Free Republic

e21 has a very perceptive post about the Medicare payroll tax that Harry Reid has inserted into his bill to pay for his health care proposal. Link here: http://www.economics21.org/commentary/payroll-tax-increase-loophole-and-ticking-time-bomb The Democrats are double-counting the money raised from the tax. They're counting it to reduce the coming deficit in Medicare and they're also counting it to help pay for the present bill. Revenues from the HI tax are “deposited” in the Medicare Part A Trust Fund, which is running a $20.5 billion deficit (p. 56 of pdf) in 2009. The Trust Fund is expected to continue to hemorrhage money for the...

Congress Never Ceases to Amaze. Really? A tax on national defense? I hear liberal Congressional proposals and I, like most Americans, wonder if they’re serious. We’re going to put a price tag on security? With Congress and President Obama spending money on everything at breakneck speed, it’s interesting that they are only now getting nervous about spending – but only when it comes to providing the necessary funds to complete our mission in Afghanistan. They don’t need a new “war tax” to fund a strategy for victory in the war zone. They simply need to prioritize our money appropriately. Etc....

WASHINGTON — Senate majority leader Harry Reid (Dipsh#t, Nevada) reportedly had Sen. Joe Lieberman waterboarded 183 times this past week, but the independent-minded senator from Connecticut still won’t vote “yes” for Reid’s health care bill. Lieberman holds a key vote in the ongoing battle over a health care bill that includes a public health insurance option, part of the Democrats’ evil plan to take over the country and turn it into a human SEIU puppy mill and ACORN graft factory.

ObamaCare's true cost of the health care bill being proposed by Harry Reid and his fellow Democrat hucksters is $1.8 trillion over ten years, not the $849 billion as deceptively claimed.

More pearls of wisdom from the SoundOffSister. This is truly priceless. How Sen. Reid (D-Nev.), or any other senator, for that matter, can propose this language with a straight face is perhaps a good indication of how bad the Senate version of Obamacare is. Beginning at page 1858 in Section 6801, the Senate, no doubt with furrowed brow, plunges into the serious issue of tort reform. Here’s what they say: (1) Health care reform presents an opportunity to address issues related to medical malpractice and medical liability insurance,

All it took for Senator Mary Landrieu to vote to open debate on the Democrats' leviathan health care reform measure was a hundred million. Or was it $300 million, as Landrieu claims? That's $100 million in aid to Louisiana for disaster relief plus another $200 million for Medicaid or whatever else she could weasel. And whatever she's saying about being undecided on final passage, don't buy it. The only way she'll cart off the dough is if the bill passes. But while the senator is preening like a peacock about the fat she plans to ladle from the federal pork...

Last week had to be a bit awkward for Democrats. They labored to pass a health care bill that, among other things, establishes a government advisory panel to curb health care costs with industrywide medical recommendations. And at just the wrong moment, a similar government advisory panel provoked outrage by recommending that women stop getting so many breast cancer screenings. Unruffled, the Democrats pressed on with their 2,000-page health care bill, going so far as to hold a rare Saturday night vote on whether to proceed to debate. There's a good reason they are in such a rush to pass...

It is time to cast aside all remaining doubt. President Obama is not trying to lead America forward to recovery, prosperity and strength. Quite the opposite, in fact. In September of last year, American Thinker published my article, Barack Obama and the Strategy of Manufactured Crisis. Part of a series, it connected then presidential candidate Barack Obama to individuals and organizations practicing a malevolent strategy for destroying our economy and our system of government. Since then the story of that strategy has found its way across the blogosphere, onto the airwaves of radio stations across the country, the Glenn Beck...

You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. That’s the way it’s always worked in Washington, so the news that Mary Landrieu will hold a fundraiser in New Orleans for Senator Harry Reid comes as no surprise. Reid procured a substantial dose of cash to Landrieu’s Louisiana in exchange for her crucial “moderate” vote. Senator Mary Landrieu from Louisiana garnered a lot of attention before the healthcare vote last night as to whether she would or wouldn’t vote yes to send the monstrosity of a bill to the floor for debate. After rumors of a $100 million dollar bribe by Senator...

Saturday night's health-care vote in the Senate was a theatrical fizzle. Sure, Majority Leader Harry Reid made senators sit at their desks for their vote to create a sense of "history" -- but everyone knew that he'd get the 60 votes he needed to start debate on ObamaCare. If a $100 million Medicaid payoff to her state wasn't enough to keep Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu bought for at least a few days, there truly is no honor among thieves. Landrieu bragged about her swag, calculating that the "Lousiana Purchase" was really worth $300 million. The two other centrist Democrats whose...

