Small Biz Health Care Daily: Health Care in Senate – The Vote and the Polls

Support continues to erode for ObamaCare in the polls, but Democrats in Congress and the White House continue to push this costly, messy effort to give government more control over health care.

Rasmussen Reports came out with a new poll today noting that 57% of voters believe it would be better to pass no health care bill this year rather than passing the plan being considered by Congress.

Meanwhile, there are some in the Senate fighting the good fight to stop this monstrosity that would hit health care consumers, small businesses and taxpayers hard.

According to The Hill, for example, Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) is not planning to make this any easier for the Democrats. The Hill reported:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) … hopes that Republicans will waive some of the procedural formalities so senators are not forced to spend the evening before Christmas milling about the Senate floor.

But DeMint (R-S.C.), chairman of the Senate Republican Steering Committee and a leader of the conservative opposition, told The Hill he will not yield back any time…

“I’m not going to waive any time,” DeMint said in an interview, when asked whether he would force Reid to go late into Christmas Eve to pass healthcare legislation. “I think it’s our responsibility to stretch this out because every day we do we have time to tell Americans what’s in it."

DeMint said Democrats hope “they can pass it before Americans know what’s in it, while people are thinking about Christmas and being with their families.”

In fact, the more people know about this big government health care plan, the more they dislike it. They are learning about the costs and the vast expansion of government spending, controls, regulations and taxes, and none of that is sitting well – and it should not sit well.

The worst thing that could happen is passage of the bill. So, the longer the debate labors on, the more opposition is likely to grow. Of course, the best outcome would be that some of the Senate Democrats worried about this bill would simply step up and declare that this is the wrong thing to do, kill the entire effort, and start the process over in order to produce some constructive reforms that actually would reduce costs, and expand competition, choice and consumer control in the private market.

Raymond J. Keating
Chief Economist
Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council