In their single-minded quest to notch a political victory, Democrats in Congress late Sunday night enacted deeply flawed health care legislation that was propped up on misleading estimates and backroom deals — the repercussions of which will hurt this nation for years to come.

In Colorado, it’s possible the bill’s passage could cost a few key Democrats dearly come election time, and it could hurt the party overall. Thankfully, however, Democrats in the House did not use the “self-executing” rule, which basically would have “deemed” that the bill had passed — without forcing an actual vote on the bill. Many legal scholars claim the process is unconstitutional, and it almost certainly would have been devastating, politically, for the Democrats who pushed it through and for the country overall.

President Obama campaigned on reforming America’s sick and costly health care system, and for the better part of the year, we were right there with him. Our health care system needs help. But this is a bad bill. Not only are we disgusted by the slick politics and shady deals that helped seal the deal, the policies rooted in it are more than problematic and it will do little to bring down costs.

The Senate is now expected later this week to “fix” the main health care bill through “reconciliation,” which means they need only a simple majority vote. But the bill approved Sunday night needs only the president’s signature now. We can only hope Congress actually cleans up the sleazy deals that weighed down the Senate bill.

The House finally was able to pass the bill because some representatives switched their earlier positions. Colorado Congresswoman Betsy Markey caved to partisan interests and abandoned her initial principled opposition to flawed health care legislation. Originally, Markey said the House bill did little to bring down the costs that already burden so many businesses and individuals. And she was right.

So what’s changed? Just a little arm-twisting and — poof — she’s on board.

Like Markey, others in Congress switched their votes after seeing a preliminary Congressional Budget Office estimate on the bill’s cost. But as The Washington Post pointed out last week, the CBO’s “work is often more art than science, and although the forecasts that accompany legislation are always filled with uncertainty, this one contains more than most.”

The CBO can only score the legislation it’s given, and this legislation double-counts Medicare cuts and makes hopeful pronouncements. Proponents say it cuts the deficit, but a huge chunk of that cut comes from the federal takeover of student loans, which lawmakers inexplicably jammed into the reconciliation bill.

The numbers just don’t add up.

This is not a credible way to make policy, and it is no way to treat the American people.

America needs health care reform. But we needed a bill that included a public option to provide some competition to insurance companies and to bring down costs. Instead, we’re left with a piece of transformational legislation that is so toxic and loaded with special deals, Democrats originally didn’t even want to vote for it.