Democrats And Health Care Bill: Bait & Switch & Switch & Then, Probably, Switch Again

Public option: In

School loans: In

And yet, it’s called a “shell” bill that will be stripped. Philip Klein explains it all. Here’s a bit:

Shortly before midnight on Sunday, Democrats released a 2,309 page health care bill that will start the process of reconciliation — but don’t let that fool you, it’s not the actual reconciliation bill with all the changes you’ve been reading about. Instead, as Rep. Paul Ryan, the ranking Republican member on the Budget Committee, explained to me last week, this is just the “shell” bill — the vehicle that Democrats need to get moving on health care. Once the bill gets approved (likely Monday), Democrats will send this phantom bill over to the Rules Committee, where it will be stripped, and then they’ll insert in all of the actual changes that they’ve negotiated.

Rep. Paul Ryan says:

Despite claims of transparency and calls for a “simple up-or-down vote,” there is nothing simple about this process. This convoluted legislative charade demonstrates how far the Democratic majority has wandered from real health-care reform and cost control, employing any means to achieve political victory.

Then the 2300 page non-bill bill aka “shell” will be sent for mark-ups. Link here.
Now, is the time to fight. Call your representative. Write. Pray. Do not sleep. This bill must die. Or there won’t be much left to fight for.

Michelle Malkin has who to call, where to go and what to do.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Big Government Burrito: A taste of the 2,309-pg Demcare/Student Loan Reconciliation Bill; Update: A tortilla shell fake-out (michellemalkin.com)

Posted in Barack Obama, Democrats, Socialism | 7 Comments »

Euthanasia For Thee, But Not For Me: Harry Reid & The Utilitarians

Well, Dan Riehl did it. He got the Left in a frothing, spewing rage by noting the absurdity of leftist utilitarian arguments regarding end of life decisions and abortion.

Bart Stupak reported that during behind-the-scenes meetings Nancy Pelosi was trying to convince Bart that abortion was a good thing—you know all those babies that wouldn’t need health care then. Abortion saves money!

So Dan wrote the piece that needed to be written: He talked about how old people have lived their lives, don’t really serve any useful purpose and so why should anyone pay for the healthcare, in this case of Harry Reid’s wife, for said old person?

The Democrats love utilitarian arguments. They use them for all sorts of things—from killing babies to leaving the Vietnamese to the communists. But like all good Utilitarians, they value their own utility higher than every one else’s utility. Thus, the foam-at-the-mouth outrage by lefties when someone uses their arguments against them.

See, Dan believes in the sanctity of life for all the helpless, as do I. So I would give Harry Reid’s wife the same care that I’d give a premature baby or an unborn baby from a poor mother. All life is sacred and deserves care.

But on the left, people who believe they are smarter than you want to pick and choose who lives and who dies. They will set up committees to decide who gets care and who does not and the arguments will be utilitarian ones: only 10% of people with this sort of cancer survive, and this drug is very expensive, so we’re not going to treat this person. The chance is too small, the cost to society too great. For the greater good, here’s a pill for your pain. [Unless, you happen to be the wife or daughter of a Dear Leader, of course….]

Dan’s absurd argument gets down to the philosophical differences between the left and right. Of course he would treat Harry Reid’s wife, if it were up to him. But leftists view people, other than those they know directly, in the abstract. They are numbers and lists—not actual people who have families and friends who care for them.

Americans don’t want to be part of some list at the mercy of some bureaucrat. They want their life to mean something. They want their lives to be as important as Harry Reid’s wife is to him.

And Americans are afraid of the reality: there will be two worlds in health care—one for Congress and one for everyone else. And they’re right. That’s exactly how it will be.

Posted in America, Democrats, Liberals, Socialism | 1 Comment »

Louise Slaughter: Slaughtering The Will Of The People

Glenn Reynolds wrote of the consent of the governed the other day; that was before Louise Slaughter’s evil genius plan to get health care passed.

It’s government gone wild! Steve Schippert of Threats Watch fumes:

House Rules Chairwoman Louise Slaughter says she is “prepping to help usher the healthcare overhaul through the House and potentially avoid a direct vote on the Senate overhaul bill.” She continued, explaining how House passage of a separate bill containing “changes” to the Senate version would lead House leadership to “deem” the actual Senate HealthCare Bill passed – without a direct vote.

This is not simply tyrannical in nature, it is absolute political cowardice.

Whether any American likes or dislikes any bill – any bill – none of us are governed under a Constitution nor any Congress within a Constitution that affords for an individual in an elected body to “deem” anything. We elected you, for better or worse, to vote on legislation, whether we like the specific outcome or not. There is a process within both the letter and spirit of the Constitution.

