Is Obamacare really dead?

As Massachusetts victor Scott Brown threatens to derail health care reform, Democrats are scrambling to save it

Last month Obama appeared to have won an epic battle to reform and expand America's health care system — a victory that's slipping away after Scott Brown's remarkable upset in Massachusetts gave Republicans enough Senate votes (41) to potentially filibuster the bill's final passage. With his legacy hanging in the balance, Obama faces difficult questions: Will Brown's victory really kill the current health-care reform bill — and what's the best way to save it? (Watch a Fox report about the state of health-care reform)

Health reform is D.O.A.: It didn't take a genius to figure out that "ramming through an unpopular health care bill on a party-line vote" would cost the Democrats dearly, says Megan McArdle at the Atlantic, "and it has." None of the Dems' theoretical next moves — passing the bill before seating Brown, forcing the House to accept the Senate version, or passing it through special parlimentary rules — are politically realistic. "It's dead."

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