Health Care Dies for the Summer

Two items of good news on socialized medicine:

Senate Democratic leaders on Thursday abandoned plans for a vote on health care before Congress’ August recess, dealing a blow to President Barack Obama’s ambitious timetable to revamp the nation’s $2.4 trillion system of medical care.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., delivered the official word on what had been expected for weeks, saying, “It’s better to have a product based on quality and thoughtfulness rather than try to jam something through.”

His words were a near-echo of Republicans who have criticized the rush to act on complex legislation that affects every American.

Reid told reporters the Senate Finance Committee will act on its portion of the bill before lawmakers’ monthlong break. Reid then will merge that bill with separate legislation passed by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee earlier this month.

And this:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday that the House can go home for its August recess without passing a massive overhaul.

Pelosi dismissed concerns expressed by many Democrats that a monthlong delay could give opponents more chances to rally opposition to the bill.

“I’m not afraid of August,” Pelosi said. “It’s a month.”

I believe it was Wednesday that Nancy Pelosi announced that she had the votes to pass the bill. Apparently not.

Pelosi should be very afraid of August because it's a whole month for more information to come out about this bill and what it will do to the economy and health care in this country, and support will crumble. Obama is calling the troops to the White House today to try and bully them into getting this done before they leave, but short of calling a special session, it's out of his hands now.