The thing is, while Ryan is correct that Pelosi is good at “muscling votes”, there’s a world of difference between the present, and last June when Cap and Tax passed the House.
Now, we’re living in post VA, NJ, and MA special elections, with the President’s and Congress’s approval ratings at all time lows. I’m not sure she’s going to have the same amount of persuasive power, she did eight months ago. Especially in light of the fact that the electorate, besides not wanting the crap bill, is incensed about the corruption and back door deals that went into it.
Hat tip: Breitbart TV
MORE:
Via HotAir, another minor roadblock – a key Dem says reconciliation is off the table :
No wonder the Times was so pessimistic about reconciliation. Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND), who runs the committee that would have to run a reconciliation push, says that the budgetary process can’t be used for ObamaCare. It would only address the actual budgetary issues, which leaves a lot off the table. The Budget Committee chair told CBS’ Face the Nation audience that reconciliation wasn’t designed for this purpose, nor is it appropriate for such sweeping legislation:
UPDATE:
Pelosi says Obama has the votes to pass health reform
Pelosi, in an interview with ABC television’s “This Week” program, said Democrats would succeed in passing a bill despite concerted Republican efforts to derail Obama’s top domestic priority ahead of crucial mid-term elections.
“We’re here to do the job for the American people — to get them results that gives them not only health security, but economic security, because the health issue is an economic issue for America’s families,” she said.
President Barack Obama has the votes in the House of Representatives to force his flagship reform of US healthcare through without Republican support, House speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday.
UPDATE II:
Michelle Malkin is calling the DEms out on the bravo sierra:
This is the new strategy of the Dems — to keep repeating out loud that they have the support and they have the votes (even as they urge their members to commit health care hara-kiri and go down with the ship against the will of their constituents).
Pelosi is looking into her mirror and into the cameras and repeating: I have the votes.
They are counting on wearing down their opponents, catching them off-guard, and taking their silence as consent.
UPDATE III:
Why aren’t the Republicans using Robert Byrd’s opposition to using the reconciliation process to pass Obamacare? GJ Merits of The Substratum argues that the American people should hear that the architect of reconciliation is strongly against using it to pass the bill, calling it a “tyrannical act”:
Senator Byrd best expresses why using Reconciliation to jam ObamaCare down America’s throat degrades the U.S. Senate and violates the spirit of our system of checks and balances. Why is Senator Byrd’s opinion so important in the matter? Because the Senator from West Virginia is one of the authors of the reconciliation process and a current serving U.S. Senator. He is also a Democrat. Let’s see what the Senator says about reconciliation and healthcare:
Using reconciliation to ram through complicated, far-reaching legislation is an abuse of the budget process. The writers of the Budget Act, and I am one, never intended for its reconciliation’s expedited procedures to be used this way. These procedures were narrowly tailored for deficit reduction. They were never intended to be used to pass tax cuts, or to create new Federal regimes. Additionally, reconciliation measures must comply with Section 313 of the Budget Act, known as the Byrd Rule, which means that whatever health legislation is reported from the Finance Committee or legislation from any other Committee that is shoe-horned into reconciliation will sunset after five years. Additionally, numerous other non-budgetary provisions of any such legislation will have to be omitted under reconciliation. This is a very messy way to achieve a goal like health care reform, and one that will make crafting the legislation more difficult…
…It is the one place in all of government where the rights of the numerical minority are protected. As long as the Senate preserves the right to debate and the right to amend we hold true to our role as the Framers envisioned. We were to be the cooling off place where proposals could be examined carefully and debated extensively, so that flaws might be discovered and changes might be made. Remember, Democrats will not always control this chamber, the House of Representatives or the White House. The worm will turn. Some day the other party will again be in the majority, and we will want minority rights to be shielded from the bear trap of the reconciliation process…
…While I support the admirable budget priorities outlined in this resolution, I cannot and will not condone legislation that puts political expediency ahead of the time-honored purpose of this institution.
Newsmax also reports the Senator as stating that using reconciliation in this manner is
an outrage that must be resisted.
See Also:
Jennifer Rubin, who thinks the jig is just about up:
Reconciliation has been the buzzword of late, but it is becoming apparent that it’s a dodge intended to keep the hopes of the liberal base alive and to force the House to go first, which then might produce some magic key to unlock health care. But if the Senate budget chair is forcefully calling foul on the process, what then is the point of the House vote? According to Conrad, whatever the House came up with will have to go back and be put through the normal legislative process, subject to the filibuster.
Well, as with so much else on ObamaCare, one has the sense that this is a charade. No bill, no clear process, no public support, and no House majority. Had the summit been the breakthrough moment the Obami had hoped for maybe a groundswell of support could have shaken the pieces loose and then sharp deal makers could have sifted among the debris and constructed an ObamaCare III or whatever they would have called it. But the summit was a bust for the Democrats, and we’re talking specifically about Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, who proved to be just as unlikeable and ineffective as many suspected.
There simply may not be any way for this unpopular monstrosity to get though both houses, and it won’t be because the Dems didn’t try every trick in the book to try to ram it through. In the end, the will of the American people will have triumphed over the tyrannical designs of the Obama Dems.
Nice Deb 