The notion of anyone “deeming” anything “passed” without going through the actual voting process of real passage is the kind of governance seen in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq or Bashar Assad’s Syria or Castro’s Cuba.

Few things in this lifetime have inspired such furious rage as this brazen attempt to undermine the legislative process as set forth within the Constitution of the United States.

William Jacobson is grateful for Scott Brown because we can still fight. And that’s true. I’ve felt that this bill will pass.

And I still believe this bill will pass.

What the Democrats are having to do, though, to get this beast passed? The Dems who will lose their jobs are currently being bought off, one at a time. There are lobbying jobs and plum posts being given as we speak.

The only way it won’t pass is if some Democrats stick to principles. See why I’m pessimistic?

Posted in Democrats, Liberals, Socialism | 5 Comments »

If Broadband Is A Right, Then A Car Is A Right

Why do leftists insist on making everything a right? Why can’t they let the market do its thing?

Here’s the deal: When people say that broadband is a right, what they mean is that the United States should pay for the world’s internet access.

Posted in Capitalism, Economy, Liberals, Socialism | 2 Comments »

Suffering Through Obama’s Political Theater: Blair House Bait-N-Switch Project

Just FYI, I’ll be live-tweeting the Health Care Summit. Why is Obama doing this?

From National Review’s Tevi Troy:

In addition, as the New York Times reported, the main reason that President Obama had to — finally — release a White House plan is that the Democrats in the House and Senate could not come to an agreement, and the president had promised that he would post a Democratic proposal 72 hours before the summit. As a result of this new, third proposal, we now have even less Democratic unity than we had before Obama stepped in. When the summit takes place, this could lead to the awkward spectacle of Obama arguing for his plan, Reid and his Democratic colleagues arguing for the Senate bill, and Pelosi’s people arguing for the House bill.

So the Democrats are less cohesive than before. The summit appears, then, to be a power play.

The President will get up in front of Republicans and say that they’re obstructionist. The President will make bold statements that force grin-and-bear-it Democrats to go along to get along.

Will it work? Well, President Obama has been notoriously unsuccessful bullying the likes of the Olympic committee, for example, or allies into some form of a solution that he wants…aka “what’s good for me.”

But this theater is horrible..not for Republicans, but for Democrats. I only have to wonder if Obama wants the House to fall to Republicans. It certainly would make his political life easier.

By pushing and pushing on health care, something the American people are clearly sick of, he’s making life harder for Democrats, ultimately. Republicans have little to do with anything at this point.

George Will points out: [read the whole thing]

Today’s health policy “summit” comes at a moment when, as happens with metronomic regularity, Washington is reverberating with lamentations about government being “broken.” Such talk occurs only when the left’s agenda is stalled. Do you remember mournful editorials and somber seminars about “dysfunctional” government when liberals defeated George W. Bush’s Social Security reforms?

The summit’s predictable failure will be a pretext for trying to ram health legislation through the Senate by misusing “reconciliation,” which prevents filibusters. If the Senate parliamentarian rules, as he should, that most of the legislation is ineligible for enactment under reconciliation, the vice president, as Senate president, can overrule the parliamentarian. This has not happened since 1975, but liberals say desperate times require desperate measures.

This is horrible for Democrats. Americans are looking around and see being out of work as the most important issue before them. Health care seems like a nice luxury, at this point.

But President Obama has to do this, I think, for himself. He has to demonstrate to Union bosses he’s beholden to, that he’s tried everything. He wants to “run against congress”, really. Obama seeks to position himself as the reasonable one and everyone else is being obstructionist and stupid.

Except the American people don’t buy it; or haven’t. Will they buy it now? Doubt it. The Obama schtick is overplayed. And the American people are sick of the liberal agenda.

They know what the President really wants and they know that Dems are patient about getting what they want:

Posted in America, Barack Obama, Socialism | 1 Comment »

German Homeschooling Familly Granted Asylum In The United States

This German family has been persecuted for a long time:

The long wait is over for a German family that immigrated to Morristown in search of the freedom to homeschool their five children.

A U.S. immigration judge granted political asylum to the family Tuesday afternoon in Memphis.

The decision clears the way for Uwe Romeike, his wife and their five children to stay in Morristown where they have been living since 2008.

German state constitutions require children to attend public or private schools and parents can face prison time or fines if they don’t comply.

Romeike, an evangelical Christian, said he believes the German curriculum is “against Christian values.”

Now, as long as their education stays free here in America.