President Barack Obama’s mission to reform US healthcare vaulted another legislative hurdle over the weekend, but the scramble to secure his own party’s votes sheds light on the messy compromises that may be needed to get it to the finish line.

Well they did it. Not out in the open, of course. Under cover of a Saturday night "procedural vote." After the $100 million according to the press, $300 million according to her ("I am not going to be defensive. And it's not a $100 million fix. It is a $300 million fix,") Louisiana Purchase of Senator Mary Landrieu. Hundreds of millions of OUR dollars used to pay off the wavering Louisiana Senator in order to secure her vote. I don't have words for this. None that won't get me in trouble. I worked with a guy who once said to...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid eked out 60 votes on a procedural motion to start the health care debate Saturday night – so there’s no guarantee he can pass a bill on the merits. And if he struggles, the reasons will be clear: deep divides among Democrats on a public insurance plan, abortion, tax hikes and cost-cutting. Liberals want the plan to be generous enough. Moderates fear a budget-buster. And everyone is trying to avoid angering seniors. Even in the blush of Saturday’s victory, Reid (D-Nev.) is far from having the votes to move his $848 billion package to final...

Despite Cloture Win, ObamaCare Still has a Long Way to Go to Become Reality - Step by Step #fullpost{display:inline;}Democrats succeeded tonight in winning the first cloture vote on the Senate Health Care Bill which allows it to move forward to a debate / amendment phase. But Martin Gold and Tom Curry spell out just how far "ObamaCare" has to go before it becomes a reality. It's a longer road than I understood, and than you may think: With the Senate having approved a motion to proceed to debate on the health insurance overhaul, legislation is still far from being signed...

Sweeteners for the South By Dana Milbank Sunday, November 22, 2009 Staffers on Capitol Hill were calling it the Louisiana Purchase. On the eve of Saturday's showdown in the Senate over health-care reform, Democratic leaders still hadn't secured the support of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), one of the 60 votes needed to keep the legislation alive. The wavering lawmaker was offered a sweetener: at least $100 million in extra federal money for her home state. And so it came to pass that Landrieu walked onto the Senate floor midafternoon Saturday to announce her aye vote -- and to trumpet the...

Did anyone else catch this? Just now on C-SPAN, Harry Reid quotes communist Andrei Sakharov in closing statement of Senate debate on socialist health care. Google: Andrei Sakharov OK granted, Sakharov was not a ranting Leninist but why wouldn't Harry quote a founder or an American patriot to make his simplistic, sophomoric point. O wait, Harry IS a ranting Leninist...

Senate Democrats pushed ahead with President Barack Obama’s vision of health reform Saturday night – after a day that exposed significant divides in the party that could make it all but impossible to complete work on a plan by year’s end, or even sink the bill altogether. In a 60-39 vote on strictly partisan lines, the Senate sent the $848 billion health care bill to the floor for debate after the Thanksgiving break, but not before a clutch of moderates served notice that they couldn’t back the bill in its current form. One key provision – for a government-run insurance...

(McConnell: It's a 'Monstrosity of a Bill') (GOP: 'This Is Not True Health Care Reform') WASHINGTON (AP) -- Invoking the memory of Edward M. Kennedy, Democrats united Saturday night to push historic health care legislation past a key Senate hurdle over the opposition of Republicans eager to inflict a punishing defeat on President Barack Obama. There was not a vote to spare.The 60-39 vote cleared the way for a bruising, full-scale debate beginning after Thanksgiving on the legislation, which is designed to extend coverage to roughly 31 million who lack it, crack down on insurance company practices that deny or...

Why was it so hard for Dems even to start health care debate? By: Byron York Chief Political Correspondent 11/21/09 6:43 PM EST The extraordinary thing about the dramatic events surrounding the health care bill in the Senate is that there is any drama in it at all. Lawmakers are simply voting to begin debate on their version of health care reform. Just begin debate -- not end it, and not move on to a final vote. If Democrats, with a 60-vote majority in the Senate, were not able to begin debate on the top Democratic policy priority in a...

