Health Care Bill Passed: 220-215

Michelle notes that the Dems erupt as only people who just got a lot closer to getting their hands on a good chunk of the U.S. economy can. “Free health care that costs well over a trillion dollars” One Republican, Anh Cao, voted yes. One question: Why did the GOP let many pro-life Democrats off-the-hook by supporting the Stupak Amendment to, perhaps, prevent federal funds from being spent on abortion. As usual, the GOP tried to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and gave some conservative democrats cover going into the fall elections.

We need to make everyone who voted for this pay a heavy price next year!
I am too angry to write much more.

Update: Key Republican: GOP would repeal health bill if they win in 2010

We need to make this happen!

Update:

One Republican voted for Pelosicare: GOP Rep. Anh (Joseph) Cao of Louisiana.

Yes, he’s the one who took over corruptocrat Democrat William Jefferson’s seat. I had reservations about him on election night because of his soft-on-immigration views. But I gave him the benefit of the doubt. If he could stand strong on limited government and fiscal conservatism, it would be worth it.

Well, since he was elected, Cao has backed the S-CHIP expansion, the $108 billion IMF bailout, and the omni-waste spending bill. And he voted to rebuke GOP Rep. Joe Wilson for calling out President Obama on his health care lies.

That is a steep price to pay for Rep. William Jefferson’s removal.

Can’t the GOP do better?

For what it is worth, here is the cheap price the Democrats paid for Cao’s vote, again from Michelle:

Louisiana Congressman Anh “Joseph” Cao on Sunday morning released a statement after he voted as the only Republican in favor of the Democratic health care reform bill.

The health care reform bill, dubbed the “Affordable Health Care for America Act” (H.R. 3962), passed the U.S. House of Representatives in a 220 – 215 vote.

“Tonight, I voted to keep taxpayer dollars from funding abortion and to deliver access to affordable health care to the people of Louisiana,” Cao said in a statement released by his office. “I read the versions of the House [health reform] bill. I listened to the countless stories of Orleans and Jefferson Parish citizens whose health care costs are exploding – if they are able to obtain health care at all. Louisianans needs real options for primary care, for mental health care, and for expanded health care for seniors and children.”

Cao wrote he obtained commitment from President Obama that he would work together to address the health care issues of Louisiana, including the FMAP crisis and community disaster loan forgiveness, as well as issues related to Charity and Methodist Hospitals. “I call on all my constituents to support me as I work with him on these issues.”

He obtained a “commitment from President Obama.”

You know what that’s worth: Nothing.

another update:

The NRO thinks the bill might be dead in the Senate:

Mutiny in Scrutiny? by Jeffrey H. Anderson

It was always clear that the real health-care battle would be in the Senate. But what would have been shocking eight months ago is to hear that it would take until November for the Democrats to pass a bill even in the House. It would have been even more shocking to have heard that, even after a full-court-press by the White House, the bill would pass by only five votes — meaning that if just three of the 435 members had changed their minds, it would have changed the bill’s fate. And it would have been shocking to have heard that 39 Democrats would jump ship.

The House bill has passed — barely and belatedly — and it is now dead. Nothing like it will ever pass the Senate. The question now is whether anything will, now that the voters have spoken in New Jersey and Virginia — and now that the exceedingly narrow margin in the House will likely invite even greater scrutiny of that which is being proposed.

Greater scrutiny will not help the Democrats’ efforts. In truth, their hopes for passage largely hinge on successfully hiding two plain facts from the voters: One, the House Republicans and the Congressional Budget Office have now shown that a bill costing $61 billion can lower Americans’ insurance premiums, while bills costing $1.7 trillion cannot (and instead would raise them substantially). Two, the Democrats’ plans would be paid for only if they follow through on plans to siphon hundreds of billions of dollars out of already-barely-solvent Medicare, and to do so just in time for the baby boomers’ retirement.

Given the magnitude of the challenge of continuing to hide these plain facts from an increasingly attentive citizenry, the Democratic health-care train has a very bumpy ride ahead — as it rolls into the chamber that the American Founders thought from the beginning would ultimately decide our fate: the Senate.

— Jeffrey H. Anderson is a senior fellow in health-care studies at the Pacific Research Institute and was the senior speechwriter for Secretary Mike Leavitt at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services during Pres. George W. Bush’s second term.