[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by Riot

What Pelosi said is true. Nobody wants to be politically-technically on the record for voting for alot of the nonsense the Senate allowed into their bill - Stupak's silly abortion amendment, the Louisiana Purchase, Nelson's gift to Nebraska, etc.

That's why the Dems want to vote by using the same procedural method the GOP used 35 times during the past 8 years, "deem and pass". That nonsense gets taken out of the Senate bill.

It's just political posturing of a technical nature. I doubt anybody will be fooled by it. It's hardly providing any real political cover

The Dems have best been described as spineless whoosies during the whole healthcare reform thing, and the GOP has simply been the party of "no" - even though a whole lot of what they are in favor of, regarding healthcare reform, has been included.

I'll bet they claim credit this fall at reelection time for that

But again, if this healthcare reform is so terrible, I don't understand why the GOP doesn't sit back, continue to vote "no", and just let the Dems vote it in. It's not like any GOP votes are needed for any of this.

Seems like if passing this bill is the political dynamite the GOP says it is, standing in the way of that seems pretty silly.

It is going to be hard enough, already, for the GOP to have to go home and tell their constituents this fall, "Yes, I voted against your sick children not being able to be denied insurance".

While it is refreshing to see something truthful coming from Pelosi the fact of the matter is that that is what they are elected to do. Vote on the tough issues.

The GOP may have used the process but never for any bill that was remotely as controversial as this one. In fact the entire process of declaring this some kind of budget item to use reconcilliation is shady and terrible precedent.

The reason that the GOP stands in the way of the bill is that not standing in the way will be spun as an endorsement of it. Simple politics.

Personally I am both happy and sad to see what lengths the Dems will go to in order to get this thing rammed through. Happy because it exposes them to be everything that they say they arent and because the fallout will surely kill them in the fall elections. Sad because they have trampled on the system, pushing us further away from good govt and exposing the loopholes that are sure to be exploited for political resaons as opposed to good policy.