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Sen. Dick Durbin’s job as majority whip is to count votes, but don’t ask him for the current tally on the health care bill. “I don’t know,” Durbin said earlier this week. “Sen. Reid is the one who has been keeping it pretty close.” That may be an understatement. As Reid works furiously to line up the 60 votes he needs for the most sweeping health care bill in generations, the majority leader is playing an insider’s insider’s game. He’s having private, one-on-one conversations with colleagues, and he’s not sharing the contents with others. He’s floating proposals to congressional budget...

The White House -- as we wrote yesterday -- is dead set on passing the health care bill and will stop at nothing politically to get it done. But, new data in the NBC/WSJ poll suggests that simply passing a bill -- whatever is in it -- won't solve Democrats' political problems on health care. Two data points stand out: * Just 32 percent of of the sample said that President Obama's plan is a good idea while 47 percent said is a bad idea. Public opinion on that question had eroded even since October when 38 percent thought passing...

In a blatant attempt to slip into law a healthcare bill nobody has seen, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has kept hidden the actual healthcare legislation while putting forth a false bill for debate on the Senate floor--Reid's ruse. This is the charge by GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky.

The Senate is on course for a final vote on health care reform legislation Christmas day -- either gift-wrapping passage of President Obama's top domestic agenda item or sending him the legislative equivalent of a lump of coal. Getting to that point, however, will be no holiday. Numerous Senate aides tell Fox News that the expected schedule through next week includes votes on a defense spending bill and an increase in the federal debt limit, some late-night sessions, the introduction of amendments that could take hours to be read aloud and three potentially decisive procedural votes requiring large majorities. If...

In the predawn hours this morning, over 30 people loaded a chartered bus in a parking lot across from Ross Park Mall were seeing red and it had nothing to do with getting up before 3:00 a.m. "We want to let Washington know that we are not going to let them pass legislation without them knowing how we feel," said Pam Smith of Evans City. Smith was part of a group of grassroots activists and concerned citizens heading down to Washington, D.C., this morning to issue a "code red" alert to stop the health care overhaul legislation from advancing in...

Major Garrett’s in the hall outside the Democratic caucus room and tweeting the word from Tom Harkin. Can’t really call this good news, as it makes passage much more likely, so let’s call it slightly-better-than-worst-case-scenario news. No more public option: Asked by a reporter if the Medicare buy-in will be pulled out, Harkin said “looks that way,” before praising a Democratic health care bill without the two public option compromises. “There’s enough good in this bill that even without those two, we gotta move,” he said. “All the insurance reforms, all the stuff we wrote so hard for prevention and...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Risking the wrath of Democrats, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., threatened Sunday to join Republicans in opposing health care legislation if it permits uninsured individuals as young to 55 to purchase Medicare coverage. Lieberman, whose vote is critical to the bill's prospects, expressed his opposition twice during the day: first in an interview with CBS, and more strongly later, according to Democratic officials, in a private meeting with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Reid, who is hoping to pass the legislation by Christmas, needs 60 votes to overcome Republican objections, and has been counting on Lieberman to provide...

The White House is encouraging Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to cut a deal with Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and eliminate the proposed Medicare expansion in the health reform bill, according to an official close to the negotiations. But Reid is described as so frustrated with Lieberman that he is not ready to sacrifice a key element of the health care bill, and first wants to see the Congressional Budget Office cost analysis of the Medicare buy-in. The analysis is expected early this week. "There is a weariness and a lot of frustration that one person is holding up...

When President Obama gave his speech on health care on September 10, he promised that there would be no limit on lifetime benefits under the health care bill: "They will no longer be able to place some arbitrary cap on the amount of coverage you can receive in a given year or a lifetime. We will place a limit on how much you can be charged for out-of-pocket expenses, because in the United States of America, no one should go broke because they get sick." Harry Reid didn’t agree evidently. Reid, who is solely responsible for crafting the bill that...

