Boston Herald: Democrats Would Stall Brown to Pass Health Care Reform
There’s and editorial in today’s Wall Street Journal titled “The 60th Senate Vote“. It details what’s at stake in the January 19, special election to fill the Senate seat formerly held by the late Ted Kennedy… in short, should Republican Scott Brown win he be the 41st Republican in the Senate and would deny Democrats the 60 votes needed to end debate and ram through Health Care Reform.
What the Journal doesn’t mention is that Democrats have become so brazenly corrupt that should Brown they may try to delay swearing him in until after the Senate has voted on health care reform:
It looks like the fix is in on national health-care reform – and it all may unfold on Beacon Hill.
At a business forum in Boston Friday, interim Sen. Paul Kirk predicted that Congress would pass a health-care reform bill this month.
“We want to get this resolved before President Obama’s State of the Union address in early to mid-February,” Kirk told reporters at a Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce breakfast.
The longtime aide and confidant of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who was handpicked by Gov. Deval Patrick after a controversial legal change to hold Kennedy’s seat, vowed to vote for the bill even if Republican state Sen. Scott Brown, who opposes the health-care reform legislation, prevails in a Jan. 19 special election.
“Absolutely,” Kirk said, when asked if he’d vote for the bill, even if Brown captures the seat. “It would be my responsibility as United States senator, representing the people and understanding Senator Kennedy’s agenda. . . . I think you’re asking me a hypothetical question but I’d be pleased to vote for the bill.”
~ ~ ~
Friday, a spokesman for Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin, who is overseeing the election but did not respond to a call seeking comment, said certification of the Jan. 19 election by the Governor’s Council would take a while.
“Because it’s a federal election,” spokesman Brian McNiff said. “We’d have to wait 10 days for absentee and military ballots to come in.”
Another source told the Herald that Galvin’s office has said the election won’t be certified until Feb. 20 – well after the president’s address.
That Democrats would even hint at such underhanded tactics should surprise no one… Particularly after the after the tactics used by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid used to effectively bribe Senators into voting for his health care reform bill on Christmas Eve!
Related
- 41st What? – Jules Crittenden
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Good News: National Debt Already Tops Debt Limit
From CBS News:
The latest calculation of the National Debt as posted by the Treasury Department has – at least numerically – exceeded the statutory Debt Limit approved by Congress last February as part of the Recovery Act stimulus bill.
The ceiling was set at $12.104 trillion dollars. The latest posting by Treasury shows the National Debt at nearly $12.135 trillion.
A senior Treasury official told CBS News that the department has some “extraordinary accounting tools” it can use to give the government breathing room in the range of $150-billion when the Debt exceeds the Debt Ceiling.
Were it not for those “tools,” the U.S. Government would not have the statutory authority to borrow any more money. It might block issuance of Social Security checks and require a shutdown of some parts of the federal government.
Right, we’re already in debt up to our eyeballs and what’s the Democrats plan?
Keep spending… Look folks, you can’t spend your way to prosperity. Anyone who tells you you can probably thinks an alcoholic can drink his way to sobriety.
Related
- The Audacity of Debt – Wall Street Journal
Senate Democrats Reach Health Reform Compromise; Drop Public Option
From the Wall Street Journal:
Senior Senate Democrats reached tentative agreement Tuesday night to abandon the government-run insurance plan in their health-overhaul bill and to expand Medicare coverage to some people ages 55 to 64, clearing the most significant hurdle so far in getting a bill that can pass Congress.
Liberals dropped the public insurance plan that was a central plank of the Democrats’ health bill in favor of a more limited alternative, following intense pressure from a small group of Democrats who had insisted for months that it was a deal-breaker. While disputes over abortion coverage and other issues remain, Democrats appeared a whisker away from having enough votes to overcome Republican opposition and pass a sweeping health overhaul in the Senate.
The Senate bill — including the lack of a public plan — is likely to form the core of any final legislation, though it will have to be reconciled with a health bill passed by the House last month.
This compromise is the result of several days of negotiations by a group of 10 Democratic senators — five moderates and five liberals, it replaces the public option with a more limited plan administered by the government’s Office of Personnel Management.
According to the Journal, the new national plan would be run by nonprofit entities set up by the private sector, and would be available to the public on the new insurance exchanges that would be created under the bill. If no private insurers sign up with the Office of Personnel Management to offer a national plan, the office would be authorized to implement a direct government-run plan.
