California Conservative

This article should be all the incentive wavering Democrats need to vote against Pelosicare. Here’s what I’m talking about:

The president will refuse to make fund-raising visits during November elections to any district whose representative has not backed the bill. A one-night presidential appearance can bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars in funds which would otherwise take months to accumulate through cold-calling by campaign volunteers.

Mr Obama’s threat came as the year-long debate over his signature domestic policy entered its final week.

TOL has it bassackwards. A threat from President Obama is threatening to campaign for a Democrat if he/she votes against the bill. That’d put the fear of God in a Democrat. Look at the results when President Obama campaigned with Creigh Deeds, Jon Corzine and Martha Coakley. Getting a presidential visit this year is like getting the Kiss of Death.

I’m betting that President Obama will have a net negative effect on the midterm elections for Democrats. Far more Democrats will be hurt by his agenda and his campaigning than will be helped.

That isn’t to say that the Democrats’ problems were all caused by President Obama. There’s a ton of culprits who share the blame for the wave election heading in the Democrats’ direction, starting with Sen. Reid and Speaker Pelosi, then extending down to the Democrats’ ‘middle management’ of Sen. Schumer, Rep. Slaughter, Chairman Rangel, Sen. Baucus, then extending down to progressives like Maxine Waters and Lynn Woolsey before finishing at the feet of SEIU President Andy Stern.

That’s before talking about the corruption of the Louisiana Purchase, the Cornhusker Kickback and the special exemption Bill Nelson got for Florida’s seniors currently enrolled in Medicare Advantage.

The bottom line is this: This bill is sinking daily because President Obama can’t make the case for why this legislation will help families and small businesses. To be fair, I don’t think anyone could make that case.

I vehemently disagree with this observation:

The bill would extend health coverage to about 30 million uninsured Americans and would bar insurance companies from refusing coverage to people with pre-existing health problems.

Here’s how it would read if it were written accurately:

The bill would extend health coverage to about 30 million uninsured Americans and would bar insurance companies from refusing coverage to people with pre-existing health problems until this new entitlement bankrupts America, at which point, everyone would be on their own.

The Democrats can wave the CBO report around all they want. The American people know that you can’t add 30,000,000 new patients while cutting Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements and expect better outcomes. Just because the Democrats keep repeating that line doesn’t mean people will eventually trust them. If anything, the Democrats’ claims will go in one ear, then out the other. At some point, the American people will just ignore the Democrats’ claims.

I’d privately been skeptical that the bill could be stopped. The more media reports I hear, the more I’m beginning to think that this bill won’t pass. Last week, Karl Rove and Mort Kondracke, two political opposites if ever that existed, both said that they’d give health care a 40 percent chance of passing. Monday night, Fred Barnes said the Weekly Standard’s guy covering the health care debate figured Speaker Pelosi was 15 votes short. Finally, Bart Stupak told Greta last night that he thinks Speaker Pelosi might have fewer than 200 votes for the Senate bill.

For all their arm-twisting and corrupt dealings, Speaker Pelosi doesn’t appear to be any closer to passing the Senate bill than when they started. Perhaps that’s because rank-and-file Democrats have finally started listening to the people saying they don’t want government-controlled health care.

In the end, that might prove to be the strongest incentive of all.

Technorati Tags: Campaigns, President Obama, Martha Coakley, Creigh Deeds, Jon Corzine, Harry Reid, Speaker Pelosi, Louise Slaughter, Ben Nelson, Cornhusker Kickback, SEIU, Andy Stern, Corruption, Democrats, Election 2010

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 at 11:18 pm and is filed under Author: Gary Gross, Corruption, Democrats, Election 2010, Health Care, Obama, Pelosi, Special Interests. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.