“Obstructing Obama Care is like obstructing the abolition of slavery!” Are them fightin’ words, or what?! And we, who want to “abolish” the tax-funded abortion contained in Obama Care, are the bad guys. We are apparently the Confederate States challenging the authority of our President of the United States. Of course, Obama is Abe Lincoln, women are enslaved by pregnancy and we are the rebels who keep them there, right? That, at least, is how Senator Harry Reid is setting things up for this showdown at the Barack Obama … uh … B.O. Corral.Isn’t there something rather wrong with this...

All President Obama wants for Christmas is Senate Passage of the Harry Reid Heath care bill. The Democrats are still desperately trying to round up 60 votes for cloture debate to allow a vote/passage of the bill before December 25th. Today it President Obama moved a bit further from his Christmas present, and the rest of America a bit closer to ours, as some key Senators came out against the bill in its present form. On television Sunday, Mr. Lieberman said: “We’ve got to stop adding to the bill. We’ve got to start subtracting some controversial things. Mr. Lieberman described...

Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin admitted Friday that he is "in the dark" about the national health care bill currently under construction by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. In an exchange on the Senate floor, Republican Sen. John McCain asked Durbin, "Should we not at least be informed as to what the proposal is that the Senate Majority Leader is going to propose to the entire Senate?" Durbin's answer: "I would say to the senator from Arizona that I am in the dark almost as much as he is, and I am in the leadership." Durbin explained that during a...

The Reid bill is really tottering now. "If this thing falls apart, you can look back to today as the tipping point," says a Republican aide in the Senate, echoing what Lamar Alexander notes in the Costa post below. First, there was last night's CNN poll showing 61 percent opposition. Then, there was the devastating CMS report today. "Nobody went to the floor that I could see to defend it on the Democratic side," says the aide. The back-drop for all this is the non-deal that Reid hyped as a break-through earlier this week, only to have it unravel almost...

WASHINGTON:US President Barack Obama said that Pakistan must cooperate more fully with the United States to help wipe out Al-Qaeda. In the interview with a US television, Obama said the tribal territories that straddle the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan were the ‘epicenter of the violent extremism directed against the West and the United States.’ ‘Ultimately, in order for us to eradicate t

The more the President pushes his progressive agenda the more America pushes back. The latest Rasmussen Poll shows the President's approval rating at a -16 the lowest it has ever been. The -16 is determined by subtracting those who strongly disapprove of the President's performance (41%) From those who strongly approve (25%). Why this number is interesting is that those who have strong feelings about an issue are more likely to take some action in support of that passion.

That's ok. If you've used up your "reasonable" annual benefits for cancer treatments, you could just wait until the following year to continue treating your cancer.

Rasmussen: Dingy Harry trails all three GOP candidates and has 49% very unfavorable view, Poll gives Nevadans view of Health Care and Obama, all are bad...

Harry Reid's Healthcare Compromise-> One Foot on the Banana Peel The Other in the Grave Much has been said about "the great compromise" that was announced by Harry Reid on earlier this week, most of what has been said has been negative. Much of the negativity is coming from key democrats, the ones most likely to cross over and vote against cloture. Reid is having a very hard time finding the 60 votes he needs to cut off debate and allow an up or down vote on Obamacare. Now here's the fun part, there is no real compromise. that's why...

The black pastor who leads Bond Action Inc. in support of "family, traditional moral values and positive, honest race relations" says Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., should be ashamed of comparing opposition to President Obama's plans to socialize medicine in the U.S. to support for slavery. "Reid's comparison of legitimate Republican opposition towards the Democrats $2.5 trillion health care plan to segregationists is deplorable," Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson said today. "This was an attempt to smear Republicans as racists in order to take the focus off the details of this awful socialist health care bill. Reid's remarks are a...

The supposed healthcare deal cut by Harry Reid is a "non-starter," Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) said today. Reid announced this week that Democrats had reached a "broad agreement" on replacing the public option with a Medicare "buy-in" provision and a series of non-profit insurance plans similar to what federal employees are offered. But apparently that "broad agreement" didn't include Nelson. "I think when we get the score back from CBO that it’s going to be too costly," Nelson told Fox News Live today. Nelson also said Americans who don't currently have healthcare wouldn't be able to afford their own Medicare...

