Americans care about fairness

Nancy Pelosi has been playing the role of the consummate politician these last few days, wheeling and dealing in order to cajole her wayward flock into committing political suicide and vote for Obamacare. The latest ploy being discussed over the last few days is being refereed to as the ‘Slaughter Solution,’ named after Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (D-NY), Chairman of the House Rules Committee.

What this ploy attempts to accomplish is to provide cover to those Democrats without the courage to come out and vote directly for Obamacare. Many House Dems have one or more problems with the Senate bill, passed on  December 24, most notably including the fact that for the first time, the government would pay for abortion. What the Slaughter Solution would do is create a rule change; the House would create a bill that includes changes to the Senate bill acceptable to those members who what changes to that bill, and by voting for the ‘rule change,’ that vote would automatically cause the Senate version of the bill would “deem” it to have been passed without requiring House Members to actually vote for that bill. Someone searching the House record in three, six, nine months from now would never find a record of any one Congressman voting “for” Obamacare.

Americans are smarter than that! If the Democrats think they can create some kind of political sleight-of-hand and it not be noticed, they are even dumber than I think they are.

One of the really basic values of the American culture is that of fairness. Americans will overlook many weaknesses in someone’s character, but if they ‘deem’ people are being unfair, that is where they generally draw the line.

The smoke and mirrors Pelosi is trying to use to cover her underhanded tricks is going to backfire on her and her caucus … because it will be viewed by the average American as unfair.

Obamacare Without Reconciliation

Reconciliation has been the topic du jour every day since Obama’s dog and pony show last Thursday. Pundits speculate whether the Democrats have enough votes in the Senate to meet the majority requirement or not … does Pelosi have enough House votes even without counting on Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) and his like-minded Blue-dog Dems. Pelosi has said she’s trying to find a way to make ‘reconciliation’ work for those in the House who are skeptical of it working. Harry Reid denied that anyone was contemplating using reconciliation to pass Obamacare.

The real reason Pelosi is having so much trouble finding the votes in the House is most likely due to members of the House not wanting to be shafted by the Senate and Obama. Reconciliation is a Senate function, supposedly limited to budget issues, allowing bills to pass without being subjected to the Senate’s filibuster rule (requiring 60 votes to reach cloture .. stopping debate and putting the bill to a vote). Obamacare has already passed cloture and voted on by 60 Democrat Senators.

The current rub is that the House and Senate versions of Obamacare do not match … and they must in order for Congress to send one bill to Obama for signature. There are portions of the Senate version that some members of the House don’t buy into … mainly Federal funding for abortion, but even some House members on the far left don’t like that the the Senate stripped the “public option” from version of the bill.

So Obama, Pelosi and Reid need to convince the House to accept the Senate bill as is and pass it … before the Senate begins working on the “fix” that would be acceptable to those in the House who have the heartache with the Senate version … ergo the rub! It would be quite possible that after the House passed the Senate’s version, Reid could say it will be too hard to put together a reconciliation bill that meets the rules of the Senate and just send the one bill passed by both chambers (which just happens to be the Senate version!) to Obama for signature.

The Senate decided not to take up Cap and Tax and Tax and Tax after the House passed it on June 26 2009. There were many House Democrats, Pelosi being one, who were not happy with putting their necks on the line for a very unpopular bill and being stiffed by the Senate. Fortunately for those of us who are massively against government takeover of our health care system, House members look to be following the adage “once bitten, twice shy.”

Let’s make sure the House Dems occupying tenuous seats know they could be nothing more than the fodder Obama needs to stay away from his Waterloo.

UPDATE: I just ran across this post by Yuval Levin on this same subject. A slightly different approach, but draws the same conclusion.

Socialized Medicine Redux

Attempts by the Democrats to socialized medicine is nothing new. FDR tried it in the thirties, Givem’-Hell-Harry tried in the forties, and of course we’re all to familiar with Hillary-care in the nineties. A few States have implemented one form or another of a state-run health care plan, but as a Federalist, I have no problem with States experimenting. That’s where the experimenting should be done; not at the Federal level.

In 1961, Ronald Reagan recorded a 10 minute speech on the dangers of socialized medicine.

