While it was largely lost in the debate over passage of Pelosi-care on Saturday night, it may turn out that the most politically costly vote many Democrats cast was against the Motion to Recommit.

Simply put, the Motion to Recommit gives the minority party one last chance to force a vote on a change to the underlying bill. Here’s a summary sent out by the Republican leadership of the Motion to Recommit on the health care overhaul:

The Republican Motion to Recommit H.R. 3962, Speaker Pelosi’s Government Take-Over of Health Care, would amend the bill to add medical liability reform (savings of $54 billion) and use the savings achieved to create a “Seniors Protection and Medicare Regional Payment Equity Fund.”

The fund would require the Secretary to prioritize funding to protect those seniors hit hardest by the cuts to Medicare under Speaker Pelosi’s bill.  Specifically, the purpose of the fund would be to:

• Preserve seniors’ access to Medicare Advantage,
• Protect seniors’ access to medically-necessary care (including seeing doctors and hospitals without waiting in lines, and preventing coverage determinations based on cost), and
• Address payment inequities and geographic variations in Medicare that hurts seniors who live in areas with high-quality, low-cost services.

The Pelosi Government Take-Over of Health Care cuts more than $500 billion from Medicare, leaving seniors with reduced benefits and fewer choices.  While at the same time, the Pelosi bill protects trial lawyers by not addressing real medical liability reform, a critical reform that would reduce health care costs for all Americans.  The Republican motion to recommit offers Members a choice on who to protect: seniors or trial lawyers.

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When it comes to the 2010 midterm elections, the conventional wisdom in Washington seems largely agreed a few central points: the Democrats are going to lose a bunch of House seats, and how many they lose will depend a lot on the economy and Barack Obama’s approval rating. In fact, in virtually any piece you read about 2010, you’ll see a significant caveat: Democrats will suffer less if the economy improves and Barack Obama’s favorability rating rises.

Veteran election analyst Charlie Cook says Democrats better not count on that:

A whopping 48 of those Democrats — eight more than the size of their party’s majority — are from districts that voted for both Bush and McCain. That America is very different from the Democratic base in blue America, and it sees many major issues very differently.

Resurgent Republic’s findings corroborate a growing view that the cumulative impact of Democratic missteps has reached a critical mass, with Obama receiving some damage and with Democrats in Congress and the Democratic Party receiving much more. Critics point to the Troubled Asset Relief Program; the takeovers of banks and auto companies; an economic stimulus package that they see as ineffectual and stuffed with pork; and climate-change and health care reform efforts as all being contributing factors to Democrats’ decline…

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Largely lost in the wake of Barack Obama’s press conference yesterday is the news that he is apparently still considering another ’stimulus’ bill to try to get the economy moving again:

President Obama said he is “not yet” ready to ask for a second stimulus package even as polls show Americans growing increasingly more skeptical of how effective the president’s first attempt to create jobs has been.

In his fourth press conference from the White House since taking office, Obama told reporters Tuesday that he is not ready or even sure he needs to ask for a second stimulus package to complement the $787 billion package Obama and Democrats pushed through Congress not long after the president took the oath of office.

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