The week to come

Given the disconnect between the many polls showing the public dead set against the healthcare bills and the headlong rush in the Senate to obtain passage, it will be interesting to see if the Thanksgiving recess has had any effect on those wavering Democrats who a crucial to the passage of the bill. Will Blanche Lincoln, up for reelection in November of 2010, decide that she cannot support the bill after listening to constituents complain for a week? Will Mary Landrieu vote for the bill just to get the 300 million bribe that was put into the bill to get her vote so that it could make it to the floor? Will Senator Nelson of Nebraska decide that he has to vote the way his state wants? Indeed, will some other senator announce that after reflection he or she has decided to vote no?

It would be a triumph of democracy if this were to be the case. Still the most likely vote is that the obamacrats fashion some monstrosity that is just a little less monstrous than the current version and pass it. The only good thing about the games the Obamacrats have played is that by 2012 when Obama himself is up for a vote again, we would have had 2 years of additional taxes and restrictions which come from the bill but none of the supposed benefits. In other words, all pain and no gain -- assuming there ever will be any gain. The negative impact on the economy will have been felt, albeit not fully. The push of higher premiums would have hit. Indeed, even though they have not had any input into the bill at all, the Republicans could not have designed a more anti-Democrat bill in my opinion.

Maybe the best thing for the country would be to have the Obamacrats pass the bill and then get thrown out decisively in 2012 so that the new Republican Administration and Congress could then repeal it.