Reagan says that “Government has invaded the free precincts of private citizens,” stating that the U.S. government owns “1/5th of the total industrial capacity of the United States.” Reagan says “One of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism on a people has been by way of medicine.

Someone has created a Youtube video of that recording and that message from almost 50 years ago is as valid today as it was then.

Obama and the Dem leadership are in the middle of  doing their Kabuki Theater with the Repubs as I write. When they adjourn, the Dems will declare that those “dastardly Republicans” aren’t willing to roll over and play dead act in a bipartisan manner, requiring that the Dems work to do what’s necessary to jamb this piece of crap get the legislation to the President’s desk to gain unprecedented amounts of power they’ve dreamed of for decades respond to the American people’s desire to have universal health care. Well … bully!

Healthcare Jihadists

President Obama has scheduled a “healthcare summit” with Congressional Republicans on Thursday. In preparation for that meeting, Obama posted “his healthcare proposal” on the White House’s web site. The proposal is pretty much an amalgamation of the House and Senate bills passed at the end of last year with some changes around the margins. He has also insisted that the secession be televised live on C-Span.

The general consensus among conservatives is that the President’s sole purpose for the meeting is to allow him to claim afterward that he tried to reached out to Republicans and they “rejected bipartisanship.” The Senate and House leadership has been working feverishly to craft an approach that would allow them to jam the Obamacare bill through using a procedure called reconciliation, of which I’ve written of previously.

I find the Dems’ lust to make this power grab unfathomable … not that I don’t understand why they want this legislation so badly … it’ll ultimately give them power over every aspect of every American’s life. It’s just that I’ve never lusted after something with such gusto.

The results of the election in Massachusetts on January 19th was a clarion rejection of Obamacare by the voters of that state and by proxy, the American public. Yet here we have Obama, Pelosi and Reid doubling or tripling down for another run at legislation that would ultimately destroy not only the greatest health care system in the world, but transform this country into something unrecognizable by previous generations of Americans.

It is blatantly clear to anyone able to fog a mirror (well … maybe not quite that clear) that the runs the Dems have been making at Obamacare over the past nine or ten months have badly damaged the Democrats [see: Scott Brown, (R-MA)].Yet here they are, back behind their closed doors, trying to find support among their party to come up with some trick way of getting around Senate rules that require 60 votes to stop a Republican filibuster.

On Friday, political expert Charlie Cook predicted that there are 53 House seats currently held by Dems that are now competitive, while only six Republican seats fall in that category. Were the mid-term election held tomorrow, there would be a very good chance the Democrats would loose control of the House. I suspect it would be very unlikely the Republicans could take control of the Senate, put they could pick up as many as eight more seats.

However, if the Obami actually pass, and The One™ signs anything that even smells like Obamacare, the mid-term election will be a bloodbath for Democrats, both House and Senate. And if the Repubs don’t screw up again and think they can go back to their drunken sailor mode, they will certainly take the Senate in 2012.

The Dems can’t be so stupid that they don’t know that. So why would they sacrifice themselves by passing Obamacare? The answer I’ve arrived at is that they are Obamacare Jihadists. Now don’t start reading into that statement that I’m calling the Dems terrorists or any such! All I’m saying is the behavior they are exhibiting an awful like that of the Islamist Jihadists; wanting to reach their goal with such fervor and devotion to their cause that they are willing to give their all towards achieving that goal. How else would you describe it?

I am praying that the Dems are unable to find 218 suckers Representatives in the house or 51 fall guys Senators willing to fall on their swords for the cause, but like Freddie Kruger, Obamacare just doesn’t die.

File this under “You’ve GOT to be Kidding!”

Chalk another one up for the government in California. I just ran across this little missive this morning on the Orange Country Register:

Astonishingly, tone-deaf state Senate Democrats in Sacramento last week revived a $200-billion, government-run, universal health care scheme to outlaw private insurance and subsidize coverage for millions of Californians.

The bill doesn’t yet specify how government would pay for this magical cure. But Senate Bill 810 is modeled after previous legislative efforts that would have imposed payroll taxes of up to 16 percent. The bill literally was resurrected from the Senate’s “dead file” of unsuccessful prior legislation, and shows how Capitol Democrats are utterly oblivious to growing public opposition to such intrusive, costly mandates.

