# Is the Health Care bill going to pass today? (March 21st) **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 21, 2010, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-health-care-bill-going-to-pass-today-march-21st/533261 "2010-03-21T19:30:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-health-care-bill-going-to-pass-today-march-21st/533261/1 "2010-03-21T19:30:06Z")
[This article](http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2010/03/what-time-is-the-vote-and-othe.html) doesn’t make me very confident that it will. From the article, appearances are that Dems have just barely exactly the number of votes they need–with several of those votes having good reasons to change their mind at the last minute, and many of them not even on the record as saying they’d vote yes this time. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Parker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/35a633/32.png) [@Richard\_Parker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Parker)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-health-care-bill-going-to-pass-today-march-21st/533261/2 "2010-03-21T19:48:53Z")
Stupak has a press conference in 12 minutes. I think it’s pretty safe to assume that he would not be holding this press conference to announce that his vote is still “no.” ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-health-care-bill-going-to-pass-today-march-21st/533261/3 "2010-03-21T19:50:28Z")
Interesting, thanks! (He’s the anti-abortion one, right? Do any votes probably come along with him?) ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Parker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/35a633/32.png) [@Richard\_Parker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Parker)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-health-care-bill-going-to-pass-today-march-21st/533261/4 "2010-03-21T19:51:31Z")
Yes, he is. And most likely his vote will bring several other votes (or rather, the agreement that secured his vote will also bring other votes). ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-health-care-bill-going-to-pass-today-march-21st/533261/5 "2010-03-21T19:55:16Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > Interesting, thanks! > > (He’s the anti-abortion one, right? Do any votes probably come along with him?) I think the last I heard was that he was claiming to have a bloc of 8 votes. I’m not sure if that included Marcy Kaptur, who committed to a yes vote earlier today. Or Joseph Cao, the lone Republican who voted for reform the first time around. ---
**Author:** ![Lantern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d26b3c/32.png) [@Lantern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lantern)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-health-care-bill-going-to-pass-today-march-21st/533261/6 "2010-03-21T20:07:36Z")
The bill will almost certainly pass. Sure there will be a few hold-outs till near the end but that is what happens with tight votes where the last few votes will want to extract the best terms. Ultimately the stakes are too high and Obama and Pelosi have too many cards for them to lose. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-health-care-bill-going-to-pass-today-march-21st/533261/7 "2010-03-21T20:07:45Z")
\*\*Is the Health Care bill going to pass today? (March 21st) \*\* With any luck, no. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Parker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/35a633/32.png) [@Richard\_Parker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Parker)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-health-care-bill-going-to-pass-today-march-21st/533261/8 "2010-03-21T20:08:56Z")
As expected, Stupak and his bloc have agreed to vote for the bill. Obama has agreed to issue an executive order confirming that the executive branch will not use federal money to fund abortion under the language of the bill. ---
**Author:** ![Lantern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d26b3c/32.png) [@Lantern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lantern)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-health-care-bill-going-to-pass-today-march-21st/533261/9 "2010-03-21T20:11:56Z")
Just [read](http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/stupak-reaches-abortion-deal-with-dem-leadership.php?ref=fpa)that there has been a deal between Stupak and the House leadership. I would say this seals the deal. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-health-care-bill-going-to-pass-today-march-21st/533261/10 "2010-03-21T20:19:00Z")
[Just for the record](http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/3/21/848658/-GOP-reprises-role-as-backward,-fearmongering-morons), the same gloom and doom surrounded Clinton’s 1993 budget, which led eventually to budget surpluses which the Pubbies tried to take credit for, despite every single damn one voting against it. Some samples: > [@](#): > > Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-GA), GOP Press Conference, House TV Gallery, 8/5/93: > I believe this will lead to a recession next year. This is the Democrat machine’s recession, and each one of them will be held personally accountable. > > Rep. John Kasich (R-OH), 8/5/93: > Do you know what? This is your package. We will come back here next year and try to help you when this puts the economy in the gutter… > > Rep. Christopher Cox (R-CA), 5/27/93: > This is really the Dr. Kevorkian plan for our economy. > > Rep. Thomas Ewing (R-IL), 8/5/93: > …This bill is a disaster waiting to happen. > > Rep. Jim Ramstad (R-MN), 3/17/93: > …will stifle economic growth, destroy jobs, reduce revenues, and increase the deficit. On