So where are we Wednesday evening on Obamacare?
1. There still is no House bill. As Nancy Pelosi said “you have to pass the bill so that you can find out what’s in it.”
2. Democrats still haven’t paid off enough of their own member to have the votes. Projections vary, but most observers belief that Nancy Pelosi is short at least a few votes. This could change if there are still enough Democrat “No” votes that can be bought by Pelosi or Obama.
3. Democrats are still toying with not voting on the bill, but rather “deeming” it passed, i.e. the Slaughter Rule. They believe the American people are too stupid to understand that a vote on “let’s pretend” that the bill is passed is the same as voting for the bill. They will find out in the November election at the latest how badly they underestimated the American people.
4. There is not reason for the Senate to “fix” the bill that 59 current Senators have voted for to make House Democrats happy. House Democrats rightly don’t trust Democrats in the Senate. Michael Barone tells an old story about former House Speaker Tip O’Neill’s feelings toward the Senate: “after an aide referred to the House Republicans as ‘the enemy,’ O’Neill corrected him. ‘The House Republicans are not the enemy, they’re the opposition. The Senate is the enemy.’”
5. President Obama has now twice postponed an overseas trip to Indonesia and Australia in order to be in DC for some final arm twisting and for signing a bill. So now the argument is that Democrats need to pass the bill to save Obama from looking like a fool. That’s why Rush Limbaugh has called Obama a Third World president: “[Rush] explains that third world presidents typically destroy their countries to save face or make them look better, and that is what Obama is doing with this health care bill.”
6. President Obama is desperate enough to subject himself to critical questions on Fox News for the first time since becoming President and tells us that he doesn’t care about the process by which the bill is passed.
7. Even the mainstream media is publishing some facts about Obamacare. The Associated Press did a fact check on Obama’s claim that premiums will go down and concluded the following:
Buyers, beware: President Barack Obama says his health care overhaul will lower premiums by double digits, but check the fine print.
Premiums are likely to keep going up even if the health care bill passes, experts say.
8. State Attorney Generals are preparing to challenge Obamacare if it is passed as unconstitutional. Any bill coming out of the current process may well have been enacted in violation of the Constitution and will spark lawsuits and civil disobedience across the country.
It does not look good for Obamacare. The big danger right now is that House Democrats ready to vote “No” are under enormous pressure from their leadership to switch their votes. In addition to promises and outright bribes they will be told that they will have the failure of the Obama presidency on their conscience if they vote “No”. House Democrats opposing Obamacare need to continue to hear from their constituents and from other concerned Americans.
Keep calling and emailing Congress. Right now it looks like any significant vote won’t occur before Saturday, so there is still a few days to go until the future of American government will be decided. Go here for some tips on who to call.
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