Will This Bill Ever Die ?

There are two sources of this story–Hot Air yesterday and Reuters today.  Both deal with the healthcare reform bill which seems to have come back to life recently.  The Hot Air article refers to an interview by Hugh Hewitt of Senator Jon Kyl yesterday in which Senator Kyl stated that the Democrats were prepared to use the reconciliation process on the bill.  On the other side of the coin:

According to Reuters:

“Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid reiterated there was no rush to pass the healthcare overhaul, the object of more than six months of intense political brawling in Congress.

“This is not a one-year Congress. It’s a two-year Congress,” Reid told reporters. “We’re going to do healthcare reform this year. The question is at this stage procedurally how do we get where we need to go?””

This is a very interesting statement for a variety of reasons.  Remember how important it was to get healthcare reform passed last fall?  Now there’s no rush.  The other thing to remember as this goes forward is that all of the House of Representatives and one third of the Senate are up for election in about ten months.  That fact alone will make it very hard to get any major legislation passed this year–especially legislation that is so unpopular with the voters.

Hot Air reports that:

“ABC News’ Rick Klein and Jonathan Karl report: The renewed optimism voiced by some Democrats over the prospects of passing a health care bill may be just a little premature.

Though House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is saying she thinks she can pass the Senate version of the health care bill if the House and Senate can agree on changes by using the budget process, the price tag for those changes could approach $300 billion, Democratic sources tell ABC News. That’s a figure that’s likely to give moderate Democrats sticker shock.”

Frankly, unless all Democrats running for office have a burning desire to leave Washington after the 2010 elections, I really doubt this bill will pass.