Harry Reid Loses Shell Game

And this guy thinks he’s going to vaporize his opponent next year? This guy just got vaporized by his own party.

Harry Reid, fast becoming one of the most unliked politicians in Washington (and that’s quite a feat), was smacked down by his own party for trying to treat them like a bunch of idiots. Well, he got some on board. His scheme didn’t attract one Republican. Reid’s problems started when the AMA threatened to pull their support for Obamacare unless they dropped the idea of cutting Medicare payments to doctors as outlined in the Baucus bill. Funny, that Baucus bill was essentially a series of memos, but it has ballooned to over 1500 pages in just a few days. I guess they could have written in that much new material in the last few days. Sure.

That’s yet another issue with Obamacare. This particular issue culminated with Reid basically taking the cuts that theoretically would have saved money and not drive up the deficit in the Baucus bill and tacked that same money onto another bill that would “unfreeze” Medicare payments to doctors. Basically, he’s taking savings out of one bill and using it to pay off the AMA in another.That’s right. The money Baucus was going to cut, and therefore lower the price tag to $800 billion+ would have gone out one door and in another if Reid got his way.

He didn’t. Reid could only muster 37 votes in a Senate that boasts a 60 vote Democratic majority. Do you think he tore into his Democratic pals? No, he blamed the Republicans for holding up this nightmare. They did their part, but with only 39 votes in the Senate, they don’t have a lot to say. What Reid is really angry about, aside from the fact that he was thoroughly embarrassed, is that he doesn’t think $250 billion is that much. In fact, he railed against tort reform earlier in the week, saying the potential $54 billion in savings was nothing compared to a $2 trillion price tag. It sure sounded like the “T” word slipped out. Judge for yourself.

Given that most of the proposals floating around Congress were written by outside sources (like the stimulus bill), Democrats even realize that there is no clear idea of what this monster would really cost. Reid is throwing our money around like he has his own personal ATM card from China. Apparently he doesn’t.