Cost: the numbers look tough for Pelosi

Jay Cost at RCP considers The Hill’s list of No’s and Undecideds, and concludes that it’s a steep uphill climb for Speaker Pelosi. The Hill says there are 37 “Firm No, Leaning No, Likely No,” and Cost says 36 of those seem plausible to him. Then he considers, from the long list of Undecideds, the ones most likely to vote no. Now I believe (I’m not sure) that 40 Democrats must vote no if the bill is to be stopped. So if the great majority of the 37 “firm and likely No’s” vote no as expected, only a few of the Undecideds need to vote no to save the country from this monstrous coup d’etat.

Correction: There are currently 431 House members, and 253 Democratic members. If 38 Democrats vote no, that will leave 215 yes votes, one short of the 216 needed for passage.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at March 16, 2010 03:25 PM | Send