Amazing!!!!! And to think we pay these bozos to “represent” us! Didn’t I just recently write about how California was going to go bankrupt if we didn’t start making some common-sense choices?

Obamacare inevitable?

This is the $64000 question (or in today’s world, $64 Trillion). Is passage of Obamacare inevitable?

Some say yes and some say no, it’s not inevitable. Time will certainly tell, but I’d say chances are better that 90%. However, we can’t live our lives on … dare I say it? … HOPE! To hope that this foray into socialism won’t happen isn’t a plan. You can be certain the Democrats aren’t ‘hoping’ they will have the votes so it will pass.

The Dems have approached this legislation very strategically. I think they were taken aback in August by the ferociousness of grassroots opposition from the ‘tea parties.’ However, by November, they decided to ignore their constituents’ protests an just push forward. This point was made abundantly clear this morning when Sen. Jim DeMint (R – SC) read the provision Sen Harry Reid (D – NV) slipped into the bill prohibiting repeal of certain provisions of Obamacare by future Senate:

there’s one provision that I found particularly troubling and it’s under section C, titled “Limitations on changes to this subsection.”

and I quote — “it shall not be in order in the senate or the house of representatives to consider any bill, resolution, amendment, or conference report that would repeal or otherwise change this subsection.”

My first thought upon hearing of this was “how can any Congress write a law prohibiting future Congress’ of repealing said law?” DeMint goes on to call this a “rule change;”

This is not legislation. It’s not law. This is a rule change. It’s a pretty big deal. We will be passing a new law and at the same time creating a senate rule that makes it out of order to amend or even repeal the law.

I’m not even sure that it’s constitutional, but if it is, it most certainly is a senate rule. I don’t see why the majority party wouldn’t put this in every bill. If you like your law, you most certainly would want it to have force for future senates.

I mean, we want to bind future congresses. This goes to the fundamental purpose of senate rules: to prevent a tyrannical majority from trampling the rights of the minority or of future co congresses.

I still say “how can any Congress write into any bill a provision that prohibits future lawmakers from changing or repealing that law?” Even amendments to the Constitution can be repealed, e.g. the 21st Amendment repealed the 18th Amendment which introduced Prohibition.

Back to my main point; The Dems have been very strategic in their approach but it doesn’t appear the Republican are being strategic in either their opposition to the legislation nor in plans to challenge Obamacare in court once signed into law. Lastly, the Reps need let the Dems know that a major effort will be undertaken to repeal this monstrosity beginning Jan 3, 2011. Maybe the GOP doesn’t want to telegraph their moves, but their past actions couldn’t be termed ‘strategic’ by any stretch of the imagination.

I guess we can HOPE!

UPDATE: I was too quick on the draw about work being done on the legal side.

… and you want the Government to run your healthcare system II

Remember last summer when we were told there was a pandemic awaiting us in the autumn? Remember being told the government was in control and developing a vaccine to protect us all? Remember the delivery of that life-saving vaccine being a little bit late and in quantities not quite sufficient to take care of those most at risk?

From Fox News:

ATLANTA —  Hundreds of thousands of swine flu shots for children manufactured by French drug company Sanofi Pasteur have been recalled because tests indicate the vaccine doses lost some strength, government health officials said Tuesday.

The recall is for about 800,000 pre-filled syringes intended for young children, ages 6 months to nearly 3 years.

The shots were distributed across the country last month and most have already been used, according to the federal government’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Doctors were notified of the voluntary recall on Tuesday.

And you still think the government can assume total control of the American healthcare system, provide coverage for every American, keep the services at the same level as we enjoy today, and do all this at a lower cost than we are currently paying? If you believe any of these, you’ve never dealt with the Post Office, DMV, the Veterans Administration, Social Security, the IRS, or any other “service organization” run by the government.

And to my great chagrin, Sen. Lieberman just bought into Harry Reid’s latest rejiggering of Obamacare.  I’m not sure there are any others willing to stand up to Obama/Pelosi/Reid … unless Ben Nelson sticks to his guns of the payment for abortions issue.

