Despite their claims to the contrary, the way that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have handled the healthcare bill has been anything but transparent. And, if the left-wing blogosphere is to be believed, the two congressional leaders intend to keep the deliberations secret as they try to merge the House and Senate versions of the legislation into something that will pass both chambers.They're not only trying to avoid involving Republicans in the negotiations, but they're trying to keep the GOP in the Senate from having the opportunity to filibuster the bill.
The Talking Points Memo website reported Monday that Democrats in both the House and Senate are saying the process will likely follow the path of the House taking up the Senate-passed legislation, amending it and sending it back to the Senate, which will have to pass it again. "This process cuts out the Republicans," a House Democratic aide told TPM, indicating the congressional majority intended to make sure the Republican minority would "not have a motion to recommit opportunity."
It also, say those who are following the issue, allows Pelosi to avoid having to cut deals with problematic House Democrats like Michigan's Bart Stupak, who has promised to do what he can to scuttle the final bill if it provides for federal funding of abortions.
Henry Waxman, the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, is saying much the same thing, according to David Dayen at FireDogLake, another prominent left-wing website.
I don't think they will be successful, and by cutting the GOP out completely they certainly won't gain any support from the RINOs.
We need to hope that Scott Brown can pull off a miracle in Massachusetts because his election could kill Obamacare altogether. His potential election could also be the reason the Dems are in such a hurry. I don't think they're as confident about winning the special election as they'd like us to believe.
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