Posted on 11/15/2013 3:33:33 PM PST by Kaslin
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed a bill this afternoon that is literally named after Barack Obama's most famous presidential promise. He has threatened to veto it, natch -- even though his own bogus and legally questionable administrative "fix" purports to accomplish many of the legislation's goals. (Reminder: Neither Obama's plan, nor any of the legislative solutions, are actually viable). Dozens of frightened Democrats shook loose from Nancy Pelosi's arm-twisting and voted with a nearly unanimous GOP caucus to send the "Keep Your Plan" Act to the Senate. Your move, Harry:
Thirty-nine House Democrats on Friday broke ranks to support a Republican bill that would allow health insurers to continue selling plans canceled under Obamacare through 2014, the first test of support on Capitol Hill since the law’s disastrous rollout. The House voted, 261-157, to pass the bill by Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.). It’s a significant show of disloyalty to the White House, but House Democrats had expected the defections to be far higher before the Obama administration said Thursday that it would pursue an administrative fix to the cancellation problem. Obama’s White House vowed to veto the bill, saying it “threatens the health security of hard working, middle class families.” The bill is headed nowhere in the Democratic-led Senate, where a number of Senate Democrats have also proposed their own changes to the health care law.
So Reid will kill the "Keep Your Plan" Act to spare Obama the humiliation of axing it himself, but many Senate Democrats have their own variations on Upton's bill. Will any of them see the light of day? Senior Democratic aides say the leadership wants to avoid any and all of these votes, partly because they're concerned about the potential for Republicans to force painful votes on amendments. For instance, here's one ingenious item offered by Marco Rubio that Democrats want absolutely no part of:
Obamacare includes a provision that allows the federal government to funnel taxpayer dollars to insurers that face the prospect of losing too much money under the new health care law, and conservative critics want to repeal it. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said the provision could amount to a bailout of the insurance industry, which stands to lose if the troubled Obamacare exchanges fail to enroll enough people to make the system financially viable. Obamacare enrollment has already been stymied by glitches at the healthcare.gov sign-up site and it could be dampened again under an administrative fix President Obama proposed this week to resolve problems with millions of cancelled policies. Rubio spokesman Alex Conant said the Tea Party-aligned senator and potential 2016 presidential candidate is concerned that the fix Obama proposed would increase the likelihood that insurance companies would need a federal bailout. And the existing law would effectively give Obama a blank check to deal with it, he said.
Who wants to go on the record in support of a massive Obamacare bailout of health insurance companies because the law is such a logistical mess? Anyone? Rubio wants to press the issue, and I'd imagine Reid will contort himself into a pretzel to protect his members from casting votes on this epic poison pill. The GOP should message hard on this proposal, though. The American public doesn't think much of Obamacare. They will have zero appetite to bailout a law into which they've already dropped $2 trillion, especially as it continues to betray and hurt average people. Meanwhile, healthcare experts and Obamacare architects are fretting over the ramifications of Obama's mid-implementation political twist, and the possibility of a death spiral. I'll leave you with some tasty Democratic infighting:
Democrat Kirsten Powers on Obama's O-Care "Fix": He's Basically Just Creating Chaos"
McDermott: I Haven't Seen So Much Panic On This Floor Since 9/11
Wow, watching cowardly House Dems vote for the Upton bill in closing moments. Waiting for the full list. — Joan Walsh (@joanwalsh) November 15, 2013
Happy weekend, one and all.
UPDATE - Exhibit Q that the administration saw this mess coming, but pressed forward anyway out of sheer ideological hubris. Be sure to read Mary Katharine Ham decimating Obama's "ignorant omniscience" leadership style.
UPDATE II - I was on Fox earlier to discuss this vote. My Democratic counterpart played a whole lot of defense, and tossed in a baseless claim about the Upton bill for good measure:
Guy Benson on Fox News - America's News HQ
That's very close to a veto override.
I love it.
If Omugabe vetoes it and tries to stonewall his own party it should make for some interesting times ahead.
***It’s a significant show of disloyalty to the White House,...***
This is inside the Beltway thinking. Better to call it a show of LOYALTY to the American people.
To Obama from the House of Reps:
“Take THAT (slapping noise) you Kenyan impostor!”
TheDemocrats are NOT ignoring a veto threat. They were given a pass to vote for it by Pelosi knowing that it would be DOA in the Senate.
Reid will not allow the Senate to consider any vote originated by a Republican House, because of one reason: he cannot allow the public to perceive that the Republicans saved the day.
Hurrah for the House!
It is not loyalty to the American people either, sorry. It is called loyalty to position and power.
I doubt too that he will.
Next step — throw the bum out.
While I wouldn’t favor an insurance co. bailout, The insurance companies are not gonna lose money for long before investors will find somewhere else to invest, effectively driving the insurance companies out of business.
Republicans write an unworkable bill so they can tell their constituents they're holding Obama's feet to the fire, vulnerable Dems can tell angry voters they broke with their party and Obama for a noble cause, people's healthcare. Everyone in the House gets a warm fuzzy.
Meanwhile, the bill goes to the Senate, so Reid can hollow it out and fill it up with Liberal crap. Mitch and a gang of (fill in appropriate number) get another pile of pork for going along with Reid's joke of a bill, which allows vulnerable Dems in the Senate to vote against it.
Doesn't matter whether the bill (or whose bill) passes anymore, since by now it's already too late to resurrect old insurance policies.
All of your public servants did their utmost to help you, though, and they all deserve your vote...
You got it. They don’t give a hoot about the people
FOX News played a video of one of the rats during the hearings today who hollered that the Republicans didn’t put anything in before the rats pushed their healthcare down the people’s throat. Totally ignoring that the Republicans were shut out and were not allowed to have an input
Need 2/3 of House (290) and 2/3 of Senate (67) to override veto.
I pray for my kids, but I just need to check out for a while.
You mean, as if it were almost planned that way?!?!
Who in the GOP voted against it and what reason did they give?
Just stagecraft - They can’t get the Senate to vote on it, and knew that ahead of time.
The Congress (both houses) needs to cut the crap. Obamacare is toxic, and they need to do something real.
You forget the great power of lobbyists. Insurance companies wine and dine at least a dozen senators every month. I would make a guess that one hundred Representatives (both sides) have money and favors given to them by the Insurance lobbyists. They aren’t about to allow someone to poke a hole in the ship and let it sink.
I suspect part of the fear now coming over Democrats is that the lobbyists have had private meetings and identified this mess as a impossible-to-fix mess. There’s virtually no solution I can see....that would calm the fears of everyone.
Just delaying this a year? You bring up potential failure in the midst of the 2014 election period. You’d see an all-time record of Republicans elected, and possibly sixty Republicans in the Senate.
They are absolutely right to be worried at this point.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.