House Democrats passed the 2,032-page Pelosicare bill on a near party-line vote Saturday night 220-215 (roll call here). The only Republican voting in favor of the measure was New Orleans-based Joseph Cao who has long ago proven to be a tax and spend (and spend and spend) liberal.
After a week of intense arm twisting, threats and promises from party leaders, more than half of the 52 so-called conservative Blue Dog Democrats voted in favor of the over $1.3 trillion measure. These are the 28 Blue Dogs voting in favor of Pelosicare (who apparently fear the wrath of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi more than the will of their own constituents):
Mike Arcuri (N.Y.)
Joe Baca (Calif.)
Marion Berry (Ark.)
Sanford Bishop (Ga.)
Leonard Boswell (Iowa)
Dennis Cardoza (Calif.)
Christopher Carney (Penn.)
Jim Cooper (Tenn.)
Jim Costa (Calif.)
Henry Cuellar (Texas)
Kathy Dahlkemper (Penn.)
Joe Donnelly (Ind.)
Brad Ellsworth (Ind.)
Gabrielle Giffords (Ariz.)
Jane Harman (Calif)
Baron Hill (Ind.)
Mike Michaud (Maine)
Harry Mitchell (Ariz.)
Dennis Moore (Kan.)
Patrick Murphy (Penn.)
Earl Pomeroy (N.D.)
John Salazar (Colo.)
Loretta Sanchez (Calif.)
Adam Schiff (Calif.)
David Scott (Ga.)
Zack Space (Ohio)
Mike Thompson (Calif.)
Charles Wilson (Ohio)
The bill these “fiscal conservatives” voted in favor of on Saturday includes over $730 billion in job-killing taxes, the majority of those taxes shouldered by the small businesses -- those which in lesser-taxed times, created the most new jobs. The bill also taxes premium health insurance plans enjoyed by most union members.
Pelosicare as passed by the House Saturday also still includes one-half trillion dollars in cuts from Medicare and builds the infrastructure to ration health care based on age and cost. This is one of the major reasons CBO scored the bill as a money saver. But the Medicare cuts are probably illusory, as they have been in the past. Congress just won’t cut these benefits, though they talk about it almost every year.
Pelosi carved the costly “doc fix” measure out of the bill to intentionally manipulate the Congressional Budget (CBO) system and keep the perceived cost of the bill down. The actual cost of Pelosicare rises to $1.6 trillion when you include “doc fix” which is an attempt to fix the underpayment of doctors currently driving them out of participation in the Medicare system.
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