How’s that process workin’ for ya?

Straight from the horse’s mouth: “"We're Going To Control The Insurance Companies.”

One thing is for sure – regardless of outcome – the American public, in every single poll, opposes the current 2,800-plus pages of dead trees that make up the ObamaCare™ bill. Not only that, the longer the ramrod effort goes on, the more the public dislikes its purveyors and the process they’re using.

If you’re Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Cable Cars), you’re probably having night sweats right about now (even during the day). According to the latest whip count, her margin just moved to zero.


Sweatin' it...

Quit making a mess while you’re ahead? “When George Bush left office he was deeply unpopular: in Bush’s last month, according to Rasmussen 43% strongly disapproved of the job Bush was doing, while only 13% strongly approved, for a staggering negative rating of –30%.” (h/t: The Volokh Conspiracy)

And apparently, calling your Congressional representatives is now a no-no. But the calls, they keep a comin’…

Remember the “Cornhusker Kickback?” That was the $100 million bribe Democrats offered Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Nebraska) to for his last vote in favor. Well, lookee who sold out a bit early. The new bill has Dems removing the bill’s $100 million provision/payoff and substitute it with a $99 million provision to buy a Tennessee representative's vote.

Add Tennessee bonus: According to that Tennessee Congressman, the payoff isn’t a, um, er, payoff. Riiiiiight.

Last add Tennessee: Maybe a certain Congressman should listen to his governor – and constituents.

Step right up and place your bet: According to ABC News, if the stock market is any indication, ObamaCare™ isn’t going to pass. “President Obama's push to pass health care reform will fall short -- that is, if the stock market is any indicator. Thursday saw more than twice the normal trading volume in shares of the Dow Jones U.S. Health Care Providers Index (NYSE: IHF), a closely watched assortment of health insurance companies, including Aetna, CIGNA, Humana and UnitedHealth Group. The uptick, at least in theory, could be read as a sign that the market perceives reform as unlikely to pass.”

Putting stock in the block...

Quote of the Day: From Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire – “"Well, let me put it to you this way, it's far from going to pass in the Senate. I think there'll be at least two major points of order raised, and we'll win on those points of order, which means it has to go back to the House. If those people think they're only going to vote on this once, they're nuts." -- Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), in a forthcoming interview with Al Hunt on Bloomberg Television.

We shall see...


It ain't over til the old senator from Utah plays...

Promises, promises, promises...

So what's a lie (told over and over again) between "friends?"


Right now, Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S. Dixie) must be feeling pretty righteous...


Count 'em - eight!

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Sourdough) says that "there has never been a more open process" in Congress. Riiiiiiight.




Add “open process”…not according to C-SPAN’s CEO.




Last add “open process”… “Rep. Joe Sestak (R-Steelers) blames Democratic leaders for the plunge in public support for overhauling the health care system, saying Wednesday they failed to defend proposals that helped carry the party to victories in 2008. ‘They said it would be transparent. Why isn't it?’ said Sestak, a Delaware County Democrat, in a meeting with Tribune-Review editors and reporters. ‘At times, I find the caucus is a real disappointment. We aren't transparent, not just to the public but at times to the members.’"

Add lack of transparency (when it comes to…the health insurance reform bill)…The Washington Examiner not only takes The Hold Trinity – President Barack Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Slot Machines) and Pelosi – but the Washington press corps as well. “To be sure, many of the reporters on the Hill gripe and complain to each other and to their editors about these closed-door meetings. And many of them stand keeping vigil outside the doors, waiting for Reid or Pelosi to come out and offer them a morsel of information. But that's not good enough. It's time for a sit-down protest by journalists whose first job is to uphold the public's right to know what its government is doing. Invite readers to come join them in demanding open meetings. The last thing Reid and Pelosi want is the spectacle of the Capitol Hill Police dragging protesting journalists away from the closed doors. It's time to show some cojones, people.”

U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Payoff) as quoted in a Nebraska newspaper: “I think it was a mistake to take health care on as opposed to continuing to spend the time on the economy.” Better late than never?

Add Nebraska: Could the “Cornhusker Kickback” actually kill the bill? Time, and the courts, will tell.

Lame Duck/Weak Rino: Apparently California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is taking at least one principled stand before he wraps-up his final year in office – he’s fighting the health insurance reform bill. “You’ve heard of the bridge to nowhere. This is health care to nowhere.” Now there’s a memorable line.