Posted in America, Education, Mind, Socialism | 29 Comments »

Valerie Jarrett On Double Dipping The Tax Payer By Way Of Bank Fees

Does it make sense to give banks fees when the consumer will ultimately pay? No. But that’s exactly what President Obama is doing. His best friend Valerie Jarrett explains why this makes sense:

Tom Elia says this:

Obama Administration officials estimate that losses from the TARP program are around $120 billion, and argue this new tax will pay for those losses.

However, much of the estimated loss from TARP comes from the auto industry bailout.

So what appears to happening here is that the Obama Administration and congressional Democrats are attempting to levy a tax on financial institutions — some of which never received TARP funds, some which have already paid them back — in large part to pay for the bailout of the auto industry, a bailout which greatly favored the autoworkers’ unions, a Democratic Party constituency.

Michelle Malkin calls it “Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee” = The Cover Tim Geithner’ A** Tax and says:

2. The tax won’t apply to non-banks, black holes Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, or the bailed-out auto companies.

3. This isn’t about getting “our money” back. It’s about redistributing it again under the guise of faux populism.

More to the point, this is what I call the Cover Tim Geithner’s A** Tax. Making banks the whipping boys takes the heat off Geithner for his incompetent, complicit, and transparency-subverting tenure as New York Federal Reserve chair.

Team Obama wants you to keep your eyes on its fatcat barbecue charade.

But don’t be distracted. Geithner will be on the hot seat next week in Congress. And that’s where the real scrutiny of “financial crisis responsibility” lies.

Yup. Man, the Obama administration has the faux-populism schtick down. The words are like honey, but they give a terrible case of indigestion once you eat them.

They count on people being stupid. They hope people are distracted by their sweet words. And people have been in the short term, but when people get deeper in, they feel taken. Over and over again.

It’s the utter contempt for the American people that’s so disgusting.

Posted in Barack Obama, Economy, Socialism | No Comments »

Democrats Avoid Conference, Avoid Republicans, And Avoid The American People

Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid decided yesterday to forgo conferencing the health care bill. One sixth of the economy is now in the hands of the few people locked behind closed doors doing backroom deals to get this bill done.

The Democrats have evidently decided to stake everything on this bill. Or maybe, they figure they have nothing to lose so pushing, manipulating, bribing, black-mailing, coercing, padding and generally screwing the American people is okay. They know what’s best for you. And what’s best is for you to shut-up and to be shut out.

Meanwhile, Democrats who see the handwriting on the wall are not seeking re-election. They are stepping aside to allow other Democrats a chance.

Michelle Malkin says of the Dems:

And now House and Senate Democrat leaders are reportedly preparing to cut dissenters out of the reconciliation process by bypassing the formal conference committee.

In Hill parlance, this legislative short-cut is called “ping-ponging.” A better game analogy: Dodgeball. With mounting opposition from both conservative Republicans and progressive Democrats, President Obama’s water-carriers must use every trick in the book to speed the final merging and passage of the bill before the end of the month.

The hypocrisy reeks stronger than rotting garlic. In 2006, House Democrats asserted that “House-Senate conferences are a critical part of the deliberative process because they produce the final legislative product that will become the law of the land.” That same year, Harry Reid railed on the Senate floor against informal deal-making that circumvented the conference committee process – and he attacked the use of manager’s amendments to avoid public scrutiny:

“Of course, nobody can see the managers’ amendment. It is composed of over 40 amendments. How could anyone vote for a piece of legislation such as that — a managers’ amendment with 42 separate amendments? Now, these amendments were not put in a conference committee. People complain about that. But at least in a conference committee, you have people working together, sticking things in…Here, you have one person making a decision as to what is going to be in the managers’ amendment. There is no way to know what is in it.”

But four years later, it was Reid who snuck his 383-page manager’s amendment – stuffed with payoffs, special breaks, and concessions on health care – into the Senate hopper on the Saturday before Christmas break. Four years later, it is Reid stifling the open, collaboratively conference committee process he so fiercely championed.

Michelle smells garlic. I smell desperation.

The Democrats will be throwing everything at Americans in the next year. Health care, Card Check, Cap-n-Trade….the Triune of Doom(TM). They have one chance, perhaps a last one, to remake America into the socialist, Europe-lite dream they desire. They see power in socialism. Power for them. They seek to ensure that they have a stranglehold on governance forever, if possible, by sinking their claws into the American people…creating a symbiotic relationship where they need each other.

The American people don’t need the government. They don’t need Democrats. They need to believe in themselves. This health care fight is just the first battle in what is going to turn out to be a brutal 2010.

Posted in Democrats, Socialism | 1 Comment »

Gas Prices Up, Economy Stinks Worse, Elites Wish We’d Listen To Them More

This sort of news would be front page under a Bush administration with Democrats demanding subsidies for the poor:

The cost of filling up the car is rising in the wake of soaring crude and by this weekend, pump prices may race past the highs for all of 2009.

