With more lives than a cat on a live wire, the healthcare reform bill could be resurrected behind the scene in the Congress and be on President Obama's desk in a few weeks. What about the big loss in the Massachusetts Senate race last week where Republican Scott Brown won Ted Kennedy's formerly democratic seat? And what about the massive public discontent with well over 50% of the public opposing this legislation? According to Newsmax's Dick Morris, a political commentator and former Clinton administration advisor, this is what's on tap:
Senate Democrats will go to the House with a two-part deal.
First, the House will pass the Senate's Obamacare bill that passed the Senate in December. The House leadership will vote on the Senate bill, and Pelosi will allow no amendments or modifications to the Senate bill.
How will Pelosi's deal fly with rambunctious liberal members of her majority that don't like the Senate bill, especially its failure to include a public option, put heavy fines on those who don't get insurance and offering no income tax surcharge on the "rich"?
That's where the second part of the Pelosi-deal comes in.
Behind closed doors Reid and Pelosi have agreed in principle that changes to the Senate bill will be made to satisfy liberal House members -- but only after the Senate bill is passed and signed into law by Obama.
This deal will be secured by a pledge from Reid and the Senate's Democratic caucus that they will make "fixes" to the Senate bill after it becomes law with Obama's John Hancock.
But you may ask what about the fact that without Republican Scott Brown and independent Democrats like Joe Lieberman, Reid simply doesn't have the 60 votes in the Senate to overcome a Republican filibuster that typically can stop major legislation?
According to my source, Reid will provide to Pelosi a letter signed by 52 Democratic Senators indicating they will pass the major changes, or "fixes", the House Democrats are demanding. Again, these fixes will be approved by the Senate only after Obama signs the Senate bill into law.
Reid has also agreed to bypass Senate cloture and filibuster rules and claim that these modifications fall under "reconciliation" and don't require 60 Senate votes.
To pass the fixes, he won't need one Republican, he won't even need Joe Lieberman or wavering Democrats like Jim Webb of Virginia.
His 52 pledged Senators give him a simple majority to pass any changes they want, which will later be rubberstamped by Pelosi's House and signed by Obama.
This plan, of course, is a total subversion of the legislative process.
That is true. Normally, bills passed by both houses of Congress go through a process called reconciliation, where the differences are ironed out by a committee of Senators and Representatives who come up with what they believe will be a bill acceptable to both chambers. This revised bill is then voted on again.
President Obama's administration needs a success at this point, even one jammed through Congress in the middle of the night. One thing is for certain -- if the bill passes in this manner, the public will probably not be very happy about the way it was passed -- or what is inside the bill.
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