Frank Barney may have just killed the Health Care Reform Bill . . . Time will tell

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Earlier this evening, following Brown's announced victory, Midknight Review predicted that Obama would try to proceed with his health care bill but would be defeated by those within his own party. Here is the first inkling our prediction may come true before the month is out. From the words of that famous House member, the toothless Barney Frank, we have this startling comment:

I have two reactions to the election in Massachusetts. One, I am disappointed. Two, I feel strongly that the Democratic majority in Congress must respect the process and make no effort to bypass the electoral results. If Martha Coakley had won, I believe we could have worked out a reasonable compromise between the House and Senate health care bills. But since Scott Brown has won and the Republicans now have 41 votes in the Senate, that approach is no longer appropriate. I am hopeful that some Republican Senators will be willing to discuss a revised version of health care reform because I do not think that the country would be well-served by the health care status quo. But our respect for democratic procedures must rule out any effort to pass a health care bill as if the Massachusetts election had not happened.

If health care was a fish this morning, after the night before, we find it laying on the shore, miles from the waters edge, tossing and turning, thrashing about for new life but without a prayer.

Look, if the Dems could not get the bill through Congress over the course of a year, it is not going to happen now that the "shot heard round the world" has been sounded from the voting booths of Massachusetts. One thing for certain, this bill will not be on Obama's desk by January 27th and the scheduled day for Obama's State of the Union address.

That speech will be nothing but a collection of misstatements and outright lies. No jobs in the private sector; 10% unemployment when "not more than 8%" was the promise; "transparency" as the promised rule when we had nothing but closed doors and the total rejection of the GOP by Obama; GITMO remaining open and a full year from closing - following Bush's time table for closing ; a thoroughly non-existent foreign policy; a nation less safe than when Bush was the Commander and Chief; civilian trials for combatants captured on the battlefield --- and on and on. He will have nothing to say and, certainly, nothing new to listen to.
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