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Blue Dogs Should Pray Health Care Fails

By: Brian Faughnan (Diary)  |  March 19th, 2010 at 03:10 PM  | 

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Dear Swing-Seat Democrats:

Hey. How are things? I see that you’re really busy trying to figure out just how much you’ll need to sell your vote for Obamacare. So I’ll make this quick.

Liberals got all angry when Jim DeMint said that if the president’s health care rationing bill was defeated, it would be his ‘Waterloo.’ DeMint meant that it would more or less put an end to Obama’s hopes of pushing his agenda of dramatic change, and he was right. If Obamacare is defeated, it’s hard to imagine that there’s any way he could turn and pursue card check, or the Freedom of Choice Act, or DADT, or (another) big tax increase, or anything else on the extreme left’s wish list.

But if Pelosi, Reid, and Obama win on this vote, do you know what lesson the Left will take? They’ll learn that they should never give up hoping for a big win. They’ll learn that even if their cause seems hopeless, it’s quite possible that the White House and its Congressional allies can break enough arms to muscle something through – no matter how unpopular. Is cap-and-tax dead? No matter – so was health care! Is immigration amnesty an impossibly hard lift? That was what they said about health care!

So consider: with your vote for Obamacare, you are giving the Left a new lease on life. You know what that means: you’re putting yourself back on the spot. A ‘no’ vote this weekend means Congress gives up on big bills until after election day. A ‘yes’ vote means that you’ll be back here in a few weeks, explaining to the president, and Rahm, and Nancy, and Andy Stern, how you really can’t be with them on this one – because you just about killed your re-election chances with the health care vote. As you did with cap-and-trade. As you did with the first health care vote. As you did on the stimulus. As you did on the release of the TARP funds.

Now as my friend Moe Lane would say, this doesn’t bother me. Without question, I’ll prefer the Republican who replaces you in the House, and I’ll prefer Speaker Boehner, too. But because I really oppose this health care bill, I just thought I’d point this out. You’re the one digging the grave. You might want to toss away the shovel, while you still have a chance.

With love,

Brian

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  • lurker9876

    Does it mean that they will continue to work next week?

    Before Easter Recess?

    God no!

    But even if they do pass it before Easter Recess, they will get an earful from angry Americans. Then they go back to WDC with buyer’s remorse.

  • jaykali

    The health care govt war is going to last for years but I think we’re losing this vote. The president and leaders of their own party are promising them heaven and earth – there’s no one these anonymous congressman are going to stand against them, we all know it.

    • AndrewHyman

      The vote count is very close, and it’s too soon to say what will happen on Sunday.

      But one thing is clear: if the House would take a clean vote on the Senate Bill, the Senate Bill would lose.

      If they take an ambiguous, mixed-up, dirty, Slaughtered vote on a combination of the Senate Bill combined with the Reconciliation Bill, then the President would have no constitutional power to sign one but not the other. There would be an immediate court challenge, and the challenge would likely be successful, IMO.

  • http://cannedjam.com cannedjam

    I emailed my rep (Bishop D-NY 1) who was on the fence until today. I know it will do nothing and will probably not even be read but I felt I had to say something:

    I feel compelled to let you know how disappointed I am in your decision to vote ?YES? on Obamacare.
    I understand your reply will undoubtedly consist of all the reasons why this bill is good for me and all my neighbors who are too dull to understand why. I reject those reasons, even if the bill does do ?good? I fail to see how the federal government possesses the authority to mandate such a large and expansive program in the first place. I accept that access to medical care can be seen as a right, however, I wholeheartedly reject the premise that having the government (or my neighbors in the form of forced insurance premiums) pay for it is. Without a constitutional amendment this bill is beyond the mandate of the federal government, and the antithesis of freedom from undue government interference.

    I know, to you and the president, bypassing the constitution is just a ?procedural matter? but to me it is a serious issue that brings actual tears to my eyes. I am only 26 years old and simply cannot believe that I am witnessing what I am. I am so disgusted with this unconstitutional process, the special deals, anti-American ideology, and destruction of our duel federalist system; I cannot wait to cast my vote against you. Shame on you and your colleagues for this overreach. Normally, I am able to separate my distain for the ideas from the man, but in this case I am afraid I cannot.

