House Democrats Still Struggling for ObamaCare Votes

We can’t breathe easy until the maniacs are all out of power, but this is somewhat encouraging news.

Financial Times: With previous deadlines missed, veteran Democrats are warning that the legislation must be completed before the Easter recess to avoid a repeat of last summer’s “town hall” protests that almost sunk the healthcare bill.

“I believe it will pass. Do we have a mortal lock? No. Because people are still looking at some of the changes that are being made,” Chris Van Hollen, one of the Democratic leaders in the House, admitted on CNN on Sunday.

The House is shaping up to be a key battlefield in the healthcare fight, since Democrats lost their 60-seat super-majority in the Senate.

With not a single Republican supporting the reform effort, the only option for Democrats now is to have the House pass the Senate version of the bill, then for both chambers to pass a series of fixes to take into consideration the demands of House lawmakers.

But Democratic leaders in the House are struggling to get the 216 votes they need to pass the Senate bill. As many as 12 conservative Democrats who voted in favour of the House bill because it included tough new restrictions on abortion funding are now threatening to vote against the Senate version, which is less restrictive. The House bill passed by 220 to 215 so Democrats have few votes to spare.

They have to ram it through before Easter because they’re afraid of the people that put them into office. That in itself has to tell you something about these people.

Nancy Pelosi’s arm twisting will continue, but she may have a bit less leverage with retiring Democrats. Only time will tell, but at least there’s a faint glimmer of hope.

You can do your part by getting on the phone, and reminding these people who they work for.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 7th, 2010 at 9:58 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.