Weekend at Barrys By Robert Romano

01/26/2010

ObamaCare is dead.

Now, someone just needs to go tell Barack Obama, who this week will once again be pushing his untenable scheme of taking over the nation’s entire health care system at his first State of the Union address. The public’s expressed will notwithstanding.

That’s bad enough. If all he planned was to simply delude himself and his supporters on the Hard Left that the health takeover was on anything but the embalming table, the harm may be minimal. And his advocacy might merely be laughable.

But there’s more to it than that. And someone also needs to tell Obama’s morbid, mad scientists “Frankenstein” Reid and “Igor” Pelosi, who are now prepared to help Obama raise this abomination from the dead.

As reported by Politico’s Chris Frates, “Struggling to salvage health reform, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have begun considering a list of changes to the Senate bill in hopes of making it acceptable to liberal House members, according to sources familiar with the situation.”

The report continues, “The changes could be included in separate legislation that, if passed, would pave the way for House approval of the Senate bill — a move that would preserve President Barack Obama's vision of a sweeping health reform plan.”

But how? House Speaker Pelosi is said to be “way short” of the votes needed to pass the Senate bill in House. And Majority Leader Reid now has a filibuster to contend with since Scott Brown controls the Massachusetts Senate seat once occupied by Ted Kennedy.

So, how? By changing the rules, according to Frates: “leaders are considering making limited changes that can be passed using a budget process called reconciliation, which only requires 51 votes in the Senate.”

Which is a nice way of saying that they’re going to eliminate the filibuster — by invoking a process that is supposed to be limited to appropriations bills.

This is not the first time Democrat leaders on the Hill have threatened to abuse the reconciliation process. Late last summer, Reid spokesman Jim Manley said, "The White House and the Senate Democratic leadership still prefer a bipartisan bill. However, patience is not unlimited, and we are determined to get something done this year by any legislative means necessary.”

You read that right. “By any legislative means necessary.” Including breaking the rules. Which, to be fair, is the only way they can really get their moribund bill through now, lacking the votes to simply pass the Senate bill in the House.

And, of course, even if it could pass the House, that would necessitate significant changes in the bill. After which, it would need to be sent back to the Senate for approval. And now Reid lacks 60 votes to overcome the Republican filibuster.

So, technically, the ObamaCare bill is dead. But instead of moving it from the Ferno 101H Hydraulic Embalming Table and into the ground where it belongs — and where the American people hope it remains — mad scientists Obama, Reid, and Pelosi want desperately to revivify it. The laws of man and God aside.

The cost of which will be no less than the end of representative, two-party governance. It would mark the beginning of the end of the time-tested filibuster, solidify one-party dictatorial rule in the Senate, and nationalize one-sixth of the U.S. economy.

All this, despite the fact that 61 percent of voters say it is time for Congress to drop the legislation all together, as reported by Rasmussen Reports.

Not that Obama, Reid, Pelosi, et. al. give a hoot about what the American people want. Their rebuttal is to assert that they know better than the people about what they need. In the immortal words of Samuel Goldwyn, “When I want your opinion, I’ll give it to you.”

Instead, they should let the abomination lay dead, never to reawaken, and save the American people from a nightmare that will have rationed care, forced people off of their health plans, raised taxes, cut benefits, and bankrupted the treasury.

Sometimes, it’s better to be known for what one didn’t accomplish.

Robert Romano is the ALG Senior News Editor.