Posted on 02/08/2010 5:52:58 PM PST by Free ThinkerNY
A nice catch by Philip Klein that completely eluded me earlier. With 218 votes needed to pass Reid’s bill, the number of Democrats who voted for the House’s ObamaCare bill last year now stands at … 217.
Back in November, the House passed its health care bill by a narrow 220 to 215 margin, with 39 Democrats voting against it. Since then, the one Republican who voted for it — Joseph Cao — has indicated that he would not support the bill a second time around given the weaker language on abortion in the Senate version. In addition, Florida Rep. Robert Wexler already retired prematurely. Factor in Murtha’s death today, and Pelosi is down to 217 votes — one short of passage. To pass the bill at some point in the next few months, she’ll need to flip a Democrat who is already on record voting against the bill. This doesn’t even take into account the pro-life Democrats led by Bart Stupak who are prepared to vote “no.” While there’s been talk that Pelosi had some votes in reserve the first time around, the point is that those members felt they needed to vote against the bill — and the political environment has deteriorated substantially for Democrats since then…
Another complicating factor is Rep. Neil Abercrombie. The Hawaii Democrat announced early last month that he would resign Feb. 28 run for governor. However, in his statement announcing his resignation, he said that he had ensured Pelosi that he’d be around to continue supporting the health care bill. Back when he made that statement, Scott Brown hadn’t won yet, and thus the end of this month seemed like plenty of time to finalize the health care bill.
(Excerpt) Read more at hotair.com ...
Gee.... he’s only dead what makes you think he won’t vote
It’s the truth....I wonder if Peloski is planning anything “rude” on Republican Senators? I wouldn’t be drinking any water from the coolers around there.
LOL! You beat me to it.
Cao was the only republican invited to the maoist’s super bowl party.
We’ll see if he really does change his vote.
Thank God.
Any bets on how fast the DEMs get a DEM into Murtha’s seat ASAP?
No way can Queen Nancy get 218 votes next time around, regardless of whether Murtha votes from the grave or not. If Dims are not running scared about their home races, they should be!
Have no fear. 0 will get his health care.
This is not a correct understanding of politics in DC. Pelosi had more than 230 votes. She allowed as many Dims as possible to be benched to make it easier for those Dims to face their constituents.
I wonder if there are 217 these days?
I think the Dems are a lot more than 1 vote short.
He’ll be replaced by another order-taking Dem while a new election is scheduled, unless they just wait ‘til Nov election. The real question is how soon his replacement can be chosen and appointed.
It’s looking like there’s going to be quite a wake in Johnstown, PA.
I’m sorry, I just can’t say what I’m thinking in open forum... Just imagine intercepting a pass from the colts high powered QB, P. Manning, and running it back for a touchdown to seal a superbowl win.
“This is not a correct understanding of politics in DC. Pelosi had more than 230 votes. She allowed as many Dims as possible to be benched to make it easier for those Dims to face their constituents.”
I’m not so sure about that. If she had that many votes in reserve, I doubt she would have caved to Stupak and his 10-15 pro-life Dems who held out for strict anti-abortion language in the House bill.
If she didn’t need those votes, she would have never allowed that anti-abortion language into her bill.
Wexler retired?
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