The United States Senate Financial Affairs Committee voted this morning 13-10 to deny an amendment to the Baucus Health Care Reform Bill that would have prevented government funds from being used to fund abortions. The vote leaves open the door in both the House and Senate versions through which abortions might be funded and is a slap in the face to Right-to-Life protesters and religious taxpayers who have opposed the Bills for that and other reasons.
More than that, the vote offers some insight into what will happen in the Senate when the Bill reaches the floor for a full vote. Combined with the recent vote against a proposed requirement that would have allowed the Senate version to be posted on the Internet for 72 hours before a vote was taken and that would also have required Senators to read the Bill before voting on it, the stage is now set for the Bill to hit the floor and be voted on before Americans know what is in it. There was some glimmer of hope in the Committee vote to drop the government-run option yesterday, but we see that move as a matter of convenience to take some of the rising steam out of opposing arguments. Nevertheless, the government option can now be reinserted into the Bill which can, in turn, be voted on and passed in a late-night session while America sleeps.
The vote tally, 13-10, also portends that the Senate will not be able to pass the Bill with a 60% majority. In fact, it is entirely possible that such an attempt will not occur and that Senator Reid will force the Senate into the 51-vote reconciliation option where a simple majority will win the day. In doing so, he avoids the probability of an embarrassing failure that could inflame the passions of those against the Bill’s passage.
Over in the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has demurely announced that she would be more than willing to post the Senate’s Bill for 72 hours before the House votes on it, but she does so knowing that the Democrat-controlled House will pass the legislation no matter what Americans think.
In other words, Obama is so determined to win and Congress is so determined to back him that no one cares what Americans are thinking and no one cares about the 2010 elections. How they can proceed on this course, knowing that they will inevitably be tossed out of office, poses an interesting question: Is there something already in the works, some future event perhaps, that is slated to take place between now and 2010 that will prevent the Members running for reelection from being replaced?
Another possibility for this evident and flagrant disregard for American opinion is that Obama and his liberal associates see a defeat or a change of course in their health care as becoming an enormous obstacle to future targets on their agendas… gun control, free speech control and free media/press control. Whatever the reason behind their relentless march toward passage of “The Plan,” Americans are definitely and for decades to come, going to feel the resulting pains in their pocketbooks, in their quality of health care, and in the care of the senior population.
They have seemed willing to reopen the pains of segregation and racism, willing to turn a divide in America into a chasm from which we may never recover… in short, they are willing to risk the future of liberty and justice in this country… in order to in. In their own minds, they are prepared to and must win at all costs, costs which we Americans will be forced to pay.
Are we going to be to blame for this travesty, or are we going to continue to assert our positions?
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