Another non-Nebraska politician unhappy with the deal Nelson wrangled: U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Walmart) “said she was disappointed about a provision in the Senate’s health care bill that will require the federal government to permanently pay the entire cost of Medicaid expansion in Nebraska, while only paying the costs of expansion in the other 49 states for three years.” I guess now that she knows how much other folks sold their votes for, she wants a bigger cut.

Add Blanche: It looks like she’s not the only person in Arkansas upset with the health insurance reform fiasco.

Hey all you married people out there who are excited about the health insurance reform bill: About now, you’re probably thinking, “I shoulda stayed single.”

Let me get my TV Guide: So the president wants to move the State of the Union speech back to Feb. 2 in hopes the Health Care Bill is passed by then. The downside to his strategy – he could alienate a very important voting bloc (fans of ABC’s “Lost,” which premieres that night).

Is the Reid-Pelosi-Obamacare bill DOA?

Why the Reid-Pelosi-Obama health insurance bill will be struck down (providing the conservative side of the U.S. Supreme Court can stay alive).

Insurance Stocks Rise on News of Health Care Deal; What's It Mean? “As of 11 a.m. Eastern time [yesterday], stocks for the six largest publicly-traded health insurance companies [rose] by an average 4.49 percent, as weighted by their market capitalization. As the S&P 500 index had gained 1.09 percent as of 11 AM, these stocks have overperformed the market by 3.40 percent. Although some of the gain may reflect unrelated good news in the health sector, it is safe to assume that most of the improvement in prices [reflect] the Senate's health care bill passing.” (h/t: fivethirtyeight.com)

Cutting deals: Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) says of the dealmaking it took to get the bill – “There are 100 senators here and I don’t know that there’s a senator that doesn’t have something in this bill that isn’t important to them,” Reid said. “If they don’t have something in it important to them then it doesn’t speak well of them.” There’s statesmanship for you.


Senate majority scold Harry Reid (D-Casinos)...

So it is political: From The Foundry - “While the President’s most ardent supporters are trying to explain to each other why the benefits of the bill do not start until 2014, they are openly admitting that Obama’s deficit busting claims are complete fiction:

• The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein: “The delay is a budget trick, an attempt to lower the 10-year cost of the bill at the expense of the very people we’re trying to help.”
• Mother Jones‘ Kevin Drum: “I’m pretty sure the 2014 date is mostly due to budget finagling. This stuff can’t be done overnight, but I’ll bet most of it could be implemented within 12 months, and it could certainly be implemented within 24.”
• Talking Points Memo’s Josh Marshall: “My impression is that some of the delays are there because it makes the budgetary accounting work better in terms of deficit neutrality. And I know the Dems would likely lose critical support without being able to show that the overall bill actually lowers the deficit. But if that’s the main reason, I suspect the legislative authors may be too clever by half since they may be slitting the bill’s and perhaps their own throats in the process.”

Can you say, “backlash?”

He'll have many more questions to answer in the months (and years) to come...

Add backlash: Now appearing in the dictionary with a photo of Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.)? Seems his constituents have had a belly full and are now giving him an ear’s-worth…

Last add backlash: Could Sen. Christopher “I’m a friend of the mortgage industry” Dodd (D-Conn.) be looking forward to future payback from voters, too? (For so many reasons, let’s hope so.) “A $100 million item for construction of a university hospital was inserted in the Senate health care bill at the request of Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., who faces a difficult re-election campaign, his office said Sunday night.” (h/t: Washington Post)


Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Payoffs)...

How popular is Obamacare out here beyond the Beltway? According to a Quinnipiac University poll released today, “As the Senate prepares to vote on health care reform, American voters ‘mostly disapprove’ of the plan 53 - 36 percent and disapprove 56 - 38 percent of President Barack Obama's handling of the health care issue.”

Say aloha to those vacation plans!


Our man in Hawai'i...

Radio appearance alert: I'll be on The John Batchelor Show tonight at 8:50 p.m. PST, reporting on happenings - political and otherwise - in the west. You can listen to the show on WABC-AM 77 NYC, WMAL-AM 630 Washington, D.C., and on XM/Sirius Satellite Radio (throughout the universe). If you’re not in one of the listening areas, you can tune-in via those stations’ websites. See you on the radio!

It is done.

They did it.

