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November 9, 2009 (LPAC)—Over the next few days, we anticipate that the stories will begin to surface, concerning the brutal threats and blackmail by which Nancy Pelosi, backed by the Obama White House, managed to ram her Nazi healthcare bill through the House of Representatives by a 220-215 vote late Saturday night. 39 Democrats, including 24 Blue Dogs, voted against the bill; only one of these — Rep. Dennis Kucinich — was a Single-Payer advocate. In a statement issued after the vote, Kucinich blasted the Pelosi bill for perpetuating the existing system of "a predatory, for-profit insurance system which makes money not providing health care," and he charged that the bill accelerates the privatization of health care. He particularly pointed to the extraordinarily high administrative costs of the present system.

The sole GOP vote for the bill came from Rep. Joseph Cao (R-LA) who was promised all sorts of goodies by the Obama White House, including aid for hospitals in his New Orleans district and disaster-loan forgiveness.

Many observers expect that the deal that Pelosi made — to allow the anti-abortion language of the Stupak amendment into the final bill — will be a hollow victory for abortion opponents, backed by the short-sighted Catholic bishops. The language prohibiting funding of abortions, as with other Pelosi compromises, is likely to be stripped out of the final bill in the House-Senate conference; Obama's team wants the final bill to conform to the vicious cost-cutting Baucus bill in the Senate, more than to anything passed by the House—especially as the House bill does not include crucial cost-cutting measures, such as the IMAC.

With the fight now shifting to the Senate, Politico reports that Harry Reid will hold Saturday sessions during December to attempt to get health reform done by Christmas. But Politico also notes that the Senate debate has stopped dead, and that the Senate may not even begin floor debate until after Thanksgiving. Sen. Lindsey Graham said today on CBS that the House bill "is dead on arrival" in the Senate, and GOP consultant Ed Rollins stated that the House bill "wouldn't get 50 votes in the Senate today."