Passage of the health care reform bill in the House of Representatives on Saturday was just the first victory for Barack and his socialist party fellows in Congress.
Although the future of the bill is still uncertain, it would have been another disastrous blow to Democrats if the legislation failed in the House, the likes of which happened during the Bill Clinton administration. Nevertheless, many obstacles and challenges still remain before and even after Barack can finally sign the health care reform bill into law.
The Senate has yet to set a date for its unified health care reform bill. The bill is still under evaluation, to be discussed by the full floor, delaying the voting procedure as late as next year.
In the House, the Democrat Party only needs 218 votes out of 258 Democrat and 177 Republican voting representatives to pass the bill, while Senate Democrats have to rally support from all 60 Democrat and Democrat-inclined members, versus 40 Republicans, to keep their bill from being killed.
The risks are not only caused by these figures. The whole country is in a state of crisis, fed by the slow economic recovery, a rising liberal budget deficit, record-high unemployment and the dilly-dally foreseeable expansion of the war in Afghanistan.
Although Barack’s administration was upbeat with the 3.5-percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the third quarter, the nation had no cause to rejoice when the unemployment rate reached 10.2 percent in October, the first time since 1983.
The federal deficit during the 2008 to 2009 fiscal year skyrocketed to 1.42 trillion dollars, which more than tripled the record level of the previous years.
After being condensed and cut, a total of 1.1 trillion dollars is still needed in the next decade to implement the House health care reform bill, which is causing great concern among tax payers.
When the Barack administration and Congress Democrats bring their health care reform initiatives into a new year, they will find themselves in an even tougher political situation with the 2010 mid-term elections looming ahead. The Congress will be reshuffled as all House Representatives and one-third of the Senators are elected, which will redefine the status of the Democrat and Republican parties at Congress and Barack’s left-wing presidency.
National polls conducted before and during the Nov. 3 local elections have shown that the economy and job creation, not the U.S. health care system, remain top issues for voters when assessing politicians and government.
Thus, it is still uncertain if and to what extent the victory in health care reform can actually boost Barack and his liberal socialist party. The bottom of the market for teleprompters has fallen out.