Medicare: > [@](#): > > Rep. Robert Michel (R-IL), 4/8/65: > …I, for one… will be one of those voting for the motion to substitute the Republican proposal and if that fails, to vote against the bill on final passage, and hope that it helps to draw attention to the horrendous tax burden that is going to be thrust upon every American and every future generation. > > Sen. Milward Simpson (R-WY), 7/8/65: > This program could destroy private initiative for our aged to protect themselves with insurance against the cost of illness. > > Presently, over 60 percent of our older citizens purchase hospital and medical insurance without Government assistance. This private effort would cease if Government benefits were given to all our older citizens. > > Ronald Reagan taped anti-Medicare message: > “One of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism has been by way of medicine.” He urged his listeners to write to Congress opposing Medicare and warned, “If you don’t do this, one of these days you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was like in America when men were free.” On Social Security: > [@](#): > > Rep. John Taber (R-NY), 4/19/35: > Never in the history of the world has any measure been brought here so insidiously designed as to prevent business recovery, to enslave workers and to prevent any possibility of the employers providing work for the people. > > Rep. Daniel Reed (R-NY), 1935: > The lash of the dictator will be felt and 25 million free American citizens will for the first time submit themselves to a fingerprint test. > > Rep. James W. Wadsworth (R-NY), 1935: > This bill opens the door and invites the entrance into the political field of a power so vast, so powerful as to threaten the integrity of our institutions and to pull the pillars of the temple down upon the heads of our descendants. As we say around here: How’s that workin’ out for ya? ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-health-care-bill-going-to-pass-today-march-21st/533261/11 "2010-03-21T20:21:54Z")
> [@waterj2](#): > > I think the last I heard was that he was claiming to have a bloc of 8 votes. I’m not sure if that included Marcy Kaptur, who committed to a yes vote earlier today. Or Joseph Cao, the lone Republican who voted for reform the first time around. I believe Cao has already said that he won’t vote for the bill this time around (and probably not coincidently, not run for re-election in his heavily democratic district). Agree that with Stupak, the bills pretty much assured passage. Next week we can finally move on to arguing about something else. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-health-care-bill-going-to-pass-today-march-21st/533261/12 "2010-03-21T20:23:59Z")
Yes. We can move this thread to GQ. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-health-care-bill-going-to-pass-today-march-21st/533261/13 "2010-03-21T20:26:33Z")
**Dems Grow Pair!** Film at eleven. In other news, BatBoy and Bigfoot announce gay wedding plans. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-health-care-bill-going-to-pass-today-march-21st/533261/14 "2010-03-21T20:30:37Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > **Dems Grow Pair!** > Film at eleven. > > In other news, BatBoy and Bigfoot announce gay wedding plans. That’s ridiculous… gays can’t marry. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-health-care-bill-going-to-pass-today-march-21st/533261/15 "2010-03-21T20:32:40Z")
In DC, they can now. Right in the Capitol rotunda if they want. Or visible through the same windows through which, not that long ago, one could see slaves chained together being led to the auction. Times change, times change … ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-health-care-bill-going-to-pass-today-march-21st/533261/16 "2010-03-21T20:36:23Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > That’s ridiculous… gays can’t marry. Next on the agenda for Dems: the compulsory gay marriage act, hopefully it will be quick so we can move on too the War on Jesus and the America Sucks everyone else rocks proclamation. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-health-care-bill-going-to-pass-today-march-21st/533261/17 "2010-03-21T20:36:56Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > In DC, they can now. Right in the Capitol rotunda if they want. Or visible through the same windows through which, not that long ago, one could see slaves chained together being led to the auction. > > Times change, times change … Are you saying it’s time to legalize gay sex slavery? ---
**Author:** ![Blalron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@Blalron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blalron)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-health-care-bill-going-to-pass-today-march-21st/533261/18 "2010-03-21T20:42:21Z")
Intrade is giving passage a 97 percent probability. If anybody has any doubts at this moment and wants to bet money on it, now’s your chance. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-health-care-bill-going-to-pass-today-march-21st/533261/19 "2010-03-21T20:42:58Z")
And let all those fat Southern Baptist preachers who denounce it in the pulpits in their TV studios, and then go home and do it, _off the hook_? Not yet, not nearly yet … ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-health-care-bill-going-to-pass-today-march-21st/533261/20 "2010-03-21T20:49:40Z")
Ooooh… gays can only marry the opposite sex, then commit adultery by having gay slave sex in between their nationally televised sermons. This is getting complicated. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-health-care-bill-going-to-pass-today-march-21st/533261.md?page=2)