Obamacare at the balancing point

The Senate has spent every day since returning from their Thanksgiving Harvest Festival holiday focused on cobbling together Obamacare in some fashion or other in order to get all the Democrats on board and achieve cloture.  I cringe when some organization such as the National Right to Life Committee comes out saying they can no longer support the bill following the defeat of an amendment to prohibit funding for abortions:

The amendment rejected today, supported by NRLC, was sponsored by Senator Ben Nelson (D-Ne.) and Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah).  It contained the same substance as the Stupak-Pitts Amendment, which was adopted by the House of Representatives on November 7, 240-194.  Both amendments would prevent the federal government insurance program (the “public option”) from paying for abortion (except to save the life of the mother, or in cases of rape or incest).  In addition, both amendments would prevent federal subsidies from being used to purchase private health plans that cover elective abortion, but would not restrict the sale or purchase of such policies with private funds.

What they are basically saying is that had the amendment passed, they would support the bill! Why in the name of all that’s holy would they support the so-called “Health care” legislation the Dems are pushing? As an aside, as I am a Constitutional constructionist, I am against the Federal government having any say the the abortion issue at all; it should be left up to the states … but that’s not the subject of this post. A number of organizations and individuals have wrapped their arms around one issue or another related to this bill and put a stake in the ground and announced that unless their issues is included/excluded … they would not be able to support the passage of Obamacare.

The Republicans have adopted the strategy of pushing as many amendments as they can that, in their mind, will cause some Democrat Senators problems in the general elections next November if they vote against any specific amendment. In my mind, this strategy is similar to the NRLC’s reaction descried above. They appear as if they are trying to “fix” legislation that they otherwise agree to!

All of this bill … Obamacare … is BAD!!!! Terrible! Horrible ! It is the last major step through the door of socialism.

I have said before that if this bill were to pass the Senate, it doesn’t really make any difference what is in it or what it says. It will next go to committee … a meeting of the Senate and House leaders … where anything the Dems really want will be put back in and then sent back to both houses of Congress for a floor vote. That means it will only require a majority vote in both houses to pass. The Dems have more than enough votes to pass the bill in in both houses and allow some of the so-called “blue dog Democrats” to vote no … so they will be able to go home and tell their constituents, “hey, I voted against that healthcare bill. Just look at my record!”

I said in a post here that if this bill gets through cloture, the only one that gets to vote on the final bill is Obama. Any guess as to how he’ll vote?

We must do everything we can to stop this thing dead in its tracks … burn up the phone lines to your Senators, donate to the conservative candidate running against Blanche Lincoln (AR), Michael Bennett (CO), Evan Bayh (IN), Arlen Spector (PA) and last but not least … Harry Reid (NV). Whatever!

Just remember … 97% of every bill ever passed by the Senate and signed into law by the President is still the Law of the Land! It will be far more difficult to undo this legislation than to stop it dead in its tracks now.

Obamacare passes in the House

Well … the Dems did it! Obamacare just passed in the House, 220 to 215 with one Republican (what in the h*ll was he thinking????) voting yes. A lot of politicians just signed their letters of resignation. Good riddance!!!

House passes Obamacare

The only possibility of stopping this train wreck is in the Senate, where I always thought it would be defeated.

It is now up to us to insure that at a minimum, every so-called Blue-dog Democrat Congressman that voted ‘aye’ is thrown from office next year, and that we find a strong conservative to run against other Dems that have contributed to this unconstitutional takeover of our sovereign right to decide how we provide our own healthcare.

Common Sense

I ran across the video below while reading Powerline this morning and thought I’d share it here. I’ve written of most of the points made, but Eline van den Broek, founder of the European Independent Institute does so much better at putting these common sense ideas into easily understood terms.

Please share this with your friends and make sure your Congressman or Senator hears from you over the next couple of days. We have to put the final nail in Pelosi’s Obamacare coffin.

Obamacare is going to save money how?

One canard played over and over again by Obama and the Dems is that their version of “Healthcare Reform” (or sometimes “Health Insurance Reform”) will save money over the current method.