The Office of Personnel Management currently administers plans offered to federal employees and members of Congress.
Bottom line, I still expect the Senate to pass a Health Care a reform bill this year, and I don’t buy the tough talk coming from Jerrold Nadler and Jan Schakowsky in the House… If liberals in the House have to roll over to get a reform bill done they will… It’s as simple that, Democrats have invested to much time and political capital in Health Care Reform. They’re going to get a bill through Congress, we the people and the consequences be damned.
Wait, I thought it was Republicans Who Are Divided and Hate Moderates???
Funny how the Associated Press waits until after the election to let this story out:
Get on the health overhaul bandwagon, or don’t count on our help in your re-election.
That’s the hardball message liberal groups are hurling at moderate Democratic senators in a battle that is dividing their party. Their demands: Support a bill that offers optional government-run health coverage and oppose Republican attempts to derail the legislation.
The groups are unleashing blunt and personal broadcast ads and e-mails at moderates even as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., tries to shape a health care bill that can attract the 60 votes it needs to pass. Assuming no Republican support, Reid needs backing from all 58 Democrats and both Democratic-leaning independents – including about a half-dozen moderates who have drawn liberals’ ire.
It’s all taking place a year out from elections in which Republicans hope to trim the Democrats’ congressional majorities. The intraparty conflict especially threatens moderates facing tough re-election fights in 2010, like Sens. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., and Reid himself. It could mean less enthusiasm on the part of liberal and labor groups, which supply campaign workers, contributions and votes to Democratic candidates.
Heh, I thought it was the GOP that’s divided and hated moderates???
All I can say is go ahead, make my day… Are you kidding me? I’d love to see MoveOn.org, the SEIU, ACORN, and anyone else who wants join them mount far left primary challenges against moderate Democrats in swing states… or red better still in red states!
Let’s hope this turns into an all-out shooting war! I’ve got pop-corn.
Harry Reid ‘Likely’ to Make Entire Health Bill an Amendment to Unrelated Tax Bill That House Passed in March
CNSNews.com is reporting that Senate Majority Leader Harry is ‘likely’ to use a tax bill passed by the House in March as shell for enacting the Senate health care bill:
A senior aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told CNSNews.com that it is “likely” that 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 60 senators to vote for cloture on the motion to proceed to H.R. 1586 (i.e., end debate on the congressional procedure and move forward).
If Reid wins 60 votes, then debate begins on his health care package. Reid could then decide to block all amendments and attempt to get a vote on the entire package.
However, a senator could filibuster the final vote, requiring another 60-vote majority to move forward. But if Reid decides to allow any amendments, each amendment could be filibustered, requiring a 60-vote majority to move to a final vote on each of them. An amendment that has the support of more than 50 but less than 60 senators could end up stopping the bill if neither side backs down. But if Reid is able to structure the debate so that all 60 senators who caucus with the Democrats stick with the party on cloture votes, he can pass the bill and send it to back to the House–where it originated as an entirely different bill in substance.
This isn’t the only trick Harry Reid has up his sleeve the Washington Examiner is report that Sen. Reid is considering a using tactics that would allow Democrats to slip the public option back into the Senate health care reform bill:
Senate Democrats desperate to find a way to pass a health care bill that includes a federal insurance plan may have come up with a way to do it without putting moderate members who oppose it in political jeopardy.
Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is weighing a plan to bring the final health care bill to the floor without a public option — making it much easier to get the 60 votes needed to prevent a Republican filibuster — and then adding the provision later as an amendment.
The public option amendment would be there waiting, but the 60-vote test would technically be on a bill without the government plan. Then moderate Democrats could drop out for the vote on the public option, which requires just 51 votes for passage.
“It’s brilliant,” said a top Senate Republican aide. “It gets you your votes on cloture for a package that does not include a public option.”
Reid has not revealed whether he will use this tactic, but he’s considering it.
“We haven’t made any decisions yet,” his spokesman, Jim Manley, said. “We have different options — that is one.”
I have to hand it to Harry Reid, even though he’s up for re-election next year and trailing all of his likely Republican challengers in the polls not giving on efforts to get the most radical agenda through the Senate.
