The Ding-Dongs go for Ping-Pong on health care

The New Republic is reporting that sources from both the House and the Senate say that the Democrats will employ the Ping-Pong strategy rather than reconcile the two health care bills in conference.

Under the Ping-Pong strategy, negotiations are done behind closed doors until a final version of the bill can be agreed up. If you thought there was dirty wheeling and dealing before, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Behind closed doors, Pelosi and Reid will wheel and deal anything so that they can get 217 House votes and 51 Senate votes. Then they will rush out and vote on it before anyone can change their minds.  No one will know what is in that turkey until after it passes.

The New Republic tries to make it look like Republican stonewalling is the reason the Dems will go for the Ping-Pong strategy.  Nonsense, both Reid and Pelosi know damn well that taking the bill to conference could spell its demise by Democrat hands. Democrats already know the bill is a stinker, they know the public is sickened by expensive backroom deals that were cut and they know they have some pretty big differences between the two bills.

So the better way for Pelosi and Reid to go, is to first find those House and Senate members who are willing to play “Lets Make a Deal” and then craft the legislation around those member's desires. So long as the bill retains the ability to dictate to private insurance companies, everything else will be negotiable … including abortion.

With any luck, the new public anger over terrorism maybe enough to cow enough Democrats that Harry and Nancy are unable to scrape enough votes together no matter how much they offer.

Via: Memeorandum

Via: The New Republic