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Killing ObamaCare is a Rational Act
One hour and forty minutes after the White House issued their Easter deadline for ObamaCare to pass Congress, Democratic House Leaders conceded “they may not meet President Barack Obama’s challenge for swift action.”
Whenever the House Leadership moves a vote, it means they don’t have the votes. In Spanish, that’s mañana.
With the White House issuing a deadline and the Dem House leaders immediately and publicly saying, not so much, the White House looks silly and limp and powerless. They look even more out of touch and desperate than they did when President Obama announced that he will not quit with his self-appointed Captain Ahab role of hunting the great-health-care-white-whale.
But the best news (finally) is that a group of Democrats are willing to have News at 11 film them shooting ObamaCare in the head. They are willing to say: we take responsibility for killing it. And they are telling anyone who will listen they will kill it:
“Yes. We’re prepared to take responsibility,” Stupak said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” when asked if he and his 11 Democratic allies were willing to accept the consequences for bringing down healthcare reform over abortion.
Rep. Stupak and his gang of 12 to 20 pro-life Dems, are no doubt being encouraged by their colleagues to please kill-this-bill so we can run screaming from the room. Save us from Captain Ahab and the irrational Speaker who are hell-bent on making us walk the plank again. Please save us from the fatal political injury that will come from months more of health care as it winds it way through the House and then the Senate — where the Republicans have promised a scorched earth, time-consuming policy of death-by-amendment. Remember, Easter is too soon for the House to act — imagine how long it will take in the Senate?
I wrote earlier that I expected a block of no votes to come from the progressives. They may be starting to flex their muscles.
From ABC News:
“Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., the co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told Salon.com today with the inclusion of Republican ideas and compromises in the president’s health care proposal he is leaning now towards opposing the legislation.
“As I weigh it, I think — for me — a ‘no’ vote is something that I continue to lean toward,” Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz told Salon.com today, “Especially the last additions — that was kind of a slap in the face for all of us who fought for the public option.”
The lack of the public option in the so-called reconciliation package, contrasted with the President’s announcement that he was open to expand and leave Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) unmolested, is apparently a bridge too far for the constantly disappointed House Progressives.
On another troublesome front for the Dem Leadership, Ace of Spades posted this little tid-bit: one of the supposedly undecided no votes is now firmly decided to be still no. And from Plum Line, here is another. (Shocking, isn’t it?)
Not a single No vote has announced their switch to yes. Stupak and his gang are at no. At least one House Dem yes is now at no — U.S. Rep. Michael Arcuri, D-Utica — because he wants to have smaller, more incremental bill. And one of the co-chairs of the Progressive Caucus is leaning no. Every piece of news for the delusionals is bad, as in lose-the-vote-bad.
This is what happens when the delusionals and an irrational Speaker push a bill that is widely opposed by the public, which carries a lethal political blow-back for anyone who backs it.
And this is the really fun part. The political opposition to the bill is so great, Members of Congress can pretty much pick any single thing and use it as their excuse for voting no. Members of Congress could essentially say, I’d love to vote for ObamaCare, but I have to stay home and wash my hair. Er, I mean I’m concerned about the lack of cost control.
In fact, the political failure of the White House — lead by the President, David Axelrod, Valerie Jarrett and their highly incapable lobbying shop — has tied a millstone around their fellow Dem Members necks. Millstone in tow, the White House is telling their House pawns to swim in the not-so-warm waters of ObamaCare — knowing some of them will drown.
Surprise, surprise, some Members are beginning to find their voice, and object.
The Dem herd is shifting their feet. They see Rep. Stupak confidently sunning himself in green pastures all over television, while they fight to stop drowning. Not surprisingly, Stupak is now saying his number has recently grown to include some others who voted Yes in November.
Simply put, for the Dems, the survival instinct is taking over. Others will start cutting the rope of the ObamaCare millstone around their neck, and head for the Stupak pro-life high ground, or the Grijalva either-put-the-public-option-in-or-I’m-moving-to-the-safe-and-sunny-pastures of No.
After all, the public hates the bill and wants Congress to stop working on it. Do nothing is their first choice. Members know, voting No will have the effect the public wants.
Even Howard Dean is giving them cover to vote no.
But the irrational and delusional will not let ObamaCare drift out into outer darkness. The irrationals and delusionals insist on having a vote. At least they are consistent.
But it turns out that the spell of the delusionals is finally wearing off, and Members of Congress are pushing back. And because the delusionals cannot understand or face the fact that all is lost, they continue to force their friends and colleagues in the House to jump off the cliff called we’re-going-to-vote-on-the-Senate-health-bill.
Not surprisingly, No-I’m-not-going-to-jump is going to be the dominant answer, because it is the answer that is rational and in their self-interest.
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