Free Republic

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has decided to try to strong-arm through her plan to destroy our health care system, even in the face of overwhelming signals that she is fighting a losing battle. In the process she has continued her annoying little habit of breaking promises to the American people. She had promised to not hold a vote on the “health care reform” legislation without posting the final language of the bill online at least 72 hours prior to the vote. Apparently she is afraid that the final version of her 2000 page behemoth will further outrage the voting public.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops dismissed the House Democrats’ plan to try to isolate funding for abortion in the health care bill as a “money-laundering system” that would do nothing to stop federal funding of abortion, an issue that could potentially derail health care reform. The plan, known as the Ellsworth amendment after its author Rep. Brad Ellsworth (D-Ind.), attempts to serve as a compromise between pro-life Democrats led by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich) and the party’s liberal, pro-abortion leadership. All of the health care bills currently before Congress allow for taxpayer funding of abortion.... The U.S. Conference of...

President Obama is preparing to break the deadlock in negotiations on a global deal on climate change by announcing a target for cutting US greenhouse gas emissions. The US is the only developed country yet to propose an emissions target. Poorer nations, including most of Africa, are threatening to walk out of a UN summit in Copenhagen next month unless Mr Obama commits to an ambitious reduction. Mr Obama may wait until the final stages of the negotiations in Copenhagen in order to achieve maximum political impact with his announcement and give other countries little opportunity to demand deeper cuts...

Democrats Clear Impasse Blocking Health Care Vote By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS November 7, 2009 WASHINGTON (AP) -- Capping months of struggle, House Democrats cleared an abortion-related impasse blocking a vote on sweeping health care legislation late Friday and officials expressed optimism they had lined up the support needed to pass President Barack Obama's top domestic priority. A vote was expected on the legislation on Saturday, after Obama's scheduled midmorning trip to the Capitol complex to make one final pitch for its approval. The bill is designed to spread coverage to tens of millions who now lack it and ban insurance...

Abortion opponents won a huge last-minute concession late Friday night after Democratic leaders agreed to grant them a vote on an amendment that would effectively bar insurers that participate in the exchanges from offering coverage for abortions. Members of the Rules Committee were expected to approve a vote on the amendment early Saturday morning after hours of negotiations in Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Capitol office. Leaders reluctantly made the decision after working for days to broker a truce that would garner a blessing from the Conference of Catholic Bishops. But the church, according to members and aides, wouldn't accept a compromise...

A rising Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) means better times are on the way, right? Not necessarily, according to CNBC CME floor reporter and tea party movement inspiration Rick Santelli. Santelli made an appearance on CNBC's Nov. 6 "Fast Money," a show which the host, Melissa Lee, is skittish about a discussion that politics interferes with the market is a reality. Nonetheless, Santelli explained there so happens to be correlation between a rise in unemployment rates and the rise in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. "[I] think we're building a stairway to heaven in Dow prices on the back of...

BOSTON (FOX25, myfoxboston) - FOX25 has learned that Congressman Barney Frank was present during a marijuana arrest at James Ready's home in Ogunquit, Maine. Ready is well-known for his relationship with Congressman Frank. According to a police report, police charged Ready with marijuana possession, cultivation and use of drug paraphernalia in August of 2007. Ready admitted to civil possession and paid a fine. The remaining charges were dismissed in 2008. Sources tell FOX25 that when Frank was questioned he told police that he did not live in the house and that he only smoked cigars. Congressman Frank tells FOX25 that...

ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: Could the health care bill be in real trouble in the House? The Democratic defections are starting to pile up in advance of a vote scheduled for tomorrow on sweeping health reform efforts. (That schedule could slip to Sunday or beyond, if the votes aren’t there.) According to the National Republican Congressional Committee -- which, of course, has an interest in watching this vote particularly closely -- 15 House Democrats and counting are saying publicly that they’ll oppose the measure when it reaches a vote. Democrats can afford only 40 such defections to squeak the...

Talk about bad timing. As Washington reels from the news of 10.2 percent unemployment, the Center for Responsive Politics is out with a new report describing the wealth of members of Congress. Among the highlights: Two-hundred-and-thirty-seven members of Congress are millionaires. That’s 44 percent of the body – compared to about 1 percent of Americans overall. CRP says California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa is the richest lawmaker on Capitol Hill, with a net worth estimated at about $251 million. Next in line: Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), worth about $244.7 million; Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), worth about $214.5 million; Sen....

