Free Republic

The Senate early Monday voted 60 to 40 to cut off extended debate on the Democratic-authored health care overhaul bill, the first major step toward passing the measure later this week. The vote, which saw all 58 Democrats and two independents vote to end the latest debate while all 40 Republicans opposed the maneuver, ended at 1:19 a.m. and capped a day of debate that turned partisan and often angry. “If the people who wrote this bill were proud of it, they wouldn’t be forcing this vote in the dead of night,” Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said as...

Senator Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) pointed out some rather astounding language in the Senate health care bill during floor remarks tonight. First, he noted that there are a number of changes to Senate rules in the bill--and it's supposed to take a 2/3 vote to change the rules. And then he pointed out that the Reid bill declares on page 1020 that the Independent Medical Advisory Board cannot be repealed by future Congresses:

Cash For Cloture: Obamacare Bill is So Bad It Has to Be Rammed Through In Middle of The Night WSJ/The Lid ^ | 12/21/09 | The Lid Posted on Monday, December 21, 2009 12:34:39 AM by Shellybenoit So it comes down to this, Senator Nelson trades his pro-life position for a couple of bucks...Gee, if he thought abortion is murder on Thursday, why isn't it murder on Friday. For another couple of million for his home state maybe he will come out saying that the victims of 9-11 had it coming. Democrats’ Health Bill Passes Key Senate Vote http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34498942/ns/politics-health_care_reform/ ^...

Senator Roland Burris is claiming credit for a provision in Harry Reid's "manager's amendment," unveiled Saturday morning, that could funnel money to ACORN through the health care bill. On December 9, Burris, an Illinois Democrat, pledged that he would filibuster a health care bill without a public option. "If we have to get 60 and it comes back and it does not have a public option in it, I will not vote for it," he said. Then early last week he said he could vote for the bill if there were changes made to achieve the goals of the public...

On December 21, 2009, however, Harry Reid sold out the Republic in toto. Upon examination of Senator Harry Reid’s amendment to the health care legislation, Senators discovered section 3403. That section changes the rules of the United States Senate. To change the rules of the United States Senate, there must be sixty-seven votes. Section 3403 of Senator Harry Reid’s amendment requires that “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.” The good news is that this only...

On December 20, 2009 Republican Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma said before Congress: "What the American people ought to pray is that somebody can't make the vote tonight. That's what they ought to pray. So that we can ... get the middle of America and the middle of the Senate a bill that can run through this country and actually do what we say we all want to do." Although no particular individual was named, it was an attempt to express disapproval for the overwhelmingly Democrat-supported H.R. 3590 Health Care Bill our Government wants to push through Congress before Christmas....

Graham told The Associated Press Monday he wants Attorney General Henry McMaster to review how Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson was able to spare his state higher Medicaid costs as the Democrat held out for perks for his state in the mammoth bill.

The Senate Democrats declare a super-majority of senators will be needed to overrule any regulation imposed by the Death Panels

If ever the people of the United States rise up and fight over passage of Obamacare, Harry Reid must be remembered as the man who sacrificed the dignity of his office for a few pieces of silver. The rules of fair play that have kept the basic integrity of the Republic alive have died with Harry Reid.

So, here we are. The founding fathers were not fatalists, and they didn't give us a constitution of foregone conclusions."If we can keep it," they said. That puts the responsibility on us. Have we faced anything that needed to be stopped like this monstrous, criminalizing, unconstitutional power grab known as "healthcare reform?" And was there anything so momentous that was within out power to effect the outcome of?So let's hear what you have to say. And if you're not up for the responsibility of self government, are you up for posting your excuse here? At least you can go on...

