Democrats Panic Over ObamaCare

Democrats Panic Over ObamaCare

On Friday, the House of Representatives voted 261-157 in favor of the "Keep Your Health Plan Act," authored by Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI). Some 39 Democrats joined all Republicans in voting yes just a day after Barack Obama announced his own unilateral and illegal "fix" for his ailing law.

The Wall Street Journal summarized Upton's bill:

"The one-page bill would allow insurers to continue offering for sale in 2014 the policies that ObamaCare terminated, exempting them from federal regulatory edicts." However, because insurance companies have spent the last three and a half years working to comply with ObamaCare regulations, Upton's bill is unlikely to actually save many plans. Such is the nature of Obama's "you can keep your plan" lie.

By contrast, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) offered her own version of a "keep your plan" bill in the Senate. In this case, the Journal writes, Landrieu's bill "would order insurers to continue to offer the dumped plans that in many cases no longer exist. This is also a substantive due process violation for business and unconstitutional commandeering of state regulators." That would be par for the course.

Unfortunately, but predictably, the House vote didn't come close to a veto-proof majority as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) did the necessary nagging to prevent a caucus-wide jackass stampede. Furthermore, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) vowed that he won't take up the House bill. Either way, Obama would never let Congress compromise his legacy when he can come to the rescue himself.

But the House vote does indicate that, thanks to the disastrous rollout of ObamaCare, at least 39 Democrats are in near-total panic over their election prospects in 2014. Nearly all of them barely won their 2012 elections, and many are in Republican-leaning districts. Their short-sighted scrambling is quite a shift from 2010, when Democrats gleefully used their Washington hegemony to realize the 100-year-old progressive dream of "universal" health care. Recall that Democrats lost a near-record 63 seats in 2010 after passing the law. It's also clear that ObamaCare will hang like an albatross around Democrats' necks. They'll never admit it -- in fact, DNC chair Debbie Wassermann Schultz swears Democrats will run on ObamaCare next year -- but they all know it's true.