Free Republic

Merry Christmas from the White House. In keeping with the spirit of the season, the administration's designated attack dog Dan Pfeiffer accused the GOP of standing in the way of "progress" and claims the Baucus bill accepted 150 Republican amendments: "Contrary to what one Republican Senator said today, Democrats did not 'do the HELP Committee bill completely Democrat' without 'even ask[ing] one Republican opinion.' In fact, they accepted more than 150 Republican amendments. In putting together the Finance Committee bill, Senator Baucus held months of bipartisan discussions. The Committee held a day-long bipartisan health care summit, convened three bipartisan roundtables,...

Sending Anita Dunn—who is probably not enjoying her proverbial 15 minutes of fame—out onto the north lawn of the White House to attack Fox News is serving its purpose. The responsibility for determining which of the national news networks are legitimate and which ones are not is something the founders did not include in the executive powers section of the Constitution. One might even argue that the inclusion of the First Amendment to the Bill of Rights is a pretty clear sign they thought that giving any part of the federal government the power to do so would not, to...

SENATOR HARRY REID: He talked about CBO saying that there would be $54 billion saved each year if we put caps on medical malpractice and put some restrictions — tort reform — $54 billion. Sounds like a lot of money, doesn’t it, Mr. President? The answer is yes. But remember, we’re talking about $2 trillion, $54 billion compared to $2 trillion. You can do the math. We can all do the math. It’s a very small percent.

Remember when health-care reform was supposed to make life better for the middle class? That dream began to unravel this past summer when Congress proposed a bill that failed to include any competition-based reforms that would actually bend the curve of health-care costs. It fell apart completely when Democrats began papering over the gaping holes their plan would rip in the federal budget. As it now stands, the plan proposed by Democrats and the Obama administration would not only fail to reduce the cost burden on middle-class families, it would make that burden significantly worse. Consider the bill put forward...

Powerful health industry groups that have held back in their criticisms of specific reform proposals will soon have to choose whether to endorse, or formally oppose, President Barack Obama’s top domestic priority. The result could be a flurry of associations embracing Democratic efforts to reform the nation’s healthcare system, which would likely push the legislation to Obama’s desk. Or it could mirror the battle of the 1990s, when an array of healthcare groups crushed President Bill Clinton’s plan, subsequently leading to the GOP takeover of Congress in 1994. Lobbying organizations representing every healthcare sector from the insurers to the drug...

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...

Union members represent one of the biggest and most powerful Democratic constituencies and their support of any health care reform proposal is viewed as essential to getting a bill passed in Congress. So far Big Labor is all for Obamacare, the SEIU even sent bouncers to some of the town hall events to beat up on some of the anti-Obamacare protesters at the events. Of course when some of the burden of paying for state controlled health care is placed on the Unions, they begin to fight. And they are already beginning to fight against one element of the Baucus...

American Voters believe in the US Constitution, even if the liberals in Congress act as if they never read it. The Obamacare bill working its way through the U.S. Senate includes a provision that requires all Americans to either buy health insurance or pay a $750 annual penalty. From their point of view it makes sense, because by enrolling relatively healthy younger people who might not usually purchase insurance in the plan, it helps to pay for the older people who generally need more services from health insurance. Of course there is absolutely NOTHING in the constitution giving the federal...

Politics: The administration stages a photo-op with handpicked doctors who support its health care reform. Fortunately, most doctors still believe that the first rule of medicine is to do no harm. It would seem some doctors still make house calls. Some 150 of them made one at the White House Monday in an attempt to give a booster shot to the administration's chaotic and stalled health care reform drive. Rather than a grass-roots uprising of physicians, this was a classic case of AstroTurfing. Attendance was by invitation only, and 40 of the 150 were said to be members of Doctors...

No it isn't death panels, but it might as well be, two moves coming from our Democratic-party-controlled government ration needed health care treatment one in the Baucus version of the Obamacare bill, the other an executive order by the POTUS. The Baucus bill has a provision which penalizes the doctors who prescribe the most tests/procedures. Those in the top 10% of prescribing doctors will get fined five percent of the money they get back from the government. The purpose of this procedure is to provide incentive to the doctors to stop giving life-saving procedures. Not wanting to wait for the...

Reform: The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee wants levies on insurers to pay for ObamaCare and fines for families who don't sign up. We can cut costs and expand coverage without sacrificing freedom.To keep ObamaCare alive, Montana Democrat Max Baucus has proposed a Rube Goldberg scheme of fees and fines on insurers and the uninsured designed to forcibly bring everyone into the loving and protective arms of the nanny state. To help finance his Plan B, Baucus would impose annual fees of $6 billion on health insurers, $4 billion on medical-device makers, $2.3 billion on drug manufacturers and $750...

Senator Baucus' Senate Finance Committee easily rejected the inclusion of a government- run "public" insurance option, backed by President Barack Obama, in its version of the health care reform bill. The panel voted 16-8 against a government-run insurance plan in the first of several battles expected in Congress over the issue, one of the most contentious in the raging U.S. debate over health care reform. Even though the Public option is gone, there is plenty more danger in the Baucus plan that they democrats are hiding, such as * The true cost of the bill. * Democrats don’t know how...

One of President Obama's mantras with regard to the Democrats' health care proposal (whatever it turns out to be) is that if you like your present health insurance coverage, you will get to keep it. More recently, when the fraudulent nature of that pledge was revealed, he changed the formula to "the bill won't require you to lose your coverage." That's right; it won't require you to lose your coverage, it will just cause you to lose your coverage. On Thursday, as the Senate Finance Committee was marking up the Baucus version of the bill, Senator Orrin Hatch tested the...

Pro-Life Amendments Needed to Remove Rationing in Baucus Bill Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Pro-life members of the Senate Finance Committee have offered two amendments designed to eliminate the rationing components of the Baucus health care bill. The concern revolves around one provision that penalizes Medicare doctors who provide higher levels of medical treatment to senior citizens. http://www.Lifenews.com/bio2964.html

Although cast as a tax on gold-plated insurance policies for the well-heeled, it has prompted anxiety among the middle class. The idea, proposed last Wednesday by Senator Max Baucus, is to help raise money for the nation’s health care overhaul by placing a new excise tax on the most expensive health insurance policies, like the ones offered to partners at Goldman Sachs and other affluent professionals. The tax is meant to raise more than a quarter of the $774 billion needed to pay for the Baucus plan. But just as much, the tax is intended to discourage the overly generous...

Okay, the Baucus Bill looks like it is DOA. Liberals hate it. Conservatives hate it. Yet they will waste a lot of time (a good thing) now in the Senate marking it up. However, it looks like it will ultimately fail due to the massive opposition to it. Okay, I'm curious. What happens if/when the Baucus bill fails as it now looks like will be the likely outcome? Can the Senate as a whole cobble together a new ObamaCare bill and how long would that take? As to HR3200, it appears that the House wants to wait until the Senate...

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus came under new pressure Tuesday from Democrats concerned that his health bill could force some middle-income families to take on sizable new costs for health coverage. The Montana Democrat said he will formally unveil the legislation on Wednesday. That would set the stage for Finance Committee action next week, and debate in the full Senate next month. ... But even as Republicans remain unhappy with key aspects of the bill, liberal critics complain that it would force many lower- and middle-income workers to shoulder a greater financial burden when complying with the bill's mandate...