BREAKING NEWS – In a victory for President Barack Obama, the Democratic-controlled House narrowly passed landmark health care legislation Saturday night to expand coverage to tens of millions who lack it and place tough new restrictions on the insurance industry. Republican opposition was nearly unanimous.
House Passes Health Care Bill – FOXNews.com.
Well, now the question is if the Senate will pass it.
I actually thought this wouldn’t pass today.
10 users commented in " House Passes Health Care Bill "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackThere were defections from the Republican ranks.
I am sorry, but every Republican who went for this needs to have their funding for re-election withheld from them. Not one dime should they get.
I am writing to my representatives and blasting them for going along with this move. Asking where is the transparency that was promised. Asking why they are only representing the party of Pelosi and not representing the people of the State that elected them.
A full list of all the Republicans who voted for this should be published and the RNC should immediately put them on notice that no matter how secure their seat is they are no longer to consider themselves Republicans. I don’t care if it weakens the Republicans to do this. Their going along with it has weakened the Country and we probably won’t enjoy what this Country will become under this insanity.
Goat, CNN is reporting that only one Republican defected, that being Louisiana Congressman Joseph Cao.
Just FYI, Cao is the Congressman that beat William “Cold Cash” Jefferson. His district is very liberal. The truth is that he only won the seat by a few hundred votes…and the election was held one month after the Presidential election.
Had it come off “on schedule,” he would not even be holding that seat now. There was intense pressure from his constituents to vote with Obama. I am pretty sure that the leadership (after taking a head count…knowing that his vote would not matter) gave him the green light.
It will be a miracle if he holds the seat for a second term, anyway. It would be an impossibility if he didn’t go with the Dems on this one. He’s a good man, caught in a tough spot. I’m pretty sure the leadership gave him a pass.
He will be with us on everything else. Energy, taxes, etc. This was one that he just could not avoid.
Andy: I agree with what you said about Cao, but still, he should have voted against this abomination. His chances of being re-elected are zero anyway. But I don’t hold it against him.
This is now in Reid’s hands. I think he’s got a harder job than Pelosi had, but I’m not gonna make any predictions anymore. After last Tuesday’s elections I didn’t believe that many at-risk Democrats would vote with Pelosi. It’s probably good in the long run since Republicans will be able to beat their opponents black and blue over this vote, but that’s only true if we can keep this from getting through the Senate.
Hmmm…the old saw: “Do we want representatives who represent US or their own values?”
We want them to vote with the “people” when the “people” agree with us, but vote with their “principles” when the “people” don’t agree with us.
Andy: He’s only “with us” so long as he is “with us.” He obviously will bend to the “will of the people” to some degree (but not so far as voting for one with federally funded abortion, good “Catholic” that he is), so he’ll obviously bend to some degree on Cap & Tax.
Like the punchline to the old joke: “A man at a bar asks a beautiful woman if she would bed him for a million dollars. After some thought, she agrees. He passes her a hundred dollar bill and she exclaims: “What kind of girl do you think I am?!” He replies: “We have already determined that. Now, we’re just dickering on the price.”
Like that.
Word is that the House bill will need to be meshed with the Senate bill. We have a ways to go yet.
The Senate will pass their own bill. It will have “health care” in its title, but may little resemble the House bill. After that, the two bills will go into (behind-closed-doors) “reconciliation.”
That’s where the “bill” will actually come from.
And, the Senate ain’t voting on its own bill until next year.
The closer to November the actual vote is, the better…
The proper process for passing any bill is as follows:
One body (House or Senate) proposes, writes and votes on a bill. If it passes, it has a chance now of becoming a bill.
The other body has a choice. They can either take the bill as written by the first body, or they can ignore it entirely, or they can write their own bill. Usually with large controversial bills, both bodies are working on versions simultaneously.
If the other body votes on the same bill as the first body, all that remains is that the President sign or veto it.
If the other body votes on a different bill, then a joint committee of members from both bodies get together to create a compromise bill. Once the compromise bill is completed, both bodies have to vote on it. Usually this is considered a bit of a formality since in principle both bodies already approved the fundamentals. On occasion the compromise bill will fail to pass one body or the other.
My expectation here is that the Senate will have their own bill, and that there will be a joint committee to hammer out a compromise bill and that bill will then go back to both houses for final approval.
That is IF the current leadership follows the proper process. With the bunch that is currently in power, I would not be surprised for them to circumvent some things in the interest of “progress.”
It is likely the Senate won’t vote on their bill until next year, and that the compromise between the bills will be contentious and will revise things like “death panels,” “abortion funding” and “Doc fees” which will create a bit of consternation in some “at risk” Congress members. In the Senate it is likely to go down to a party line vote with maybe one or two Republicans voting for, and one or two Democrats voting against. The real question is whether those borderline votes (like Joe Lieberman) who “oppose” the bill will vote for Cloture anyway, allowing it to come to the floor for a final vote even if they supposedly “oppose” it. The process could take us well into summer before it’s all done. But as I said, that’s normal, this bunch could pull just about anything to get this done before the country wakes up and realizes that 1/6 of our freedom is being taken away from us.
I still find myself deeply angry and bitter at the naive, gullible voters in this country who voted for Obama thinking that he was anything BUT a hardcore leftist who is out to reshape this country into a democratic-socialist European style nation.
Idiots. Every time I see one of them (like Ann Althouse and now Peggy Noonan) saying “Wait a minute, I didn’t vote for THIS!” I wanna slap the shit out of them and say “YES YOU DID! And we WARNED YOU about it!”
Drax, I hear you. I truly do. And, I hear you too, Cosmic. Cao is not likely to return, so “why” didn’t he go ahead and just vote “no?”
My other theory is that (and I think Drax may have hit it) the vast majority of his District wanted a “yes” vote. Knowing that to “represent” often means voting with the majority of your constituents…even if it is not your position, he may well have just cut his best deal with the administration, held his nose, and voted “yes.”
I’m not defending the guy. I just understand that it’s politics, and politics sucks. He really was between a rock and a hard place on this one.
Other issues are much easier for Cao. Abortion, energy, 2nd amendment…just to name a few.
it’s simply amazing.
And overall that. Tax increase on the “rich” plus tax cuts expire, plus a bad economy, plus plus plus.
The cuts in Medicare funding will be wiped out by the “Docfix” bill that adds all that back in. It’s a simple shell game to claim the Health bill is “revenue neutral” and then when the DocFix bill is being debated the same people who “cut” almost $300 million from Medicare will call anyone who won’t support adding it back in under a separate bill “heartless.”
The fact that the American people are falling for this is the clearest example I can find that this country not only is IN decline, but DESERVES to be in decline.
At this point in history, for the first time in my life, I can’t say that I see America as the world’s best hope for the future. Someone else is going to have to pick up that torch unless things change dramatically and soon.
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