A Year’s Worth of Obama Health Care Predictions
Obama: I will continue to fight for you by trying to pass a bill you despise
Tragicomedy from today’s “permanent campaign” stop in Ohio: “This is not about me!” saith The One, before launching into the salute to his own political fortitude that you’re about to see. Which, in fairness, is all he has left. No one likes the bill, it’s killing him with independents, but he’s invested too much political capital in it to end up with absolutely nothing. So he’ll end up with a hugely pared-down bill, a.k.a. almost absolutely nothing, and then tout it as some grand accomplishment that he’ll build on later even though everyone knows that he won’t. Remember, the goal, practically from day one, was simply to pass something, and that’s exactly what they’re going to get. “Something.”
Dem health care talks collapsing
Health care reform teetered on the brink of collapse Thursday as House and Senate leaders struggled to coalesce around a strategy to rescue the plan, in the face of growing pessimism among lawmakers that the president’s top priority can survive.
The legislative landscape was filled with obstacles: House Democrats won’t pass the Senate bill. Senate Democrats don’t want to start from scratch just to appease the House. And the White House still isn’t telling Congress how to fix the problem.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) both tried to put a good face on the obvious chaos on Thursday, promising to press on.
“We have to get a bill passed,” Pelosi told reporters. “We know that.”
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said, “No way is it dead, because it’s so important for the country. And we will find a way to pass [it].”
But for the first time in the yearlong push, Democratic aides — and even some members — finally acknowledged privately that the fear of failure was real. And Congress recessed for the weekend without an obvious path forward as rank-and-file Democrats started splintering in different directions.
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