Hard to believe these are the same news stories. AP reports that the Congressional Budget Office Director concludes the Obamacare Bill will fail to slow the rise of health care costs. Fortunately, the story continues, bipartisan efforts and a revamping of the President’s schedule should get a fairly comprehensive bill passed in some form.

Or on the other hand, you can read Bloomberg’s gloom and doom-berg assessment: that the CBO director has effectively concluded that Obamacare will fail to pay for itself, ultimately running out of money; that despite the Dems reaching out to the GOP for any sign of compromise, POTUS Obama (and this is according to Senate Finance Comittee Chairman Max Baucus) has screwed the deal by promising union members won’t need to pay into the system (as scooped here by the Mandarin). And that Speaker Pelosi shot herself in the foot yet again when her own party members realized she would be billing them 5.4% of their incomes to pay for this. And that the GOP is loading some big bore ammunition with this news. And that Dems are starting to complain about the messiness of paying for this rushed legislation without thinking of the obvious consequences. And that the President’s mysterious goal of having this done by August is probably pure fantasy at this point. And so on and so on.

The reality is this: the American public got snowed by Cap and Trade simply because the bill was rushed through before the public caught wind of its implications (snow, wind, get it?). The President’s insistence that the healthcare bill be passed by August is simply the same strategy: jam it though, because as more people hear about it, the more they will resist it.

This strategy seems to be failing: even ABC World News this very evening is questioning the wisdom of a one trillion dollar minimum buy-in for something not clearly explained. Even at its most popular, the bill appears to have support of less than 25% of the population—not that majorities mean much to this President. But no matter how disastrous this will be, the President will surely sidestep it and claim that Congress F’d it up; indeed, very likely no one will blame him if this bill dies the death it deserves.

But his luck is starting to run out. Some of us believe that seeds of POTUS44’s eventual defeat have already been planted. Which will bear fruit first?

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.