Morning Bell: The Health Care Fight Has Just Begun

Conn Carroll / December 21, 2009

The months long drama over the fate of President Barack Obama’s health care plan ended at 1 AM this morning when the Senate voted  60 – 40, on a strictly party line vote, to end debate on Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-NV) manager’s amendment; a mere 38-hours after it had been unveiled to the American public. With Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Ben Nelson (D-NE) threatening to veto the bill if any significant changes are made by the House in conference, it is virtually guaranteed that this is the version of Obamacare that will be signed by the President before his State of the Union address in January.

Final passage of this health bill will be historic, but not in the way President Obama intended. Never before has such a large restructuring of the U.S. economy been passed on a straight party-line vote. Never before has legislation so unpopular with the American people been passed on a straight party-line vote. Never before has the fate of one-sixth of our economy been so dependent on backroom deals and payoffs the full extent of which may not be known for years. (more…)