Completely expected, of course. Silly things like the Constitution won’t stand in the way of the Progressive agenda. After all, it’s just an outdated piece of paper anyway in the Left’s eyes. The Democrats know they have an avowed Constitution-hater in the Oval Office prepared to do whatever is necessary to pass a takeover of 1/6 of our economy by the Federal government and they’ve mounted a bullet train headed to progressive/totalitarian hell. Unfortunately for us, we’re all in the passenger cars, with armed guards standing between us and the conductor.
During a series of seven votes wrapping up the health care debate, Senate Republicans failed in their last-ditch efforts to derail the bill.
The Senate voted 60-39 to reject Sen. John Ensign’s call to examine the constitutionality of a health care mandate central to the overhaul bill.
The Nevada Republican wanted to determine whether it was constitutional for the federal government to require Americans to purchase health insurance.
The Senate also rejected an amendment by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, by a vote of 60-39.
I give kudos to the Repbulicans in the Senate for forcing the Democrats to go on record saying that the unconstitutional individual mandate in the bill is not worthy of being challenged on Constitutional grounds. Obviously, forcing Americans to buy a product (in this case, healthcare coverage) is illegal, unconstitutional and reprehensible. Basically, it’s the embodiment of this Congress and administration’s motto.
The government cannot force someone to buy something. Not only is that not a power listed in the Constitution, it’s also completely against our whole founding principle of freedom from tyranny. One of my illustrious Senators from Illinois, Roland Burris, made the idiotic argument a few weeks ago that it was the same as requiring people to buy auto insurance.
It’s not. I can choose not to drive. Under Obamacare, I cannot choose not to buy an “approved” healthcare plan. The heavy hand of the government rests on my shoulder and orders me to buy something I may or may not want.
If I don’t want to buy health insurance, THAT IS MY RIGHT as a free citizen in the United States of America. No government, be it Federal, State or Local can step up to me and order me to spend my money on a product. I have the CHOICE to not buy it.
WASHINGTON - With a self-imposed Christmas deadline at stake, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid engineered a last-minute compromise that has won the support of the lone Democratic holdout and clinched the required 60 votes to pass a sweeping overhaul of the U.S. health care system.
Democratic leaders offered Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska a deal similar to the $300 million in Medicaid aid Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana got for her support.
I’m disgusted. Let’s look at what we’ve learned from this Nelson debacle. As with Landrieu and the $300 million bribe she was ‘so proud‘ to take back in November, Nelson has proved that he’s just a smarmy little politician who only cares about his own personal gain.
A bribe is a bribe. As I’ve stated over and over again, Obama has brought a pay to play Chicago politics to Washington and this is just another example of it. What’s scary is the second part, the threat to shut down Nebraska Air Force bases if Nelson didn’t play ball with Obamacare.
Think about this. Barack Obama would be willing to shut down a military installation and put thousands of people out of work…for one vote on a socialist healthcare plan. How completely screwed up is this? He’s willing to endanger our national security and kill jobs. That’s not the actions of someone trying to preserve our country. Those are the actions of someone who doesn’t care about America as it has existed for the last 233 years. Those are the actions of someone who wants this country remade into his image of communist paradise and will stop at nothing to get there.
With the Obamacare bill set to pass next week (barring only a miracle that won’t happen given how bullheaded the White House is about getting this passed), a new Rasmussen Poll finds that the bill now has the highest level of opposition yet seen.
Fifty-six percent (56%) of U.S. voters now oppose the health care plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats.
That’s the highest level of opposition found - reached three times before - in six months of polling.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 40% of voters favor the health care plan.
Yet again, it seems that the Democrats are running under the “we know what’s best for you” theories. Americans are against this bill in large numbers. So against, in fact, that 57% of voters say it shouldn’t even be passed and it would be BETTER to do NOTHING.
Fifty-seven percent (57%) of voters nationwide say that it would be better to pass no health care reform bill this year instead of passing the plan currently being considered by Congress. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 34% think that passing that bill would be better.
Middle-income voters are more likely than others to say that passing no legislation is the better option.
One reason for this is that most Americans now believe they will be worse off if reform passes. Fifty-four percent (54%) hold that view while just 25% believe they would be better off.
Americans don’t want this bill. The Democrats don’t care. Why? Because this bill isn’t about reform. It’s about control.
This vote was sort of a test bubble for the main healthcare bill, but it was also an attempt by the Dems to pull a deficit killing section of the bill out of the main bill. This would allow them to still claim that the bill was “deficit neutral,” even though this provision is going to cost $247 billion and WAS a part of the main bill.
WASHINGTON — Democrats lost a big test vote on health care legislation on Wednesday as the Senate blocked action on a bill to increase Medicare payments to doctors at a cost of $247 billion over 10 years.
The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, needed 60 votes to proceed. He won only 47. And he could not blame Republicans. A dozen Democrats and one independent crossed party lines and voted with Republicans on the 53 to 47 roll call.
