Not a huge victory

Sanity lost last night by a sliver as the House passed its monstrous 2000-plus page, $1,800,000,000,000 Affordable Health Care for America Act.

Michelle Malkin has the roll call, which includes just one Republican on the wrong side. We had higher hopes for Joseph Cao, freshman Congressman from Louisiana, but apparently our fling with him was just that; he sold out for an empty promise from Obama. Opposition to the bill was more bipartisan with 39 Democrats voting no. We predict that their Thanksgiving breaks will be more relaxing than that of their yes-voting colleagues, who will have some 'splainin' to do to their dissatisfied constituents. The majority of Americans are still opposed to Democrat-style healthcare reform. And the more they see of the details the less they like it.

Americans will stay attentive and alert as this fight proceeds. Their success in slowing the process down to such a great degree (remember that Obama wanted to ram it through in three weeks last summer!) has been critically instrumental in exposing these bills for what they are. And it's proven that the people still wield significant power.

Jeffrey H. Anderson puts this "victory" in perspective:

It was always clear that the real health-care battle would be in the Senate. But what would have been shocking eight months ago is to hear that it would take until November for the Democrats to pass a bill even in the House. It would have been even more shocking to have heard that, even after a full-court-press by the White House, the bill would pass by only five votes — meaning that if just three of the 435 members had changed their minds, it would have changed the bill's fate. And it would have been shocking to have heard that 39 Democrats would jump ship.

The House bill has passed — barely and belatedly — and it is now dead. Nothing like it will ever pass the Senate. The question now is whether anything will, now that the voters have spoken in New Jersey and Virginia — and now that the exceedingly narrow margin in the House will likely invite even greater scrutiny of that which is being proposed.

Greater scrutiny will not help the Democrats' efforts. In truth, their hopes for passage largely hinge on successfully hiding two plain facts from the voters: One, the House Republicans and the Congressional Budget Office have now shown that a bill costing $61 billion can lower Americans' insurance premiums, while bills costing $1.7 trillion cannot (and instead would raise them substantially). Two, the Democrats' plans would be paid for only if they follow through on plans to siphon hundreds of billions of dollars out of already-barely-solvent Medicare, and to do so just in time for the baby boomers' retirement. [emphasis added]

Grace-Marie Turner also questions this win for ObamaCare:

Speaker Pelosi and President Obama are declaring political victory today over health reform, but in so doing, they are going against the will of the American people who know they will be the real losers in the massive bill the House passed late last night that would turn our health sector into a nightmare of government bureaucracy.

Many Democratic members of Congress were strong-armed into voting for a bill that they know violates the basic freedoms upon which this country was founded because they didn't want to be the ones to hand defeat to their own party.

But next week they will head home to answer to constituents who will be learning more and more of the details about the bill they supported — the jobs-killing mandates on businesses, higher taxes, burgeoning entitlement programs, government intrusion into personal medical decisions, higher health costs, and federal dictates about the kind of health insurance Americans must have to avoid federal penalties — for starters.

Read the rest of both at Critical Condition.

Jennifer Rubin mentions a few Congressmen who weakened themselves by their votes last night:

So it is these Democrats and many like them who now become the most vulnerable to the wave of opposition from Republicans and independents that is building against the Obama-Pelosi-Reid ultra-left agenda. Some of them may survive, but it will be no thanks to their leadership. who forced a razor-thin vote on an increasingly unpopular and highly disruptive health-care “reform” bill. Elections are about differences and choices. We’ll have plenty of both in 2010.

RTR. I'm off to Mass and will be praying for my country. Do the same if you're so inclined.

*Update: a good summary of what's wrong with ObamaCare here by James Capretta.

Linked at Michelle Malkin (buzzworthy)

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