It appears that even Henry Waxman now believes that healthcare reform is all but dead. According to a new CQ politics article, Waxman has given up on trying to find the votes to get the bill out of the committee. It then explains that if they cant even get the bill out of the committee, short-circuiting the process and allowing a floor vote wont do much better. The reason is that the whole House is filled with the same blue dog Democrats who are against reform and any vote will likely fail.
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/...
I really hate being proven right again on this issue, but I told you so. I knew that healthcare reform was impossible, but many people had unrealistic expectations. There are too many Democrats out there who would rather see Obama fail than pass a bill that gives people healthcare. My suggestion is that the leadership give these Democrats an ultimatum: Support this bill or leave the party. If anybody is going to kill healthcare reform, I want it to be Republicans, not Democrats.
Republicans wont be blamed for this failure. Democrats have a huge majority in the House and 60 votes in the Senate. They have the ability to pass whatever they want without any Republican votes. Republicans are irrelevant here. Its the Democrats who are killing healthcare reform. I will not shed a tear when these obstructionist Democrats are defeated in 2010. Not a tear.