From National Review, here is the rules ruling for tomorrow:
The rule sets up the following votes for tomorrow: The first will be on the rule itself; the second the infamous Senate-passed health-care bill, which still includes the Cornhusker Kickback, the Louisiana Purchase, the Gator Aid, and the Cadillac Tax; the third on a motion to recommit on the “sidecar” reconciliation package; and the fourth the on “sidecar” bill itself.
I admit to being a little confused reading that Orrin Hatch is telling House Democrats it won’t be the last vote they have. The Senate will have to vote on the House reconciliation package and if one comma is changed in the Senate, its back to the House.
But if the House passes the Senate bill, is ObamaCare not just one Presidential signature away from becoming law? The answer appears to be no as Ed Morrissey from Hot Air indicates:
Not only does the most gentlemanly of Senators blast his lower-chamber colleagues for their belief that reconciliation will sail through the upper chamber unchanged, Orrin Hatch warns Senate Democrats that an attempt to push it through will mean “war.” If they believe Republicans will just sit back and allow Democrats to run roughshod over the minority, they will find themselves in a battle they’ll regret “for the rest of their lives”
But here is the part that caught my attention
At one time, Democrats considered using a ping-pong strategy to keep refining the bill rather than attempting to do it through reconciliation. It appears that Republicans have now adopted the idea to keep it from passing. If they can alter the bill in their Senate vote — and it might be hard to do, considering they only have 41 votes — then the House will have to reconsider the new language before passing it along to the President for his signature. In the meantime, it will take a long time to get through the various amendments and points of order, and if Republicans really want to make it a “war,” they can make everything else in the Senate come to a halt, too.
The House is counting of getting this over and done with. At a minimum, they must understand the process, if the Senate GOP bucks up, could be dragged on for a very long time, keeping it front and center in American’s minds. And to boot, if the Republican’s are able to get any changes (which actually is easier than Ed seems to think as the parliamentarian would have to side with the Dems on every point of order) then its back to the House for another vote. To make matters worse, it could then ping back to the Senate followed by a pong to the House. The never ending nightmare that pushes us closer and closer to November.
I think that if centrist Democrats like their jobs and aren’t drinking the Obama and Pelosi kool-aid, it would be in their best interests to kill this thing tomorrow and get it off the books until the next Congress where it can be taken up again and we can have real reform minus the lies, deals, and propaganda. If not then, I’d be fine with waiting until Obama is out of office in 2013.
Still, keep up the unrelenting pressure and let’s hope this monstrosity dies tomorrow.