As the House gets ready to take up the $1.2 trillion sweeping health-care proposal, Democratic leaders are struggling to round up the 218 needed for passage, with the party's most vulnerable Democrats most likely to vote against it and two other factions protesting language in the bill that addresses abortion and immigration. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said a final vote on the bill may not even happen on Saturday if the GOP, which is unified in opposition to the bill, employs time-consuming parliamentary tactics. But it may not be Republicans who hold up the bill if the leadership...

"We are back to where we were in July." Stupak 12.04am 11/7. Pelosicare is almost dead. Let's kill it! Stupak puts forth Hyde Amendment language Amendment to Rules Committee.

House Democrats have cleared an impasse over abortion that has been holding up a vote on sweeping health care legislation. A vote is expected on Saturday - after President Barack Obama makes a late morning trip to the Capitol to make one final pitch for the legislation. According to Rep. Bart Stupak of Michigan, he and other abortion opponents will be given a chance to insert tougher abortion restrictions into the legislation during debate on the House floor. The leadership hopes that no matter how that vote turns out, Democrats will then unite to give the health care bill a...

The decisions of the final holdouts on the House health bill are beginning to come in. Rep. John Adler, a New Jersey Democrat, said today he’s voting no. He criticized the bill’s $1 trillion-plus price tag over 10 years, and said it doesn’t do enough to control health costs. Adler’s state, of course, was the scene of a big Republican win this week when Chris Christie defeated incumbent Democrat Jon Corzine in the New Jersey gubernatorial race. Seeking his first term in Congress last year, Adler squeaked to victory with 52% of the vote, and he’s one of the many...

The health bill that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is bringing to a vote (H.R. 3962) is 1,990 pages. Here are some of the details you need to know. What the government will require you to do: Sec. 202 (p. 91-92) of the bill requires you to enroll in a "qualified plan." If you get your insurance at work, your employer will have a "grace period" to switch you to a "qualified plan," meaning a plan designed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. If you buy your own insurance, there's no grace period. You'll have to enroll in...

An open letter to Washington, D.C. This letter is published to advise the federal government in Washington D.C. that this SOVEREIGN AMERICAN will NOT submit to the marxist/communist coup currently taking place in Washington, D.C., and will ACTIVELY OPPOSE IT.This SOVEREIGN AMERICAN will IGNORE any laws, rules or regulations that come from Washington D.C. that further restrict the FREEDOM and LIBERTY of individuals, and will in the future IGNORE any PREVIOUS, UNConstitutional laws, rules or regulations that have restricted the FREEDOM and LIBERTY of individuals in this country. Further, this SOVEREIGN AMERICAN will encourage others to ignore any laws, rules...

Today at 2pm the House Rules Committee will meet to consider the rule for H.R. 3962 , the Affordable Health Care for America Act. As of this morning 104 amendments had been filed with the Rules Committee for consideration. Republican’s have filed 87 amendments and Democrats have filed 17. The debate in the Rules Committee and a final vote could continue well into this evening.The rule being debated today will not only cover HR 3962 but will also apply to HR 3961, the Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act, also known as the Doc Fix. This is a procedural gimmick that...

Of all the numbers swirling around this week Capitol Hill this week – health care whip counts, CBO estimates, winning and losing margins in Virginia, New York and New Jersey– one stands out from the rest: 10.2 percent. That’s the national unemployment rate. And lawmakers from both parties know that, if it doesn’t go down dramatically before next November, they could be adding to it themselves. “I think anytime unemployment is high and people are concerned about their jobs, the economy, incumbents on both sides of the aisle need to be concerned,” Republican Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker said Friday. “What...

WASHINGTON — Democratic Rep. Barney Frank took a dig Friday at the Republican lawmaker who organized a protest by conservatives against health care legislation. Frank, a Massachusetts liberal, told an audience: "Some of the people (at the rally) that wanted to engage me in conversation appeared to have been the losers in the 'Are you smarter than Michele Bachmann contest?'."

Today, Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee Dave Camp (R-MI) released a letter from the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) confirming that the failure to comply with the individual mandate to buy health insurance contained in the Pelosi health care bill (H.R. 3962, as amended) could land people in jail. The JCT letter makes clear that Americans who do not maintain “acceptable health insurance coverage” and who choose not to pay the bill’s new individual mandate tax (generally 2.5% of income), are subject to numerous civil and criminal penalties, including criminal fines of up to $250,000...