Reformatted per requests- Congress' ability to tax and spend is regulated by the general welfare clause of the Constitution. A law that pays money for a program in only one state could not be interpreted as being for the "general" welfare. The uniformity clause pertains only to taxes, but a strong argument could be made that the founders never envisioned taxes collected from 50 states being used to pay for a program in only one state, a program that exists in all 50 but is not supported with federal dollars in the other 49. We would still have 13 colonies...

n the wee hours of the morning, the U.S. Senate gathered to vote on cloture, the first of three motions, for the health care reform bill in order to move the process on to the next step. With all 60 Democratic caucus members finally aligned against the Republican filibuster, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) resorted to more sinister implications in his afternoon floor speech: “What the American people ought to pray is that somebody can’t make the vote tonight. That’s what they ought to pray.” The statement seemed to be a thinly veiled jab at ailing Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) who,...

Steele for Chair RNC Chairman Michael Steele, the former Lieutenant Vote up this image! Chairman of the Republican Natiional Committee Michael Steele said the Democratic Party is "flipping the bird to Americans" over their latest health care reform bill, despite the jump in support over the legislation. The latest move to reform health care in the United States has caused grief, anger and rage among leaders in Washington and the American people as the health care debate moves into its final stages and a possible conclusion come Christmas Eve. Michael Steele, Chairman of the RNC, spoke in a conference call...

If I already have health insurance, can I keep it as is? The short answer is: yes. Can I keep my doctors? Again, yes. If I change or lose my job, can I keep the same insurance? No... But the government would set up a new "insurance exchange" that you can buy into. If I'm on Medicare, will there be cuts to my benefits? No - your benefits will not be cut. In fact, the bill would improve your prescription drug coverage. Will taxes go up? In some cases, yes. If I'm uninsured now, how soon do I get the...

14-TERM CONGRESSMAN ENDS SPECULATION OVER RETIREMENT Congressman John Spratt has ended months of speculation over whether he will resign or run to retain his seat next year. On Monday, the 14-term Democrat officially filed for re-election with the Federal Election Commission (FEC). The FEC filing showed Spratt, 67, with nearly $600,000 cash-on-hand. He is currently South Carolina’s longest-serving Congressman. A number of media outlets had been probing Spratt’s intentions of late, which likely pressured him into making a decisive move before he lost the support of his 5th district base. “Washington is sort of like an echo chamber,” Spratt told...

Let's just say I'm not stupid enough to stop providing my family with health insurance coverage BUT here's how my scenario would work out if I did ... and you can bet your sweet a$$ that others have figured this out ... particularly young single middle-class men and women with expendable incomes ... and your stupid federal government? Not so much.

I know, Rats lying in this debate is fish in a barrel, but I thought this one especially egregious. Amy Klobuchar is one of the dimmer bulbs in the Senate. She claimed yesterday to Chris Wallace in response to a question about the broad unpopularity of this bill, that Medicare was even MORE unpopular when it was passed, with only 28% supporting it. This struck me as pretty far fetched, given the lopsided vote for it. Sure enough, she had the numbers exactly transposed. Stupidity or mendacity? You decide.

I looked everyone but didn't see this mentioned, so floating this out there hoping other, more influential people can help implement the following idea: The Health-care bill will be going to conference where they must appease the House (Stupak & others) while maintaining all 60 votes in the Senate. So I think the key to stopping this at this point is lies with creating a division between the liberals. Why don't we call/write/e-mail/phone the Democrat Reps. to put more pressure on them. Not necessairly to tell them the plan is bad (we have to assume they will just ignore these...

Yeah, plenty of righties are on the flip side of the coin, but that’s all the more reason to post this. Their logic’s been blessed by a bona fide Nobel prize winner. Any economics Ph.Ds want to try identifying the crucial variable that’s changed in Krugman’s calculus between then and now? 2005: Yesterday The Washington Post reported on the growing number of pharmacists who, on religious grounds, refuse to fill prescriptions for birth control or morning-after pills. These pharmacists talk of personal belief; but the effect is to undermine laws that make these drugs available. And let me make a...

There's no point in the White House saying this, so it won't. But an official predicted to me the other day that Obama's numbers would hit 60 after the health care bill passes, and Chuck Schumer seems to think roughly the same thing: that the public polling on the Democratic reform bill will turn around "soon." When people see what is in this bill and when people see what it does, they will come around," Schumer said. "The reason people are negative is not the substance of the bill, but the fears that the opponents have laid out. When those...

