It looks like Sunday is the day for the climactic vote on the health care bill. Or rather, thanks to the "deem-and-pass" gymnastics, it's not supposed to be a vote directly on the health care bill. But who do they think they're fooling? We all know that this is really a vote on the Senate version of the health care bill.
The good news is that, despite Democratic claims that they have been building "momentum" toward a 216-vote majority, two votes that they picked up yesterday were cancelled out by two votes that they lost. So the "whip count" still doesn't show that the Democrats have the votes.
Dick Morris—who I trust on these horse-race issues—confirms the enormous risk that Democrats are taking by scheduling a vote:
From a top level source in the House comes the news that the Democrats are still short of the 216 votes they need to pass Obamacare. They have decided, however, to go for broke on Sunday and attempt to pass it whether or not they have enough support. They feel that only by forcing a vote can the force members off the fence. They hope that by employing all means at their disposal, they can round up enough votes for passage. But, if they don't have the votes, they will allow the measure to be defeated. One source called it a "suicide run."
Well, if they want to commit political suicide, we'll be happy to assist.
The term "whip count" is based on the position of a "whip," a leader in a congressional caucus whose job is to "whip" his own members into line so that they will vote for a bill. In this case, we're going to have to be our own "whips," bringing down the lash on any congressman who is wavering toward voting for this bill.
It is important that we once again flood the nation's capitol with a mass of humanity marching in opposition to the bill. A giant rally is planned for tomorrow, Saturday, at noon. I'm currently making plans to go up there with some people from the local tea party group.
If you can't get to DC, then you can light up the phones of your representatives. Dick Morris provides a helpful list of phone numbers for congressmen who are considered health care "swing" votes.
I know it's hard to get the momentum going for one more trip or one more day spent on the phones. But we can at least hope that this will be the last time we'll have to do it, because Obama is already teetering on the brink of becoming a lame duck president.
I was struck by this when I was listening to the radio this morning and caught a snippet from President Obama's Fox News interview with Bret Baier—the first journalist for a long time to ask Obama some really tough questions—and from a briefing given by White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. Both were asked about the constitutionality of the "deem-and-pass" maneuver, and I have never heard such a collection of um and ahhs before. Neither one provided an actual answer to the question.
Part of what we can take from this is that the Democratic political establishment is indifferent to the Constitution. They rallied behind "deem-and-pass" because it was expedient, and it didn't even appear to them that they ought to think seriously about whether it was constitutional.
But even if they don't personally care about the constitutionality of the procedure, they had to know they would be asked questions about it—yet they were totally unprepared. How could they be that politically incompetent?
When I was thinking about this, I was reminded of a scene from a movie that came out a number of years ago based on the "Miracle on Ice," the US hockey team's unexpected victory over the Soviets at the 1980 Winter Olympics. There is a scene toward the end of the game, as the Americans are clearly on the verge of winning, when the US coach and assistant coach are watching their Soviet counterpart and trying to figure out what his strategy is. Finally, the US coach realizes that the Soviet coach doesn't have a strategy. His team is losing, and he doesn't know what to do.
I think that explains a lot of the helpless flailing that's going on in Washington right now. The Democrats lost the health care vote six months ago, but they have refused to acknowledge it. Instead, they keep trying to win somehow, but they don't know what to do.
So they've resorted to the most outrageous dishonesty and the most transparent bribery.
They've issued a hasty Congressional Budget Office report which claims that a massive new multi-trillion dollar entitlement will reduce the deficit. How did they get that result? By double counting half a trillion dollars in funds diverted from Social Security.
Then there's the latest ObamaCare bribery scandal: two California Democrats who suddenly switched their votes to a "yes"—just as the Department of the Interior announced that it would increase the amount of irrigation water sent to the farms in their districts.
And then there are the Democrats who are retiring from Congress and may hope the administration rewards them with an appointment to a cushy federal job. This has prompted one Republican senator to vow to block the appointments of any congressmen who vote for ObamaCare.
Coburn just told reporters he'll use his senatorial prerogative to block the nominations of any lawmakers who change their votes from "no" to "yes" on health care should the president subsequently tap them for a federal post. Just in case any of them are considering that [as] an option should things not work out for them in the November elections.
Peggy Noonan, who can be good at capturing the sense-of-life aspect of politics, describes the whole debacle this way:
Excuse me, but it is embarrassing—really, embarrassing to our country—that the president of the United States has again put off a state visit to Australia and Indonesia because he's having trouble passing a piece of domestic legislation he's been promising for a year will be passed next week. What an air of chaos this signals to the world. And to do this to Australia of all countries, a nation that has always had America's back and been America's friend.
