House Democrats acknowledged they don't yet have the votes to pass a sweeping overhaul of the nation's health care system, and signaled they may push back the vote until Sunday or early next week.What I don't get is that the clear message from Tuesday is that Democrats win when they stick to their guns, and lose when they run away from Obama (or in Jon Corzine's case have a crapload of personal negatives.) Creigh Deeds said as Virgina's governor, he would opt out of the new health care legislation if given the choice, and said the public option wasn't necessary. Of course Democrats didn't turn out for the guy. I wouldn't have voted for him either.Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told reporters in a conference call Friday that the make-or-break vote on President Barack Obama's push to make health coverage part of the social safety net could face delay. Democrats were originally hoping to pass the bill on Saturday.
The apparent problem: Democrats have yet to resolve intraparty disputes over abortion funding and illegal immigrants' access to health care. They cleared one hurdle Friday when liberals supporting a government-run Medicare-for-all system withdrew their demand for a floor vote.
The White House said Obama remains hopeful of getting an overhaul bill this year and plans to go to Capitol Hill on Saturday to try to rally support.
Hoyer sought to pin the blame for any possible slippage on delaying tactics expected from Republicans, who unanimously oppose the health care remake.
"Nice try Rep. Hoyer, but you can't blame Republicans when the fact is you just don't have the votes," said Antonia Ferrier, spokeswoman for House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio. Republicans could stall the bill by demanding roll-call votes on parliamentary matters.
By the same token, Bill Owens in NY and John Garamendi in California both stated their support for the public option. They won even in off-year elections, and Owens won in a blood red district. Even if you combine the Hoffman-Scozzafava vote it would have been 50-50, and in a blood red district like NY-23 this race never should have been close enough for Owens to win period.
And yet voters went with the person supporting the public option when voting in a guy like Hoffman would have been a message that the public option was in trouble, especially just days ahead of the vote.
If there is a Blue Dog who would be vulnerable, it would be Bill Owens. He's behind the public option, turns out...and was never against it. Voters elected him anyway.
The lesson here is that the public option is a winner, guys. Try getting out more.
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