The White House is pressuring Reid to make a deal with Lieberman.

The White House is encouraging Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to cut a deal with Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), which would mean eliminating the proposed Medicare expansion in the health reform bill, according to an official close to the negotiations.

But Reid is described as so frustrated with Lieberman that he is not ready to sacrifice a key element of the health care bill, and first wants to see the Congressional Budget Office cost analysis of the Medicare buy-in. The analysis is expected early this week.

“There is a weariness and a lot of frustration that one person is holding up the will of 59 others,” the official said. “There is still too much anger and confusion at one particular senator’s reversal.”

Okay, so the White House wants a deal done. The Democrats want a health care package done, and it looks like Lieberman’s holdup is actually giving Reid cover to wait for the latest CBO scoring of the Medicare buy in.

Like so much of what is going on with this health care debate, the cost appears to be taking a back seat to the regular order of business - politics. Had Lieberman gone along with this nonsense, the CBO scoring wouldn’t have made a difference (or mattered to the Democrats) since this is what the Democrat majority wanted.