Free Republic

My Senator is one of those people voting 'aye.' I voted for that person last year but I'm sure as hell not going to next election. Is this debacle actually going to effect things in 2010 & 2012 or is the Dems control growing too fast to stop by then. Here's the link to the video: http://storyballoon.org/videos/senate-finance-committee-voting-on-health-care-reform/

It's become increasingly clear in recent weeks that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is in deep trouble in his re-election race next fall. A new independent poll conducted for the Las Vegas Review Journal shows Reid trailing two unknown opponents -- former state party chairwoman Sue Lowden and businessman Danny Tarkanian -- and just 38 percent of Nevada voters had a favorable opinion of their senator. At the heart of Reid's vulnerability is the disconnect between his role in Washington as the leader of Senate Democrats and his status as Nevada's senior senator. In Washington, Reid is tasked with carrying...

Senate Committee Votes for Fifth Health Care Bill Promoting Tax-Funded Abortions Washington, DC -- The Senate Finance Committee voted 14-9 today to send the fifth version of health care reform legislation to the floor of a chamber of Congress. The Baucus bill, named for the chairman of the panel who is its main sponsor, would fund abortions with massive subsidies. http://www.lifenews.com/nat5566.html

See link. I can not excerpt one line.

The surprise endorsement of climate-change legislation by a leading Senate Republican has jump-started the languishing proposal but also has raised the prospect that it will include two major items that environmentalists dislike: more nuclear power and more offshore oil drilling. In an op-ed published Sunday, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina joined with Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the chamber's leading Democratic advocate of climate legislation, to promote a bipartisan plan to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. They proposed a compromise that reduces U.S. carbon-dioxide emissions - which are widely considered to contribute to climate change - through a market-based "cap and...

WASHINGTON – Divided along partisan lines, a key Senate committee moved Tuesday toward a milestone vote on sweeping health care legislation that would fulfill President Barack Obama's top domestic priority. Its ultimate fate remained far from certain. "Ours is a balanced plan that can pass the Senate," declared Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont. Health care legislation is expected to be on the Senate floor the week after next, said a spokesman for Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, who must combine the Finance version with a more liberal proposal from the health committee. The expected approval by Baucus' committee...

Political handicappers are looking at the 2010 Senate contests and they see lots of blue seats turning purple and red before their eyes.

Watch these guys, we cannot fail to keep our eyes on them. Watch, listen and take copius notes And make remarks right here!

Under the cap and trade scheme advocated by Democrats, the federal government would set a limit on the amount of a pollutant that could be emitted. If a company plans to exceed the government cap, it would have to purchase credits from a company that has polluted less. And the fun part is they wouldn't be able to buy the credits directly from the other company, they would have to do it through the US Government. This cap and trade is just another big government tax program. Some studies have said that the plan will increase your household energy bill...

Politically speaking, Sen. John Ensign of Nevada is about as battered as it gets. The Republican senator in June acknowledged an extramarital affair with a campaign aide, who was married to his best friend, who has castigated Ensign in television interviews as a shameless Lothario. In recent days, after the New York Times reported on Ensign's efforts to silence his mistress' husband, Doug Hampton, the Senate ethics committee launched an investigation and talk surfaced of a possible FBI inquiry. Ensign has said he won't resign, and Nevada's GOP is widely considered too emasculated to push him out. Regardless of what...

It's been conventional wisdom forever that health care reform’s brass tacks will be decided in conference committee, where Senate and House negotiators reconcile each chamber's version into one bill. But what if reform could skip conference on the way to the president’s desk?It wasn't a question I’d considered until a former House and Senate leadership aide sent an email sketching out another route to passage. Instead of introducing a Senate bill, Majority Leader Reid could insert the merged health care reform language into a revenue raising House bill already languishing in conference committee. The Senate would pass it and send...