Harry Reid is an obvious product of a government education that he and other Liberals are inflicting on the rest of America, and he should be the poster child for school choice. In his recent comment regarding Republicans' efforts to block "healthcare" legislation, Reid invoked the ghosts of Democrats past, claiming that Republicans tried to block emancipation and civil rights for blacks. I believe Reid gave America yet another teachable moment. As I point out in my book The BIG Black Lie, Reid, like most Liberals is trying to revise the racist history of the Democratic Party and better yet...

As this health care debate rolls on, I cannot believe that anyone that has risen to the high level of Senate Majority Leader could be so incompetent. Don't get me wrong; Sen. Harry Reid is certainly incompetence. But his level of incompetence is rising to new levels of greatness. However, this week, after Reid made an ill-advised association between slavery and the health debate, it looked like he saved the reform bill with a last minute compromise that could allow for passage of the bill in the Senate. Except, no such compromise ever took place. According to sources from National...

WASHINGTON -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will not be hitting the Big Easy for a planned fundraiser Friday hosted by the Louisiana senator who secured a $100 million Medicaid boost for her state in the proposed Senate health reform bill. The Senate is scheduled to remain in session again this weekend as senators vote on a package of annual spending bills while awaiting a cost assessment on the latest health care proposals. A Reid spokesman confirmed the senator would not be attending the New Orleans fundraiser, which was to be co-hosted by Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu. The Hill newspaper...

Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid says Republicans are trying to "embarrass or denigrate" him over attending a fundraiser.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is not a likely candidate to write a sequel to the book "How to Win Friends and Influence People," especially when it comes to winning over the opposition to health-care reform. In one broad sweep, the Democratic Leader on Monday tarred all opponents of health-care reform with the same brush as Americans who once opposed ending slavery or extending civil rights to women and Blacks, and he has refused to back down from his analogy. Instead, the Nevada Democrat on Tuesday castigated Republicans for "distorting" his comments, made Monday on the Senate floor, reported...

Sen. Ben Nelson / Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Washington D.C., Dec 9, 2009 / 05:44 pm (CNA).- With the failure of the Nelson-Hatch Amendment restrictions on abortion funding, focus turns to a cloture vote to end debate on the Senate health care bill. While pro-life Democrat Sen. Ben Nelson had previously said he would oppose cloture without the amendment, a spokesman today declined to comment on the senator’s plans.Opposition to cloture would stop the bill from advancing.Last week CNA spoke with Sen. Nelson spokesman Jake Thompson about the senator’s amendment to the health care bill. Thompson said that...

Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele gave the only appropriate response on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” today, to Senate Majority Leader and member of the anti-war Left Harry Reid comparing critics of health care reform to opponents of abolition: he refused to answer questions about it and told CNBC commentator Donny Deutsch to change the subject. It was a good reaction, because taking it seriously would have mainstreamed an argument, conservatives shouldn’t want to mainstream. Progressives have set the tone of the debate for too long. It’s time for conservatives to fight back and create new rules for the political debate....

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is upset by the comments Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid made about opponents of the pro-abortion Senate health care bill. Reid compared opposition to the bill, which funds abortions, to the 19th-century debate over slavery. Reid on Monday said Republicans opposed to the bill were displaying the same mindset as those who supported slavery.“If you think you've heard these same excuses before, you're right,” Reid said. “When this country belatedly recognized the wrongs of slavery, there were those who dug in their heels and said, ‘Slow down, it’s...

Wednesday December 9, 2009 Pro-Life Leaders Launch Opposition to Senate Health Bill Following Nelson Amendment Demise By Kathleen GilbertWASHINGTON, D.C., December 9, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Following the defeat of the Nelson/Hatch/Casey amendment Tuesday evening,  pro-life leaders are calling on senators to oppose the Senate health care bill as it heads towards a final vote, which lawmakers expect will happen before the end of the year.The Senate voted 54-45 Tuesday evening to table the Nelson/Hatch/Casey amendment, effectively killing the language that would have applied Hyde-amendment restrictions on federal funding of abortion to the health care overhaul.  The "tabling" vote allowed...