How bush league, how undisciplined, how kid's stuff.
You could see the startled looks on the faces of reporters as Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, who had the grace to look embarrassed, made the announcement on Thursday afternoon. The president "regrets the delay"—the trip is rescheduled for June—but "passage of the health insurance reform is of paramount importance." Indonesia must be glad to know it's not.
The reporters didn't even provoke or needle in their questions. They seemed hushed. They looked like people who were absorbing the information that we all seem to be absorbing, which is that the wheels seem to be coming off this thing, the administration is wobbling—so early, so painfully and dangerously soon.
Astonishingly, President Obama is actually encouraging lawmakers to view this as the last gasp of his presidency. According to The Politico:
President Barack Obama had exhausted most of his health care reform arguments with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus during a White House meeting last Thursday when he made a more personal pitch that resonated with many skeptics in the room.
One caucus member told Politico that Obama won him over by "essentially [saying] that the fate of his presidency" hinged on this week's health reform vote in the House….
Another caucus member, Rep. Jose Serrano (D-NY), said, "We went in there already knowing his presidency would be weakened if this thing went down, but the president clearly reinforced the impression the presidency would be damaged by a loss."
Added Serrano: "He was subtle, but that was the underlying theme of the meeting—the importance of passing this for the health of the presidency."
[T]here's an unmistakable sense that the health care debate is fast moving past a discussion of the bill's merits, beyond the all-consuming anxieties of incumbents and into an existential battle to preserve Obama's presidency.
But it's really too late for that. President Obama hasn't moved forward a major item in his domestic agenda for more than six months, and his public approval ratings have been falling steadily since last summer. Earlier today, after months of lingering just below 50%, the average of his approval ratings hit another key psychological breaking point: for the first time, more people disapprove than approve of how he is doing his job.
What will be decided this weekend is not the success or failure of Barack Obama's presidency. It has already failed. What will be decided is how much damage the Democrats will do to the nation on their way to political oblivion. With one last push, we can make sure that the damage does not include the destruction of the American medical system.—RWT
Robert Tracinski writes daily commentary at TIADaily.com. He is the editor of "The Intellectual Activist (TIA)" and contributor to "The Freedom Fighter's Journal."
The good news is that, despite Democratic claims that they have been building "momentum" toward a 216-vote majority, two votes that they picked up yesterday were cancelled out by two votes that they lost. So the "whip count" still doesn't show that the Democrats have the votes.
Dick Morris—who I trust on these horse-race issues—confirms the enormous risk that Democrats are taking by scheduling a vote:
From a top level source in the House comes the news that the Democrats are still short of the 216 votes they need to pass Obamacare. They have decided, however, to go for broke on Sunday and attempt to pass it whether or not they have enough support. They feel that only by forcing a vote can the force members off the fence. They hope that by employing all means at their disposal, they can round up enough votes for passage. But, if they don't have the votes, they will allow the measure to be defeated. One source called it a "suicide run."
Well, if they want to commit political suicide, we'll be happy to assist.
The term "whip count" is based on the position of a "whip," a leader in a congressional caucus whose job is to "whip" his own members into line so that they will vote for a bill. In this case, we're going to have to be our own "whips," bringing down the lash on any congressman who is wavering toward voting for this bill.
It is important that we once again flood the nation's capitol with a mass of humanity marching in opposition to the bill. A giant rally is planned for tomorrow, Saturday, at noon. I'm currently making plans to go up there with some people from the local tea party group.
If you can't get to DC, then you can light up the phones of your representatives. Dick Morris provides a helpful list of phone numbers for congressmen who are considered health care "swing" votes.
I know it's hard to get the momentum going for one more trip or one more day spent on the phones. But we can at least hope that this will be the last time we'll have to do it, because Obama is already teetering on the brink of becoming a lame duck president.
I was struck by this when I was listening to the radio this morning and caught a snippet from President Obama's Fox News interview with Bret Baier—the first journalist for a long time to ask Obama some really tough questions—and from a briefing given by White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. Both were asked about the constitutionality of the "deem-and-pass" maneuver, and I have never heard such a collection of um and ahhs before. Neither one provided an actual answer to the question.
Part of what we can take from this is that the Democratic political establishment is indifferent to the Constitution. They rallied behind "deem-and-pass" because it was expedient, and it didn't even appear to them that they ought to think seriously about whether it was constitutional.
