Thoughts From A Conservative Mom

Posts Tagged ‘Nuclear Option’

The only bipartisanship on these bills has been in the opposition!

The Washington Examiner reports:

The Senate has passed the health care reform reconciliation bill, a package of substantial changes to the health care reform plan signed into law earlier this week.

The bill passed 56-43. It needed only 51 votes to win approval because the bill was considered under special budget reconciliation rules in order to prevent a GOP filibuster. Two Democrats voted with Republicans against the bill.

Patients First observes:

First and worst, the bill hikes the investment tax on capital gains and dividends. That’s the most anti-growth tax hike possible. The Reconciliation Act creates a new 3.8 percent Medicare tax on single filers over $200,000 and married filers over $250,000. The rich? Not quite. This slams business owners and makes it harder for them to raise capital for needed equipment purchases, expansion, and job creation. And there is no inflation indexing, so it will directly hit more and more taxpayers over time.Investment taxes are especially inappropriate as a “pay-for”; that’s because every capital gains hike has actually lowered revenues due to the economic damage and behavioral changes it caused.

Second, the reconciliation bill makes the business assault of the new health care law much worse. It raises the penalty on employers from $750 per uncovered employee to $2,000.

Third, the bill takes over the private aspects of the student loan industry, putting tens of thousands out of work in the private sector while building up a big new student loan bureaucracy. And this is supposed to happen by next semester, so you can expect lots of headaches for students in the short term as well the long-term costs of bigger government.

Fourth, the “fix” to the Cadillac tax actually makes it worse. Under current law the exemption amount is indexed to CPI plus 1 percent. That’s is already not a high enough inflation bar to keep up with medical costs. The reconciliation bill delays the start of the tax by five years, from 2013 to 2018, but it cuts the inflation adjustment to plain CPI. The lower inflation adjustment means this tax will hit more people faster.

Finally, the Nebraska “fix” (the only one of the infamous and corrupt deals Obama signed into law yesterday that’s actually revisited in the reconciliation) is now a much worse deal for taxpayers. Nebraska no longer gets special treatment, but the new Medicaid funding formula puts federal taxpayers on the hook for 90 percent of the cost of expansion for all states, with special funding increases for 17 states and the District of Columbia. This is welfare reform in reverse; we should be building on the AFDC block-grant model of state control and innovation that worked so well in the 1990s, not federalizing Medicaid.

Did Congress ever see “Schoolhouse Rock”? Maybe they could benefit from a few lessons:

View on YouTube

I hope they have the spine or their electoral gains will evaporate. The GOP must shut down the Senate starting early next week. Not just on healthcare, but everything. Grind it to a halt. This is from Senate insiders with knowledge of the battle to come in the next couple of weeks. As one strategist emailed me:

…the only viable strategy I can see is for the Republicans to begin the process of shutting down the U.S. Senate until the Democrats agree to MOVE ON — move off healthcare until the 112th Congress convenes.

The Democrats have lost the Mandate from Heaven they once enjoyed and are attempting to literally enact a bill that will destroy our healthcare system, raise taxes, stifle economic growth during a deep recession, and nationalize over 1/6 of our economy. We should not take this lying down. Neither should GOP members of Congress. This was never about Stupak or abortion. Any government takeover of healthcare will result in the use of taxpayer dollars at some point in the future to federally fund abortions. A vote to improve ObamaCare with any Stupak-like language is a vote for ObamaCare. But the real reality is at this time it just does not matter. What matters now is derailing this bill.

The Senate GOP should not make us go through a repeat of the embarrassing display of spineless behavior displayed last year. Next week shut down the Senate. We are counting on you.

Read more at Red State

In the Slaughter Solution, the rule would declare that the House “deems” the Senate version of Obamacare to have been passed by the House. House members would still have to vote on whether to accept the rule, but they would then be able to say they only voted for a rule, not for the bill itself.