By a 54-45 vote, the United States Senate has rejected the Nelson-Hatch-Casey Amendment to health care legislation. The amendment would have kept in place “the longstanding and widely supported federal policy against government funding of health coverage that includes elective abortions,” as the US Conference of Catholic Bishops stated before the vote. With the failure of the amendment, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, who chairs the US bishops' pro-life committee, said: "The Senate should not approve this bill in its current form." However leaders of the US bishops' conference held out some hope that the bill might still be amended...

Pro-abortion President Barack Obama Let's cut through the spin. By tabling an amendment sponsored by Senators Ben Nelson and Senator Orrin Hatch, 54 senators voted yesterday to keep abortion covered in the proposed federal government insurance program, and to subsidize private insurance plans that cover abortion on demand. No amount of after-the-fact rationalizations or misdirection can change the grim reality that the 54-46 vote killed an amendment to remove elective abortion from the new federal programs that would be created by pending health care legislation. But while this is a setback, it is only step one. The key vote now...

Surely no one would be foolish enough to defend Harry Reid's statement analogizing ObamaCare opponents to those who resisted the abolition of slavery, right? Um, may I introduce you to Donny Deutsch? On Morning Joe today, the ad man suggested to RNC Chairman Michael Steele that there was nothing wrong with Reid's analogy. When Steele didn't deign to dignify Deutsch's absurdity with a response, a nasty little stand-off ensued . . . View video here.

I am black. I am a woman. And, with all due respect, I think Harry Reid has lost his mind. Yesterday, on the Senate floor, Majority Leader Reid compared those who oppose his healthcare reform package to those who opposed ending slavery, fought against women's suffrage, and thwarted civil rights. What's next, Holocaust comparisons? Many assume that given my race and gender, I would support the Senate health reform bill as a savior of the masses. I do not. And thousands, if not millions, of blacks, Hispanics, women, low-income, and at-risk communities feel the same. There are many reasons why...

Senator Reid, If Republicans are as bigoted and obstructionist to the causes of ending racism as sexism as you implied this week, and if Democrats are so plainly the party of human mercy, then why at every turn are Republicans so eager to expound on their civil rights history, while Democrats must always obfuscate their historical role by deflection, propaganda, and outright lies? Example: Today’s Democrats claim Thomas Jefferson as their founder. He formed the Democratic-Republican Party based upon strong republican principles, namely opposition to large government and a national bank. That party no longer exists, but closely resembles the...

I used to do a lot of catering here in Las Vegas, for both political parties. One was a fund raiser for Harry but it was given by Republicans, he was quite well liked by both sides but most in this town who are wonkers all say he has been quite different since his stroke. I am not giving an excuse for his abominable behavior over the last few years but those in the know say it changed him!

DECEMBER 8, 2009 The Mystery of Harry Reid How could such a thoroughly unappealing man have gotten so far in politics? By JAMES TARANTO Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is at it again. FoxNews.com reports on his latest utterance in the debate over ObamaCare:Reid argued that Republicans are using the same stalling tactics employed in the pre-Civil War era. "Instead of joining us on the right side of history, all the Republicans can come up with is, 'slow down, stop everything, let's start over.' If you think you've heard these same excuses before, you're right," Reid said Monday. "When...

Tea Party Support and the Social Security Institute Tell GOP Senate: “Stop Putting Your Christmas Vacation Ahead of Our Country” Posted : Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:14:19 GMT Tea Party Support ( http://teapartysupport.com ) and the Social Security Institute ( http://socialsecurityinstitute.com ) joined forces yesterday to blast out a million-and-a-half email messages asking people to demand that Republican Senators stop assisting Harry Reid to ram ObamaCare and the Reid health bill through the Senate by year’s end. The email campaign has generated more than 25,000 letters and emails to Capitol Hill so far. Tea Party Support President Matthew Perdue...

Harry Reid likens Healthcare protesters to people who supported slavery December 7, 5:31 PMBaltimore Conservative ExaminerAl Ritter Reid with partner in crime Sen. Mikulski AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais This has to be not only the most contentious comment ever made in the Senate, but also the most false. I’m not exactly sure what Harry Reid wanted to accomplish with this falsehood, but his knowledge of history is sorely lacking. I can’t help but to liken his comment to someone who would make the very comparison of the Tea Party participants to followers of Hitler. Yes Nancy Pelosi, I am talking...

