February 3, 2010 9:05AM # How to Tell When ObamaCare Is Dead By [Michael F. Cannon](https://www.cato.org/people/michael-f-cannon) --- SHARE Democrats have lots of ambitions. One of them is their [health](https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=10382) [care](https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=10576) [overhaul](https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=11108), which included a lot of “pay-fors” — i.e., spending cuts that would pay for [ObamaCare](https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=10583)’s new entitlements. But they also want a jobs bill, a “doc fix,” and other things that require new government spending. Those also require pay-fors — unless Democrats are willing to expand further a $1‑trillion-plus deficit — and pay-fors are a scarce commodity. Today, CongressDaily’s Anna Edney [reports](http://www.nationaljournal.com/congressdaily/hca_20100203_9209.php): > Some, though, are skeptical Democrats would use any of the pay-fors because that would mean officially declaring the reform effort dead. > > > “I don’t expect any effort to dismantle the reform bill until there’s no pulse,” one lobbyist said. Right now, ObamaCare is mostly dead. And as we all know, “[There’s a big difference between mostly dead and all dead…Mostly dead is slightly alive.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GrYNaaYSjs)” A good way to tell when ObamaCare is all dead is when Democrats start picking at the carcass for pay-fors. ##### Related Tags [General](https://www.cato.org/general), [Health Care](https://www.cato.org/health-care) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).