It came down to a vote straight along party lines: 60-40 (which further underscores the importance of every political race – big and small; it also shows how important - and long – President Barack Obama’s coattails were in the last election). In short, we are now on the road to Nationalized Health Care.

According to the New York Times, “The vote was 60 to 40 — a tally that is expected to be repeated four times as further procedural hurdles are cleared in the days ahead, and then once more in a dramatic, if predictable, finale tentatively scheduled for 7 p.m. on Christmas Eve.”

The battle raged in the nation’s Capitol as forces of light and darkness worked far into the night on the most significant health care/insurance reform bill to ever make its way through Congress.


Burning the midnight oil...

Just months ago, Republicans swore that this would be Obama’s Waterloo. Now, with the weather outside the Capitol building cold and snowy and the GOP in the Capitol but unable to do anything with it, it seems more like the Republicans’ own version of the French invasion of Russia of 1812.

Napoleon couldn't do anything in another important capitol, either...

It was all made possible because Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) threw in with his fellow Dems, promising his filibuster-breaking vote in exchange for some big money for his state. According the Washington Post: ‘Nelson secured full federal funding for his state to expand Medicaid coverage to all individuals below 133 percent of the federal poverty level. Other states must pay a small portion of the additional cost. He won concessions for qualifying nonprofit insurers and for Medigap providers from a new insurance tax. He also was able to roll back cuts to health savings accounts.” (h/t:reason.com)

“Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) declared, ‘This process is not legislation. This process is corruption,’ referring to the last-minute flurry of dealmaking that enabled Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and the White House to lock in the 60 votes needed to approve the legislation.”(h/t:sfgate.com)

The man of the moment: Ben Nelson...

This, of course, means an Obama signing party in the not-too-distant future as well as a host of additional questions and/or problems. Some things to consider:

Be careful what you wish for, pt. 1: “Poor Barack Obama. All he wanted for Christmas was a health-care reform bill -- and all he got was a lousy insurance industry bailout that few can love.”

Be careful what you wish for, pt. 2: Is the Democrats’ likely “paper-thin” margin of victory actually a Pyrrhic victory? (And the conservative pundits aren’t the only ones who feel this way.) Plenty of “progressives” are hopping mad about the final version and blame Obama for it. Over at Newsweek, Robert Samuelson goes so far to say, “Barack Obama's quest for historic health care legislation has turned into a parody of leadership.”

Pyrrhus...

“According to the American Medical Association’s National Health Insurer Report Card for 2008, the government’s health plan, Medicare, denied medical claims at nearly double the average for private insurers.”

Nelson wasn’t the only one who was bought-off. That old, principled socialist from Vermont – Sen. Bernie Sanders – got a payout, too. He didn’t get the Single Payer system he dreamed of but he did get some other favors.

Megan McArdle points out in her blog over at The Atlantic: “No bill this large has ever before passed on a straight party-line vote, or even anything close to a straight party-line vote. No bill this unpopular has ever before passed on a straight party-line vote. We're in a new political world.”

As is true in many legislative efforts, there’s a lot of back scratching going on in D.C. right now. Votes are being traded for favors…and the favors are many.

If it really is a win, then who loses? (The GOP is hoping this bill is the straw that breaks the senior senator from Nevada’s back. Even his hometown paper is poking at him.)

Add Nelson: Some big names in Nebraska are none too pleased.

Well if Joe says so: According to the most well-spoken Vice President since Dan Quayle, the health care, er, insurance reform bill is something that “represents the culmination of a struggle begun by Theodore Roosevelt nearly a century ago to make health care reform a reality.” Forgive me if I’m being nit-picky here, but I thought I heard the president back in his speech a few months ago say the effort started about 50-plus years ago. I’ve heard everyone from Harry Truman (Dems, of course) credited with trying to move this effort along.

Ending on a bit of “rosy” news from Reuters: “Revised Senate health bill cuts deficit: CBO: The revised healthcare overhaul in the Senate would cut the federal deficit by $132 billion over 10 years, non-partisan budget analysts said on Saturday. The Congressional Budget Office also said the bill as revised by Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid would have coverage costs of $871 billion over 10 years. Both figures meet President Barack Obama's goal of cutting the deficit and having a total cost of about $900 billion over 10 years. The rosy report card could help the proposal gain support.” Only that much? What terrific news! Just remember to stay well.

What hath Reid wrought?