The full Senate this week is expected to resume its consideration of the fiscal year 2010 appropriations bill that funds the nation's immigration court system and reimburses states for the costs they bear in incarcerating criminal aliens.  When it does so, the Senate will be faced with a vote on an amendment offered by Senator David Vitter (R-LA) that would force the Census Bureau to inquire about the immigration status of every person in the United States as part of its 2010 decennial census.  The Senate also this week could be faced with votes on making the E-Verify program permanent...

SO the Congressional Budget Office has produced the product that Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus and President Obama needed: a contorted acknowledgement that -- if taxes are hiked, Medicaid expanded and Medicare reimbursements slashed permanently by 25 percent -- Baucus' $829 billion bill will insure 29 million more people and produce a slight surplus over 10 years. Keep the champagne on ice: The CBO's "preliminary analysis" is a work of fantasy. First off, CBO makes clear that it's not dealing with the actual bill (there isn't one) but a summary. And it assumes Congress will actually make Baucus' unlikely...

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus' bill got a thumbs up from the Congressional Budget Office, clearing the way for a committee vote, but health care overhaul is still nowhere near the end of the road. CBO's scoring provided a boost to the momentum, but Democrats still need to iron out key differences among the various bills. The CBO analysis concluded the Baucus measure would come in under budget at $829 billion, and would expand coverage to 94 percent of eligible Americans. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said today the Finance Committee will vote on Baucus' bill next Tuesday....

WASHINGTON--It's October, the month of trick or treat, and Congress is trying to come up with a trick. The Congressional Budget Office's estimate of Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus's health reform bill makes it looks like a treat-it's projected to reduce the federal deficit by $81 billion over the next 10 years-but in reality it's a Nightmare on Pennsylvania Avenue. Yesterday CBO came out with its second estimate of the Baucus bill, reflecting the original bill together with amendments that have been hammered out over the past three weeks in committee deliberations. Only in government accounting could an additional 29...

Brigadier General Robert Clements, United States Air Force (ret) sent a warning out to the military community. He said, “For all the veterans and retirees fighting to keep some of the broken promises made by Congress, and for all of you who have paid your own way all these years, remember the latest action by Congress, if successfully passed, can only be paid for at your expense.” Paul Balaich agrees with the general and feels we should “Flip the House in 2010. Since one third of the Senate is to be elected or reelected, we need to flip those seats...

Rachel Maddow just said that Democrat Leader(s) in the Senator have told her that Reid will revoke chairmanships of any Senator that sides with Republicans in a filibuster. She's discussing various strategies that the Democrats in the Senate are evaluating. But the first seems to be bullying their own leadership.

That deficit line is, as usual, the Big Lie in the whole thing. What they mean is that we are going to spend a sh#tpile of money and, to finance that (i.e. to make it deficit neutral, or maybe even reduce it!), they are going to raise taxes on everybody and everything and drastically cut Medicare and other benefits. How awesomely awesome is that! It may not increase the government's deficit, but it sure as hell will increase all of our personal deficits.

War Strategy: When Bush and Petraeus proposed the surge in Iraq, Democrats demanded that the general testify before Congress. So why has the Senate blocked a similar invitation to our commander in Afghanistan? Those with memories longer than the 24-hour news cycle recall that in the dark days of the Iraq War, David Petraeus was summoned to Washington to explain the surge strategy that would eventually lead to victory in Iraq. Democrats hoped for a show trial. MoveOn.org took out a full-page ad in the New York Times labeling the commanding general of our efforts in Iraq "General Betray-us." Then...

Harry Reid is going to use a legislative trick to push through the public option without allowing any amendments and skipping a House/Senate conference committee. Reid will use H.R. 1586—a bill passed by the House in March to impose a 90-percent tax on bonuses paid to employees of certain bailed-out financial institutions—as a “shell” for enacting the final version of the Senate’s health care bill, which Reid is responsible for crafting. Under the procedure, the substance of House Resolution 1586 would be removed and replaced with the entire Senate health care package. The maneuver would initially require the support of...

The White House is working overtime to create the impression of momentum on their flawed approach to health care and the mainstream media has been parroting this line while ignoring significant reservations from Democrats and Republicans alike.

