That's absolutely right, the House can't change a single comma in the original Senate bill. But, there's a school of thought that says - despite what NRO explains - the House has to pass the original Senate bill first. There's the possibility that the House and the Senate could pass the Reconciliation bill, then the House passes the original Senate bill. From Roll Call, just yesterday...
"“We could pass the reconciliation first, have the reconciliation passed by the Senate and then pass the Senate bill,” Hoyer said. From there, he said, the president would have to sign the Senate bill first and then the reconciliation package."
My personal opinion is if they go off the cliff, this is the cliff that they'll choose.
And someone on Slate was reporting that the House would have to pass the Senate bill, then pass Obama's "reconciliation" fiasco, then it goes to the Senate, or something. (I stopped reading when the author called the Catholic Bishops "liars" for saying the Senate bills allows abortions.)
The fact that there's so many opinions on how this trainwreck will happen is a sure sign of just how out-of-control the radical left, in the WH and on Capitol Hill, is.