The House Republican Conference has gone through the 1,990 page Pelosi legislation (H.R. 3962) and developed a listing of all the new federal boards, bureaucracies, commissions, and programs that would be established by the House bill … all in the name of saving money. The list is below along with the Section and page number of the cited new entity.

1. Retiree Reserve Trust Fund (Section 111(d), p. 61)
2. Grant program for wellness programs to small employers (Section 112, p. 62)
3. Grant program for State health access programs (Section 114, p. 72)
4. Program of administrative simplification (Section 115, p. 76)
5. Health Benefits Advisory Committee (Section 223, p. 111)
6. Health Choices Administration (Section 241, p. 131)
7. Qualified Health Benefits Plan Ombudsman (Section 244, p. 138)
8. Health Insurance Exchange (Section 201, p. 155)
9. Program for technical assistance to employees of small businesses buying Exchange coverage (Section 305(h), p. 191)
10. Mechanism for insurance risk pooling to be established by Health Choices Commissioner (Section 306(b), p. 194)
11. Health Insurance Exchange Trust Fund (Section 307, p. 195)
12. State-based Health Insurance Exchanges (Section 308, p. 197)
13. Grant program for health insurance cooperatives (Section 310, p. 206)
14. “Public Health Insurance Option” (Section 321, p. 211)
15. Ombudsman for “Public Health Insurance Option” (Section 321(d), p. 213)
16. Account for receipts and disbursements for “Public Health Insurance Option” (Section 322(b), p. 215)
17. Telehealth Advisory Committee (Section 1191 (b), p. 589)
18. Demonstration program providing reimbursement for “culturally and linguistically appropriate services” (Section 1222, p. 617)
19. Demonstration program for shared decision making using patient decision aids (Section 1236, p. 648)
20. Accountable Care Organization pilot program under Medicare (Section 1301, p. 653)
21. Independent patient-centered medical home pilot program under Medicare (Section 1302, p. 672)
22. Community-based medical home pilot program under Medicare (Section 1302(d), p. 681)
23. Independence at home demonstration program (Section 1312, p. 718)
24. Center for Comparative Effectiveness Research (Section 1401(a), p. 734)
25. Comparative Effectiveness Research Commission (Section 1401(a), p. 738)
26. Patient ombudsman for comparative effectiveness research (Section 1401(a), p. 753)
27. Quality assurance and performance improvement program for skilled nursing facilities (Section 1412(b)(1), p. 784)
28. Quality assurance and performance improvement program for nursing facilities (Section 1412 (b)(2), p. 786)
29. Special focus facility program for skilled nursing facilities (Section 1413(a)(3), p. 796)
30. Special focus facility program for nursing facilities (Section 1413(b)(3), p. 804)
31. National independent monitor pilot program for skilled nursing facilities and nursing facilities (Section 1422, p. 859)
32. Demonstration program for approved teaching health centers with respect to Medicare GME (Section 1502(d), p. 933)
33. Pilot program to develop anti-fraud compliance systems for Medicare providers (Section 1635, p. 978)
34. Special Inspector General for the Health Insurance Exchange (Section 1647, p. 1000)
35. Medical home pilot program under Medicaid (Section 1722, p. 1058)
36. Accountable Care Organization pilot program under Medicaid (Section 1730A, p. 1073)
37. Nursing facility supplemental payment program (Section 1745, p. 1106)
38. Demonstration program for Medicaid coverage to stabilize emergency medical conditions in institutions for mental diseases (Section 1787, p. 1149)
39. Comparative Effectiveness Research Trust Fund (Section 1802, p. 1162)
40. “Identifiable office or program” within CMS to “provide for improved coordination between Medicare and Medicaid in the case of dual eligibles” (Section 1905, p. 1191)
41. Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (Section 1907, p. 1198)
42. Public Health Investment Fund (Section 2002, p. 1214)
43. Scholarships for service in health professional needs areas (Section 2211, p. 1224)
44. Program for training medical residents in community-based settings (Section 2214, p. 1236)
45. Grant program for training in dentistry programs (Section 2215, p. 1240)
46. Public Health Workforce Corps (Section 2231, p. 1253)
47. Public health workforce scholarship program (Section 2231, p. 1254)
48. Public health workforce loan forgiveness program (Section 2231, p. 1258)
49. Grant program for innovations in interdisciplinary care (Section 2252, p. 1272)
50. Advisory Committee on Health Workforce Evaluation and Assessment (Section 2261, p. 1275)
51. Prevention and Wellness Trust (Section 2301, p. 1286)
52. Clinical Prevention Stakeholders Board (Section 2301, p. 1295)
53. Community Prevention Stakeholders Board (Section 2301, p. 1301)
54. Grant program for community prevention and wellness research (Section 2301, p. 1305)
55. Grant program for research and demonstration projects related to wellness incentives (Section 2301, p. 1305)