Former Rep. Pat Toomey (R) raised more than $1.5 million in the last three months for his campaign against Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.). The fundraising matches his haul during his first three months as a candidate and gives him a platform from which to run against Specter, who has a massive fortune of his own. Toomey, the former head of Club for Growth who narrowly lost to Specter in the 2004 Republican primary, will report raising more than $3.1 million since he announced his candidacy. The campaign has already surpassed the total number of donors it had during the 2004...

Over the past nine months, much ink has been spilled on these pages and elsewhere over the process of filling vacant seats in the Senate. As columnist Norman Ornstein documented in Roll Call on Sept. 23, during this period there have been six seats vacated by death, retirement, election to higher office and appointment to the Cabinet. Much of the commentary has focused on how the vacancies are filled and how fast the replacement occurs. Those who desire a quick and inexpensive process tend to favor gubernatorial appointment of Senators, while those who insist on a more democratic and deliberate...

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--U.S. Senate debate on health-care legislation likely will be pushed back further into October, with a Senate Finance Committee vote on its health-care bill expected later this week. According to an aide for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., Senate debate on the legislation is likely to be delayed "at least a week." Reid had earlier slated debate to begin the week of Oct. 12. The delay occurs as the Senate Finance Committee waits for a cost estimate of its bill from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO). According to a Senate Finance Committee aide, the committee expects...

U.S. Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del., will announce at noon that he's running for former Vice President Joe Biden's Senate seat, a Republican source tells CBS News, setting up what may be one of the Republicans' best shots at taking a Democratic-held Senate seat in 2010. Castle's announcement immediately puts Biden's former seat – a seat he held from 1972 until January - in play for the Republicans, even as Biden's son, state attorney general Beau Biden, readies for his own run. While Delaware is a reliably 'blue' state in presidential elections, the 70-year-old Castle, a moderate Republican, has held statewide...

Here's somethings you may not know about any bill that comes out of the Senate Finance Committee. There doesn't need to be a full final bill. All there needs to be is a very detailed outline. Go to the Senate's site and this is the bill. It's 223 pages and spends half it's time comparing itself to current law. That's not a bill but rather a plan. The House Health Care bill is over one thousand pages, and it's strictly text of the bill. That's an actual bill.

A loaded question looms over Senate health care negotiations as they enter the crucial phase between now and mid-October: What if Democrats don't win the 60 votes they need to break a GOP filibuster? The obvious answer is that they'd resort to the obscure procedural tool known as reconciliation, which would require only a 51-vote majority. For months, Democrats have talked about using reconciliation, a process designed to facilitate fast-track approval of budget bills, if they can't reach the magical number 60. But as Democrats' informal mid-October deadline for action draws near, the complexities of reconciliation are looking increasingly nasty....

October 05, 2009 Categories: Florida Rove donated to Rubio NBC News’ Chuck Todd has the scoop that Karl Rove is supporting Marco Rubio, the conservative challenger to Gov. Charlie Crist, in the Republican primary for the Senate in Florida – at least with his money. Rove donated $1,000 to Rubio's campaign -- a sign of support for the underdog as he goes up against the governor, who holds a significant fundraising advantage. NBC's First Read also concludes that the donation as a sign of where former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's true loyalties lie: Many believe this is Jeb's way of...

There hasn't been a more controversial piece of Congressional and Senate legislation than the proposed health care program in my memory. In spite of polls revealing a majority of Americans oppose the current health care proposals, the Democrats are pushing hard to pass their legislation as quickly as possible. The American people are seeking to have their voices heard through their elected officials including conservatives, but the US Senate appears to be oblivious to that fact — including Republican senators such as Iowa's Chuck Grassley. Rather than fighting this attempt at an oppressive government takeover of the private sector, Senator...

“We’re the government, and we’re here to help you” could REALLY be enough to SCARE US. Wait just a dog gone minute. I thought the Democrats were going to provide “quality affordable health care for all.” Now we discover not only will the health care plan in the senate still leave millions uninsured … but it’s not affordable either?

