Reid’s Obamcare Compromise Runs Into Stumbling Block
He can’t get the 60 votes he needs for cloture. One major stumbling block is Lieberman:
In a surprise setback for Democratic leaders, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, said on Sunday that he would vote against the health care legislation in its current form.
The bill’s supporters had said earlier that they thought they had secured Mr. Lieberman’s agreement to go along with a compromise they worked out to overcome an impasse within the Democratic Party.
But on Sunday, Mr. Lieberman told the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, to scrap the idea of expanding Medicare and abandon any new government insurance plan or lose his vote.
Why this is a surprise is anyone’s guess. Lieberman has held the same position from the get go. This isn’t stopping the left from acting like it’s a surprise though. But, Lieberman isn’t the only one standing in the way of this government expansion over our private lives. Ben Nelson (D-NE) has his doubts too:
Mr. Nelson said he wanted to know the cost of the Medicare buy-in. “I am concerned that it’s the forerunner of single payer, the ultimate single-payer plan, maybe even more directly than the public option,” he said.
It doesn’t look like they will be able to ram this through by Christmas like they hoped. If it goes into the election year, it could hurt many Democrats and their chances for re-election. It’s not a popular idea with the American people. This election year isn’t looking good for the Democrats, especially factoring in the President’s approval rating dropping like a rock.
It sounds as if this entire bill has become an abortion. Reid gave up the public option and still got no closer to cloture. If the CBO comes back with the obvious conclusion — that expanding Medicare will make it more costly, explode the deficit, and make those $500 billion in cuts disappear — Reid may never get back to any government expansion.
Reid is in panic mode! John Hawkins has an anonymous Senate aide saying Obamacare is going to January and has less than a 50% chance of passage.
Meanwhile, other crap is bound to hit the fan soon!
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Posted by Jay on December 14, 2009 11:44 am
» Filed Under Barack Obama, Congress, Democrats, Government malfeasance/misfeasance, Healthcare, Nanny State, News, Senate, Socialism, Unconstitutional
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Syndicate Me
I don’t think any of this matters and, in the end, something will pass unless we all begin to understand how to fight this:
Conservative Redstate’s talented blogger Erick Erickson is now picking up the story and whipping up the troops. Early last week Tea Party Support (www.teapartysupport.org) and the Social Security Institute (www.socialsecurityinstitute.org) ran an email and fax blast campaign called “I Object” sending out over 1.5 million call-to-action emails to activists across the country. The campaign concerned how to block ObamaCare in the Senate using the procedural tactic of removing unanimous consent on each and every amendment offered to the Reid healthcare bill. The information generated by Tea Party Support and the Social Security Institute is now being picked up across the internet and on the Hill. Even the big guy himself Rush Limbaugh blasted Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for a flawed, treacherous, and wobbly strategy, forcing Senate Minority Whip John Kyl and Senator McConnell to provide a lackluster defense of the strategy. The narrative of the Republican sell-out was so compelling that soon after the TPS and SSI push CBS reported that Michael Steele sent a memo to the Senate GOP telling them to pull out all the stops and use every trick in the book to stop ObamaCare. Tea Party Support followed that story up with a press release Rush Limbaugh & Michael Steele Join Tea Party Support & Social Security Institute-Demand GOP Senate Stop ObamaCare by Any Means Possible.
A wise friend pointed out the obvious to me:
“I am tired of hearing the GOP say they don’t want to be the party of no, that the party of no will not get them re-elected. In fact, quite the opposite is true. The Tea Parties are the party of no – no socialized healthcare, no cap-and-trade, no fiscal-irresponsibility, no, no, no, no.”
And what did this lead to? As Rasmussen reports: Tea Party Tops GOP on Three-Way Generic Ballot – http://tinyurl.com/yhjmr84. How much more evidence does the GOP need? How dense is the leadership?
Senate insiders are saying that McConnell is using healthcare as his ace in the sleeve to ensure greater gains for the GOP next year. That is his strategy and it is plain to those who are aware of it. The obfuscation these guys are throwing up to give the appearance of fighting this thing is treacherous. It is going to kill the GOP and lead to less gains next year, not more. McConnell is myopic in his strategical thinking because he is not aware the fig leaf he is used to hiding behind is gone and as time passes it will becomes obvious to everyone. If we don’t lean on him now to do the right thing and become the party of no when it comes to healthcare, we will all be jumping off the cliff right behind him.
For those so inclined, more background can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/yafp6be and http://tinyurl.com/ylblvuf.