If that seems a little odd to you, it is a little odd for those of us trying to write about the details, as reporters and lawmakers alike are waiting to see what Democrats produce.

It left a lot of us puzzled in the hallways of the Capitol on Tuesday, as we quizzed every key Democrat on when we could expect to see some specifics.

"Maybe tomorrow? I'm not so sure," said Senate Finance Chairman Sen. Max Baucus, who is in charge of figuring out how to pay for health care reform.

The word was that Baucus' plan was going to cost $1.5 trillion, but he wouldn't confirm that to a pack of reporters who had cornered him in the hallway just off the Senate floor, not far from the statue of Vice President Spiro T. Agnew.

Meanwhile, the White House did all it could to reject a report by the Congressional Budget Office on the basics of the Democratic health reform plans, which said that it would cost $1 trillion over ten years and leave over 30 million people uninsured.

" In reading stories on this, I think it's clear that this is an old proposal, an incomplete proposal," said White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.

Still, the report gave Republicans new fodder for their attacks, and they went to the Senate floor throughout the day to denounce Democrats for a 'big government' health care solution.

"We oughta say 'Whoa!' said Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas.

"How are we going to pay for this?" demanded Sen. John McCain, who turned up his criticism of the White House.

"We oughta scrap it," McCain said of the current health reform effort.

But as of now, Democrats are plowing ahead. Whether they can put together a bill in two different committees over the next ten days is unclear.

Whether they can get something together that can actually pass the House and Senate is the real question.