Step 1: Chalk one up for Liberals
If anybody ever doubted that the Liberals in Congress were not totally serious about taking control of America’s healthcare system, the vote by the House of Representatives on November 7 near midnight should have been proof that they truly are. Even though, it was not at all easy to get there, let’s check the numbers.
The Democrats have 258 seats compared to 177 Republican seats in the House of Representatives. It takes 218 votes to pass legislation. In the end they just got 219 Democrats to vote in the affirmative together with one Republican, the final tally was 220 Ayes to 215 Nays. Considering the fact that they, the Democrat leadership had to accept the so called Stupac amendment which specifically called for language to never allow the use of Federal funds for abortions (with Mr. Stupac being a Democrat, i.e., one of their own), it was not at all convincing how they pulled this off. But in the end, they did and they are jubilant about it!
The next action, or if you will, Step 2, will now be taken up in the Democrat controlled Senate. Just for clarification, the Democrats with two Independents have sixty members and the Republicans the remaining forty. Independent Senator Joe Lieberman has already come out and declared that in no way would he support a so called ‘Public option’ provision in this legislation. In fact, he has said that he would side with the Republicans and vote against it and even stop the bill if it came to a vote. This now becomes interesting in that the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and his fellow Democrats have to find a way to get the sixty votes to bring the actual legislation up for a vote. The requirement of sixty votes for cloture being a long-standing Senate procedure! They have already been meeting behind closed doors for three weeks and it will remain to be seen what final version of healthcare reform they come up with.
It is safe to say at this time, that nobody knows for sure nor does anybody know when it will be voted on. Only one thing is certain, it will not even be close in content to matching the 2000 pages plus House version. Let us assume, there will eventually be a bill approved in the Senate, they will then face the task of reconciling the two pieces of legislation from the House and the Senate into one bill. They will then have to vote again to approve such combined legislation before it can be send to President Barack Obama’s desk for his signature. We here at Common Sense University cannot realistically see how this can all happen before some time in early 2010. In fact, we have strong reason to question if it even will happen based on the hard realities as they exist in America today. The main reason for this are the opposing interests in such legislation from the liberal side to the moderates and independents among the Democrat members in Congress. The Republicans are not even a factor in all this and the Democrats have dumped bi-partisanship some time ago.
With the economy being weak, the dollar continuing to fall, the nationwide jobless rate officially in double digits and apparently for some time to come, the rapidly increasing national debt are all factors that do not play a role in the liberals pursuit of ‘Affordable Healthcare Reform for America‘. The American citizenry however, is more concerned right now with the above mentioned pocketbook issues and they do not rank universal healthcare reform as pressing or even a current requirement. Combine that with the Senior Citizens who are worried over apparent cuts in Medicare and there is great opposition to this legislation by them. One other factor playing a role in all this is the reality that 2010 is an election year for all 435 Congressmen and -women and about 36 Senators. While they are on different ends of the political spectrum, most of them have one thing in common and it will rank very high on their minds: They want to get re-elected in November 2010 and they will logically look at polls of their respective constituencies and most likely will vote accordingly. For those who are opposed to this monstrous legislation, time will be on their side, the longer the process will drag out, the lesser the chance that it will ever come to pass and become law. Only time will tell.
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