No Obamacare Vote Until the Fall

With public opinion of Obamacare and other Obama initiatives falling daily, the Democrats needed a vote on a health care bill before the summer recess but they're not going to get it:

President Barack Obama said Wednesday there will be no vote on his proposed reforms of the US healthcare system before autumn, a setback that is costing him more political capital with each passing day.

"This bill, even in the best-case scenario, will not be signed -- we won't even vote on it probably until the end of September or the middle of October," he said in a session here to muster public support for the reforms.

"We're just trying to get all these different bills out of committee," he said.

Lawmakers are going through bills in both houses of Congress with fine tooth combs amid fierce opposition from Republicans and divisions within the Democratic majority and between the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Obama has pressed lawmakers to vote on the initial bills before departing on their summer recess August 7, but acknowledged that is unlikely to happen.

He was not clear whether he expected a final vote or only a first vote on the bill by the end of September or mid-October.

Lawmakers will now go home to their local district events and will likely get an earful from unhappy constituents. And they won't be unhappy because there was no bill, they'll be unhappy because their congressmen supports one. I'm hoping that the opposition will be strong and vocal and will scare some of these guys straight.

I want them coming back to D.C. in September scared to touch the thing.