Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND), chairman of the powerful Senate Budget Committee, has warned House Democrats that they shouldn’t count on the United States Senate to implement “fixes” to the government-run health care legislation.

Not exactly the news Democratic leaders wanted when they’re already struggling to gather enough “yes” votes for legislation even top supporters concede is deeply-flawed.

Conrad addressed a meeting of Senate Democrats to explain the reconciliation process to them. On his way out, I and several other reporters caught up with him. I asked whether the package being assembled by House and Senate Democrats will survive the Byrd rule, which requires a reconciliation bill to amend tax or entitlement law, without increasing the deficit.

“We haven’t finished the process of going through things that are Byrd-able,” Conrad said.

“Is it a close call on some of them?” I asked.

“Oh yeah,” Conrad said.

Translation: You better not be basing your re-election strategy on the Senate “fixing” this legislation for you, because we still can’t find 51 Senators to vote for this latest crap.

This should have pro-life Democrats thinking twice about trusting leaders to pass bans on abortion funding after the bill passes the House.