The Senate Finance Committee is on the verge of approving its long-awaited version of health reform in the coming days, awaiting only a cost estimate of its work by the Congressional Budget Office and a decision by Democratic leaders about what the shape of the bill will be on the Senate floor. Wrapping up work at 2 a.m. Friday morning, the committee's majority Democrats managed to fend off significant changes to the basic blueprint laid out last month by committee Chairman Max Baucus of Montana. But major questions about the measure - including whether the bill will include a public...

Scroll down to read a draft of the Senate Finance Committee's version of the health-care bill

Democrats on a key Senate panel backed off a plan to impose billions of dollars in new taxes on senior citizens with catastrophic medical expenses Wednesday and defeated Republican amendments on abortion, immigration and other divisive issues, aiming to bring a comprehensive health-care overhaul before the full Senate within two weeks. On the sixth day of a marathon debate in the Senate Finance Committee, Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) declared that his panel has the votes to approve a package of reforms that would extend coverage to more than 30 million Americans who lack insurance. He and Sen. Charles E. Grassley...

Sen. Thomas Carper (D.-Del.), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, told CNSNews.com that he does not “expect” to read the actual legislative language of the committee’s health care bill because it is “confusing” and that anyone who claims they are going to read it and understand it is fooling people. “I don’t expect to actually read the legislative language because reading the legislative language is among the more confusing things I’ve ever read in my life,” Carper told CNSNews.com. (VIDEO AT LINK) Carper described the type of language the actual text of the bill would finally be drafted in...

Senate committee winds up health-care debateThe Finance Committee, the last congressional panel to consider a reform bill, plans to vote next week. October 2, 2009: 7:49 AM ET WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Senate Finance Committee completed debate on proposed health-care legislation early Friday. The Finance Committee was the last congressional panel to consider a health-care reform bill. It finished its work at 2:18 a.m. ET and plans to vote next week, after the bill's final language has been made public and the Congressional Budget Office has provided final cost figures. Unlike several health-care reform proposals championed by House Democrats, the...

The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee said he has "high hopes" of finishing work on a sweeping health care overhaul bill by Thursday night. Democratic Sen. Max Baucus announced the schedule as he gaveled open the committee Thursday morning for its seventh day of work on a 10-year, $900 billion bill to extend coverage to uninsured Americans.

Due to the current economic recession, most Americans are curtailing their spending habits, People continue to be concerned about the current economy and it shows. The nation's personal savings rate recently climbed to a fifteen year high, while outstanding consumer credit has finally declined after many years of increases.

Yesterday the Senate voted down two amendments which tried to add the public option back to the Senator Baucus version of Obmama care. But Progressive democratic party senators are anxious to fine a way to televise public opposition to the publicv plan Democrats' scheme to turn the health care system upside down, then it simply doesn't have the capacity to learn. Americans made it clear at town hall meetings across the country that they don't like the majority's proposals nor its intentions to force its will on the people. But the leadership in the congress believe that the people who...

The 2010 U.S. Senate race in Delaware is all about the candidates who haven’t decided whether to run yet. The first Rasmussen Reports Election 2010 survey in the state finds that longtime Republican Congressman Mike Castle beats state Attorney General Beau Biden by five points – 47% to 42% - in a hypothetical match-up for the seat Biden’s father held for 36 years. Five percent (5%) like some other candidate, and six percent (6%) are undecided.

New episode recorded at 5:00PM today is available here. The first topic they discuss is the upcoming dem version of the this show - like we steal shows from the Brits (and never seem to do them as well). We posted on the dem shwo here.

The Senate Finance Committee added a quasi-public option to the healthcare reform bill Thursday. Two days after Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and a few other Democrats joined Republicans to defeat amendments to create a national government-run public option health insurance program, the committee voted in favor of a proposal by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) to enable states to form their own public options. "This proposal is about giving federal dollars to the states and putting them in the driver's seat," Cantwell said. "It is a public plan, but negotiated with the private sector." All Democrats except Sen. Blanche Lincoln (Ark.)...

