220-215: A Blogosphere Roundup

I saw this first on Kevin Jackson’s Facebook page. For those who don’t know, Kevin writes The Black Sphere.

When the bill passed, cheering broke out. Townhall quotes RNC chairman Michael Steele as saying, “the Dems are applauding themselves right out of office.”

Polipundit calls it a pyrrhic victory at best for Democrats:

1. Republicans will be able to use this as a campaign issue against many vulnerable Democrats from the classes of 2006 and 2008.

2. The Obamacare debate is going to drag on for months. The pressure is now on embattled Senate Democrats to pass their bill, and then reconcile that with the House, and then pass that bill in both chambers… Obamacare will dominate the debate at least into January, sapping Democrats’ energy, and giving Republicans ammunition – money and support – for 2010.

3. The narrow margin of the vote meant that there was much arm-twisting of vulnerable Democrats. Pelosi has spent whatever she has of her political capital, and she won’t have it available for Cap-and-Tax and illegal-alien amnesty.

4. If the Democrats fail at any stage of the process – a Senate vote, a House-Senate conference, House and Senate votes on the conference report – they will demoralize their supporters, whose expectations have just been built up.

Weasel Zippers wonders, “Why didn’t the GOP reps vote “present?” Passing the Stupak amendment will almost ensure ObamaCare will pass the House (and the amendment probably won’t make the cut when it goes through committee with the Senate). A fatal blunder. (ZIP)“

Wizbang asks the million dollar question, “What are the likely mid to long term impacts?” Jerry Pournelle answers it:

Unemployment is over 10%. It wasn’t supposed to get that high. TARP was supposed to fix that.

Meanwhile today may be the most important vote in Congress since the days of the New Deal. If the health care bill passes, it will fundamentally convert these United States into a different kind of popular democracy, which generally means rule by a unionized bureaucracy organized to vote. Once that much of the economy is run by government, economic recovery as many hope for will simply be impossible.

Permanent unemployment at 7% or so; median income perhaps 10% higher than it is now, but not much higher; and a long period of stagflation. Reluctance to take on new employees, and great incentive to export jobs. Is this a picture of the future? We will have to see, as Congress debates the health care and carbon tax bills.

Don Surber announces, “Politburo passes health care, 220-215″ and writes:

Without bothering to get any input from Republicans;

Too ashamed to read the bill out loud in public;

Breaking an oath to write the bill on C-Span;

Breaking a pledge to have bipartisan support;

Breaking a promise to post it online for 72 hours before the vote;

Sight unseen;

Democrats passed 220-215 another budget-busting bill that no one has read and that no one in their right mind would support.

The railroad went through — again.

The BoBo Files, with that clown face, has the full roll call.

Scared Monkeys gasps, “Good God, what have they done? What have Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats just done to America and the Constitution?”

Gotta love the GayPatriot headline: “House Democrats Vote to Increase Republican Gains in 2010″
Steve Green laments, “This is not the America I Knew”
Stacy McCain on it passing the Senate:

What are the chances the Senate will pass it? Dunno. But at least now they will be debating actual legislation, rather than a hypothetical. The House bill is chock full of specifics that can be highlighted as arguments against passage, and any senator looking for an excuse to vote “no” can point to those 39 Democrats who voted against it in the House.

The factor that proponents of “reform” have always on their side — until last night — was the advantage of advocating a nebulous good. “Reform” is one of those glittering generalities (like “democracy” and “rights”) that politicians are afraid to be against. Being “anti-reform” is sort of like being anti-Girl Scouts.

AJ Strata points out, “The real bipartisan vote was against the measure with 39 Dems defecting.”

Dr. Joyner at Outside the Beltway writes:

If this became law, the poor would be significantly poorer and small businesses would be even less competitive with the big box stores. During a very weak economy with an unemployment at ten percent, no less. Oh, and insurance rates will go up for the rest of us, too, as companies amortize the cost of absorbing people who have costly illnesses — who will by definition be a net drain on the pool from Day 1 — by passing it on to the rest of us.

Presumably, the rationale behind these moves is to wreck the current system entirely, making a government system the only alternative. Certainly, it’s not a good faith measure to improve the current system.

Ed Morrissey:

So what does this 220-215 vote tell us? Capitol Hill Democrats know that this bill is an albatross. It’s true that Pelosi was able at the end to negotiate votes to allow a few at-risk Democrats that supported the bill to oppose it in the final vote, but even that tells a tale of fear and consciousness of unpopularity. The razor-thin vote, as well as a number of earlier, more sincere defections, show that this bill was a radical and expensive approach to fix a 13% problem — and even most of the Democrats know it. . . . We always thought the fight was in the Senate, so the only real surprise yesterday was how weak Pelosi actually was on ObamaCare.

Rob Port at Say Anything reminds us of when Madame Speaker said this:

For some reason, and I think it should be obvious what it is, the Republicans insist on having votes that are of great import to the American people, but where they are clearly on the wrong side of the issue, have these votes taken in the middle of the night.

Hypocrite? Rob, you are too kind.

Jim Hoft compares the passage of the bill to the ascension of Senator Palpatine.

So this is how liberty dies…

…To thunderous applause.