Ding, Dong, The Bill Is Dead!!!

Despite all the scheming and finagling behind the scenes, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has publicly admitted the inevitable – the only chance to ram the Obamacare monstrosity through to the President’s desk ain’t gonna happen.

“’In its present form without any changes I don't think it's possible to pass the Senate bill in the House,’ Pelosi said, adding, ‘I don't see the votes for it at this time.’

Pelosi's remarks signaled that advancing health legislation through Congress will likely be a lengthy process — despite Democrats' desire for a quick election-year pivot to address jobs and the economy, which polls show are the public's top concern.

‘We're not in a big rush,’ Pelosi said. ‘Pause, reflect.’”

In other words, her caucus has made it quite clear that they have no intention of walking the plank for this mess. And this comes less than twenty-four hours after Pelosi’s insistence that one way or another the Obamacare bill WILL pass. She’s already reflected and the conclusion is: it’s over. She and the rest of the leadership will continue to pay lip service to the notion of health care reform but as a practical matter this won’t so much as come up for a procedural vote again the rest of the year.

Maybe, never again. Though one should never say never again if they couldn’t do this now, then when could they ever?

With about 10 months to go until the mid-term elections in November, it is highly doubtful that the rank and file members of this party are going to bother trying to go back to the drawing board. The majority of the American people want only one thing from a health care reform bill: lower health care costs - and NOT at the price of higher taxation. Democrats have no incentive to deliver this. They’d rather have control of over a sixth of the country’s GDP, doling out their version of health care as they see fit, fundamentally changing the very structure of the system and enhancing their own power.

Oh sure, the leadership (at the President’s behest) may wait hopefully for the “anger” to blow over and try to craft a stealthier version that would act as a Trojan Horse for future changes. But the GOP leadership in both the House and Senate (God bless Mitch McConnell) will shut that down, but good. And it’ll give Republican candidates something to highlight and beat on like a cheap pinata.

So where does that leave Democrats for the rest of this Congress? Cap and Trade? Uh-uh. Immigration reform? Yeah, right. How about a second Spendulus bill? To quote Dana Carvey’s Bush 41: “Not gonna do it. Wouldn’t be prudent.”

I would expect the Congress to become paralyzed in an electoral funk hoping to minimize the damage control over the next year’s polling numbers. I definitely expect the angry Left to become angrier. And I hope above all political hopes that the rest of the GOP has paid careful attention to the successful Scott Brown campaign.

But take heart, gentle readers, that after all of the gut-wrenching back and forth throughout this scary power-grab attempt we can finally say those words.

Obamacare is history.