Deem and pass? Absolute lunacy

So the latest scuttlebut from DC was an idea floated from Dem leadership in Congress, or Nancy Pelosi that house dems could attempt to pass healthcare reform through a process called "deem and pass." Basically the way this rule works is that the house deems the bill sufficient or the same as a bill previously passed and sent to the Senate and with this rule they could conceivably send the bill to President Obama's desk without the need for another vote on it.

Frankly there is no other world for such a procedure than sheer madness on the Dems part should they try it. This bill has been hyped and has been in front of the public for over a year now and to pass it in a way clearly due to it's unpopularity and the fact that they can't pass it with the votes would kill the dems more than a thousand gay sex scandals in the polls this upcoming novemeber. Frankly, I doubt that even they would be so bold as to go that far and recent news may make it so that they don't have to take such an undesirable route.

The CBO came out with their projections on Obamacare and for the dems the news was very encouraging. According to the non-partisan CBO they estimate that the healthcare reform bill would cost the country 940 Billion dollars over ten years and would save the country some cash by bringing down or controling healthcare costs more than our current system allows. The problem with these estimates though is that they are exactly that, estimates. In almost every other government system the estimates have been woefully lower than what was found to later be the ultimate cost of the bill. In Medicare the costs versus what the estimates were were so far off that Medicare ended up costing nine times more and as of now is still in need of massive government funding to keep from going bankrupt. Add on to that a system in which seeks to subsidize or take over a fifth of the US economy from the private sector and we still have a recipe for a system that could massivly baloon in cost.

Alas, with this score it will or may give some wavering Dems enough cover to vote yes on the bill and force through this bill as soon as this Sunday. From there it would then go to the Senate were the game plan for the Dems will likely be to pass it without any changes so it may go to Obama's desk for signature into law.

Sigh, I can now only hope that my own views on this bill and it's impact on our country are wrong, much the same way that I have hoped that my opinion of Obama was wrong during his campaign and how he would govern in office. Sorry to say, more often than not I have been right, but this time let's hope if this passes it does help our country.

-Zach