Under Leader Reid’s amendment, in the year 2019 about 16 million U.S. citizens would be uninsured and be forced to pay a penalty tax of almost $800 per year. About eight million illegal aliens would be uninsured and would owe no penalty tax. Both groups would get their health care through a combination of out-of-pocket spending and use of uncompensated care in emergency rooms and free health clinics. This seems unfair.

Dems snare 60 votes to move ahead on health careBy ERICA WERNER, Associated Press Writer – 4 mins ago WASHINGTON – Democratic leaders secured the last two votes to move ahead on historic health care legislation, clearing the way for a Saturday night showdown on President Barack Obama's top domestic initiative. In long-awaited speeches, centrist Sens. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana said they would stand with their party and vote "yes" on the crucial test vote despite deep reservations with elements of the 2,074-page bill to remake the nation's health care system. "The truth is this...

The President’s popularity did not even last one year. He was a creation of the media and was accepted by the American people who were looking for a change from the policies of George W. Bush. However, the center-right country does not want hard core liberalism. This is a shocking fall from grace for the idol of Hollywood and the media. Obama has received more positive news coverage than any other President in history, yet the American people are seeing through the spin. More and more people are starting to recognize that Obama has a radical liberal agenda. While this...

Mulder and Scully are on the hunt for Harry Reid's phantom jobs.

Landrieu's Vote Will Reveal her integrity (or lack of): WASHINGTON -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's health care bill has millions of dollars to help Louisiana finance Medicaid at a time when he is hoping that state's wavering Democratic senator will support overhaul legislation. The bill provides at least $100 million for Louisiana in extra funds for Medicaid, the state-federal health program for the poor. Louisiana's Democratic senator, Mary Landrieu, has said she is undecided about the Democratic health care package. Reid needs the votes of all 60 Democratic senators for the Senate debate to begin.

Read the full billRead the tax revenue score from the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) Read the budget and tax score from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) PDF of this DocumentIndividual Mandate Tax (Page 324/Sec. 1501/$8 bil): Starting in 2014, anyone not buying “qualifying” health insurance must pay an income surtax according to the following schedule (capped at 8 percent of income): ==============> Check out this important piece, at ATR.org...

With the introduction of Harry Reid's health care bill - talk will inevitably focus on whether the public option or the Stupak amendment will undermine the legislation. Yet, if the bill dies, I do not think either of these will be the primary cause of death. I think this will be the culprit: (See chart in link) This is the CBO's analysis of how the Reid bill will cut Medicare. The total reductions come out to $491 billion over 10 years when everything is factored in. The following has been said by other commentators, but I have to add my...

Climate Change: As scientists confirm the earth has not warmed at all in the past decade, others wonder how this could be and what it means for Copenhagen. Maybe Al Gore can Photoshop something before December. It will be a very cold winter of discontent for the warm-mongers. The climate show-and-tell in Copenhagen next month will be nothing more than a meaningless carbon-emitting jaunt, unable to decide just whom to blame or how to divvy up the profitable spoils of climate change hysteria. The collapse of the talks coupled with the decision by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to put...

Senate Democratic leaders, having negotiated critical last-minute commitments, Friday stood on the verge of achieving the 60 votes they need to begin consideration of the most expansive healthcare legislation to go before the Senate in nearly half a century. Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson, who was among three Democratic holdouts, announced that he would back an all-important procedural vote set for Saturday that will allow the chamber to take up the wide-ranging bill unveiled this week by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). And Democratic leaders expect Sens. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana to support a cloture...

A healthcare policy expert says there are details in the Senate healthcare bill that will frighten everyone. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) has unveiled his more than 2,000-page healthcare bill with an estimated price tag of $849 billion. However, as Grace Marie Turner of the Galen Institute points out, one of the reasons the bill was scored under President Obama's $900 billion cost goal is because no one gets any benefit from the program until 2014. "So they start collecting taxes and fees now, and...the first ten years of full implementation of this bill is $2.5 trillion, and that's...

The media is stirring up drama regarding tomorrow's vote - namely, they are speculating whether Landrieu and Lincoln will vote with Reid to start debate. Of course they will. Three big reasons: (a) "Keep the Ball Rolling". Tomorrow's vote - like all of the votes to date - is a process vote, meaning that Obama and the leadership can argue, "Vote yea to keep the process going. We can improve the bill later if you stick with us." Every vote they have won to date has, I think, been won based on this argument - and it should carry the...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- There are 18 separate tax hikes in the Reid-Obama healthcare bill. One of them caps the amount that can be deferred in Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) at $2500 per year (a similar provision was included in the Pelosi-Obama health bill and written about by Congressman Cathy McMorris-Rogers, R-Was., for National Review Online). There is currently no limit to how much can be saved, though all monies must be used by the end of the year. Employers may put a cap in place for their employees, but this would put a cap in federal tax law...

