Easter eggs won't be the only things hidden this spring. President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) plan to hop through the halls of Congress, doing whatever they can to shove their idea of health care reform through the legislative process before their fellow Democrats go home for the Easter recess and have to face their constituents.

Continued...

According to a Democratic memo, here's the newly proposed Obamacare timeline:

• The House passes the Senate's health reform bill (passed by the Senate on Christmas Eve) by March 19.

• The bill then goes to the president for signature without going through conference.

• After the Senate bill becomes law, the House then amends the Senate bill through a reconciliation bill, to be passed by March 21. That bill would be the only opportunity to amend, add or strike provisions in the Senate bill.

• The Senate begins debate on the reconciliation bill by March 23. Debate is limited to 30 hours. Votes begin March 26, the first day of Easter recess.
(source)

Of course the success of this plan relies on enough House Democrats voting for the Senate bill. In November, the House passed its version of health care reform with just two votes to spare; prevailing 220-215 with the help of Representative Anh "Joseph" Cao (R-Louisiana) who has said he will not back it again. And Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) won't be able to count on all of her fellow Democrats this time around either. Also, the bill passed last year included the Stupak Amendment. Of the 219 Democrats who voted 'yes' last time, 40 did so only because the bill contained that amendment preventing taxpayer dollars from being used to fund abortions. Add in the current political climate (i.e. recent elections in New Jersey, Virginia and Massachusetts), the multiple polls showing the American public oppose Obamacare and the proximity to the mid-term elections in November and there's no guarantee the first step of this new timeline will bet met.

Giving the Obama machine their latest excuse to keep on pushing this hugely unpopular and obscenely expensive piece of legislation is the result of an Associated Press survey on Monday that found nine House Democrats had not ruled out switching their November 'no' votes to March 'yes' votes. (source) If they all go from not ruling out a change to actually changing, that may not be enough to cancel out those who will change from a 'yes' to a 'no' based on the abortion issue, their desire to get re-elected and/or their willingness to actually represent the wishes of those they were elected to serve.

In light of the Town Hall Meeting experience Democratic incumbents had during the August, 20009 recess, there's good reason why that self imposed deadline of March 26 has the feel of a last stand on this issue. President Obama and his cronies seem to realize they will lose the battle for the souls of moderate and conservative Democrats in a fair fight against the American people. Their last best chance is to expedite the process and take the necessary votes before the Easter recess.

Tomorrow the president is expected to announce his final "way forward" on this issue. Hopefully by March 26 any forward momentum on Obamacare will have hit a bipartisan brick wall, the threat of the federal power grab will be officially lifted and work can begin on meaningful health care reform.