Free Republic

The NYT reports this morning that Barack Obama, like many presidents before him, is now seeking line-item veto authority. President Obama, in his latest effort to signal fiscal responsibility against the rising debt, plans this month to ask Congress to give him and future presidents greater power to try to delete individual items from spending bills. In doing so, Mr. Obama will join a long line of his predecessors who have sought either line-item veto power or, after the Supreme Court in 1998 ruled such a veto unconstitutional, some other rescission authority that passes muster. Congress once again is unlikely...

After reading the US and international press over the past week, one could be forgiven for thinking that the president had just won a world war. We’ve been bombarded with headlines on both sides of the Atlantic lauding a reinvigorated, all-powerful president, with a spring in his step who could no doubt walk on water if he deigned to do so. Indeed, in the last few days, Barack Obama and Joe Biden have strutted across the country with a vain swagger that would make a peacock blush, from the vice president’s classless, foul-mouthed victory boast at the White House, to...

Senate Republicans have successfully identified two minor violations of reconciliation rules in the final piece of the health package, according to aides from both parties. The violations will force the Senate to change the bill and ship it back to the House for final passage. But Democratic leaders said the provisions that will be struck from the part of the bill dealing with Pell Grants for college students do not significantly affect the student loan program or the health care bill overall.

Despite reports on MSNBC that pro-life Democrat Bart Stupak, D-Mich., will vote for the bill, he remains a "no" vote. I just talked to Stupak in the basement of the Capitol as he walked passed a throng of protesters calling for members to vote against the bill. "I'm still a no vote. There is no final agreement." Stupak said. Stupak and other pro-life Democrats are in negotiations with the White House on a deal that would involve President Obama signing some kind of executive order that would ban federal funding of abortion under the health care bill. "We are waiting...

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has revised its estimates of discretionary spending provisions in the Senate health care bill – adding more than $50 billion to the price tag of reform, cutting in half the potential savings of the Senate bill. In a March 15 memo, CBO said it had identified “at least $50 billion in specified and estimated authorizations of discretionary spending that might be involved in implementing” the Senate bill. Discretionary spending is the use of funds not required by law, which are inserted in periodic appropriations bills that Congress passes to set the spending level of the...

If Congress passes the Senate health-care plan, according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, American families will be required by federal law to buy a federally approved health insurance plan that will cost a minimum of $12,000 per year--and, on average, will cost $15,000 per year -- whether their employer or the government helps them with the premium or not. Beginning in 2014, the Senate plan would require all individuals to buy health insurance. Anyone who does not obtain insurance through an employer would be forced to buy it out of their own pocket. Families of four that...

PHOENIX - Gov. Jan Brewer says the federal health overhaul bill awaiting congressional action would financially devastate Arizona's state government and intrude on individuals' health-coverage choices.

House leaders are preparing to ram through ObamaCare this week without a vote. Not only is the legislation unconstitutional, but the process being used to pass it is unconstitutional. The House is preparing a rule that would consider the Senate-passed version of ObamaCare passed in the House even though members would never directly vote on it. That would violate Article 1, Section 7 of the U.S. Constitution. Here is how the trick would work: In the House, the Rules Committee sets up the parameters for debate on legislation. House leaders are considering a complicated rule that would be structured so...

PACKED HOUSE—— They were expecting 600…… 1,800+ SHOWED UP TODAY! UPDATE:—- New Count— 2,225 TURNED OUT TODAY!! An overflow crowd turned out today at 9:45 AM to attend the “Kill the Bill” rally today in St. Charles, MO Republican Lt. Governor Peter Kinder told the fired up crowd– “We have just begun to fight!” ** The Anti-Obamacare Health Care Rally at St. Charles Convention Center . The Wednesday Rally called by Rep. Todd Akin & GOP House Leader John Boehner is the federal-healthcare equivalent of “The Gunfight at the OK Corral” for Missouri! This may be it! Pelosi is trying...

Rep. Michael Arcuri, D-Utica, said he has not decided how he'll vote on a health care bill likely to come before the House of Representatives in the next three weeks. ``I won't know until I see what kind of guarantees there are that this is going to be a good bill,'' he said. In November, Arcuri voted "yes" as House Democrats passed a comprehensive health-insurance reform bill that included a public option _ a government-sponsored insurance plan to compete with corporate insurers.

President Obama is coming to St. Louis on Wednesday to push his “angry mob unpopular” nationalized health care bill. But, you won’t get to see him. HE’S LOCKING THE DOORS ON THE ST. LOUIS PUBLIC. President Obama and Missouri Democrats including Senator Claire McCaskill, Governor Jay Nixon and Russ and Robin Carnahan want to ram their toxic health care bill down your throat but THEY DON’T HAVE THE GUTS TO FACE THE PUBLIC!