[…]
By addressing doctors’ fees in a separate bill, Senate Democrats could hold down the cost of the broader health legislation, keeping it within the limits set by President Obama. House Democrats are considering a similar tactic. Republicans said it was a transparent ploy to hide the cost of a health care overhaul.
Basically, it was a bunch of slick smoke and mirrors…and it failed spectacularly.
Not surprising; if the Democrats can’t win a fair debate on deathcare (which, given the 56% now against the plan and the huge groundswell of opposition from even moderate politicians and independent voters seems unlikely), they’ll just use some slick Chicago-esque and little-used rules to completely bypass the Constitutional system and pass what they want anyway.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid threatened on Tuesday to use a procedural maneuver to steamroll opponents of health care reform, even as a Senate panel began delicate negotiations over a package that could have the best chance at passing.
The Nevada Democrat, who has issued similar threats before, spoke as the Senate Finance Committee began debate over Chairman Max Baucus’ reform plan. Reid threatened to use a budgetary tool called reconciliation — also known as the “nuclear option” — that would allow Democrats to pass key parts of the legislation with a simple majority, as opposed to the 60 votes needed to avoid a Republican filibuster.
“If we can’t work this out to do something within the committee structure, then we’ll be forced to do the reconciliation,” Reid said
Are you kidding me? The Senate Majority leader is flat-out admitting that if they can’t bully everyone into accepting the plan, he’ll just force it through regardless, Constitution be damned and will of the voter (their employer) be damned.
Instead of trying to work out a plan that sides can agree on, the Democrats offer no quarter; agree with us or we’ll use procedural tricks to crush you. Sounds like Obama has that whole “brand new Washington” thing going for him; no more “politics as usual,” as we can clearly see a “new era of bipartisan cooperation” has begun.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a front-row seat to the death of the Republic.
What…a government agency…not being run correctly??!?! Perish the thought.
Highlights below, see here for the full article (long, but well worth the read).
While [Obama] delivers speeches praising the alleged success of Cash for Clunkers, a former rebate processor for the federal program – also working undercover for WND – is calling it “complete chaos.”
After the federal “Cash for Clunkers” program ended Aug. 24, the Department of Transportation reported that nearly 700,000 clunkers were taken off the roads and replaced by more fuel-efficient vehicles. Rebate applications worth $2.877 billion were submitted by the 8 p.m. deadline. The Transportation Department hired federal employees and private contract workers to process the rebates vouchers so car dealers would be compensated.
Former White House aide Kathleen Willey was hired as an employee with Vangent Incorporated, a company that provides information technology management and business process outsourcing services to the public and private sectors. Its clients include federal agencies such as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the U.S. Departments of Defense, Education, Health and Human Services, Justice and Labor and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.
After an application process that required no work history and a room full of applicants wearing t-shirts, flip-flops and jeans, Willey tried to start working. Keyword: tried.
The following day, on Sept. 2, employees waited outside from 4:30 p.m. until 6 p.m. to get into the building.
“Once inside, we waited another 30 minutes to sign in ’so we would get paid,’ Willey recalled. “I noted that it was written on the piece of paper that our work day started at 4:30. We then waited in line at the ‘badge table’ to get our badges. When I got there, I had no badge. I finally got to my desk at about 6:45 p.m., where I sat with nothing to do until 10 p.m.”
The employees waited for their user IDs and passwords to access the Car Allowance Rebate System, or CARS. Meanwhile, they were being paid $14.71 an hour “to do absolutely nothing,” Willey said.
Willey explains that supervisors were either not present or completely unhelpful, and with no access to the online CARS system and no assignment, she resorted to reading the newspaper. No one around her, she explains, was perturbed in any way that they had no work to do and were getting paid for no reason.
During a 37.5-hour work week, Willey reported actually working only 14 hours – but she was paid for more than 37 hours of work.
“Two of those nights, I had no work at all,” she said. “On those two evenings, when I left, I complained to two different supervisors and I got two different responses: ‘Milk it, baby!’ and ‘Free money!’”
A spokesperson for Cash for Clunkers, of course, said the whole system was “very efficient.”
Now…since the government can’t run the mail (by The Obamessiah’s own admission), and they can’t run a simple rebate scheme for cars…how in God’s name are they going to run our healthcare system?
After promising to not raise taxes for the middle class about 9.3 billion times during the campaign, the new “individual mandate” in the Deathcare bill looks a lot like a tax…but Obama, of course, says it’s not. Why? Check out the exchange from @ Hot Air.
During his Magical Mystery Tour of the Sunday chat shows, Pres. Obama took ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on a trip Through the Looking Glass on the question of whether the health insurance mandate is a tax:
STEPHANOPOULOS: Under this mandate, the government is forcing people to spend money, fining you if you don’t. How is that not a tax?
***
OBAMA: No, but — but, George, you — you can’t just make up that language and decide that that’s called a tax increase…
***
STEPHANOPOULOS: I — I don’t think I’m making it up. Merriam Webster’s Dictionary: Tax — “a charge, usually of money, imposed by authority on persons or property for public purposes.”
