Crush Liberalism

House Dems to be screwed by Senate Dems and Obama?

That seems to be a prevailing theory/scenario floating around the blogosphere and punditry.  Jeff Anderson at the Weekly Standard has a great piece on the leverage that swing-district House Dems and why they should really think through voting for ObamaCare.

Here’s the thinking:

In order for ObamaCare to become law, the House has to approve the Senate bill as is.  Most wavering House Dems (both “moderate” and liberal Dems) don’t like the Senate bill for a variety of reasons.  For the Lap Dog Dems, the federal funding of abortions is a bitter pill to swallow.  For the libs, it’s the absence of the government-run insurance plan.  For both, the inclusion of the Cornhusker Kickback, the Louisiana Purchase, and the South Florida Medicare Advantage Exception are all hated.

Normally, in most legislation, this is where a joint House-Senate conference committee would occur.  They would get together, see what a final bill that could possibly pass both chambers would look like, then craft one and send it to the House.  Once it passes the House, then the Senate would vote on it.  However, the Senate minority could filibuster it at that point.  Given that this is a 100% certainty to occur in the Senate, the only thing that could prevent such a filibuster is for the House to approve the exact same Senate bill, without changes, as is.  Because if there is even a slight change, it is technically a new bill and must go back to the Senate…where it will meet its end due to the filibuster.

Anywho, what Pelosi and Obama are trying to do is to convince wavering House Dems to vote for the Senate bill, and then for the Senate to pass, via the nuclear option, any and all “fixes” that the House wants.  With the nuclear option, these “fixes” would be passed with 51 votes, despite the fact that they are not budgetary matters but are strictly legislative and policy matters (which the nuclear option is not meant for, but will be used for anyway).

But here’s the thing: If the House does pass the Senate bill, with the belief that the Senate Dems will pass their “fixes” after the fact, what incentive does the Senate (or Obama) have to do that?  After all, once the House passes the Senate bill, Obama will sign it into law…voila ObamaCare!  The House can bellyache and scream all they want about how the Senate Dems didn’t follow through, but there will be two things they can do about it: jack and squat.  Reid and the Senate Dems, and Obama, will blame the lack of a “fix pack” on the Republicans, tell the House Dems “Hey, we tried! Sorry ’bout that!”, and that will be the end of it.  Thus, the wavering House Dems (who would have gotten promises for a public option, Stupak aboriton-funding ban, removal of the corrupt vote buys, etc.) will have diddly to show for their betrayal of the public and their loyalty to their party over their country and constituents.

Anywho, read the column.  There’s more than just this theory, and it’s insightful reading.

March 5, 2010 - Posted by crushliberalism | corruption, health care, Obama, Pelosi, Reid, socialism