Health Reform is DOA, and President Obama can look forward to a State of the Union address where there is more apologies than a wedding full of blind people.
Democrats Put Lower Priority on Health Bill, File Documents Right Next to Area 51 Report
The New York Times quoting a few big name Senators and House members including Senator Harry Reid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Evan Bayh, Blanche Lincoln, and others, are all saying pretty much the same thing, and that thing is changing the subject.
Health Reform has now officially reached back burner status, and with no clear path forward for the legislation, the brakes have been slammed on President Obama and his agenda. After months of missing health reform deadlines the representatives in Washington no longer feel pressure to advance health reform.
This is neither surprising nor good. When the Senate Majority leader comes out and says, that “we are not on health care now,” it is time to pack up and go home. I only wonder what kind of things I will be blogging about now that we are doomed to higher health care costs and people dying from lack of medical care.
Perhaps I will blog about about all the health insurance industry abuses that go on everyday and uncover all the pain and suffering caused in the name of profits. Or maybe I just won’t give a hot damn anymore because it is more than a little obvious that America could give a bleep.
Why did you abandon me?
Two Democrat Senators who just happen to be up for re-election are promising to vote against any bill that is rushed through with reconciliation. For the record they are Blanche Lincoln and Evan Bayh two midwestern state representatives who will for sure lose the mid term elections if they push this bill through. On the other hand maybe they would get a good night sleep, but who am I to advance the notion of a clear conscience. They would most likely end up as health insurance industry lobbyists anyways when they lost.
All of this of course dates back to last Monday when the Democrats lost their 60th vote in Massachusetts to a Republican in what was considered a Democratic stronghold state.
What does this mean for the Presidents State of the Union?
Shame certainly comes to mind, as it is becoming more and more apparent that besides rescuing Wall Street from its own self inflicted demise, Barack Obama did nothing with his first year in office.
“I would be surprised if he says specifically exactly how he hopes to get health care done,” said the House majority leader, Representative Steny H. Hoyer, Democrat of Maryland.
Of the various options available to lawmakers, including the use of budget reconciliation, none seem viable at the moment. Some lawmakers said they expected that Congress would try to adopt a vastly pared-down bill once they returned to the issue.
“Frankly, we’re trying to figure out what is possible,” Mr. Hoyer said. “Senator Reid needs to determine what is possible on his side of the aisle — you know, what kind of support he can get. And we’re trying to figure out as well what we can pass.”
Speaker Pelosi has said House Democrats will not simply vote to approve the health care bill adopted by the Senate on Dec. 24, and send it directly to Mr. Obama for his signature.
But a plan to win over House members by adopting changes to the Senate bill through the budget reconciliation process ran into substantial resistance on Tuesday.
Mrs. Lincoln, who faces one of the toughest re-election bids among Democrats, said, “I am opposed to and will fight against any attempts to push through changes to the Senate health insurance reform legislation by using budget reconciliation tactics that would allow the Senate to pass a package of changes to our original bill with 51 votes.”
Mr. Bayh said, “It would destroy the opportunity, if there is one, for any bipartisan cooperation the rest of this year on anything else.”
Even if Democrats could agree on using reconciliation to adjust the health care bill, the House and Senate have yet to resolve major policy differences between the House and Senate measures, including a dispute over a proposed tax on high-cost insurance policies, and provisions related to insurance coverage of abortions.
Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, said he favored a two-step process, under which the House would pass the Senate bill and Congress would then revise it using fast-track budget procedures that would require only a simple majority in the Senate. Republicans adamantly oppose that approach.
Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, urged caution. “The White House and Democratic leaders should reach out one more time to Republicans to see if they can find a common ground,” Mr. Lieberman said.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, said Democratic leaders were assessing their options on health care.
“It’s a timeout,” Mrs. Feinstein said. “The leadership is re-evaluating. They asked us to keep our powder dry.”
Mrs. Feinstein said Congressional leaders should simplify the gigantic health care bill and try to pass parts of it that would be understandable to the public. But she also acknowledged that the odds were long for a far-reaching measure.
“I think big, comprehensive bills are very difficult to do in this environment,” she said.
The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said White House comments on health care suggested that President Obama was not listening to the American people.
In Elyria, Ohio, on Friday, Mr. Obama said he was not going to “walk away” from the fight for major health legislation. If the bill becomes law, White House officials said, Americans will see its benefits and will embrace it.
But Mr. McConnell said, “This a clear sign that the administration has not gotten the message, that it’s become too attached to its own pet goals, that it’s stuck in neutral when the American people are asking it to change direction.”
The Republican leader said Mr. Obama should “put the 2,700-page Democrat health care plan on the shelf” and “move toward the kind of step-by-step approach Americans really want.”
Republicans, however, have not come forward with any new proposals, and Mr. McConnell has said he hopes the health care bill is now dead.