OBAMA: George, the fact that you looked up Merriam’s Dictionary, the definition of tax increase, indicates to me that you’re stretching a little bit right now. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have gone to the dictionary to check on the definition.
It’s not a stretch. George was right on to pull that out. Obama and his little mafia gang are going to levy two of the largest taxes the middle class has ever seen through deathcare and through cap and tax.
It’s all euphemisms. As long as Obama doesn’t say “tax,” he can claim he’s not lying around increasing taxes for the middle-class. As long as the healthcare bill says “female reproductive health situations,” he can say that it doesn’t given any Federal money to “abortion.”
Mr. Obama: You lie!
He’s going to tax us…and he’s going to tax us hard. Pelosi already admitted that the “surcharge” tax of “upper class” people was going to pay for the lower class. It’s wealth distribution under the guise of “healthcare.”
Mere days after going on TV and claiming that the healthcare bill would reduce deficits (as if that were even possible), multiple media outlets are calling attention the fact that Obama’s claims are less than accurate.
Obama claims his health effort will not dig the nation deeper into debt and over time will help reduce deficits. He has vowed to not sign any health bill that raises deficits.
But even the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says that none of the health plans pending on Capitol Hill would control long-term spending, and that ones with the elements Obama wants would add around $1 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years.
Furthermore the CBO said an administration-backed independent council of medical experts to recommend Medicare cuts would only yield modest savings.
I mean, common sense should have told everyone this. It’s not possible to move an entire sixth of the nation’s economy into corrupt government control and REDUCE the deficit. Seriously? Who honestly believed that lie to start with?
This bill is another in a long line of deficit rich bills. Obama said he “wouldn’t sign any bill into law that increases the deficit,” but so far his actions are not equal to his words (which, again, isn’t a surprise).
The healthcare bill is a disaster socially for the amount of control it exerts over the American people and the complete dismantling of quality care that will occur, it’s a disaster economically because of the irreparable damage it will do to healthcare companies, insurance companies and suppliers of medical equipment and services, and it’s a disaster fiscally because of the sheer cost and the fact that we’ll have to borrow this money and pay insane interest rates on it.
Right now, we’re tottering on the brink. Through radical cuts and budgeting, we still probably can never dig ourselves out of the $12 trillion in debt that we’ve created for ourselves. If we pass this bill (which the Senate, in another 1 AM stunt, will do), we will NEVER erase the national debt. It will contiue to pile up until it eclipses the GDP, completely ruins the value of the dollar and crashes us into a depression.
There are ways to “reform healthcare” and save Americans money. Passing a bill that increases costs and puts a government appointed panel of “experts” between you and your doctor is not the way.
Providing healthcare for “all Americans” is not the government’s job. Nowhere in the Constitution (despite what Blanche Lincoln and Roland Burris erroneously believe) does it say that healthcare is a “right” to be provided at the government’s discretion.
What? You mean the Barack Obama Administration (sponsored by the Blame America First Crowd) can’t take responsibility for their own disastrous ordeal? How stunning.
The White House for the first time Sunday seemed to acknowledge that people across the country received unsolicited e-mails from the administration last week about health care reform, suggesting the problem is with third-party groups that placed the recipients’ names on the distribution list.
In a written statement released exclusively to FOX News, White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said the White House hopes those who received the e-mails without signing up for them were not “inconvenienced” by the messages.
“The White House e-mail list is made up of e-mail addresses obtained solely through the White House Web site. The White House doesn’t purchase, upload or merge from any other list, again, all e-mails come from the White House Web site as we have no interest in e-mailing anyone who does not want to receive an e-mail,” the statement said. “If an individual received the e-mail because someone else or a group signed them up or forwarded the e-mail, we hope they were not too inconvenienced.”
Translation: we tried to pull together a massive database of emails to spam and flood with our pro-Obamacare messages, got caught and now we’re going to point the finger at someone else and whistle while rocking back and forth on the balls of our feet like we did nothing wrong.
Among other lies, Obama’s most hilariously stupid statement of his hand-picked New Hampshire town hall this week was his assertion that he’s “not a supporter of a single-payer system.”
Really?
Gee, that sort of sounds like you’re FOR a single-payer system, Comrade Obama. Just a little.
This guy is just a piece of work. This is all smoke and mirrors, all these town halls, the big speeches, the lofty ABC advertisements…it’s all hyperbole.
Obama wants a single-payer, government-rationed healthcare system, with all private companies put out of business and the government dictating your treatment. There is no compromise for him. As he said at this town hall, “We can’t let them do it again. Not this time. Not now.”
What I find nauseating about this town hall is that it was not presidential. It was campaigning, pure and simple. Barack Hussein Obama cannot lead; he is a slick salesman. Nothing more and nothing less. His rhetoric worked on a dumb population last year, and what’s disgusting now is that even with a majority of Americans claiming opposition to his plan, he’s not going to stop. He’s going to continue to push it, saying that he “knows better” than us, since, you know, it’s SO hard to understand all this complicated stuff. He’s just going to Big Brother us, make sure we’re “taken care of,” as long as we don’t ask questions.
