The leading ObamaCare proponent in the Kentucky legislature has been begging House Speaker Greg Stumbo to rush through his bill to give his bill to make the federal healthcare takeover legal. So far, Stumbo doesn't seem to be going for it.
House Bill 505 would ratify Gov. Beshear's executive order creating the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange, dealing a blow to the legal challenge against Beshear's order and creating a possibility that Kentucky's ObamaCare exchange will survive legally past the end of the fiscal year.
Rep. Tom Burch filed HB 505 last Friday and wants to sneak in a hearing on the bill tomorrow before opponents can mobilize for a noon meeting of the House Health and Welfare Committee. For that to happen, Stumbo would need to waive a three day posting requirement in the committee today. Posting wavers require a voice vote on the House floor, which would ostensibly pull all the House Democrats on the record in favor of ObamaCare. Most of the House Democrats do not want to go on record in favor of ObamaCare.
Stumbo could call the voice vote and then rule however he wants, so the unpopularity of ObamaCare isn't a certain stumbling block to this happening today. But it isn't at all likely Stumbo wants to die on this hill. If he gives ObamaCare a thumbs up today, his chances of maintaining a Democratic majority in the House fall to zero.
Stumbo's chances of clinging to power after November are probably nonexistent anyway, but a procedural move for ObamaCare today would cinch it.
