Healthcare

Healthcare reform seems to have finally found a head of steam. I just heard House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) talk up the new "bill" we have all been waiting for, which the Congressional Budget Office says will save more than $100 billion over the next decade. Armed with her promising CBO score, Pelosi brought Dr. Ed Morris, a small-business owner from North Carolina, to the microphone so he could implore Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) to vote for the bill.

David Brooks wrote an interesting column in which he pointed out that members of Congress, and especially the Senate, are not able to connect personally to write legislation and solve America’s pressing problems. He attributes this to being confined to warring camps, little interaction to resolve issues in the Senate “club” and a change in the dynamic.

Many have griped for a while about the lack of comity, the decrease in a “family-friendly” Congress, the increased propensity of members to campaign not just vigorously, but negatively, against one another. They have become less colleagues and more competitors, less policymakers and more gladiator politicians.

The healthcare debate has degenerated into a civil war among progressives and Democrats full of threats and retaliation. I am calling for this to vote to be treated as a vote of conscience and for all threats to end immediately. This matter is fully discussed in my piece published by OpEd News today.

Did you ever see such a bunch of whiners in your life?

Now that it looks certain Democrats will have the votes to pass healthcare reform, Republicans are again whining about the process.

First, they accused Senate Democrats of foul play by planning to approve the bill with 51 votes — even though majority rule, not the filibuster, is the way the Senate is supposed to do business. Now they’re accusing House Democrats of breaking the rules by considering the use of “deem and pass,” instead of voting up or down on the Senate bill. Which is another red herring.

Those who have lived inside the Beltway for a while know that just a couple years back, taxicabs here operated in a "zone" system. The District was divided into these sections and your fare was based on how creative your driver was in getting you from one point to another. Most of official Washington was in Zone 1.

Which brings us to the latest storm over the healthcare legislation and the gasps of outrage from Republicans because congressional Democrats are trying to grease passage with a clever parliamentary maneuver called a "self-executing" vote on the legislation. What it amounts to is one vote on the bill, not two.

Hill Pundits John Feehery and Chris Kofinis join The Hill's A.B. Stoddard to discuss reconciliation and the healthcare reform package.

Will the process go according to the Democrats' plan, and how will they sell the bill to Americans after passage?

The Daily Telegraph newspaper in London is reporting that President Barack Obama will refuse to campaign for any congressional Democrat who dares to vote against healthcare reform — Obama-style.

In 1824, the House of Representatives awarded the presidency to John Quincy Adams after Henry Clay, who was then the House Speaker, concluded that he wouldn’t be president and cut a deal that landed him the job of secretary of State.

It seemed like a good deal for Adams and a good deal for Clay. But to supporters of Andrew Jackson, America’s first true populist leader, this was a “corrupt bargain,” a sign of a decadent and untrustworthy political process and a rallying cry for a new class of American voters.

What is the most amazing is how the Republicans can keep a straight face when they argue the Democrats' use of reconciliation to try and pass healthcare reform will destroy congressional bipartisanship forevermore. In fact, it's surprising that when they tell that whopper, their noses don't grow.

WHAT bipartisanship, for cryin' out loud? The GOP has become the NOP, usually voting no as a single flock of automatons against just about anything on the White House wish list.

I’ve seen a lot of bizarre excuses for enacting laws in this town through the years, but one offered over the weekend by Democrats deserves a unique spot on the Wall of Shame. To now justify the heavy-handedness and sheer arrogance of their actions, Democrats are saying they have no choice but to press onward. To walk away from their efforts on health reform would be tantamount to wasting a full legislative year — time they can’t get back. Please.