With less than a year until Election Day, the stakes for this country could not be higher. Nancy Pelosi and her puppets have put our country on a path for bankruptcy and rationed healthcare.   With that in mind, I wanted to take a moment to tell you about an exciting project - Reverse the Vote. This site is a tool that allows concerned Americans to directly support the challengers of 24 vulnerable Democrats who voted to take your healthcare away and put it in the hands of federal bureaucrats.This project will hold these 24 Democrats’ feet to the fire for voting...

Remember it for your grandchildren: Saturday, November 21, 2009—the day of the Transformation of America. That’s the day Global Marxism will begin its inexorable march to take down the Free World, starting with its leader the United States of America. There will be no shots fired, but the aim of the U.S. Senate’s poison arrow is right on target at the heart of humanity. While America’s Marxist President is abroad, Senate Majority House Leader Harry Reid is tying the red ribbon bow on his Christmas present, the Transformation, and Take Down of the United States of America. “Senate Majority...

Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., will host a fundraiser for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., in New Orleans next month, an event that comes on the heels of Reid's assistance getting Louisiana a windfall of Medicaid money in the health care reform bill.

While the Senate is now preparing to debate Democratic Leader Harry Reid's 2000-plus-page version of the health care reform plan, 47% of Americans still believe the private sector rather than the federal government has the best chance of keeping health care costs down and the quality of medical care up. But a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 33% of adults think the federal government would do a better job of reducing costs and maintaining quality of care. Twenty percent (20%) are undecided. Forty-nine percent (49%) of adults who already have insurance say the private sector would accomplish...

It was a breath of fresh air to finally hear the Democrats admit to their health care bill as “a lot of show and tell and razzmatazz,” (see Democrat talking points, in reference to my book). At least now we’re all on the same page when discussing the problems with their monstrous government health care “reform” plan. Now, tonight, more disconcerting news – the New York Times reports of new guidelines to scale back cervical cancer screenings. The recommendation from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists comes on the heels of another recommendation to limit breast cancer screenings with...

Last Saturday night Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) forced through a vote on her 2,032 page health care bill only a few days after releasing it to the public. Now Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is poised for another Saturday night cram down, forcing a Senate cloture vote mere days before his 2,074 page bill was given to Senators. Yet again, Congress will be forced to vote on a bill that none of them have actually read. More importantly, as we pour through the details, it becomes obvious that none of them even believe the plan will do what the...

Seinfeld fans should love Harry Reid's health scare plan. Reid wants to spend almost a trillion of your tax dollars over the next decade for ... nothing. According to reports, Reid's plan would leave 24 million people uninsured in 2019. That is approximately the same number of people that some studies show who are currently uninsured because they can't afford health insurance. One dirty, big secret that Dr. Reid, Nurse Nancy, and Orderly Obama don't want you to know is that a significant number of uninsured Americans can afford health insurance; they just choose not to purchase it. Many are...

The Democrats' health-care express is on the move again -- too quickly for Americans to absorb the long-term implications of its potentially devastating impact on the US economy. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid unveiled his latest bill Wednesday, complete with a Congressional Budget Office analysis suggesting it would cost $849 billion over 10 years -- well below the president's $900 billion ceiling. In fact, the actual cost of the Reid bill is three times that figure. Yet Reid aims to push through a critical procedural vote on the bill this weekend, which will demonstrate whether he has the 60-vote "supermajority"...

SENATE Majority Leader Harry Reid is touting the Senate's latest health-care bill as costing $849 billion over 10 years. But this uses the same accounting trick as past versions: 99 percent of the costs don't kick in until the fifth year of that "10-year" period. The true 10-year costs are well over twice what Reid's advertising: $1.8 trillion. The Democrats cite the bills' projected costs from 2010-19. Yet, as the Congressional Budget Office reports, the bill would cost just $9 billion total from 2010 through 2013 -- versus $147 billion in 2016 alone. In the first 40 percent of what...

