Another "Squeaker" from the Speaker. And, She Don't Care!

After the dust settled Saturday night, it was only 3 votes that kept Nancy Pelosi from suffering a defeat on the health care reform bill. Given the fact that Nancy has a 40-vote majority in the House of Representatives, this is hardly a proud accomplishment. If anything, it shows how partisan and how minimally accepted the Democrat's take on health care reform actually is.

Sadly, we could possibly have a health care system that was barely passed through Congress. In many cases, what Congress actually passes into law impacts but a small percentage of Americans. But, in this case, every single American will be affected by what was done last Saturday. And, to have it approved by such a scant majority is just frightening. When you really break it down, only 50.6 percent of the House of Representatives actually voted to approve this legislation. Conversely, 49.4% of the House voted against it. To convert that percentage into population terms, it means that 148 million people, out of a total population of 300 million, were not being represented in this process. The same was true with the scant majority the House had when they passed their version of Cap and Trade.

It is possible that they may have passed legislation that might not be acceptable to the majority of people in this country. But this just may be the driving force behind the immediacy to pass all this politically biased legislation. I think that Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Barack Obama, and numerous Democratic strategists are well aware that, by doing what they are doing, they could suffer substantial losses in 2010 and 2012. But, they also understand that any losses would not be great enough to undo what they have done. That's because to do so, the Republicans would have to have a two-thirds majority in the Senate to override a veto by this President; and, the odds of the Republicans having that kind of majority are historically slim.

So, like it or not, we may be stuck with what Obama and the Democrats are doing. The only thing that could reverse their actions would be a literal sea change in the political affiliations of the U.S. Also, some portions of Health Care Reform and Cap and Trade could be found to be unconstitutional if brought up through the Supreme Court. For sure, the real impact of what has or will be done by this Congress won't be felt until 2020 and beyond that date. Sadly, with America's typical short memory, the Democrats may never be seriously punished for their actions of these first months of Obama's Presidency.