NEOAVATARA

After a year of debate, protests, under the table and behind closed door deals…the Democrats have virtually admitted defeat on Obamacare.

Their last hope lay in the possibility of reconciliation…a calling cry from the left for months.  But it now appears, even that path is closed to them.

Republicans have laid out a strategy of submitting amendment after amendment if the Democrats carry through on reconciliation.  Reconciliation allows for endless amendments to be offered, and the submission of those amendments would only stop with a closure vote, which requires 60 votes…which the Democrats no longer have.

That has left the Democrat leadership with no alternative but the put the entire process on hiatus.  Now some would say that means the bill is still alive.  I don’t think so.  This is an election year, people, and passing a bill that 60% of the public currently opposes is political suicide…look at Massachusetts.  A delay on the bill is by definition pulling the plug.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, said Democratic leaders were assessing their options on health care.  “It’s a timeout,” Mrs. Feinstein said. “The leadership is re-evaluating. They asked us to keep our powder dry.”  Mrs. Feinstein said Congressional leaders should simplify the gigantic health care bill and try to pass parts of it that would be understandable to the public. But she also acknowledged that the odds were long for a far-reaching measure.  “I think big, comprehensive bills are very difficult to do in this environment,” she said.

And that is virtually the most optimistic thing I heard from a Democrat Senator regarding the bill…not exactly a glowing endorsement.

Of course, the one alternative left is for the House to pass the existing Senate version of the bill.  But that, too, would be political suicide.  It includes the ‘Cadillac plan’ tax that unions had to fight tooth and nail to get an exemption from the White House for…an exemption, you will note, that does not exist in the current Senate plan.  It is the progressives in the House that would rather kill the bill than pass a bill they know would virtually kill any enthusiasm at the polls for their side of the aisle.

And so, Obamacare appears to be quietly dying.  Sure, they may pass some limited health care reforms.  And some of those reforms are necessary, and will be positive improvements.  But the far reaching dreams of liberals from Ted Kennedy to Barack Obama appears to be slipping away once again.