56. Grant program for community prevention and wellness services (Section 2301, p. 1308)
57. Grant program for public health infrastructure (Section 2301, p. 1313)
58. Center for Quality Improvement (Section 2401, p. 1322)
59. Assistant Secretary for Health Information (Section 2402, p. 1330)
60. Grant program to support the operation of school-based health clinics (Section 2511, p. 1352)
61. Grant program for nurse-managed health centers (Section 2512, p. 1361)
62. Grants for labor-management programs for nursing training (Section 2521, p. 1372)
63. Grant program for interdisciplinary mental and behavioral health training (Section 2522, p. 1382)
64. “No Child Left Unimmunized Against Influenza” demonstration grant program (Section 2524, p. 1391)
65. Healthy Teen Initiative grant program regarding teen pregnancy (Section 2526, p. 1398)
66. Grant program for interdisciplinary training, education, and services for individuals with autism (Section 2527(a), p. 1402)
67. University centers for excellence in developmental disabilities education (Section 2527(b), p. 1410)
68. Grant program to implement medication therapy management services (Section 2528, p. 1412)
69. Grant program to promote positive health behaviors in underserved communities (Section 2530, p. 1422)
70. Grant program for State alternative medical liability laws (Section 2531, p. 1431)
71. Grant program to develop infant mortality programs (Section 2532, p. 1433)
72. Grant program to prepare secondary school students for careers in health professions (Section 2533, p. 1437)
73. Grant program for community-based collaborative care (Section 2534, p. 1440)
74. Grant program for community-based overweight and obesity prevention (Section 2535, p. 1457)
75. Grant program for reducing the student-to-school nurse ratio in primary and secondary schools (Section 2536, p. 1462)
76. Demonstration project of grants to medical-legal partnerships (Section 2537, p. 1464)
77. Center for Emergency Care under the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (Section 2552, p. 1478)
78. Council for Emergency Care (Section 2552, p 1479)
79. Grant program to support demonstration programs that design and implement regionalized emergency care systems (Section 2553, p. 1480)
80. Grant program to assist veterans who wish to become emergency medical technicians upon discharge (Section 2554, p. 1487)
81. Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee (Section 2562, p. 1494)
82. National Medical Device Registry (Section 2571, p. 1501)
83. CLASS Independence Fund (Section 2581, p. 1597)
84. CLASS Independence Fund Board of Trustees (Section 2581, p. 1598)
85. CLASS Independence Advisory Council (Section 2581, p. 1602)
86. Health and Human Services Coordinating Committee on Women’s Health (Section 2588, p. 1610)
87. National Women’s Health Information Center (Section 2588, p. 1611)
88. Centers for Disease Control Office of Women’s Health (Section 2588, p. 1614)
89. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Office of Women’s Health and Gender-Based Research (Section 2588, p. 1617)
90. Health Resources and Services Administration Office of Women’s Health (Section 2588, p. 1618)
91. Food and Drug Administration Office of Women’s Health (Section 2588, p. 1621)
92. Personal Care Attendant Workforce Advisory Panel (Section 2589(a)(2), p. 1624)
93. Grant program for national health workforce online training (Section 2591, p. 1629)
94. Grant program to disseminate best practices on implementing health workforce investment programs (Section 2591, p. 1632)
95. Demonstration program for chronic shortages of health professionals (Section 3101, p. 1717)
96. Demonstration program for substance abuse counselor educational curricula (Section 3101, p. 1719)
97. Program of Indian community education on mental illness (Section 3101, p. 1722)
98. Intergovernmental Task Force on Indian environmental and nuclear hazards (Section 3101, p. 1754)
99. Office of Indian Men’s Health (Section 3101, p. 1765)
100. Indian Health facilities appropriation advisory board (Section 3101, p. 1774)
101. Indian Health facilities needs assessment workgroup (Section 3101, p. 1775)
102. Indian Health Service tribal facilities joint venture demonstration projects (Section 3101, p. 1809)
103. Urban youth treatment center demonstration project (Section 3101, p. 1873)
104. Grants to Urban Indian Organizations for diabetes prevention (Section 3101, p. 1874)
105. Grants to Urban Indian Organizations for health IT adoption (Section 3101, p. 1877)
106. Mental health technician training program (Section 3101, p. 1898)
107. Indian youth telemental health demonstration project (Section 3101, p. 1909)
     Program for treatment of child sexual abuse victims and perpetrators (Section 3101, p. 1925)
108. Program for treatment of domestic violence and sexual abuse (Section 3101, p. 1927)
109. Native American Health and Wellness Foundation (Section 3103, p. 1966)
110. Committee for the Establishment of the Native American Health and Wellness Foundation (Section 3103, p. 1968)

