As much as it pains one to write this, Speaker Pelosi managed to get the necessary votes together to pass the Senate bill. And now that evil hybrid (the bill, not Pelosi) is on its way back to the Senate for their vote. This was without doubt the greatest hurdle for the worst piece of legislation in recent history.

As you know by this point, it passed by only three votes, all of which were supplied by the Stupak holdouts. Rep. Stupak was adamant against passing this bill because the language clearly was pro-abortion, and concluded that no matter how one analyzes the text of the bill, taxpayers are going to pay for abortions. But then, at the last minute, President Obama told Stupak that he would write what legally amounts to a memorandum saying that won’t be the case, and Stupak ignored the events of the last couple years of Washington politics in order to swallow that one whole.

Difficulties still remain for the bill, however, but crushingly they are nothing more than partisan delay tactics. Certainly, scanning the morning headlines, you would very much expect that everyone in the world is a millionaire, today, by the gushing text. That only helps encourage acceptance of bad legislation.

Worse, the likelihood is that Congressional Republicans may stop fighting the good fight after this one. Immigration reform? Turns out that both parties are not terribly far apart on that one. Other pending programs? Well, neither party has been following those very closely. Believe it: Cap and Trade passed because a large percentage of those in Congress did not even understand it.

No, healthcare was the big kahuna—and a whopping one. No topic has ever revealed the true motivations of either party so sharply before. For the social critics who like to say there is no practical difference between Democrats and Republicans, this one will be hard to spin away. Each side performed as expected. Even the so-called RINOs realized this one was bad.

The Czar cannot in good conscience even blame Americans for missing the big picture here: by and large, Americans hate this bill. They made it very clear. They sustained that hatred.

By now you have heard all the wonderful aspects to this bill—kids up to age 26 can stay on their parents’ plans, seniors can expect a $250 check in the mail, and so on—because the backers of the bill hope you won’t remember any of the bad stuff when the taxes kick in. The Czar will give slight credit to the press here: although they are reporting only the good, awesome, unicorn flatus coming out of the bill, it’s because these are the only things the repugnantly secretive Pelosi is allowing to be leaked out.

Fortunately, the plan to delay the onset of taxes and Medicare cuts gives enough leeway for that to backfire. The GOP has universally acclaimed that repealing this monstrosity before the changes are locked in will be their major campaign goal. While a full repeal will be impossible—assuming that the reconciliation amendments get approved—due to the thousands of tiny but significant tax law changes that will follow, that should play very well with the independent voters who clearly dislike this legislation. A galnvanized republican response may sadly be what the party has needed: so far, the candidates have been vocal, factual, and unified on their plan to repeal this mess as well as push through the real reforms that were first suggested in the Clinton administration. So some real good may come out of this.

But right now, it looks pretty bad for us, and ABCNews, which is fawning over this passage, still points out that the President’s obsession on healthcare has hurt the rest of the world by ignoring serious foreign policy issues.

Madness.

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.