Harry Reid now concedes that the Senate will not be able to meet the August deadline set forth by Barack Obama to destroy “fix” healthcare. He says that Democrats will not get a floor vote on the legislation until after the August recess.

Senate Democratic leaders on Thursday abandoned plans for a vote on health care before Congress’ August recess, dealing a blow to President Barack Obama’s ambitious timetable to revamp the nation’s $2.4 trillion system of medical care.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., delivered the official word on what had been expected for weeks, saying, “It’s better to have a product based on quality and thoughtfulness rather than try to jam something through.”

His words were a near-echo of Republicans who have criticized the rush to act on complex legislation that affects every American.

Reid told reporters the Senate Finance Committee will act on its portion of the bill before lawmakers’ monthlong break. Reid then will merge that bill with separate legislation passed by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee earlier this month.

This issue has been simply disastrous for Democrats. When they started, the public overwhelmingly approved of the job Barack Obama was doing on the issue and supported ObamaCare-type legislation to overhaul the system. Now, poll after poll shows approval for Obama on the issue under 50% and the majority of Americans now oppose ObamaCare. Democrats continue to insist that the public remains on their side and want this legislation passed, but that flies in the face of reality.

The fact that we’re now looking at a post-recess vote is also an embarassment for Barack Obama. The president, with full control of the Senate and House, set an August deadline for his complete overhaul of our healthcare system. What he got instead was delay after delay, the inability to hold even the Democratic Party together, voters actually laughing at Democratic representatives, and PR disasters such as the statements made by the Mayo Clinic. Now he’ll be forced to settle for whatever bill Congress can agree to at a time of Congress’ choosing. He looks like the third person on a date, hanging back with no control.

This month recess gives opponents time to further expose to the public the disastrous implications of passing ObamaCare. Americans will be shown how the healthcare system’s quality with be degraded, the government control will put bureaucrats in charge of your health, rationing will become the new norm in this country, and how tens of millions of Americans will be shoved off their current private plans. It’s not going to get easier for supporters of a socialized healthcare system from this point out.