ObamaCare Box Score — Conservatives 1 – Liberals 0

The first game in a long series of Obamacare battles is complete and the liberals lost Game 1 by 13 votes. The Senate voted against a procedural motion to debate the so-called “Doc Fix” bill Wednesday. Just as Manny Ramirez of the Los Angeles Dodgers has taken a beating in the media for leaving Game 5 of the National League Championship Series early to take a shower and hitting a mere .250 for the series, Senator Harry Reid has taken a beating in the press for marching the Democrat Caucus into a losing vote in the first battle over Obamacare.

A bipartisan coalition of senators concerned about spending stopped Senators Reid from bringing “Doc Fix” to a vote with 13 Democrats siding with the entire Republican Caucus. Democrat Senators Evan Bayh of Indiana, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl of Wisconsin, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Bill Nelson of Florida, Jon Tester of Montana, Mark Warner and Jim Webb of Virgina, Ron Wyden of Oregon and Independent Democrat Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut all opposed the motion to start debate on the bill.

The strategy to pass the “Doc Fix” outside of Obamacare in an attempt to buy off doctors groups’ support for Obamacare was documented in the media. The Hill reported earlier this week that “the White House and Democratic leaders are offering doctors a deal: They’ll freeze cuts in Medicare payments to doctors in exchange for doctors’ support of healthcare reform.” Clearly the majority of senators would not go along with this strategy because the $247 billion price tag for the bill was too high to buy Obamacare.

The secret negotiations in the Capitol on Obamacare held by Senators Reid, Max Baucus of Montana, Chris Dodd of Connecticut, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag and Health Care Czar Nancy-Ann DeParle ordered the Senate to take up “Doc Fix” and Senate Leaders failed to win the first proxy fight on Obamacare. This vote clearly shows that Democrats have a long way to go before their caucus is ready to vote for expensive health care bills that add billions in new debt to an already massive $1.4 trillion debt from this year. Obamacare is one step closer to hitting the showers, but this first loss will send the Obamacare coaching staff into a frenzy to figure out a new strategy to win passage of President Obama’s health care reform bill.