Beltway Snark

It’s not quite as advertised.

The Blue Dogs and House leaders have struck a deal to guarantee that the House will not vote on a healthcare bill before August, a leading Blue Dog said on Wednesday.

In exchange for putting off a floor vote until after Labor Day, the Energy and Commerce Committee may be allowed to continue its markup of the healthcare bill this week even if an agreement has not been reached between Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and seven Energy and Commerce Committee Blue Dogs over the content of the bill.

Asked if House leaders had told Democrats that there will be no House vote on healthcare before Friday, Blue Dog Co-Chairwoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-S.D.) said, “I don’t think [leaders have] made public statements to that regard, but my understanding is that that would be part of an agreement, if they actually do move forward with an Energy and Commerce markup that there will be no vote on the House floor until after Labor Day.” …

“There has been no official announcement on floor timing, but at this point, the odds are that we will not likely vote before we adjourn for August,” a Democratic leadership aide said.

Now the silly gooses could have stopped right there and called it a day until after Labor Day but nooooo, they want to make life harder for themselves.

The compromise would cut the cost of the $1 trillion-plus package by $100 billion, according to one member of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition. The deal also would ensure that the proposed government-run insurance program would not be forced on anyone.

“We have reached an agreement that will allow health care reform to move forward,” Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark., said.

Seven of the Blue Dogs have held up passage of the bill in the House Energy and Commerce Committee over concerns about cost and the speed at which Democratic leaders were advancing the legislation. The committee is the only House panel that hasn’t voted on the bill.

…

With the announcement, the committee is set to meet Thursday for a mark-up of the bill, in which lawmakers finalize legislation.

I hope all the other Dems are giving those Blue Dogs dirty looks. See, if the bill was still held up in committee it would give Dems an excuse to lob out there when their constituents start asking questions about price and coverage. Once the bill is out of committee it is a finalized bill ready for a vote. A big, fat, juicy bill that will be just hanging out there for a month waiting to be torn to shreds.

In the history of monumentally stupid moves, this has to rank in the top ten. And the morons don’t even realize what a colossal mistake they just made.

By the way, the other Blue Dogs, not to mention the Republicans and liberal Dems, aren’t thrilled with this version of the ObamaCare bill.

The 52-member Blue Dog Coalition in the House said in a written statement that the entire group has not yet taken a position on the compromise measure.

But Rep. Walt Minnick of Idaho, part of the Democratic coalition, said the deal would not win widespread support.

“The majority of the Blue Dogs don’t think this is the best bill we can get. We want to keep talking to our constituents,” he said.

The deal didn’t seem to appease Republicans either.

Republican Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana told FOX News the fact that a public option remains in the bill means government will end up vastly expanding its role in health care at the expense of private plans.

“It’s supposed to be a deal, but it sounds like a pretty bad deal for American taxpayers,” he said.

With enough Democratic votes, the House leadership does not need Republicans in order to win approval on the floor. However, support among Democrats is still tenuous, with liberal members starting to complain about the deal reached Wednesday.

So not only did getting this bill out of committee before recess give opponents a huge red target to shoot at, it’s a bill that could still very well be shot down in a floor vote. This win sounds more like a fail to me.