Anyway, before any of this can happen the non-public option bill has to pass a filibuster. I’m not sure Democrats have the votes right now to cut off debate… Especially with this trick getting public attention. Even if the bill does pass the Senate I’m not sure it’ll through the House.
In short the House would then have to approve the Senate bill outright rather then pass their own… All the Republicans would line up against it and House Democrats aren’t wild about some of the tax provisions of the Senate Finance Committee bill… 154 of them have sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urging her “to reject proposals to enact an excise tax on high-cost insurance plans that could be potentially passed on to middle-class families.”
Bottom line, the next few weeks are going to be very interesting… I doubt Sen. Reid’s underhanded tactics will work but it shows how desperate Democrats are to placate the “progressive” wing of of their party.
Related
Nancy Pelosi: Value-Added Tax is “On the Table”
I’ve mentioned before that the Democrats were laying the groundwork for a European style Value Added Tax or VAT… I wish I could tell you I was wrong but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi confirm that a VAT tax is “on the table” during an appearance on the Charlie Rose show Monday night:
A new value-added tax (VAT) is “on the table” to help the U.S. address its fiscal liabilities, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Monday night.
Pelosi, appearing on PBS’s “The Charlie Rose Show” asserted that “it’s fair to look at” the VAT as part of an overhaul of the nation’s tax code.
“I would say, Put everything on the table and subject it to the scrutiny that it deserves,” Pelosi told Rose when asked if the VAT has any appeal to her.
The VAT is a tax on manufacturers at each stage of production on the amount of value an additional producer adds to a product.
Pelosi argued that the VAT would level the playing field between U.S. and foreign manufacturers, the latter of which do not have pension and healthcare costs included in the price of their goods because their governments provide those services, financed by similar taxes.
The sad reality is the Federal Government now borrows roughly 50 cents of every dollar it spends, that’s simply unsustainable over the long term… The Obama Administration and Democrats in Congress are either going to have to radically scale back their agenda (something they won’t do) or raise taxes on broad swath of Americans… Something they’re only too happy to do while saying with a straight face “the deficit made us do it.”
Make no mistake a Value Added Tax added on top of our current income tax system will be an economy killer that hits those who can least afford it the the hardest.
WSJ: Democrats Try Tougher Tone on Health Plan
This isn’t really news to political junkies like me but it is a page A3 above the fold story in today’s Wall Street Journal:
A top White House adviser said Tuesday he doubts two Senate Republicans at the center of health-care talks are negotiating seriously, as Democrats adopted a new, more confrontational tone accusing key Republicans of blocking change.
Senior adviser David Axelrod, responding to recent broadsides against Democratic health plans by Republican Sens. Mike Enzi of Wyoming and Chuck Grassley of Iowa, said Democrats would reach out to other Republicans to finish a deal this year. He added that President Barack Obama is considering laying out a more detailed vision of what he wants in a health-overhaul plan.
Democrats are shaping a strategy in response to the public pounding they took over the summer from some voters angry about proposed health-care changes. They are also responding to the troubles of the Senate Finance Committee, the only panel in Congress seeking a bipartisan bill.
Lets not bullshit each other Democrats aren’t interested in a bipartisan bill… if they were they would have incorporated at least a few ideas from any of the three (3) alternative health care reform proposals offered by Republicans into the bills current before Congress. The simple truth is Democrats are trying blame Republicans to cover their own leadership failures. Democrats have filibuster proof 60 majority in the Senate and 256 to 178 seat Majority in the House of Representatives… They have the vote to pass health care reform without a single Republican vote. The fact that they can’t get it done has more to do with the unwillingness of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to work with moderates within their own caucus than Republican objections.
Bottom line, regardless of what David Axelrod claims, Republican don’t have the votes to stop health care reform, it’s the failure of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to rally their own troops that is derailing the presidents agenda.
Congressman Eric Massa: I Will Vote Against the Interests of My District
Sen. Tom Coburn is right, American’s have lost faith in their government and I can’t think of a better example of why than the attitude displayed by Congressman Eric Massa of New York.
Rep. Massa met with an intimate group of Netroots activists during their annual Netroots Nation gathering in Pittsburgh this past weekend reiterated his support and promised the he would “… vote adamantly against the interests of my district if I actually think what I am doing is going to be helpful.” In a broad sense I don’t have a problem with that, politicians aren’t supposedly to be automatons who blindly follow public opinion. George W. Bush, for example, ignored broad public opposition to order implementation of the surge strategy in Iraq. And it appears he was right to do so.
