Charlie Rangel went public declaring the bill faces serious problems and the House is not likely to have a bill that reconciles the House version with the Senate version, until February.
FireDogLake delves into what those problems are.
The votes.
Maybe Nancy Pelosi can flip some of the no votes, especially with the more conservative Senate bill being the base, and the public option likely dead. But I have explained repeatedly that those Democrats who voted against the bill the first time around have every political incentive to vote against it again. Heck, the Larry Kissell poll from yesterday is enough to prove to people that voting no is the right political move, although I question both the poll and the logic behind that thinking. My point is that there will not be more than a small handful of no-to-yes flips available.
But there’s a HUGE universe of yes-to-no flips that are at least possible. Anthony Weiner yesterday said he would vote against the Senate bill. There are clearly others out there, like Peter DeFazio. There were 60 members vowing to vote against a bill without a public option. There are 190 members demanding the elimination of the excise tax on high-end insurance plans. Virtually everyone in the Democratic caucus has some problem or other with the bill.
Now maybe all of those problems get ironed out. But even if every single provision does, just with the hardline abortion issue unresolved, you’re at 217-217. Simple math dictates that the bill is seriously threatened.
The longer it takes the House and Senate negotiators to reconcile their versions of the bill, the better. First off, if Scott Brown wins in Massachusetts, the delay will give the GOP time to get him seated in time to cast his vote against Obamacare and take away the Democrats filibuster proof majority. Secondly, the longer this takes the more chance the public has to see what is in the bill and the majority figures opposed now are guaranteed to rise the more they learn.
All that aside, the whole fiasco has done one very important thing, it has highlighted the backroom deals, the bribes, the backstabbing and the lies. It has raised the curtain hiding what the politicians do and how they do it and allowed the everyday average citizen to see how corrupt Washington has become, especially over the last year.
Make no mistake, the American people are watching and paying close attention to the antics in Washington and heading into the 2010 elections is the perfect time for them to see it all clearly as they have now been given the chance to do.
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