worried about the threat of global warming, less convinced that its effects are already happening, and more likely to believe that scientists themselves are uncertain about its occurrence. In response to one key question, 48% of Americans now believe that the seriousness of global warming is generally exaggerated, up from 41% in 2009 and 31% in 1997, when Gallup first asked the question.

A top House Democrat said Thursday that leaders may not have to change the Senate health care bill’s abortion-related provisions to meet the demands of 12 members who have threatened to walk.

Rep. Bart Stupak, a pro-life Michigan Democrat, has said he and 11 other Democrats who voted for the House bill will oppose the Senate bill unless strong abortion restrictions are added.

Andrew Breitbart has been waiting 45 minutes for a filet mignon. He drums his fingers on the table in this plush Italian restaurant off Times Square, a place where the media types he regularly trashes used to flaunt their expense accounts — back when they still had them. Breitbart looks around for a waiter and launches into a stem-winder about collusion between Hollywood and the press — the “subtle and not-so-subtle use of propaganda to make a center-right nation move to the left.

“It’s not just the nightly news,” he says. “You’re also getting television shows that reflect the same worldview, where Republicans are always the bad guys. Al Qaeda’s never the bad guy. The Republican is always the bad guy.”

Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd, concerned that bipartisan talks are losing momentum, will unveil his own financial reform bill Monday without the full support of his Republican negotiating partners.

Dodd stressed in a statement that his talks with Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee would continue. His new bill will reflect the agreements he and Corker accomplished over many weeks of talks, Dodd said.

In making the case for ramming through health care legislation via reconciliation, the White House has called for a “simple up-or-down vote.” But as we know, there’s nothing “simple” about the reconciliation process, and as it turns out, House Democrats are plotting to pass a bill without the “up-or-down vote” part either.

As Congress Daily first reported, “House Rules Chairwoman Louise Slaughter is prepping to help usher the healthcare overhaul through the House and potentially avoid a direct vote on the Senate overhaul bill.” The idea is to use a legislative trick called a “self-executing rule” that would allow House members to approve the reconciliation bill, and consider the Senate bill to have automatically passed, thus avoiding a vote on a bill that’s not only unpopular with the public, but among Democratic House members.

This time, there are no prostitutes involved, just a shady, and serious, tax-fraud scheme. The ploy involves the Obama administration’s 10 percent tax credit to first-time home buyers. The law says that the credit maxes out at $8,000 for an $80,000 home. But at the Detroit office of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the rule seems open to interpretation. O’Keefe asks a staffer, What if I bought a place for $50,000, but the seller and I agreed to write down $80,000 as the purchase price?

“Flip it any way you want,” the staffer replies.

What if the place is worth much less — like only $6,000?

“Yup, you can do that.”

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Thursday he believes House leaders can get the votes for President Barack Obama’s health care reform package without changing the abortion language in the Senate bill.

Hoyer was asked about comments from Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) in an Associated Press story that House leaders had decided to press ahead without changing the abortion restrictions. A group of anti-abortion-rights Democrats led by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) has been threatening to kill the bill over the issue.

The Senate Parliamentarian has ruled that President Barack Obama must sign Congress’ original health care reform bill before the Senate can act on a companion reconciliation package, senior GOP sources said Thursday.

The Senate Parliamentarian’s Office was responding to questions posed by the Republican leadership. The answers were provided verbally, sources said.