The problem here is that when you take Rep. Massa’s remarks in context with remarks by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid calling opponents of health care reform “un-American” and/or an “Evil mob” you’re left with a very frightening impression… You’re left with the impression that our elected leaders have forgotten that they were elected to represent we the people, you are left with the impression that they have forgotten they are our representatives not are rulers.
Thomas Jefferson said “When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.” We have come to a point were a broad swath of Americans have lost faith in their government… Remarks like those of Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Reid and Rep. Massa’s only serve to reinforce the belief that our elected leaders no longer respect we the people, and instead consider us a bunch of ignorant rubes who need to be told to shut up and stand quietly by while their betters rule the nation.
Reid and Pelosi: It’s Time to Demonize Insurance Companies…
Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi appear to have a new strategy for pushing health care reform through Congress… They’re going to demonize insurance companies:
A day after formally delaying a vote on a healthcare bill and having to accept a further weakening of a public option to compete with private insurers, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) lashed out at the health insurance industry and urged her members to do the same during the August recess.
“They are the villains in this,” Pelosi said of private insurers. “They have been part of the problem in a major way. They are doing everything in their power to stop a public option from happening. And the public has to know that. They can disguise their arguments any way they want, but the fact is that they don’t want the competition.”
As she prepares to send her members home for the month of August having not voted on a healthcare bill — a deadline the Speaker said she would meet for President Obama — Pelosi said she was urging those members to go on the attack against the private insurance industry to try to rally support for the strongest public option possible when negotiations resume in September.
“The more the public knows about what we’re doing, the more they support it, and especially if you’re talking about a public option, because that’s where the insurance companies are making their attack,” Pelosi said. “Our members have to go out there ready to take on a big special interest that has not made our country healthier, has made costs spiral upward, and for whom that is coming to an end.
“It’s almost immoral what they are doing,” added Pelosi, who stood outside her office long after her press conference ended to continue speaking to reporters, even as aides tried in vain to usher her inside. “Of course they’ve been immoral all along in how they have treated the people that they insure with pre-existing conditions, you know, the litany of it all.”
Not to be out done Harry Reid Had the following to say about insurance companies:
“I don’t think we should be crying great big tears about the insurance industry,” Reid said at a Capitol Hill press conference when asked whether insurance companies should be allowed to charge higher premiums for people with preexisting conditions.
“There is no business in America that makes more money than the insurance industry–over the last 10 years their profits have been increased by 450 percent,” Reid said. “So I’m not really in very much of a mood to worry about the insurance industry.”
The health insurance industry is so wealthy because it is exempt from anti-trust laws, Reid said: “The insurance industry, my friends, is the only industry other than baseball that is exempt from the anti-trust act, and that’s the reason they have 450 percent profit over the last ten years.”
Whew, talk about winning strategy… Take the least popular politicians in American and have them go off on half baked rants about evil insurance companies. They’re comments are nothing more than a blatant attempt to satisfy Democratic demands for a villain to demagogue in selling health care reform.
For all their talk about “competition, they’re pushing one most anti-competitive measures in American History… With all due respect to Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid, Democrats control the White House, have filibuster proof 60 majority in the Senate and 256 seat Majority in the House… You don’t need Republican support to pass a health care reform bill.
The fact that Speaker Pelosi and Majority Reid can’t get a reform bill through Congress has nothing to with insurance companies or Republican opposition. The simple truth is they are unwilling to work with centrists, the “Blue Dog” Democrats, in their own caucus who are apparently getting an earful from constituents who are vehemently opposed to Obamacare.
Oh, and by the way Harry, Nancy, you might want to read Stephen Carter’s Washington Post Op Ed on why corporate profits are good thing… I’m sure it’ll be lost on you, but read it just the same. You might learn something.
Update (7:35 p.m.): I’m shocked, shocked I tell you… Jonathan Allen at CQ Politics is reporting that while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may think health insurance companies are “villains” she’s prefect willing to keep their money. Most ethical Congress ever, heh.
Related
- Senate Dems blame media for August health deadline – The Hill
- Police called on retirees at senator’s LA office – San Francisco Chronicle
- Barney Frank: Yes, a public plan will lead to a government takeover of health care – Hot Air
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