GETS FORMER SEQUOIA CO. VP NAMED AS ADVISER TO U.S. ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION Earlier this month, Obama made his first official move to corrupt and undermine the 2010 elections. The move consisted in the little noticed appointment of a technical adviser to the Technical Guidelines Development Committee (TGDC) of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC). The importance of the appointment was explained at The Brad Blog last Monday. The Official Press Release of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission read as follows: U.S. ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION 1225 New York Ave. NW – Suite 1100 Washington, DC 20005 For Immediate Release December...

The flaw in my reasoning about congressional whores and prostitutes is that when politicians “put out” WE GET SCREWED not them! Even if one of these Democrat Senators get booted from office, they will just end up with some high-paying job as further payback.

Still, Mr Obama has been at pains over the past week to stress that his administration is nevertheless on the “precipice” of improving the daily lives of millions of Americans.

"I worked with him on many issues across party lines. There has never a major reform accomplished in the history of this country that hasn't been bipartisan, and he certainly, uh...all of the negotiations and efforts that I made with him, we never engaged in this kind of unsavory process of offering people different deals, which in the end cost people from other states lots of money and put burdens on them."

At least common thieves don't destroy an entire health care system and socialize the American economy when they commit their felonies. Too bad we can't say the same for our illustrious Democratic senators who sold out the nation. In exchange for criminally unconstitutional favors for their respective states, they voted to pass the Senate health care bill just 38 hours after it had been made available to the public for review. Everyone knows about Sen. Mary Landrieu's negotiating $300 million for her state in non-guaranteed Medicaid payouts. She was even cocky about her institutionalized larceny. Sen. Bernie Sanders finagled $10...

DATE: December 19, 2009 FROM: Sr. Mary Ann Walsh O: 202-541-3200 H: 301-587-4762 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Federal government must not expand its role enabling abortions Bill should not go forward unless and until problems remedied Protection of life, conscience rights; fairness to legal immigrants; affordability top issues WASHINGTON--The Senate health reform bill should not move forward in its current form, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, Bishop William Murphy of Rockville Centre, New York, and Bishop John Wester of Salt Lake City said December 19, as senators proceeded closer to a vote. Cardinal DiNardo chairs the bishops' Committee on Pro-life Activities....

First, let's presume that Lieberman, Nelson, Webb, Lincoln, and Bayh stay off their meds and continue to vote for ReidCare in the two upcoming required cloture votes. The result would be two different health-care bills - one from the House, and one from the Senate. The normal procedure afterward would be appoint conferees for a joint Conference Committee. The Committee would unify the bills, which would return to each chamber for a final vote. As we noted earlier, since the unified bill would be subject to debate in the Senate there would, therefore, be one final cloture vote (and one...

"This is not the end of health care reform," Sen. Tom Harkin declared on the Senate floor after midnight this morning. "This is the beginning of health care reform."

Congress has been working on a health care bill for the better part of a year. The coverage of the legislation inevitably takes on a day-to-day, blow-by-blow account of the political machinations in Washington, D.C. The public option is in, then it's out, then maybe it's in with a trigger, then it's out, then maybe Medicare is expanded to include some as young as 55, then that's out. The legislation will have changed more between the time we write this and you read it. Anything to come up with 60 votes in the Senate in a big hurry. What's easy...

The American Medical Association endorsed the Senate's healthcare reform legislation Monday, giving Democrats the blessing of the nation's largest physician society as the bill approaches the finish line.The endorsement stands as a significant coup for President Barack Obama and congressional Democratic leaders, who have aggressively sought the AMA’s backing. The organization had opposed comprehensive healthcare reform bills dating back to the Truman administration. In addition to whatever resources the AMA can bring to help speed healthcare reform legislation toward final passage, the endorsement also offers Democrats with the symbolic support of physicians, who could help popularize the effort and would be...

