Government-Run Insurance Markets, Taxes On Investment Income, A Trillion Dollars In New Spending, And A Federal Mandate To Buy Health Insurance: Welcome to ObamaCare!
Now that a promise of an executive order underlining existing restrictions on federal funding of abortion has brought Rep. Bart Stupak's pro-life faction on board, the Democrats' health care reform bill is now all but assured to pass by night's end.
One thing to note is that although the House will pass both the Senate bill and the reconciliation bill to amend it, they will only send the Senate bill to the President. That bill includes all sorts of legislative kickbacks and deals, and is so bad that, for weeks, House Democrats said they would never vote for it. Senate leadership has promised to pass the reconciliation bill unchanged, but it remains to be seen whether they will (or whether the Senate parliamentarian will object to any of its provisions). Either way, though, what passes tonight won't be an amended bill; it will be a bill filled with deals and favors that House Democrats have repeatedly criticized as too bad to pass.