Just in time for Thanksgiv ing, Sen. Harry Reid has given us a giant turkey of a health-care bill. At 2,074 pages and more than 370,000 words, it's officially "scored" as costing $849 billion over 10 years -- $400 million per page, or $2.3 million per word. But that doesn't come close to measuring its true cost. The bill uses various accounting gimmicks to hide its true cost. For example the bill doesn't include more than $200 billion needed to prevent a 21 percent cut in Medicare next year. [The CBO "score" actually assumes Reid cuts Medicare 23 percent --...

Several weeks ago I wrote two posts dealing with the constitutionality of Obamacare based upon the remarks of Mr. Hoyer (D. Md.) and Ms. Pelosi (D. Ca.). Mr. Hoyer insisted that the mandate that all have insurance was clearly constitutional based upon Congress’s power to tax, while Ms. Pelosi insisted the mandate was constitutional based upon Congress’s power to regulate interstate commerce. But, I have now found the definitive treatise on the subject. Not only have I found it, but, I have found it in a most unusual place…the bill itself! The Senate Bill released by Sen. Reid (D.Nv.) yesterday...

Reform: Only a Bernie Madoff could believe the Senate's health care bill will extend coverage to 31 million Americans while cutting deficits by $127 billion over 10 years. It would be the first profitable entitlement. But that's what Majority Leader Harry Reid, citing Congressional Budget Office estimates, tells us the 2,074-page bill — said to cost only $849 billion over a decade — would do. Like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, he seems to be following Vice President Joe Biden's admonition at an AARP town hall meeting that "we've got to spend money to keep from going bankrupt." We suspect Reid's...

Reid scrambles for 60 health votes With an assist from Joe Biden, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid scrambled Wednesday to pull together 60 votes for his health reform bill, awaiting all-important cost estimates in hopes of getting the bill to the floor by the weekend. At around 2:15 p.m., the three moderate Democratic holdouts - Blanche Lincoln, Mary Landrieu and Ben Nelson - entered Reid's office for a briefing. "He is walking through the particulars with them," said Reid’s spokesman, Jim Manley. "We need 60 votes to get this bill to the floor." Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chairman of the...

The Senate is headed for a rare Saturday vote to advance its major healthcare reform bill without a guarantee of success, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) indicated Thursday. At a rally with supporters of the healthcare reform bill, Reid would not say he had secured commitments from all 60 members of the Democratic Conference to vote for the legislation — an absolute necessity given unanimous opposition from the 40 Senate Republicans. "We'll find out when the votes are taken," Reid said. Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), one of three Democratic holdouts, said Thursday that he would announce his intentions prior to...

Posted by GOP Leader (John Boehner) Press Office on November 19th, 2009 Just like the original 2,032-page, government-run health care plan from Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-NV) massive, 2,074-page bill would levy a new “abortion premium” fee on Americans in the government-run plan.

Just like the original 2,032-page, government-run health care plan from Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-NV) massive, 2,074-page bill would levy a new “abortion premium” fee on Americans in the government-run plan. Beginning on line 7, p. 118, section 1303 under “Voluntary Choice of Coverage of Abortion Services” the Health and Human Services Secretary is given the authority to determine when abortion is allowed under the government-run health plan. Leader Reid’s plan also requires that at least one insurance plan offered in the Exchange covers abortions (line 13, p. 120). What is even more alarming is...

Reid's Senate Health Care Bill Contains Massive Abortion Funding Washington, DC -- Two leading pro-life organizations that have analyzed the new 2,000-page government-run health care bill released by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid late yesterday say the legislation contains massive abortion funding and a fake amendment that does not truly ban it. http://www.LifeNews.com/nat5682.html

Read all 2,074 pages of the Senate bill By Eric Zimmermann and Jeffrey Young - 11/18/09 07:16 PM ET The Senate healthcare bill Harry Reid revealed today spans 2,074 pages, marginally longer than the House bill's 1,990 pages. Read the whole bill by clicking here. Senate Democrats have also released a short summary of the bill, along with a list of reforms that would go into effect the first year after enactment. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated that it will cost $849 billion over ten years, will reduce the deficit by $127 billion and would cover 31 million...

There are, in public policies, these inconvenient things called the “secondary effects.” These are the unintended consequences of even the best intended laws. Critics of Obama’s national health care program have questioned its intentions from day one. Few doubt the program will lead to a serious rationing of health care (adding 40 million on the system and allegedly lowering spending will have that impact) and will lead to increase taxes for millions of Americans. According to public opinion surveys, the number one issue of most voters is unemployment. This sentiment is backed up by the hard fact that unemployment recently...