Pelosi-Care Gets By In The House

The House of Representatives has passed its version of healthcare by a slim margin, with 39 Democrats voting against it and one Republican voting for it (Rep Cao of LA, who won a special election to succeed Rep Jefferson, who was storing money in his freezer). Cao is in a heavily Democratic district, and he waited until the Dems had their margin of victory to join them. The word is if they didn't have the votes, he'd have voted with the Republicans.

A couple of things about this legislation.

1. It is a different bill than that before the Senate--quite different--especially in how it pays for itself (higher taxes).
2. Once the Senate passes a bill--if the Senate passes a bill--there will be a bruising conference committee to reconcile the House and Senate versions. Then both chambers will have to vote again.
3. It is difficult to conceive of a conference bill MORE liberal than the one that passed in the House--therefore, whatever comes out of the conference committee will assuredly pass in the House--by an even larger margin as some Blue Dogs will change their votes, citing an "improved" bill (a la the "stimulus").
4. The defection of the Blue Dogs in the House will be something for moderate Democrats in John McCain states to think about in the Senate.
5. As we've talked about here before, the longer this goes on, the less likely healthcare is to pass before the 2010 mid-term elections.
6. It was interesting yesterday to peruse the Washington Post website and see the prominent story of the 1 Republican who voted for the legislation--as if the 39 Democrats who voted against it didn't exist.

This is going to be fun.