Health care reform: how are the votes shaping up?
Sounds like Pelosi doesn’t have enough votes to pass Obamacare in the House. Yet.
She wasn’t making any promises Tuesday, saying the White House proposals are “getting a good reception,” but “we have more work to do.”
As for the Senate:
Democratic leaders estimate that seven or eight members of the Democratic caucus are either opposed to completing the bill using reconciliation or are unsure of their support for it, a senior Democratic aide said. That would leave the Democrats with barely enough backing.
If previous experience is any guide, these waverers may respond to some combination of vigorous arm-twisting and extravagant gifts, and cave in the end. But it’s still not clear if it would matter, because it is not at all certain what sorts of provisions would be allowed to pass using the reconciliation process, which ordinarily applies only to budgets. The Senate parliamentarian will have something to say about all this, no doubt.
[NOTE: Here’s an excellent article by Michael Gerson listing the ways in which continuing to push for health care reform will hurt the Democrats. He includes one I’ve rarely seen discussed, but which has occurred to me: once Democrats lose control of Congress themselves, it will be payback time, and create “decades of bitterness.” Of course, maybe that’s already happened.]
[ADDENDUM: Now is not the time to mince words.]
I’ve been looking around and I can’t find any persuasive sources or arguments that the Democrats have the votes in the House for healthcare and the Senate is iffy too.
I assume that if they had the votes there would be leaks and stories to that effect and Democrats would be voting today instead of preparing for the “summit” tomorrow.
They are just working out the details IMO
Krauthammer on the topic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZlMGeHK_CY
I think the Democrats are just doing a head fake.
I have noticed that, several times over the last few weeks, various Democrats have said that this or that action is or is not going to happen, that this or that bill is “dead,” that they do or do not have the votes, they have achieved or can’t reach the agreement they need on various issues, and I have noticed that what usually happens in the end is that they do, indeed, have the votes or the agreement, and that the “dead” bill is usually resurrected, to live again.
So, even more than before, I would not believe anything that a Democrat says or any supposed news or leaks about Democratic vote counts or strategies that appear in their wholly owned subsidiary–the MSM–because I believe such information is really “disinformation,” designed by Democrats and their supporters to make those opposing them believe that “the battle is won,” or “the bill is dead,” and that they can relax their vigilance and let down their guard because “Ding, Dong, the witch is dead,” when in fact the witch is very much alive, and about to cast a spell on them to strike them dead.
I agree, Wolla. They intend to ram this through by any means, fair or foul. Mostly foul.
National Health Care is the Holy Grail of the Left. They are so close now they can taste it.
Leftists know that if this passes, it will permanently move the country to the left, once people become used to depending on the government for their health care. The Democrats who are retiring now probably figure they’ll come back in a few years. After a generation or two, people will literally be unable to imagine any alternative to government-run health care. The Republicans will be reduced to arguing that they can run it better than the Democrats, but will not dare to advocate repeal. That’s pretty much the situation in England now.
Where are the feminists whose slogan is “Keep your laws off my body”?
How about the Premier of Newfoundland who just had heart surgery in Florida? When challenged by PC Canadians about not using their wonderful universal healthcare system he replied, “My health – my choice.” Not a bad motto.