The Morning After

After last night's disaster in the House (the only thing really bipartisan about the bill was the opposition to it), here are some encouraging reflections from Jeffrey H. Anderson, writing for National Review Online:

It was always clear that the real health-care battle would be in the Senate. But what would have been shocking eight months ago is to hear that it would take until November for the Democrats to pass a bill even in the House. It would have been even more shocking to have heard that, even after a full-court-press by the White House, the bill would pass by only five votes — meaning that if just three of the 435 members had changed their minds, it would have changed the bill's fate. And it would have been shocking to have heard that 39 Democrats would jump ship.

The House bill has passed — barely and belatedly — and it is now dead. Nothing like it will ever pass the Senate. The question now is whether anything will, now that the voters have spoken in New Jersey and Virginia — and now that the exceedingly narrow margin in the House will likely invite even greater scrutiny of that which is being proposed.

I'm convinced that last night's vote, coupled with the cap and trade bill of last summer, will prove the undoing of the Democrats, come 2010 and beyond. The arrogance Pelosi et al. displayed in railroading this piece of legislation through, especially after last Tuesday's election results in New Jersey and Virginia, will only serve to crystallize the disgust and anger the American people feel toward what is going on in Washington.