Posted on 12/27/2009 3:33:24 AM PST by Scanian
WASHINGTON — With the U.S. Senate having approved major health care reform legislation Thursday during an extraordinary Christmas Eve vote, Barack Obama moved one step closer to reshaping American medicine and accomplishing that which has eluded previous Democratic presidents.
But looming as Obama’s final obstacle to signing a bill into law are negotiations to reconcile the $871 billion Senate legislation with a $1.2 trillion health care package passed by the House of Representatives back in mid November. Whether through a formal conference committee of several Senatorsand Congressmen, or driven from the top down by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) — Democratic leaders haven’t decided which, merging the two bills could prove tricky.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Anyone taking bets on whether there will be a protracted fight over this? My money would be on a bill rushed through, with some token resistance (so some can say they fought for this or that), by the Princess and the P (fill in your own letters for Misster Reid).
The unhappy Democrats will have to restrain their enthusiasms a bit; a billion here, a trillion there... pretty soon you’re talking about real money.
But House Democrats are not necessarily inclined to roll over and play dead, potentially creating a headache for the president as he seeks to put this deal to bed before the 2010 elections overtake lawmakers’ focus.There are actually 2 issues, from the WH point of view, on the subject of timing:
1. If the debate about the details goes on into 2010, the debate itself will get affected by the realities of the political campaign.
2. If the debate continues too long into 2010, the debate itself will affect the outcome of at least some of the campaigns.
Again, I list these 2 issues from the WH point of view and on the 2nd issue I think the WH is gravely mistaken.
Obama and his crew believe that if this "deal" can be passed "soon enough" that voters will forget about it by the time Nov 2010 rolls around.
Has there ever been a more mistaken belief in the history of American politics? I don't think so.
There, fixed it.
The democrat leadership has already decided, they just haven't shared it with the rest of the country -- pretty much the same as the entire process has been.
The article talks about the tough negotiating stances some of the democrat drivers have been taking. It would be nice if those statements were positions of principle for a change, rather than just signals that buying their vote wouldn't be cheap.
Plenty of pork. Good thing 0 isn't doing 'business as usual.'
< /sarc>
I have to believe that, if the actually believe such a thing - something which I personally doubt - that the belief is based on studies of similar situations in the past and focus groups.
I think this is a very, very different case but nobody ever accused DC politicians of having a good grip on the pulse of the nation.
However, I think that they are more inclined to believe that Obamacare anger can be offset by targeting pork to key districts and counting on election hanky-panky in others. They probably feel that such tactics can minimize the damage and enable the Dems to survive 2010.
You’re probably right. They are counting on targeted pork and targeted election fraud.
What they are not counting on is an electoral uprising. I am counting on that and plan on participating in that. I can only hope there are enough of us to make a difference.
Even if voters don’t remeber every nasty detail of the healthcare and cap and trade disaters, voters will remember that the entire RAT legislative agenda since grabbing control of all levels of federal government has been on matters that have nothing to do with employment and capacity of individuals to sustain their families.
Completely out of sinc with voter’s priorities is something that will be easily remembered.
Ah, yes. Them there trusty blue dogs. They'll stand their ground. LMAO!! *SNORT*
Baloney! It is already a done deal.
Just as in the Senate, there may be a little “bickering” but that is all for show and to stall for time. When the time comes for them to vote on it, it will be approved.
You will probably hear, “The bill is in danger of being passed because ....”, or one or more members saying, “ I will not vote for it if ________ [fill in blank] is in it.”
Don’t be fooled by this talk, it means, as the Senate vote demonstrated, nothing.
Have no fear. They’ll slap the two crap sandwiches together to make a big tasty one for us peons.
Again, this brings us back to, how do they plan to counter the loss of one of their voting blocs? giving illegals the right to vote? Time will tell. The only sure thing about it that I know is that it will be bad for the United States and I won't like it.
I would make the odds about 60-40 in favor of a spectacle the likes of which we haven't seen in DC in years! I would not be one bit surprised to see this become the classic irresistible force encountering the immovable object. Too many things are playing a role in this for it to go smoothly. They are going to be under increasing pressure from all sides and each one wants something not really compatible with the others.
Maybe it's just wishful thinking on my part, but I see this as an opportunity for them to destroy each other. This is the first time in years so many of them have had so much pressure on them from competing sides. And then you throw in an election, the economy, the upswing in terrorist activities, the wars, the Gitmo thing, the trials in NYC and you have what I see as the perfect storm!
I'm not at all convinced that Republicans are really opposing this legislation either. I think there are quite a few supporting it behind the scenes, but voting against it to save face.
If the Republicans were really and truly "locked out" of the various meetings, why would they not show up at the door of the meeting with a camera and document their being denied access for all to see? Why would they not march out of the chamber and call a press conference on the steps of the Capital building to detail how the Dims are not allowing them into the discussions? There are many parliamentary tactics they could use to at least delay the votes, but they haven't. The Republican opposition to these bills has been tepid at best. We're talking about a bill that is going to fundamentally change the relationship and interaction between every citizen in the country and their government and throw massive debt onto every taxpayer forever. You'd think someone would at least throw a shoe or something!
There is truth to your comment. I am still trying to see the passion from the so called conservatives against this whole process.
Very nice work
thank you
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