Elijah Friedeman, the Millennial Perspective

Bad news for the Democrats.

Senior Congressional Democrats told ABC News today it is highly unlikely that a health care reform bill will be completed this year, just a week after President Barack Obama declared he was “absolutely confident” he’ll be able to sign one by then.

“Getting this done by the by the end of the year is a no-go,” a senior Democratic leadership aide told ABC News. Two other key Congressional Democrats also told ABC News the same thing.

This may come as an unwelcome surprise for the White House, where officials from the president on down have repeatedly said the health care bill would be signed into law by the end of the year.

“I am absolutely confident that we are going to get health care done by the end of this year, and Nancy Pelosi is just as confident,” Obama said Oct. 27 at a fundraiser for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Asked directly by ABC News, “Will you pass health care reform this year?” Reid pointedly did not answer “yes.”

Instead, he replied, “We are not going to be bound by any timetables,” adding, “We are going to do this as quickly as we can.”

The Democrats are stuck between a rock and a hard place with the healthcare fiasco. It’s looking more and more doubtful that they can push one of their bills through the House and Senate this year. But if they wait until 2010, Democrats will be forced to vote for a wildly unpopular bill during an election year. 

As election day 2010 draws closer, many Democrats, especially those from red states, will become more and more frantic as they try to watch out for their own political lives, making it harder for Reid and co. to pass PelosiCare, ObamaCare or whatever the new bill is at the time.

Healthcare by Reid and Pelosi is starting to look more and more doubtful. Thank goodness.

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