Thursday night whip count
From FireDogLake.com…
From a Roll Call article tonight entitled, “Setbacks zero out gains in whip count”…
House Democrats officially gained 2 and lost 2 on Thursday as they continued their painstaking zigzag toward 216 votes and final passage of a sweeping health care overhaul, now likely on Sunday….
The arithmetic for Democratic leaders is simple: If they can hold on to all 216 of the Democrats who voted for House passage and are still serving, they win. But rounding up those supporters has proved tricky. And they need to offset every defection by converting someone who voted against the original measure.
Rules Chairwoman Louise Slaughter (D-NY) dismissed the threat of minimal defections. “We’ve got a surplus. We’ve got some spares,” she said….
The gravest threat remains abortion language in the Senate version…. Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) has led opposition to the provision, but just how many lawmakers are behind him remains unclear, and leaders are hoping they can hold abortion-related defections down to about five….
Leaders scrambled, meanwhile, to defend their preferred procedural strategy for passing the bill. The “Slaughter Solution”… has become a focus of Republican attacks this week…. [T]he procedural path forward remained an open question after Republicans appeared to have connected with their withering criticism of the “deem and pass” method.
[Photo of Stupak with Obama in the WH Rose Garden today via the Associated Press]
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
This bill even steals 67 billion from Social Security to pay for it. You have to be nuts to still think it is wise. They have already taken every penny of savings Social Security has. And this year for the first time ever Social Security will be paying out more in benefits then it takes in. We don’t need a new government health care bill that taxes we the people (average cost of plan premium will be 15k annually)or puts us in jail. What we need is a law that prevents congress-people from spending the monies we pay into Medicaid and Social Security on anything other than paying out Medicaid and Social Security benefits.
This is such a bad bill. Its effect on our country could be catastrophic. It could be the proverbial straw that breaks the back of our already unstable world economy.
There aren’t enough Primary Care Physicians now to treat the influx of 30 million new patients. A New England Journal of Medicine survey showed up to 46% of current PCP’s have said if Obamacare passes they’ll consider early retirement or leaving their medical practice. The aging baby boomer population is already putting a high demand on our supply of physicians.
The economics are so bad they had to defer the benefit availability for 4 years after they start collecting the taxes to pay for it.
And you know, the democrats really, really want this bill. They are pulling out all the stops to try and pass this thing. It seems a little odd that they don’t just adopt Stupak’s ammendment, pass the bill and be done with it.
It provides insight as to what spiritual forces are really behind this legislation and what they’re really after…
more dead babies.
Here you go ellen,
Obama, your Mama,
she didn’t abort you.
Some would say the half-breed
gotta be killed.
Cause this world doesn’t deserve to be punished.
Big Pharma, Obama,
He wanna get for cheaper.
But if don”t pay’ they’ll throw us in jails
cause it’s better for our health
if we take your money and use it.
I’m genuinely concerned that all of this pandering on the part of House Democrats will simply be overlooked next election. Why should we want to reelect a politician who wavers from “no” to “yes” for expressly self-interested purposes?
Ed wrote:
There aren’t enough Primary Care Physicians now to treat the influx of 30 million new patients. A New England Journal of Medicine survey showed up to 46% of current PCP’s have said if Obamacare passes they’ll consider early retirement or leaving their medical practice. The aging baby boomer population is already putting a high demand on our supply of physicians.
What are you, a GOP talking points recording device? That survey was not published in the NEJM. And no, not a single doctor will quit his or her job (they are the most recession-proof jobs in the USA along with police officer and air traffic controller).
However –
I agree with you that the bill needs to die. It is too big and does too little. We need to reform our health care system. If we punt it to the next generation, this country will already be broke. What we need is a better series of bills, not this one. And one such better bill is Congressman Alan Grayson’s tight, simple bill to let young, healthy uninsured Americans like me, who can’t afford full-price private health insurance, to purchase Medicare at-cost. We need smart bills like that. I hope Grayson’s bill gets through committee. If anyone opposes that one, then they really are heartless bastards.
Sigh, Truthseeker:
Some would say the half-breed gotta be killed
Some would say? I say that’s what you’re saying.
We are living in such amazing times. We are seeing our country cease to be a great nation and hold a leadership position. But we must remember that our home is not in this world and God is in control. So if losing American exceptionalism is part of what happens in the end times….we are to do what we are called to do.
It is hard… I fear for the generations to come. But we must continue to do what we are called to do. My heart is heavy though. I keep thinking about the frog in a pot of water…We are bubbling now.
We need to remember the BHO was bascially raised by aetheists. He only embraced a form of Christianity to establish himself politically.
Hey Dhali,
I’m not a professional journalist and I don’t have the time to check sources. I’m just a commenter on a pro-life blog who does other work for a living. I thought I heard BO’s radiologist cousin cite the study…
Obviously the respondents of that survey were just trying to make a point. But if you think (as you stated) that there won’t be some who are thinking of retirement anyway that will close up shop a few years early rather than deal with Obamacare, you’re very naive.
And I hate to disappoint you, but many of them are heartless, and blind, and ignorant. Case in point, BO’s opposition to the Born Alive Infant Protection Act.
It doesn’t get much more heartless than that.
I empathize with your situation though. People need access to affordable health insurance.
No question.
“..the bill needs to die. It is too big and does too little..”
=================================================
For once I agree with you Dhalgren…
Dhalgren: “I hope Grayson’s bill gets through committee.”
You’d better hope Grayson makes it through November 2010. I wouldn’t put money on it.