The death of Obamacare has been predicted many times. But such reports were premature, at least if Obama has his way.
The upcoming “bipartisan” summit on health care demonstrates that Obamacare is attempting to rise from the Congressional grave.
So committed is Obama to his vision of what the health care system should look like that he is unable to move on to anything else, much less to look at taking smaller steps rather than a sweeping restructuring.
Democrats reportedly are wondering whether Obama wants them to lose in November.
The first part of the answer is no, he doesn’t want Democrats in Congress to lose. The second part of the answer is that he doesn’t care, if losing Congress is the cost of passing his health care plan.
Restructuring the health care system is so important to Obama that he would rather lose Congress than lose the opportunity to gain complete control over one-sixth of the economy.
The legislation is the foot in the door; the regulations to be promulgated over the next three years pursuant to the legislation will be the means by which Obama’s vision is realized.
And since regulations are not subject to Congressional vote, for the most part it will not matter if Obama loses Congress. (If Republicans took over Congress, which is a long shot, there might be a way to defund Obamacare, but that would be uncertain.)
I think David Corn has the health care summit thing right (yes, I said David Corn was right):
Such gamesmanship, whether it works or not, won’t cause Americans to lose their distaste of the process. But the White House probably calculates this is Obama’s last shot to act like a gentlemen before he and the Democrats nail the Republicans by using a legislative procedure known as reconciliation (which only requires a majority vote) in order to pass revisions to the health care reform measures already approved that will allow the legislation to land on the president’s desk for his signature.
I hope you had a healthy rest, courtesy of the election of Scott Brown. Time to get off your political couch, because the next round is about to begin.
Update: Michael Barone says Democrats are far short of the votes needed in the House, but that doesn’t appear to be deterring Obama from trying.
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Comments
I'm beginning to hope it's never over.
If Barry, Harry, and Nancy continue to use all or the vast majority of their time and effort on futility, they won't be able to push any more of their agenda. That would be almost as good as nuking them from orbit, although arguably less humane.
Regards,
Ric
Of course it isn't over. And this fact — and more importantly the ideological roots and motives and implacable need behind Obamacare and indeed Obama himself — should have been obvious to any conservative politician responsibly and reasonably informed as to the nature of the Left.
But we apparently have no such politicians on the right. From what I can see, we have largely a class of meliorists and accommodationists, among which are sprinkled a few robust partisans, but none of whom either comprehend the Left or have both the nerve and knowledge to exhort and educate the rest of us and America.
In my view, this is the core tragic failure or moral/political lacuna in American culture right now. This lack of awareness of the Left and/or the dereliction in making the case against them are killing us. George Bush was the embodiment of this failure. But his legacy continues.
It is only the aggregate force of the people that has beaten back Obamacare. If one Republican in congress has framed Obamacare not simply as a discrete piece of garbage legislation but as part and parcel of a movement, and warned his colleagues and America of its future mutations and of the naturally relentless democrat-leftist strategies to enact it — I've missed it. Instead, we have only "live in the moment" politicians unable or unwilling to do more than react, as if there was no history of leftism from which to learn, and no future behavior to anticipate and prepare for. It is sad and awful, and I wonder if the people alone are enough to stop this vicious assault on our country.
The Democrats won, right? What happened to their mandate? Is the Progressive Movement To Build Heaven On Earth really all about, "Simon says," or "Mother, may I?"
Its "Mother, may I." They want the Republican "window dressing" to share the blame for the damage that is to come.
How about that, contributors, all the time and money comes down to, "Well, yes I did it, but the Republicans didn't talk me out of it."
Go ahead. Ram it through.
But you'd better be well-practiced at catching pitchforks in mid-air as they hurtle toward your center-mass.
It may be the optimistic view, but I think if reconcilation was so easy and the obvious choice, it would have been the choice made months ago. Obviously, Reid rejected this option for a reason, and to bring it up now — I think it will well appear desperate and calculating to the public. Which is, of course, exactly what it is. While I would love to see them surrender it all together, I doubt they will, if only to preserve the remaining 35% of their supporters for November. Much like the rest of their health care strategy over the past year, I'm not sure they've thought this one all the way out to its logical conclusion.
I feel that Obama can see the economy trying to come back and is working as hard as possible to prevent that from happening.
We have the numbers and momentum. They will try to pass this abomination before November because they know (at least on some level) they are going to get clobbered.
There were a few who said they thought Obama would move to the center as his poll numbers fell. I never believed it.
I think Obama is an ideologue who is so entrenched in his beliefs that he is incapable of moving in any direction other than the one he has been moving in his entire life. And that is the movement of the progressive. Obama can no more change what he is, a product of the Saul Alinsky School of Socialism, than a zebra can change its stripes.
He will double down, willing to sacrifice the Democrats at the alter of the ballot, in order to get what he wants. He is not a stupid man, and he understands that once something is signed into law, the chances of ever seeing it repealed is slim to none. Case in point: although FDR's policies have found to be less than worthless, and LBJ's Great Society an abstract failure, we are still burdened with those policies.
Just as the anarchists of the 60's adopted the "hit them fast, hit them hard, and keep on running", Obama is doing the same. Shove as much of his progressive agenda down the throats of Americans as he can in the least amount of time. If you are working against bringing KSM to New York, you are not watching the Wizard bring about his health care insurance reform.
It is pure Cloward/Pivan.
I'd be willing to bet that, besides the fact he won't mind losing Congress, he may think that a new batch of incoming Reps and Senators just might give him the numbers he needs.
Fat chance of that.
Daniel in Forest Hill, MD
I think Baron is right, there simply isn't enough votes. I think Obama's desire to involve Republicans is so that the Democrats can use Republicans as a scapegoat to announce that ObamaCare is dead, dead, dead. The Democrats will say Republican obstructionism killed ObamaCare.
Of course Obama is an idealogue. Now I have seen the proof that he is a Marxist through and through. John Drew is a former Marxist, and he is the only person to come forward and verify that the Obot was at college. Drew met the Obot through his own girlfriend at the time. He had dinner with the Obot and someone by the name of Chandoo. You might want to see what you can find out about this particular Pakistani who has been a campaign contributor. According to Drew Obama was considered as "one of us", a member of the revolutionary elite, a Marxist-Leninist, who is in 100% agreement with Marxist-Leninist ideology, and argues 100% as hard Marxist-Leninist.
This is why Obama will never change and he will not tack towards the centre – he is too much of an idealogue. According to John Drew Obama could not track towards the centre because that is looked upon as selling out his principles.
BTW John Drew is now a conservative.
What are the chances that after this year's election, the lame duck Congress could pass the Senate bill? It seems to me the more Dems who get voted out, the more likely there are enough Dems to say "eff it" and pass the thing as a last act. There would be no more incentive not to vote for it, and for the Congressman who survive, they have a whole 2 years for people to become concerned about other issues.