Does Obama really think the American people are that stupid to believe this new piece of socialist crap will SAVE money?

How many thousands of new government employees are going to have to be hired to fill all the positions needed to man these 110 new agencies, committees, commissions and boards? And a further question; will these new employees’ healthcare be covered under this new bill, or will they be covered by the existing Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program?

The Obamacare train is coming

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D,Mars) released her version of Obamacare on Thursday, a 1,990 page tome that if passed, will guarantee the destruction of the private healthcare and health insurance business in the US. The bill is available on line at the link above and as usual, written in such a manner as to be virtually unreadable to all but those schooled in making sausage.

Nonetheless, there is enough english phrased sentences so as to allow us peons to glimpse the Democrats’ desires to take control of every aspect of our lives. For instance, Section 2531 contains a provision that provides incentive payments to states that provide “an alternative medical liability law” that prevents or prompts “fair resolution” of disputes. However, no such incentive will be paid to any state that limits “attorneys’ fees or impose caps on damages.”

I’ve mentioned before that one of the most costly aspects of our current medical system is the cost of practicing defensive medicine and purchasing insurance to protect against legal extortion. California, interestingly enough, is one of few states that has laws that limit the amount of punitive damages awarded in a medical law suit. There are no limits for compensatory damages; courts will award any amount  to compensate for actual loses, but punitive damages are limited to no more than $250,000. Such limits avoid the outlandish multi-million dollar awards against companies with deep pockets for some of the silliest of reasons.

Opencongress.org has put up a somewhat interactive version of the bill (HR 3200) on line with links allowing you to log your support for or against the bill. You’ll have to register before being allowed to vote, but it isn’t an intrusive process … just a user name, password, zip code and your email address to confirm you are actually a human being. I encourage you to link to the on-line version of the bill,  if for no other reason than to cast your vote against its passage. (The tally when I logged on was 2024 for and 6837 opposed.)

Obamacare … the end-run

I just ran across a post by Robert Costa over at ‘The Corner’ noting a quite meeting yesterday in the House. The Congressional beacon of integrity, Charlie Rangel (D. N.Y.), held a meeting of his House Ways and Means Committee in order to help the Senate do an end-run around Senate rules so as to use “reconciliation” and avoid having to come up with 60 votes to avoid cloture.

Robert cites Congressman Paul Ryan (R., Wis.), the ranking member of the House Budget Committee.

Rangel’s legislative maneuvers “initiated the process to jam their bill through via reconciliation,” says Ryan. “Procedurally, you have to start in the House,” he continues. “The Ways and Means Committee is the Democrats’ first step in attempting to enable their bill to pass in the Senate without 60 votes. What’s important for the American people to understand is that Chairman Rangel used his prerogative to shut down debate.”