It has been said often, and with more eloquence than I, that Barack Obama's priorities are misplaced. Where are the jobs pundits are asking? But even as he lip-serves employment, he needles America. Vladimir Lenin once said, "Medicine is the keystone of the arch of socialism," and it's clear that Obama and Lenin share philosophy. Clearer still is that Obama doesn't care. Not about November. Not about your family. Not about your job. What he prioritizes -- as evidenced by his push for "reform" -- is the "fundamental restructuring" of the American economy. Andy Stern, the most frequent White House...

The game of chicken commenceth — right now. In the course of unveiling Obama’s new health reform proposal on a conference call with reporters this morning, White House advisers made it clearer than ever before: If the GOP filibusters health reform, Dems will move forward on their own and pass it via reconciliation. The assertion, which is likely to spark an angry response from GOP leaders, ups the stakes in advance of the summit by essentially daring Republicans to try to block reform. “The President expects and believes the American people deserve an up or down vote on health reform,”...

President Obama’s plan to impose government-run health care on all Americans isn’t dead yet. It’s like a Zombie that won’t die no matter how many bullets enter it. We’re hearing that he and Congress want to sign nationalized health care into law by Easter. Obama’s plan to hold a health care summit on February 25 with a select group of Democrats and Republicans is part of his strategy to ram through his socialist scheme. They know they’re losing the debate so they’re trying reframe the arguments using smoke and mirrors. They’re desperate.Behind the scenes, Obama and his cronies in Congress...

Last week, Congressman Thad McCotter introduced a Bill HR 4500, The Freedom From Rationed Health Care Act, that invalidates a little known, hidden part of the Stimulus Bill. That hidden part of The Stimulus Bill created the rationing and enforcement boards. ..In my discussion with Judge Napolitano on the Glenn Beck Show, I hammered on the facts that (1) the Rationing and Enforcement Boards were already created and passed into law through the Stimulus Bill (2) the President had already appointed the members, funding them to the tune of $20.6 BILLION. When I pointed out that these boards were charged...

“We are going to paint the Nation purple with SEIU” ~~Barack Obama (See video at very end of this blog)…… Andy Stern; President of the SEIU with 22+ visits to the White House within six months.Anna Burger; The conduit between the following Progressive entities. Vice Chair of the Democracy Alliance: George Soros, Drummond Pike (Tides), John Podesta of the Center for American Progress (Progressive think tank), Center for Progressive Leadership, the NDN, et. al Member of the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory BoardDirector at They Work For Us: Tied to Chuck Rocha of the Hispanic Caucus Institue, Eli Pariser (of Moveon.org,...

The deal critics dubbed the “Cornhusker kickback” is toast. Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., asked Friday that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., scratch Nebraska's permanent exemption from additional Medicaid costs under the Senate health care bill. “I request . . . it instead be replaced with a provision giving all state governments the same treatment regarding the state match for the new Medicaid expansion,” Nelson wrote in a letter to Reid. In place of the Nebraska exemption, The Associated Press reported, officials said President Barack Obama and lawmakers involved in health care negotiations decided to increase federal money for Medicaid...

WASHINGTON -- The drug industry is threatening to end its support for President Barack Obama's health overhaul effort because of a rift with the administration over protecting brand-name biotech drugs from low-cost generic competitors. In an e-mail obtained Friday by The Associated Press, the president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America told the trade group's board members that "we could not support the bill" if the industry is given less than 12 years of competitive protection for the expensive products. Obama and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., are leading the drive to shorten that...

In a national television interview that aired Sunday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said California's congressional members "are not representing us really well" as he pushed for higher federal reimbursements to help reduce the state's structural budget deficit. The Republican governor said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that the U.S. Senate's proposed federal health care overhaul would saddle the state with an extra $3 billion to $4 billion in annual costs due largely to an expansion of Medicaid, known as Medi-Cal in California. Schwarzenegger believes the health care plan would enshrine existing cost-share formulas that he says are unfair to the state....

WASHINGTON – The Senate's plan to expand health coverage to 34 million more Americans would raise costs slightly, government economic experts said in a report Saturday. Over time, cost-cutting measures could start to reduce the annual increases in health care spending, offering the possibility of substantial savings in the long run. At the same time, however, some of the Senate's Medicare savings could be unrealistic and cause lawmakers to roll them back, according to Medicare's top number crunchers. The study found that health spending, which accounts for about one-sixth of the economy, would increase by less than 1 percent than...