The Obama Administration has perfected the Clinton Administration's practice of releasing important documents that it doesn't want the voters or anyone else to actually read. The House released the
text of the Reconciliation Bill for Obamacare (HR-3590) on Friday afternoon (3-12-2010).
The 2,039 page [faux] Reconciliation Bill which can only be considered after passage of HR-3590 --The Senate's Christmas Eve version of Obamacare. I doubt that this will ever see the light of day if the Democrats pass HR-3590. Obama will drop any and all mention of Obamacare, as it never happened. Obama won't have to mention it, the taxpayers will because they will start paying for it immediately. This is the tactical error in the Democrat's strategy.
Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan has an
Op-ed in today's Washington Post, "Rep. Paul Ryan on what real health reform should look like".
Click on the
first hyperlink to get a PDF of the article to get the actual text of the Bill. Click the second hyperlink to get Rep. Ryan's view on Obama/Pelosi strategy to Rahm Obamacare through. Notice that Rep. Ryan repeats several methods for actually fixing healthcare delivery in this country by introducing competition into the system
Ranking House's Rules Committee member David Drier (R-CA)
posts his views on the Democrat's strategy for rahming Obamacare through on the House Republicans Rules Committee website.
Rep. Drier posits five likely scenarios that the Democrats could follow including three scenarios utilizing the (prematurely) reported dead "Slaughter Solutions/Rules".
Here are the five possible paths Rep. Drier describes in his review:
| Senate Bill
(Senate Amendment to H.R. 3950) | Reconciliation "Sidecar"
(yet to be reported by Budget Committee |
| Scenario 1: "Play it Straight" | Rule provides for an up or down vote | Rule provides for an up or down vote |
| Scenario 2: "Slaughter Solution 1" | Rule "deems" the Senate bill passed immediately and sends the bill to the President | Rule provides for an up or down vote |
| Scenario 3: "Slaughter Solution 2" | Rule "deems" the Senate bill passed upon House adoption of reconciliation sidecar | Rule provides for an up or down vote |
| Scenario 4: "Slaughter Solution 3" | Rule "deems" the Senate bill passed when the Senate passes the reconciliation sidecar | Rule provides for an up or down vote |
| Scenario 5: "The Double Whammy" | Rule #2 "deems the Senate bill passed immediately and sends the bill to the President | Rule #1 allows the Rules Committee to turn off the motion to recommit
Rule #2 "deems" the sidecar bill passed immediately and sends the bill to the Senate |
Does anyone out there seriously think that the Democrats will choose Scenario #1?
Doubtful - by my last count they are still five votes short.
Rep. Ryan concludes his piece by stating what should be obvious to all by now:
"If this debate had actually been about health care, we could have worked together to get a grip on costs, make quality care more accessible, address exclusions for preexisting conditions and realign the incentives of insurance companies with those of patients and doctors. Yet this process -- including its embarrassing conclusion -- demonstrates that the debate has never been about health-care policy but, instead, paternalistic ideology."
Rep. Drier concludes his piece:
"Reconciliation is no silver bullet. It requires a leap of faith that the Senate won't change anything and --with all due respect to the Senate --that faith is misplaced. Institutionally, they simply can't guarantee that outcome.
Any House Democrat who votes for a rule that moves this process forward is really voting for one thing --to make the Senate-passed healthcare bill the law of the land. The actual language of the rule will be unequivocal on that point. Just because you use a bat to hit a ball instead of throwing it, your neighbor's window is still just as broken. A vote for the rule is a vote for the Senate bill. There is no getting around that fact.
They can break any arm, bend any rule. But the Democratic Majority cannot deny that they are turning the process of our democracy on its head in an effort to achieve a highly unpopular, partisan objective."
Stay tuned --it is going to be a rough week...
