It is now the House of Representatives’ turn to further enable Obamacare. Later today, the House will vote on a $210 billion “doc fix” that is not paid for and would dramatically add to the deficit. Similar legislation was blocked in the Senate by a vote of 47 to 53 after Redstate readers took to the phones to stop it. 13 Democrats joined with all Republicans in standing with taxpayers.

Here is a refresher. The bill is a payoff to a powerful lobbying group—a $210 billion package for the American Medical Association. The funding is not offset and would dramatically increase the deficit. Democrats are betting that the bill will prove politically impossible for most Congressmen, including Republicans, to oppose as it addresses the number one priority for most doctors over the years—the fact that Medicare doesn’t reimburse them enough. By considering the “doc fix” apart from overall healthcare reform, Democrats remove a major cost to that package. As Senator McConnell said when the bill was before the Senate, “This is so transparent. They’re taking this issue out of health care, suggesting that we spend a quarter of a trillion dollars, not pay for it, so that they can then argue, the very next week potentially, that this trillion-dollar health care bill is paid for.”

The strategy is simple. Payoff the docs, make your bill appear to cost less, and force Republicans to choose between their doctors and the fiscal health of the nation.

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The news keeps getting tougher for the House Leadership in their irrational quest to pass their ObamaCare bill.

First, the Associated Press is reporting the bill will cost $1.2 Trillion without the doctor fix of $250 billion.

The new total will be $1.45 trillion — because the House Leadership intends to create a “self-executing rule” that would pull the doctor fix apart from the House ObamaCare bill — in order to keep the cost at $1.2 Trillion, then fuse the doc fix back into the ObamaCare bill after it passes the House.

It is like a magic trick, presto — $250 billion in new spending just appears in the bill after it passes.

Meanwhile, the new $1.45 billion ought to send the Blue Dogs scampering from the bill.

Then, of course, the House is finally grappling with two thermonuclear issues: abortion and immigration.

But, as numerous news reports state, the Democratic Leaders still do not have the votes for the bill — rumors abound, the most credible put the House vote count at less than 200 for the bill.

The more fundamental question is, why is the U.S. House voting before the U.S. Senate? House leadership has already moved the vote from Thursday to Friday, and are now talking about the vote being moved to Saturday or Monday of Tuesday of next week. House leaders should just punt the vote until after the Senate, and save their members — and themselves — the pain of voting.

Especially when the Senate is now talking post-Thanksgiving for its floor vote?

Why is the Speaker forcing its members to walk the plank again, prior to the Senate vote, especially when it is likely that the bill will never get off the Senate floor?

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