But even if they don't personally care about the constitutionality of the procedure, they had to know they would be asked questions about it—yet they were totally unprepared. How could they be that politically incompetent?
When I was thinking about this, I was reminded of a scene from a movie that came out a number of years ago based on the "Miracle on Ice," the US hockey team's unexpected victory over the Soviets at the 1980 Winter Olympics. There is a scene toward the end of the game, as the Americans are clearly on the verge of winning, when the US coach and assistant coach are watching their Soviet counterpart and trying to figure out what his strategy is. Finally, the US coach realizes that the Soviet coach doesn't have a strategy. His team is losing, and he doesn't know what to do.
I think that explains a lot of the helpless flailing that's going on in Washington right now. The Democrats lost the health care vote six months ago, but they have refused to acknowledge it. Instead, they keep trying to win somehow, but they don't know what to do.
So they've resorted to the most outrageous dishonesty and the most transparent bribery.
They've issued a hasty Congressional Budget Office report which claims that a massive new multi-trillion dollar entitlement will reduce the deficit. How did they get that result? By double counting half a trillion dollars in funds diverted from Social Security.
Then there's the latest ObamaCare bribery scandal: two California Democrats who suddenly switched their votes to a "yes"—just as the Department of the Interior announced that it would increase the amount of irrigation water sent to the farms in their districts.
And then there are the Democrats who are retiring from Congress and may hope the administration rewards them with an appointment to a cushy federal job. This has prompted one Republican senator to vow to block the appointments of any congressmen who vote for ObamaCare.
Coburn just told reporters he'll use his senatorial prerogative to block the nominations of any lawmakers who change their votes from "no" to "yes" on health care should the president subsequently tap them for a federal post. Just in case any of them are considering that [as] an option should things not work out for them in the November elections.
Peggy Noonan, who can be good at capturing the sense-of-life aspect of politics, describes the whole debacle this way:
Excuse me, but it is embarrassing—really, embarrassing to our country—that the president of the United States has again put off a state visit to Australia and Indonesia because he's having trouble passing a piece of domestic legislation he's been promising for a year will be passed next week. What an air of chaos this signals to the world. And to do this to Australia of all countries, a nation that has always had America's back and been America's friend.
How bush league, how undisciplined, how kid's stuff.
You could see the startled looks on the faces of reporters as Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, who had the grace to look embarrassed, made the announcement on Thursday afternoon. The president "regrets the delay"—the trip is rescheduled for June—but "passage of the health insurance reform is of paramount importance." Indonesia must be glad to know it's not.
The reporters didn't even provoke or needle in their questions. They seemed hushed. They looked like people who were absorbing the information that we all seem to be absorbing, which is that the wheels seem to be coming off this thing, the administration is wobbling—so early, so painfully and dangerously soon.
Astonishingly, President Obama is actually encouraging lawmakers to view this as the last gasp of his presidency. According to The Politico:
President Barack Obama had exhausted most of his health care reform arguments with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus during a White House meeting last Thursday when he made a more personal pitch that resonated with many skeptics in the room.
One caucus member told Politico that Obama won him over by "essentially [saying] that the fate of his presidency" hinged on this week's health reform vote in the House….
Another caucus member, Rep. Jose Serrano (D-NY), said, "We went in there already knowing his presidency would be weakened if this thing went down, but the president clearly reinforced the impression the presidency would be damaged by a loss."
Added Serrano: "He was subtle, but that was the underlying theme of the meeting—the importance of passing this for the health of the presidency."
[T]here's an unmistakable sense that the health care debate is fast moving past a discussion of the bill's merits, beyond the all-consuming anxieties of incumbents and into an existential battle to preserve Obama's presidency.
But it's really too late for that. President Obama hasn't moved forward a major item in his domestic agenda for more than six months, and his public approval ratings have been falling steadily since last summer. Earlier today, after months of lingering just below 50%, the average of his approval ratings hit another key psychological breaking point: for the first time, more people disapprove than approve of how he is doing his job.
What will be decided this weekend is not the success or failure of Barack Obama's presidency. It has already failed. What will be decided is how much damage the Democrats will do to the nation on their way to political oblivion. With one last push, we can make sure that the damage does not include the destruction of the American medical system.—RWT
Robert Tracinski writes daily commentary at TIADaily.com. He is the editor of "The Intellectual Activist (TIA)" and contributor to "The Freedom Fighter's Journal."
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