Will an Administration which campaigned on the principle of transparency stoop to such a low? You bet they will!"Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency." -- Barack Hussein Obama, January 21, 2009 Readers may also recall this promise which Obama made repeatedly during the campaign: To achieve health care reform, "I'm going to have all the negotiations around a big table. We'll have doctors and nurses and hospital administrators. Insurance companies, drug companies -- they'll get a seat at the table, they just won't be able to buy every chair. But what we will...

Sens. Max Baucus and Chuck Grassley at a Senate Finance Committee meeting. Washington D.C., Oct 1, 2009 / 02:24 am (CNA).- The Senate Finance Committee voted to restore $50 million a year in federal funding for abstinence-only education. One abstinence ed supporter said the action was a victory for “the hard work of grassroots” efforts.Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) sponsored the measure, which passed over the objections of committee chairman Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.). All ten Republicans and two Democrats, Sens. Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, voted for the measure.Hatch said abstinence education had been...

These dems are so cute. The republican-produced Senate Doctors Show is live twice a week, and has been gathering a great audience. It should: There are only two medical doctors in the Senate, and they host a show discussing health-care. Now, the dems are countering with a show of their own, hosted by HHS Secretary Sebelius and Senator Whitehouse (D-RI). First, while I am reluctant to ever cite that glory-hole repository of knowledge, which gives "peer-reviewed" a whole new meaning, Wikipedia, let's glance at the professional qualifications of the new hosts:

Senate Expected to Debate Pro-Abortion Health Care Reform Bill in Mid-October Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Now that a Senate committee has rejected pro-life amendments to the Baucus heath care measure to remove the abortion funding found in it, the next battle for pro-life advocates and the next step in the Senate is a full floor debate on the pro-abortion health care bills in mid-October. Full story and pro-life action alert at: http://www.LifeNews.com/nat5526.html

McCain vows to continue effort to strip $2.5-billion for 10 additional planes from the defense bill. Obama and Gates also say the extra C-17s, which are assembled in Long Beach, are not needed. Reporting from Washington - The Senate on Wednesday shot down an effort to kill funding for Boeing C-17 military cargo planes that President Obama says are not needed, underscoring the turbulence the White House faces in trying to cut money for politically popular projects.

LAKELAND | U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite is the second Florida member of Congress to endorse former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio over Gov. Charlie Crist for the U.S. Senate. The announcement was made Friday by the Rubio campaign and Brown-Waite's staff confirmed the Brooksville Republican's decision to go with Rubio, who has staked out a position to the right of Crist. Brown-Waite's 5th Congressional District includes the northwestern quarter section of Polk County. Rubio is trying to pull the conservative wing of the party from Crist and has been successful in several nonscientific straw polls among county Republican executive committees....

Senate Panel Defeats Amendment to Protect Pro-Life Medical Workers on Abortion Washington, DC -- Shortly after the Senate Finance Committee voted against an amendment to remove the massive abortion subsidies from the Baucus health care bill, they rejected a second pro-life amendment. It would have offered protection for medical workers who don't want to participate in or refer for abortions. http://www.LifeNews.com/nat5521.html

Iowa Republican, Sen. Chuck Grassley, won passage for an amendment that will force Congress and congressional staff members to access health insurance through the exchange that would be created by the health care reform legislation under consideration by the Finance Committee. In a news release Grassley said, “the more that Congress experiences the laws we pass, the better the laws are likely to be.” Members of the committee agreed through unanimous consent on Tuesday night to support the Grassley amendment. Senator Jim Bunning was a cosponsor of the amendment. As it stands now, members of Congress and their staffs participate...

In a long-awaited fight that pitted Democrats against one another, liberal lawmakers failed twice Tuesday to insert a government-run health insurance program into the emerging Senate health care reform bill but vowed that the battle for a public option is far from over. Republicans immediately hailed the Senate Finance Committee showdown votes as proof that the public option was dead. But the White House said the panel's slow slog to produce a bill was building momentum for reform on Capitol Hill, with four other House and Senate committees already having approved versions of the bill. White House press secretary Robert...