Michael Steele, we don't need you giving a play-by-play of what the Democrats are doing. We KNOW what the Democrats are doing. We don't need you saying that the Democrats are "flipping the bird" to the American people. We already know that. What we need to hear from you, THIS WEEK, is this: what specific actions will the GOP do in response to passage of this "healthcare" abomination? Are you preparing the legal challenges? Are you going to press the un-constitutionality? Are you ready to make public the specific GOP platform planks for the 2010 election? Will you tell us...

Here is audio of GOP Chairman Michael Steele saying that Democrats essentially decided to "flip the bird to the American people" by ramming the Senate Health Care Bill through in the "dead of night." The Democrats won a cloture vote on the bill after 1:00 AM ET this morning by a straight party-line 60-40 vote. . . . (AUDIO)

Yes 2% 329 votes No 96% 11333 votes Undecided 0% 31 votes Other 0% 7 votes 11700 total votes

December 21, 2009 Senator Harry Reid 522 Hart Senate Office Bldg Washington, DC 20510 Fax: 202-224-7327 Dear Senator Reid – Somewhere along the way you seem to have forgotten that you are supposed to represent your constituents. You remember us don’t you?? The people of the great state of Nevada? If you have forgotten us just look ahead to the 2010 elections. This is when the great people of Nevada make it known that we want a representative – not a king. Please explain some things to me: 1) How can you in good conscience ramrod through a bill that...

On the Senate floor yesterday, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) slammed Republicans for their "desperate, no-holds-barred mission of propaganda, falsehood, obstruction and fear," which he said will result in a "day of judgment" by the American people. -snip Whitehouse attributed these "desperate acts" to the Democrats' "momentum," which is working toward passing health care reform legislation, and "when we do, the lying time is over. The American public will see what actually comes to pass when we pass this bill as our new law. The American public will see firsthand the difference between what is, and what they were told." When...

My question is if the medical profession is so concerned about people who can't afford health insurance, why don't they simply reduce their prices to the uninsured and or provide charity clinics for poor people. Why should we have to submit to socialism and outright force to please the AMA and guarantee income for their professional scalpers? Are they afraid they will lose some of their precious profits? Why do they feel it's their privilege to rob the taxpayers? Doctors and politicians must be cut from the same cloth.

Question - I have been hearing commentators state that the House can simply pass the Senate Health Care bill without the bill going to a conference committee. My question is this - because the Constitution requires all revenue bills to originate in the House, can the House even do this? Wouldn't the bill have to go to committee, then the House vote on the bill first, then the Senate?

We Used to Call this Bribery and Corruption... From Landreau's Louisiana Purchase to Nelson's Cornhusker Kickback, congressional crapulence is on full display. Senators who held out got all kinds of goodies for their own states.  Ben Nelson got Harry to exempt his state from the medicaid increases caused by the bill, and you and I are picking up the tab.  Politico catalogs the greed of these pigs at the trough, from Vermont to Michigan.  This craven, immoral display dishonors the man who set the cornerstone of the capitol, George Washington.  It is a contravention of everything our founders stood...

On June 21, 2000, a 39-year-old California businessman, Stuart Alexander, shot three government meat inspectors to death. Alexander’s sausage plant had just re-opened after losing its federal license in January. The two federal inspectors and state inspector were reportedly there to serve another citation. The bureaucrats said his products didn’t conform to health regulations; Alexander said not a single customer had complained about product quality in the 79 years since his great-grandfather started the business. On June 21, 2000, a California businessman shot three government meat inspectors to death. In the wake of the shooting, friends called Alexander a good,...

Regardless of what shape healthcare reform takes, the “system” will still be a victim to immensely costly fraud by providers, sponsors (employers), patients, organized crime and the evolving ethically challenged schemes that fall into white collar crime activity. The main victims of healthcare fraud are sponsors with ongoing increases in premiums that are passed down to their employees, insurers who have to pass this cost back to their sponsors, the government (Medicare/Medicaid) who has to pass this cost back to the tax payer, and any party who has to manage and work in this economy in hidden forms of tax...

