Obamacare at the balancing point

The Senate has spent every day since returning from their Thanksgiving Harvest Festival holiday focused on cobbling together Obamacare in some fashion or other in order to get all the Democrats on board and achieve cloture.  I cringe when some organization such as the National Right to Life Committee comes out saying they can no longer support the bill following the defeat of an amendment to prohibit funding for abortions:

The amendment rejected today, supported by NRLC, was sponsored by Senator Ben Nelson (D-Ne.) and Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah).  It contained the same substance as the Stupak-Pitts Amendment, which was adopted by the House of Representatives on November 7, 240-194.  Both amendments would prevent the federal government insurance program (the “public option”) from paying for abortion (except to save the life of the mother, or in cases of rape or incest).  In addition, both amendments would prevent federal subsidies from being used to purchase private health plans that cover elective abortion, but would not restrict the sale or purchase of such policies with private funds.

What they are basically saying is that had the amendment passed, they would support the bill! Why in the name of all that’s holy would they support the so-called “Health care” legislation the Dems are pushing? As an aside, as I am a Constitutional constructionist, I am against the Federal government having any say the the abortion issue at all; it should be left up to the states … but that’s not the subject of this post. A number of organizations and individuals have wrapped their arms around one issue or another related to this bill and put a stake in the ground and announced that unless their issues is included/excluded … they would not be able to support the passage of Obamacare.

The Republicans have adopted the strategy of pushing as many amendments as they can that, in their mind, will cause some Democrat Senators problems in the general elections next November if they vote against any specific amendment. In my mind, this strategy is similar to the NRLC’s reaction descried above. They appear as if they are trying to “fix” legislation that they otherwise agree to!

All of this bill … Obamacare … is BAD!!!! Terrible! Horrible ! It is the last major step through the door of socialism.

I have said before that if this bill were to pass the Senate, it doesn’t really make any difference what is in it or what it says. It will next go to committee … a meeting of the Senate and House leaders … where anything the Dems really want will be put back in and then sent back to both houses of Congress for a floor vote. That means it will only require a majority vote in both houses to pass. The Dems have more than enough votes to pass the bill in in both houses and allow some of the so-called “blue dog Democrats” to vote no … so they will be able to go home and tell their constituents, “hey, I voted against that healthcare bill. Just look at my record!”

I said in a post here that if this bill gets through cloture, the only one that gets to vote on the final bill is Obama. Any guess as to how he’ll vote?

We must do everything we can to stop this thing dead in its tracks … burn up the phone lines to your Senators, donate to the conservative candidate running against Blanche Lincoln (AR), Michael Bennett (CO), Evan Bayh (IN), Arlen Spector (PA) and last but not least … Harry Reid (NV). Whatever!

Just remember … 97% of every bill ever passed by the Senate and signed into law by the President is still the Law of the Land! It will be far more difficult to undo this legislation than to stop it dead in its tracks now.