Democrats' Ethics Targeted by GOP By BRODY MULLINS Republicans are seizing on newly revealed ethics probes of congressional Democrats ahead of next year's midterm elections, accusing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her colleagues of failing to make good on their pledge to clean up Washington when they regained control of Congress. None of the Democratic lawmakers under investigation by the House Ethics Committee is expected to lose in 2010. And ethics concerns are usually less important to voters than pocketbook issues. But Republican campaign strategists say ethics issues rumbling under the surface could help the GOP pick up a few...

Nov. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Eric Cantor, the second-ranking Republican in the U.S. House, said his party needs to be inclusive and criticized some comments by talk-show host Rush Limbaugh as inappropriate. “The Republican Party in its roots is a party of inclusion and we ought to be promoting that and making sure that voices are heard,” Cantor, of Virginia, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” airing today.

The White House will today issue a Statement of Administration Policy today endorsing the health care reform legislation from House Democrats. It will not be a signal that the president favors the House bill over the one from Senate Democrats, officials say. The president will go to Capitol Hill to speak to House Democrats, likely on Saturday, to rally support for the bill.

Washington -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gladly pocketed one more precious Democratic vote for health care legislation Thursday, swearing in Bay Area Rep. John Garamendi as key Republican gubernatorial victories this week in Virginia and New Jersey rattled moderate Democrats before a showdown vote set for Saturday. Two California Democrats, moderates Dennis Cardoza and Jim Costa from the San Joaquin Valley, remain uncommitted. "We are right on the brink," Pelosi said. "We have a historic opportunity for us to again provide quality health care for all Americans. It is something that many of us have worked our whole political lifetimes...

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A House leader says Democrats haven't yet lined up enough votes to pass their health care overhaul bill. Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland says the vote that House Democrats had scheduled for Saturday could slip to Sunday or early next week. Hoyer acknowledged to reporters Friday that Democratic leaders don't yet have the 218 votes needed to pass President Barack Obama's historic health overhaul initiative.

A freshman Democrat on Thursday said that Republican lawmakers' attendance at the "House Call" protest was "the saddest thing I've seen here."Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) chided GOPers from skipping out on official House business, including the swearing in ceremony for a special election winner. He made his comment on Twitter:W/few courageous exceptions, GOP caucus walks out en masse as 2 new members (dems from specials) are sworn in. Saddest thing I've seen here.Former Lt. Gov. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) was sworn in this afternoon on the House floor. Garamendi replaced former Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) who took a position at the...

Rep Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) recently met with senior officials of Goldman Sachs. The confusion she displayed during that meeting is astonishing. Here is her report : This week I had an opportunity most Americans would relish, just as I did. I was able to unload on two top executives of Goldman Sachs who descended from on high to my office because I clearly needed some educating. One was a Vice President and the other their Chief Risk Officer. I had authored a letter on October 28, along with Congressman Peter Welch, that read, "We understand Goldman Sachs is expected to...

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) is planning a second anti-health care reform Tea Party at the Capitol -- this one scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday -- approximately the time when the House is due to vote on Democrats' public option bill, POLITICO's Jake Sherman reports. King and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) organized a rally Thursday that drew thousands to the west front of the Capitol, drawing chants of “Kill the Bill.” There were a handful of arrests. “We can kill this bill and stop the government takeover of health care,” King said in a news release. “We need the help of...

I just got through to my Congressman, Eric Massa (D-NY). I asked if he had made up his mind on Nancy Pelosi's health care bill and the staffer tole me he was voting NO, and was committed to that position.

WASHINGTON -- House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., both sons of the segregated South, grew up in parts of South Carolina that were much farther apart than the mere 175 miles between them. Thursday, the two men - a black Democrat and a white Republican - will share an honor that the Jim Crow laws of their youth would have prohibited. The Columbia Urban League will present to Clyburn and Graham its annual Whitney M. Young Award in recognition of their efforts to advance race relations in South Carolina.

We don't look at either of these gubernatorial races . . . as something that portends a lot for our legislative efforts," insisted White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on Tuesday, as New Jersey and Virginia voters gave Democrats a thumping. Unfortunately for the White House, its opinion no longer counts. On Jan. 20, Barack Obama began a race against time. The White House knew its liberal agenda would prove unpopular in many parts of the country represented by Democrats. So long as the president looked strong, those Blue Dogs and freshmen and swing-state senators would stick. Show them any...