Barack Obama claims that the individual mandate to purchase health insurance is not a tax. If he is right, he may be dooming a central piece of the health care reform making its way to his desk. Critics of the Obama administration say that the individual mandate—the rule requiring individuals to purchase health insurance or face stiff penalties—is a regressive tax that will hit the middle classes on whom he promised not to raise taxes. Obama says it isn’t a tax at all. But if we accept Obama’s argument that it isn’t a tax, the individual mandate is likely to...

Democrats, Liberals and Progressives (DLP) and their media allies are masters of illusion as demonstrated again last week. A scan of world events underscores this statement. Last week’s seminal topics were Health Care, Global warming and Jobs. In all of these topics the vast leftwing DLP front did its best work creating the appearances of something that is not real. On the topic of Health Care there was created in the DLP media the illusion that Conservative efforts were blocking the DLP’s progress to getting their health care agenda passed. That was the illusion. (Not to mention that the whole...

In the style of Sen. Ben "Traitor" Nelson .... can other senators start offering, one after another, amendments to ObamaCare saying, "We want free Medicaid too -- just like in Nebraska!" No, of course I'm not in favor of that. I'm trying to think of ways to stop or slow down this abomination.

Barack Obama hoped to unify the nation, and he is making impressive progress toward that goal. Last week, he created common ground between Howard Dean and conservatives. They agree on one thing, which is that the health care reform package produced by the Senate and endorsed by the president richly deserves to be voted down. Conservatives have always opposed ObamaCare because it involves too much government. Now liberals are abandoning the administration's plan because it involves too little. Dean and Co. are bitter that the bills in Congress offer neither a "public option"—a government-run insurance program—nor a provision letting those...

Did Congress pass Obamacare at 1:00 a.m. this morning? One could be forgiven for thinking so. But one would be wrong. Today's vote was only a cloture vote to shut off debate. But months of vigorous opposition by the American people and a civil war in the Democrat Party has raised the profile of the legislation to unprecedented heights in the public eye. The cloture vote was widely reported to be 'the' vote. To 'Kerry' something is no longer a safe hiding place. If a Senator tries to Kerry this thing by telling his constituents that he 'voted for it...

Hope For The Future Malcolm A. Kline, December 21, 2009 Believe it or not, someone from academia has actually done a detailed, critical analysis of the accuracy of claims of proponents of the health care reform bill currently before Congress. Of course, that critic is a student, not a professor. “The historic passage of HR 3962 by the House of representatives is not an event to be celebrated,” Eric Staib writes in the December 2009 issue of the Free Market newsletter published by the Ludwig von Mises Institute. “Obamacare will exacerbate the nation’s rising unemployment and will prevent wages from...

Slumping in the polls and struggling to pass climate and financial legislation, President Barack Obama and Democratic leaders are counting on an historic health care victory to buoy their electoral prospects in 2010. But Republicans argued Sunday that the issue is breaking their way, and liberal infighting indicates the party leadership has to win back its base along with the larger electorate. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has been telling Democrats a win on the health issue will reverse the slide in public opinion, just as passage of another controversial proposal, the North American Free Trade Agreement, lifted...

Despite a last-minute weekend deal that put the Senate on the brink of passing health care reform this week, liberal and moderate Democrats remain on a collision course over the bill, as both sides dug in Sunday for the next phase of negotiations. President Barack Obama’s liberal base and powerful union leaders once hoped the expected House-Senate conference would partly undo a year of retreats and compromises, with Obama weighing in to nudge the moderate Senate bill to the left. But the titanic struggle to lock in Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) as the 60th senator for the first key test...

A bill so reckless that it has to be rammed through on a partisan vote on Christmas eve. And tidings of comfort and joy from Harry Reid too. The Senate Majority Leader has decided that the last few days before Christmas are the opportune moment for a narrow majority of Democrats to stuff ObamaCare through the Senate to meet an arbitrary White House deadline. Barring some extraordinary reversal, it now seems as if they have the 60 votes they need to jump off this cliff, with one-seventh of the economy in tow. Mr. Obama promised a new era of transparent...