Tracing the ascension of crude, up 14 percent since mid-December, energy prices across the board are catching up.

It’s part economic and part meteorologic.

Vicious pockets of cold stretched from the Northeast to the South, where farmers in the Florida panhandle tried to save tomato and strawberry crops. Four deaths in Tennessee were blamed on low temperatures.

The frigid blast has squeezed heating oil supplies in some areas during a year when demand had been very weak.

Falling supplies in recent weeks have contributed to prices driven higher by the falling dollar. When the dollar falls, investors holding stronger currency can essentially buy more dollar-based crude and they have, doubling oil prices last year.

Yeah, the economy stinks. It will get worse.

Meanwhile, we’ll be lectured by the dumbasses who got us in this mess why we should listen to them. Will Collier destroys David Brookes and his better-than brethren:

Brooks does actually stumble into a correct point by associating the current Washington crew with the word “pragmatic,” but he fails utterly to note the intended end of that pragmatism: extending their own power. Like their spiritual forefathers in the New Deal, the Obami quickly abandoned most of their ideological goals (although not the demagogic language of that ideology) when reality failed to comply with theory. In their place came the much more politically pragmatic mantra of “tax and tax, spend and spend, and elect and elect.” That’s what Obama’s trillions in “Monopoly money”–other people’s Monopoly money, of course–are all about.

That’s what the “stimulus,” serving mostly to funnel federal pork to favored politicians and government employee unions, was all about. That’s what nationalization of GM and Chrysler to the benefit of the UAW was all about. That’s what nationalizing the banks to extend Federal power over their operations was all about. The current “health care” bills are only peripherally about patients and doctors; their real purpose is to put as many voters as possible under Federal medical Welfare. After all, almost everybody on Welfare votes Democratic, and that’s what Brooks’ “educated class” wants to see more than anything else.

Yeah. And for a while, Americans thought that a smart guy would fix things. Now, they just want to be left alone. Unfortunately, Dems just can’t help meddling.

Posted in Economy, Socialism | No Comments »

Surprise! Democrats Not Going To Conference On Health Care Bill–UPDATED

Wow, the Democrats really want this bill at all costs. They’re going to get it. From The New Republic:

Now that both the House and Senate have passed health care reform bills, all Democrats have to do is work out a compromise between the two versions. And it appears they’re not about to let the Republicans gum up the works again.

According to a pair of senior Capitol Hill staffers, one from each chamber, House and Senate Democrats are “almost certain” to negotiate informally rather than convene a formal conference committee. Doing so would allow Democrats to avoid a series of procedural steps–not least among them, a series of special motions in the Senate, each requiring a vote with full debate–that Republicans could use to stall deliberations, just as they did in November and December.

“There will almost certainly be full negotiations but no formal conference,” the House staffer says. “There are too many procedural hurdles to go the formal conference route in the Senate.”

So what this means is that the bill will be another backroom deal with a couple whispering Democrats ironing out the soul-killing details. Philip Klein thinks that some form of public talk will have to happen:

While this may very well be the current line of thinking among Democrats, I’m not convinced this is how things will play out. It’s important to keep in mind that it won’t just be Republicans who are clamoring for conference committee, but a lot of liberals, too. Many on the left begrudgingly expressed support for passing the Senate bill in the hopes that they could make one last stand during conference talks, and I think Democrats may have to give them that oppourtunity, if nothing else but for show.

Nope. The show is over. The Democrats generally don’t want a show. They want this done. They don’t want the hard left who is paying attention to interfere, either. Via Firedoglake: “The differences on the health bill will be hard to reconcile,” Waxman said to about 175 people at the Pacific Palisades Democratic Club. “But that’s our job.”

This bill will pass.

UPDATED:

Ed Morrissey has more hope than I do. He says,”Nelson may be looking for an excuse to rescue himself and block the bill anyway.” and continues:

Given the bill’s increasing unpopularity, it doesn’t surprise that Democrats want to hide themselves while trying to get it out of Congress. However, that kind of approach will not build support for ObamaCare. It will undermine whatever support it has left except as a purely partisan exercise — which explains why its support among likely voters closely mirrors the percentage of Democrats among that sample.

Passing the health care bill is a matter of principle. This is a matter of displaying some Democrat muscle. The Democrats fear looking weak more than they fear enraging the American public. They believe that they will win over the long term. They believe they know what is best for everyone and once people get with the program, they’ll come around. People just don’t know what’s good for them.

Posted in America, Democrats, Socialism | 10 Comments »