Concerns over the hot-button issues of abortion and immigration threatened to delay a House vote on health-care reform until early next week, and Democratic leaders were struggling to contain the uprisings within their caucus. Although confident of victory, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders were working to limit defections to the roughly 25 Democrats viewed as "hard no" votes. There will be 258 Democrats in the House by the time the vote takes place, but to secure the 218 votes needed for passage -- and with prospects dim for Republican converts -- Pelosi can afford to lose no...

The answer to the big question surrounding Nancy Pelosi’s scheduling of the ObamaCare vote this weekend has been answered. She didn’t schedule it for Saturday because she had the votes — and now Steny Hoyer has admitted as much this morning: A House leader says Democrats haven’t yet lined up enough votes to pass their health care overhaul bill. Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland says the vote that House Democrats had scheduled for Saturday could slip to Sunday or early next week. Hoyer acknowledged to reporters Friday that Democratic leaders don’t yet have the 218 votes needed to pass...

Subject: HR 615 On Tuesday, the Senate health committee voted 12-11 in favor of a two-page amendment, courtesy of Republican Tom Coburn, which would require all Members of Congress and their staff members to enroll in any new government-run health plan. Congressman John Fleming has proposed an amendment that would require Congressmen and Senators to take the same health care plan that they would force on us. (Under proposed legislation they are exempt.) Congressman Fleming is encouraging people to go to his Website and sign his petition. The process is very simple. I have done just that at: Petition LinkSenator...

While roaming the grounds of the US Capitol yesterday, Kristinn Taylor obtained a list of possible democrat defectors of the now infamous “Healthcare” bill. Kristinn was asked to post this list of wobbly democrats on FreeRepublic in an effort to mobilize our forces and overwhelm these members with phone calls and e-mails asking them to vote NO on the socialization of our healthcare. We also learned that Nancy Pelosi had just scheduled the vote for tomorrow; Saturday, November 7, 2009 at 6:00 PM. For all those who were unable to answer the call to surround the Capitol yesterday, here is...

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand says the purpose of cap and trade is to enrich investment banks..."Attack with what comes up, with what God sends," underscores the need to exploit opportunities to destroy an enemy, and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) has provided such an opportunity to demolish Barack Obama's cap and trade agenda. It allows our side to totally reverse the focus of cap and trade from protection of the environment, polar ice caps, polar bears, and so on to enrichment of investment banks and similar entities at the expense of the working American. Gillibrand's letter to the Wall Street Journal says...

Pelosi Breaks Pledge to Put Final Health Care Bill Online for 72 Hours Before Vote Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office tells THE WEEKLY STANDARD that the speaker will not allow the final language of the health care to be posted online for 72 hours before bringing the bill to a vote on the House floor, despite her September 24 statement that she was "absolutely" committed to doing so. House members are still negotiating important issues in the bill--whether it will provide taxpayer-funding for abortions, for example. Pelosi is pushing for a Saturday House vote, and a number of big changes will...

The August Congressional Budget Office budget forecast for the fiscal year that began last month says that Uncle Sam will take in $2.264 trillion from October 2009 through September 2010. That’s an increase of 7.6% over fiscal 2009’s intake of $2.105 trillion. Though it won’t be official until Tim Geithner’s crew releases its Monthly Treasury Statement next week, it’s virtually certain that the government’s collections will open the year in a deep hole compared to last year, and probably well behind what CBO expects. Take a look at this compilation of key items from October’s final Daily Treasury Statement, compared...

Priest Arrested with 11 Pro-lifers at Nancy Pelosi's Office... They RIPPED UP the bill! Read story, and see video belowVideo Link On Thursday Afternoon, November 5, 2009, Father Norman Weslin - a living pro-life legend - and 11 other pro-lifers were arrested at Nancy Pelosi's office at #235 Cannon office building. If only all Catholic Priests and protestant preachers had the courage of Father Weslin!!! We would have ended child-killing long ago! They entered her office, with two complete copies of the bill - all 2,000 pages (4,000 total!) - and proceeded to rip it up, page by page,...

