Late Saturday night Pelosi had her hurried vote on Obamacare and it passed. The vote was 220-215 (219 democrats and 1 republican voted for while 39 democrats and 176 republicans voted against). You can see the roll call here.
The lone republican that voted for the legislation was Joseph Cao of Louisiana, representing New Orleans. His vote was bought by Obama himself. He was assured by Obama over the phone that he would help Louisiana with the FMAP crisis and community disaster loan forgiveness if he voted in favor. Your obligatory pay to play political move of the day.
The legislation got enough votes from more conservative democrats by a last minute amendment that would ban abortion funding in the government plan or in any subsidized private plan. Ironically this breaks one of Obama’s promises to Planned Parenthood so now he is breaking promises to both sides. We will have to see if this amendment holds throughout the process…these little things tend to disappear.
Another side note to breaking promises. Democrat Bill Owens, who was elected to NY district 23 last week in the special election broke 4 campaign promises in his first hour, all relating to health care. He campaigned that he was against the health care legislation as it was currently written, but then evidently changed his mind. You will find his name on the list of ayes. If I was a voter in NY district 23 I would feel like an idiot right about now. Voting for a liberal thinking he will vote in a conservative manner. Genius.
Pelosi cannot take the sole responsibility for the abomination passed Saturday. Bill Owens’ lead campaigner (Barack Obama) did his part in passing this legislation as well. The President pressured democrats all day to vote in favor of the bill and not break party lines. He told them “If you think the Republicans are not going to go after you if you vote no, think again.” What a perfect example of the type of person Obama truly is. His calls to top three health care lobbyist groups that evening to thank them for their support and his late night email to Organizing for America asking for more money are also great examples of what this President is about. I hate to tell him though, it is not Republicans or his lobbyist friends they should worry about; it is the American people. More and more people are seeing through this façade.
I did get a kick out of one thing though. In all of Pelosi’s celebration she inadvertently made some true statements. She compared the passage of this legislation to the passage of Social Security and Medicare. How correct she is. Both have led to increased government power, our entitlement society, and lack of personal responsibility. They are also both bankrupting our country. Great analogy Ms. Pelosi. We can definitely add your legislation to that list. A list of mistakes made by our beloved Congress.
The next step belongs to the Senate. I have already heard from some places that it is DOA. Lets hope that is true. We do not need to repeat our past mistakes. We are now paying for FDR’s short sighted policies. Lets not do the same to our grandchildren.
