Originally posted by: blackangst1
Originally posted by: eskimospy
The bill hasn't died in the House in any way, shape, or form. I frankly have no idea what you are talking about.
Really? You have no clue? Has something changed
in the last month? Do you have a link?
There are 435 seats on the House. Of those, 257 are filled by Democrats and 178 by Republicans. Which means a majority is 218. The Republicans have vowed to vote against health care, period. The Democrats can pass health care on their own, but if they lose 40 of their own, they only have 217 votes.
There are 57 Democrats who signed the July 30 letter saying that they "simply cannot vote" for a bill that "at minimum" does not have a public plan (PDF). There are 7 more not listed on the letter who have pledged to vote against any bill that does not have a robust public plan. That makes 64 Democrats who won't vote for the "co-ops" that both Kathleen Sibelius and Robert Gibbs say the White House is "open" to.
Do the math: 257 - 64 = 193. They need 218 to pass the bill. They don't have the votes.
I did
find this story as of 3 hours ago but this bill which shows promise is NOTHING like the original one proposed. And as
this article explains (today's story) I quote "The White House?s straddle reflects the Obama team?s recognition that the more liberal House will not pass a health care bill without a public insurance option, while the Senate will not pass one with it."
In other words, nothing will happen.
Im going to add an edit: If in some dreamland all the GOP were to *poof* and all that were left were Democrats, they still couldnt agree on a bill. THAT is the problem, not the GOP. The GOP is effectively a parapalegic on the bench in this. The Dems need to pull their collective heads out of their power drunk asses and come up with a plan. The GOP certainly didnt have a problem when they were a majority. They passed whatever they wanted.
I also want to say, as I have in other threads, I really hope
reform passes. Unfortunately we havent seen a broadly accepted bill that qualifies as such. All we've seen is a gigantic welfare bill. But there's still 3 more years.