Keith Olbermann scares easily . . The Countdown host says he found folks peacefully exercising their First Amendment rights to petition the government for redress of grievances "terrifying." For good measure, he slurred the people protesting ObamaCare at the Capitol today as looking like "a pro-apartheid rally in South Africa." The timorous Olbermann confessed his fright to WaPo columnist Gene Robinson. Click to view video.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) says Tuesday’s Republican victories in Virginia and New Jersey should be a “wake-up call” for Democrats in Congress. Here are 10 likely to be hearing alarm bells. Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) No one noticed the election results more than Reid’s advisers, who know he faces a situation similar to that which befell New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine. Like Corzine, Reid is an unpopular incumbent running in a state whose economy is in the tank. And like Corzine, he’ll have to use his massive war chest to create a negative impression of his opponent...

Photos of today's crowd outside the Capitol: Health Care Protesters Overwhelm Capitol Bethany Stotts, November 6, 2009 Today’s November 5 rally may have drawn as many as 20,000 protesters against the health care bill which will soon come up for a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives, according to an Americans for Prosperity representative. As I’m no crowd size estimator, I won’t even hazard a guess, but the panoramas below should give you an idea of how many people were there.....

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved climate change legislation Thursday with no Republicans voting for the bill or even participating in the process. With Republican boycotting the proceedings, Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) relied on a little used interpretation of committee rules to move the legislation. Traditionally, two minority members are required to conduct committee business.

WASHINGTON – Senate Democrats have blocked a GOP attempt to require next year's census forms to ask people whether they are a U.S. citizen. The proposal by Louisiana Republican Sen. David Vitter was aimed at excluding immigrants from the population totals that are used to figure the number of congressional representatives for each state. Critics said Vitter's plan would discourage immigrants from responding to the census and would be hugely expensive. They also said that it's long been settled law that the apportionment of congressional seats is determined by the number of people living in each state

WASHINGTON – Ignoring a Republican boycott, Senate Democrats pushed a precedent-setting climate bill through a key committee Thursday. Rep. Barbara Boxer, chairman of the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee, had delayed the crucial vote for days because of a Republican protest over whether the cost of the legislation had been fully examined. But the California Democrat moved quickly to pass the bill, which for the first time would set mandatory limits on heat-trapping gases, without any of the seven GOP senators on the panel present. The measure cleared the panel on a 11-1 vote. Boxer said the Republican demand...

VIDEO: Congresswoman Michele Bachmann gave a spirited and passionate speech on November 5, in Washington, D.C., as part of a protest she organized to fight the federal government's takeover of our health care system. Joining Bachmann to fight government-run health care, also known as "Obamacare," was actor, Jon Voight, and popular radio talk show host and author, Mark Levin.

Mark Levin, spoke in Washington, D.C., along with Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, and actor Jon Voight, to protest government-run health care, also known as "Obamacare." Thousands of tea party protesters joined Levin, a popular radio talk show host and author, who is nicknamed "The Great One," gave a moving speech that was received with loud cheers from the excited crowd.

As Santayana said, "Those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it." Congressional Democrats take note! Are the elections of 2009 precursors of the same kind of massive partisan upheaval in Congress that we experienced in 1994? The historical data says yes, they are. In Virginia, the outcomes in 1993 and 2009 were almost identical. In 1993, after the Democratic incumbent, Doug Wilder, could not seek re-election, the governor's race pitted Republican George Allen against Democrat Mary Sue Terry. Allen won handily, 58 to 41 — virtually the same margin by which McDonnell defeated Deeds this week. And...

Leave to a brilliant mind like Keith Olbermann, who finally decided to show his face on live TV after Nov. 3's Democratic defeat, to throw a temper tantrum about the public display of opposition to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's that occurred on the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol on Nov.5. After Olbermann and Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson all but declared Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., organizer of the "House Call" event, an enemy of the state, they predictably came to the conclusion the event was racist. However to overcome that hurdle, Olbermann suggested organizers "pay" minorities to...

I decided to run for this seat in CD-7, because the incumbent, George Miller has demonstrated over 38 long years that he is out of touch with the needs of a significant portion of his constituency and many of his neglectful policies are disastrous to traditional families and our communities. As your Congresswoman, I have great plans for rebuilding the inner cities of the 7th Congressional District that have deteriorated under very high crime rates and unsafe conditions due to decades of neglect by the incumbent. I’m a proud, Reagan style conservative with common sense and I am running for...