DRATS, He's delayed his trip until Summer

Obama pushes off trip to Indonesia until Summer.

With Dems throwing numbers out on cost today, the fix is in. Adding healthcare services to forty million more people is going to cost us 138 billion less than what we're all paying now.

Wow, what a magical man.

Let's see, he's given houses, cars and insurance to people who couldn't afford them.

What do you suppose is next? My guess is college for free for people who can't afford to take out 150,000 in loans. Of course, that's nearly everyone.
But like mortgages and school loans and health insurance - there'll be suckers working for years to keep current on monthly payments and then there'll be people boohooing about not being able to afford it.


Republican strategy is to make clear the deem and pass doesn't permit the kinds of changes to the bill the Dems are claiming they'll make once it's signed into law.

But Republicans argue that the adjustment would run afoul of a congressional rule that says "reconciliation" -- which is the legislative process Democrats want to use to usher the bill through the Senate with just 51 votes, instead of 60 -- cannot be used to tweak Social Security.

Because the tax on "Cadillac" insurance plans is projected to bring in revenue to Social Security, any change to that tax would presumably affect Social Security.

This is a clear violation, GOP sources told Fox News. And Senate Republicans plan to take to the floor to hammer this potential roadblock.

Their strategy appears to be to scare wavering House Democrats into voting against the original Senate bill. If Republicans can make the case that the "side-car" bill, or at least key parts of it, will never be passed, then they hope a number of fence-sitting Democrats will not want to go on record in support of a Senate bill they see as seriously flawed.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell hinted at this approach when he said the plan is for the bill to be defeated outright in the House.

Sadly, few people believe they give a flying fig newton about violations of law and process. They've burned the bridges and will never get this chance again.