Yesterday, it was reported Senator Reid compared those who opposed the Democratic legislation in regards to health care, are the same as those who defended slavery, and he said so on the floor of the United States Senate. Republicans and Conservatives alike are demanding an apology, as Democrats are reaching a new low in comparing those who are standing for freedom......to those who enslaved men against their will. Does it surprise me? No. Considering we have been called terrorists, racists, Nazis, un-American, evil, and accused of supporting a health care system, where the plan for Seniors is "die". It is...

Yesterday Harry Reid played the race card comparing opponents of Obamacare to supporters of Slavery. The Race Card is Favorite of Reid's as you can see from this recording of a Radio interview from October of 2008. Asked about then Candidate Obama's connection to people implicated in the FannyMae/FreedieMac Crisis. Reid said that people who would make that association are doing so because of racism. The audio of the interview follows:

Senate Democrats, who are hoping to spend the country into a communist revolution, are crafting another stimulus program that's designed to get Americans back working. And have their children pay their wages. The new program, called No Child Left A Dime, will release another "couple few hundred billion" into the American economy, magically creating jobs, careers, factories, roads, and fuzzy warm slippers for everyone. Senator Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat and sleazy guy depicted in the movie Casino, said the plan makes sense. Reid said the money to fund the program will be printed on the Federal Reserve Boards magic...

If class were cash, Harry Reid, the personification of the Peter Principle at work in the Senate, would be as deeply in debt as he and his ilk have put the United States government... …now points his finger at those of us who are smart enough to see what his ignorance misses (the unsustainable debt he’s imposing) and is accusing us as being the ones supporting slavery.

Reid Compares Opponents of Health Care Reform to Supporters of Slavery...

Here is video of Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison reacting to Sen. Harry Reid's outrageous statement today in which he compared opponents to President Obama's Government Health Care Plan to those who supported slavery. Hutchison said Reid's comments were "so over the top" it is unbelievable, and she said that kind of rhetoric has no place in the Senate. She believes it is a sign of desperation on the part of the Democrats. . . . . (VIDEO)

Today, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid showed his fear of losing the health care vote. He let go an outburst that was as offense as it was historically inaccurate: Instead of joining us on the right side of history, all the Republicans can come up with is this:, 'slow down, stop everything, let's start over.' If you think you've heard these same excuses before, you're right. When this country belatedly recognized the wrongs of slavery, there were those who dug in their heels and said, 'Slow down, it's too early, let's wait, things aren't bad enough.' When women spoke up...

"Instead of joining us on the right side of history, all the Republicans can come up with is, 'slow down, stop everything, let's start over.' If you think you've heard these same excuses before, you're right," Reid said Monday. "When this country belatedly recognized the wrongs of slavery, there were those who dug in their heels and said 'slow down, it's too early, things aren't bad enough.'"

In a clear signal that Senate Majority leader Harry Reid does not have the votes necessary to pass ObamaCare/PelosiCare/ReidCare, some Senators are warning that the Democratic leadership could resort to the 'nuclear option' to get the bill approved.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid took his GOP-blasting rhetoric to a new level Monday, comparing Republicans who oppose health care reform to lawmakers who clung to the institution of slavery more than a century ago. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid took his GOP-blasting rhetoric to a new level Monday, comparing Republicans who oppose health care reform to lawmakers who clung to the institution of slavery more than a century ago. The Nevada Democrat, in a sweeping set of accusations on the Senate floor, also compared health care foes to those who opposed women's suffrage and the civil rights movement. "Instead...

Call it the "public option" malaise. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) still does not have the 60 votes he needs to pass the so-called "public option" this year, which Senate Republicans say will cost some $2.5 trillion over ten years once fully implemented. At the moment, Reid lacks the unanimous support of his own caucus for the centerpiece of Barack Obama's domestic policy agenda. According to the Associated Press, "on the issue of a government-run health plan to compete with private insurers, [Senators Joe] Lieberman and [Susan] Collins said they part ways with Reid. Rejecting a compromise that would...