The Big Lie of Obamacare

Oh, there are lots of lies about how the bill will work, what it will cost, what benefits it will bring, but right now the Democrats are relying on another big lie to convince people that passage is a sure thing:

Democrats do not have a firm grip on the votes needed to pass sweeping healthcare reform legislation in the House of Representatives, one House leader admitted on Sunday.

But the White House insisted that its reform efforts were “in the final chapter”.

Barack Obama has given Democrats a March 18 deadline for the House to pass the Senate version of a healthcare reform bill before he leaves on a trip to Asia, leading to a frenzy of arm-twisting and vote tallying on Capitol Hill.

With previous deadlines missed, veteran Democrats are warning that the legislation must be completed before the Easter recess to avoid a repeat of last summer’s “town hall” protests that almost sunk the healthcare bill.

“I believe it will pass. Do we have a mortal lock? No. Because people are still looking at some of the changes that are being made,” Chris Van Hollen, one of the Democratic leaders in the House, admitted on CNN on Sunday.

The House is shaping up to be a key battlefield in the healthcare fight, since Democrats lost their 60-seat super-majority in the Senate.

With not a single Republican supporting the reform effort, the only option for Democrats now is to have the House pass the Senate version of the bill, then for both chambers to pass a series of fixes to take into consideration the demands of House lawmakers.

But Democratic leaders in the House are struggling to get the 216 votes they need to pass the Senate bill. As many as 12 conservative Democrats who voted in favour of the House bill because it included tough new restrictions on abortion funding are now threatening to vote against the Senate version, which is less restrictive. The House bill passed by 220 to 215 so Democrats have few votes to spare.

“This is going to be a discussion and we are going to be engaged in that dialogue for some time until we get it done,” said Mr Van Hollen, chairman of the Democratic congressional campaign committee and the fifth-ranking Democrat in the House.

Kathleen Sebelius, Mr Obama's health secretary, said on Sunday it was time for Congress to “get the job done”.

“The bill has passed the House, the bill has passed the Senate with a super-majority. We have comprehensive legislation for the first time,” Ms Sebelius told ABC on Sunday. “We are in the final chapter, mostly because the American people are desperate.”

And there's the big lie. When Sebelius says "the bill" passed the House and "the bill" passed the Senate she implies that they're the same piece of legislation. In fact, they were very different which is why they're having problems getting the House to approve the Senate version. The Senate version includes funding for abortion, not to mention the Cornhusker Kickback, the Louisiana Purchase, the waiver for Florida's Medicare Advantage cuts, and all kinds of stuff the House members don't like.

Had "the bill" passed both houses it would have already been signed by Obama. Should the Senate version pass, it will be signed by Obama and the promised "fixes" will never happen. They won't have the votes in the Senate.

I believe it was Kent Conrad that tried to push this talking point as well, insisting that "the bill" has already been passed in both chambers. Nonsense.

The fight continues.