“Here’s how the system works. In the House, we have a complete majority-rule system,” says Ryan. “The chairmen control their committees. For reconciliation to be possible in the Senate, the House committee chairmen have to create a vehicle. The bill now moves from the Ways and Means Committee to the Budget Committee. Then from Budget, it will head to the Rules Committee. Rangel opened up another alley for the Democrats that they may use if they can’t get 60 votes in the Senate. Majority Leader Harry Reid now has this ‘nuclear option’ in his back pocket.”

“This is a massive abuse of power,” says Ryan. “The reconciliation process was designed for the budget and to help reduce deficits and debt. Now it’s being used to create new entitlement programs. The Democrats hijacked the rules in order to exploit a procedure.”

[snip]

“Then the Democratic-appointed parliamentarian comes down with a ruling, saying whether this provision is in or out of the bill. It will look at subsidies, too,” says Ryan. “The question will be whether community rating — where health-insurance companies are mandated to provide coverage — is a direct-spending policy. The argument will revolve around these policies, and their need to go into effect, or not, and their fiscal outcomes.”

“A few years ago, we tried to pass medical-liability reform, which is always filibustered in the Senate,” recalls Ryan. “We said that if we stick it in reconciliation, we can pass it, since tort reform, according to the CBO, will reduce the federal government’s health-care costs. The parliamentarian said no, saying it was not a money-saving policy. We lost that one. We’ve also tried to stick ANWR [drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge] in reconciliation before, arguing that it was a revenue-raising provision. We got it in there, but it didn’t work.”

“Using reconciliation is an art form, not a science,” says Ryan. Republicans “will have a lot of room to fight.”

“Using the tort-reform precedent from our own experience a few years ago, Republicans will be able to argue that a lot of the junk the Democrats want can’t go in the bill,” says Ryan. “That’s where Republican leaders like Senator Jon Kyl will be able to make some major arguments against the use of reconciliation.”

I’ve mentioned the likelihood of the Dems using using “reconciliation” here, here and here. Looks like they’re making the moves to do just that. The Republicans are going to have to maintain unity (did I just put ‘Republicans’ and ‘unity’ in the same sentence? Good luck with that!) if they have any chance of keeping a bill from being put on Obama’s desk.

Anyone have any other ideas?

Obamacare Takes the Next Step

The Senate Finance Committee just voted to send the Obamacare bill to the floor of the Senate by a vote of 14 to 9. One Republican, Olympia Snowe of Maine, crossed the aisle and voted with the Democrats … no big surprise!

If it weren’t so serious I’d have to laugh at those who have breathed a sigh of relief, saying “at least they took out the ‘public option.’” The entire bill is a ‘public option’ … who are they trying to kid? The Dems in the Senate are going to do whatever it takes to see that this bill passes, even if they have to use the ‘budget reconciliation’ ploy I wrote about here.

The real danger is when (if???) the House passes its version of Obamacare. The House and Senate would then go into conference, i.e. ‘behind closed doors’ and go to work on the REAL bill, and no one but Obama gets to vote on that bill. That will be when our healthcare system as we’ve know it will begin to be destroyed.

If you expect you and your children to have any semblance of a say over your healthcare in the future, call your Senator and make sure they know the future of their political career will depend on their vote on Obamacare. Because if this thing gets to conference, it’s all over!

Baucus’ bulk baloney … just another sausage!

Note: I wrote this piece several days ago and forgot to post it. What is it they say is the second thing to go?

Senator Max Baucus, Chairman if the Senate Finance Committee and his fellow Democrats have blocked making the actual text of the healthcare bill available online prior to the committee’s vote on the bill. Baucus’ excuse is that it would take his committee staff two weeks to post the bill online.

So? I don’t care if it takes two months to post the bill! This proposed legislation will do more to transform our society than any other legislation since at least the passage of Social Security in the 1930′s. There were claims from some Democrats that the actual legislative text is too difficult for the average citizen to understand.

The only reason for such an elitist position is that the Democrats now realize that average Americans are far smarter than they had ever imagined. Therefore, the Dems need to hide their actions until such time it is to late to do anything about it.

I will work harder than I ever have in the past and give far more of my hard earned money to help defeat the Democrats in next year’s elections. Their actions are clearly designed to destroy our country and turn it into a socialist’s dream world. We must re-double our efforts to stop them if we have any hope at all of leaving a free America to our children and grandchildren.