Politico is reporting that the White House “privately anticipates health care talks to slip into February” and that “disputes over abortion and the tight schedule are highly likely to delay a final deal, a blow to the president, who had hoped to trumpet a health care victory in his big speech to the nation.” They anticipate that House leaders will roll over and “largely accept the compromise worked out in the Senate.” Well, well.
It seems there is an opportunity then. The details of the shady deals, the abortion funding, the Medicare slashing, and the attempt to insulate the death panels . . . er Medicare Advisory Board . . . from potential repeal by a subsequent Congress are only now coming to light. If the next month or so is spent explaining to the public what is in the bill and that it, even by its sponsors’ own terms, fails to meet the goals of deficit reduction and improved access, then perhaps some wary lawmakers’ minds may be changed.
Harry Reid’s effort to jam this through without public scrutiny may fail spectacularly. Senators emboldened by the late-night sessions and the cloak of opaqueness have wheeled and dealed without a second thought. Now the public can tell the lawmakers what they think, and put to the fire the feet of those supposedly “responsible” Democrats who were going to protect taxpayers (but not those with incomes less than $200,000) and the elderly (except for sucking $500B out of an already shaky Medicare system). Time has never been on the side of the Democrats and news that there will be a significant delay, if accurate, comes as a welcomed holiday gift to ObamaCare opponents.