  • RJD

    vote yes on health care, and there’s no reason not to vote for everything else. Your elected career is already over.

    • IJB

      If this passes, I think they’ll immediately try to amend the bill with Single Payer in reconciliation (I don’t even think they’ll bother with Public Option now – I think they’ll go straight for full nationalization and Single Payer).

      There is also a grave danger that they’ll follow this up with Card Check, Amnesty, Cap ‘n’ Tax, very soon after that. And I really don’t put passing a ‘Sedition Bill’ past this crew.

      If they taste victory on this, I think they’ll go ‘All In’ in very. very frightening ways. Stay tuned…

      • writeblock

        One reason for these present House gymnastics was the need to get around a Senate filibuster–which Brown made possible. Nothing much will pass the next three years–unless the GOP takes over the House and moves its own bills. Then we begin to starve hc and this government. We won’t be able to repeal anything–if it passes– till 2012, but it doesn’t take effect till after then anyway. 2012 will be an historic, pivotal election. Not only will we get rid of Obama, but we can sweep away the Senate Democrats and start real reform. More Dems will be up for reelection at that time than Republicans.

  • RichmondG30

    because it already passed the Senate, but it will not work on future power grabs. We can thank God that the good people of Massachusetts elected the 41st American to stand in the way of this sickening display. This is suicidal because the Democrats will be swept from power for a generation. Let us hope the Republicans have really learned their lesson and will govern from the Right when they are given a second chance.

    • writeblock

      …is how all this has already changed the political balance of power in this country. After November nothing will look the same. That’s when we begin to take back America.

      Independents have moved to the right to join with Republicans– which means a generation of GOP resurgence and dominance. Republicans will have a clear mandate to undo whatever harm Obama has done–and will finally be able to achieve what Reagan couldn’t –since the left blocked him at every turn.

      Right now we’re upset with how Obama is changing America. The flip side to this is how he has destroyed the prospects of his party for a generation to come.

  • davidabippus

    This is from the American Spectator Blog and I am not seeing reporting elsewhere yet, but hopefully this will work in our favor over the weekend:

    Responding to an inquiry from Rep. Paul Ryan, the Congressional Budget Office has confirmed that when you remove certain accounting gimmicks from the Democrats’ health care legislation, it actually increases the deficit.

    Democrats have touted a CBO report that found that their health care bill would reduce the deficit by $138 billion from 2010 to 2019. But that number assumes that hundreds of billions of dollars in Medicare cuts would be used to pay for the new health care entitlement. In a letter to Ryan, the CBO estimates that if the Medicare cuts were used to help shore up the effectively bankrupt Medicare trust fund instead, then the Democrats health care bill would run $260 billion in deficits over the next decade.

    In an earlier version of the House bill, Democrats included a measure to avoid scheduled cuts in doctors’ payments under Medicare. They removed the measure when they couldn’t get the numbers to add up, but they have continued to pass temporary delays of the cuts and have vowed to tackle the issue separately from the current health care bill. In the letter, CBO projects that if the so-called “doc fix” were added to the legislation, it would produce deficits of $59 billion from 2010 to 2019.

    Earlier CBO estimates also asume that future lawmakers would actually enact some of the unpopular measures, such as the Medicare cuts and the “Cadillac tax.” These are crucial to Democrats’ claims that the bill will reduce deficits even more — by $1.2 trillion — in the second decade. But in the letter, the CBO says that without the changes, deficits would actually increase — by a quarter of a percent of GDP, or $600 billion — in the second decade.

    Liberals have tried to portrat any criticism of the Democrats’ deficit reduction claims as an attack on the integrity of the CBO itself. But as this letter demonstrates, this isn’t about attacking the CBO. It’s just simply acknowledging that CBO analysis can vary greatly based on the questions you ask them. And clearly, Democrats kept tweaking the language until they were able to get the CBO score they wanted.