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11/17/2009
Burri: A Reid victory (?) while no ones's looking
Later. Or: soon. Very soon. Before we recess. And we’ll work weekends! Or maybe not this year, although we really, really want it this year. Or else, maybe when we can break filibuster. Or when Harry Reid shakes his magic 8-ball and the answer comes up “yes.” Whichever comes first.
That’s the answer. The question: when will Congress pass health care reform?
Given the hoopla – the pomp, the circumstance, the ballyhoo – surrounding the recent House vote, the casual observer might think the measure had already become law. After the House vote, for example, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said:
…we are very, very proud — proud of our success, proud of the Members of Congress who took a very, very intense interest in the legislation — they know what we have accomplished for the American people.
Of course, they hadn’t “accomplished” anything. The bill still had to – still has to – pass the U.S. Senate.
As of last week, Senate leaders expected to take it up this week. This week, they’re hoping…well, maybe next week:
Reid wanted to get the ball rolling on the overhaul early this week armed with a Congressional Budget Office analysis, but because that CBO score didn’t come on Friday as he had hoped, Democratic aides said the Majority Leader is prepared to push back his timeline.
That CBO score is expected today or tomorrow. And then:
Reid may keep the Senate in session into the week of Thanksgiving in order to overcome one of the biggest hurdles facing the bill: producing the 60 votes needed to beat back a GOP filibuster that would prevent the bill from even being considered on the Senate floor.
As luck would have it of course, Democrats have 60 seats. A few have voiced opposition to the bill, but…well, all snark aside – it is funny, how first the House, now the Senate keeps putting this off – don't expect the arm-twisting to take too long though. Cloture is, after all, only a procedural vote.
Not that it'll be easy, necessarily. Being the 60th vote for cloture, or the 51st vote for passage, is worth a lot of back-scratching. Pork-conscious Senators will make their leadership work for it.
And then they'll pass it. Sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas, because fewer people are paying attention. What better time, to grease the griddle for those last few waffles?
Then a conference committee, to iron out the differences (goodbye, Stupak Amendment), and then a signature, and then…
Disappointment. More of it if it does pass, than if it doesn't.
See, if it doesn’t pass, all your liberal, “progressive,” Ezra Kleins of the world will be disappointed. But your tea partying conservatives won’t be.
If it does pass, both sides will be disappointed.
Not right away, of course. At first, supporters will be jubilant. They’ve won! Finally, health care for all! Well, almost all. If nothing else, we’ll have furthered the principle of socialism: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need, and central government as the arbiter of who belongs to what group, and by how much.
Ah, but then, even they – the true-believing Government Firsters – will be disappointed. No bill – no law, no attempt at government-run health care – can ever do what the pro-socialists want: give everyone what they need, when they need it, no questions, problems, delays. They want Utopia, but they can't have it. Until we have self-motivated intelligent mind-reading machines with Star Trek replicators to supply our every need, the liberal drive for a collective solution to every problem will fail. Every time.
Too bad there's no magic 8-ball to tell them so.
Lance Burri blogs regularly via his site, The TrogloPundit.
COMMENTS
Do I sense a little "getting worn down by all this". Maybe the best result would be passage of a bill that everyone hates and that insures the Democrats lose a significant number of seats next year. As previous articles have noted full implementation isn't going to happen right away and a Republican congress can work to remold this beast and get it right.
JB (Tue Nov 17 07:52:10 2009)
That would be great, JB, as long as the GOP has the backbone to do it.
Lance (Tue Nov 17 08:52:35 2009)
JB, this beast can no more be remolded than a leopard can be washed of his spots. The beast must be killed really dead, repealed in its entirety. We must elect a candidate to replace Rep. Kagen who will commit to a complete repeal. Thereafter Congress must do what it failed do do the first time: determine the shortcomings in our present system (portability, tax inequity, pre-existing conditions, lawsuit issues, etc.). Then it should be relatively easy for a conservative Congress to design short bills to address each issue. No new taxes, no additional bureaucracies. Just increased liberty.
Ron Zahn (Tue Nov 17 10:18:15 2009)
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