Thus, Slaughter is preparing a rule that would consider the Senate bill “passed” once the House approves a corrections bill that would make changes. Democrats would thereby avoid a direct vote on the health care bill while allowing it to become law!

Constitutional attorney Mark R. Levin asks, “They’re going to present a rule, issued by her committee as chairman, that says that the House already adopted the Senate bill when we know it didn’t?”

“This is a crucial lesson for those of you who… aren’t sure what your beliefs are, or if you have any beliefs. Or aren’t sure if you even care. We have an effort underway by the one of the most powerful chairmen in Congress, the woman who heads the Rules Committee, …openly discussing gutting Congress. Gutting Congress.”

Read more at Michelle Malkin

The Senate Parliamentarian has ruled that President Barack Obama must sign Congress’ original health care reform bill before the Senate can act on a companion reconciliation package, senior GOP sources said Thursday.

The Senate Parliamentarian’s Office was responding to questions posed by the Republican leadership. The answers were provided verbally, sources said.

House Democratic leaders have been searching for a way to ensure that any move they make to approve the Senate-passed $871 billion health care reform bill is followed by Senate action on a reconciliation package of adjustments to the original bill. One idea is to have the House and Senate act on reconciliation prior to House action on the Senate’s original health care bill.

Read more at RollCall.com

When then-president Bill Clinton wanted to use reconciliation to pass HillaryCare, one significant Democrat stood in his way:

View at Breitbart.tv

Dick Morris notes that the current healthcare reform bill raises personal income taxes immediately, says it has to be defeated and explains what has to be done to stop the Democrats’ scheme.

View on YouTube

The legislative tactic known as “reconciliation” uses a soothing word to mask an ugly reality. Far from the dictionary definition of “restoring to friendship and harmony,” the Congressional term “reconciliation” suggests the spurning of cooperation and the brute use of partisan power. Worst of all, in the case of Obamacare, it also involves a dangerous, destructive violation of democratic principle.

It violates democratic principles at the very heart of the idea first articulated in the Declaration of Independence – that “governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” In what sense do the “governed” consent to Obama’s health care take-over – when every national survey, and the avalanche of constituent communication with Congress, indicate impassioned and overwhelming opposition to the so-called reforms?

The current health care proposals threaten to change American life for every citizen just as substantially as any Constitutional Amendment and yet could never muster two-thirds votes in either half of Congress, let alone 75% approval in state legislatures. The arrogance to rush ahead in spite of determined opposition (representing a likely majority of the nation at large) demonstrates not courage, but contempt.

Read more at TownHall.com

There is something way off balance in the character of Barack Obama. Something in the realm of zealotry, with a touch of megalomania, and perhaps an authoritarian impulse too. He combines  Alinskyite tactics and outlook with an air of self-assumed moral superiority in a way that fails to respect the usual, small ‘r’ republican limits on American presidents. All presidents, of course, think at some level that they know best about policy choices. But almost none of them (Woodrow Wilson perhaps excepted) were so willing to disdain, in pursuit of such radical policy upheavals, such intense and overwhelming public opinion as has been evident in the current health takeover attempt.

Grandiose plans are one thing. Most presidents fall prey to them. It’s another thing entirely, though, to refuse to accept the ordinary republican restraints on implementing grandiosities without public support, and furthermore to do so by A) bending existing rules; B) directly violating multiple personal pledges; C) ignoring constitutional limits; D) directly lying; and E) demanding that other politicians sacrifice their own political careers.

Read more at American Spectator

In defending his decision to go nuclear (i.e., using reconciliation to pass his unpopular health care bill), President Obama talked Tuesday about insurance company “abuses.”  He talked about premium hikes in California.  He talked about a sick mom in Wisconsin.  He even talked (in extremely modest ways) about Republican ideas like tort reform and fighting Medicare fraud. 

What Obama didn’t mention was Massachusetts or bringing the benefits of Bay State reform to all America.  Quite simply, he avoided mentioning the Bay State’s attempt at government-run health care because it has been a debacle in Massachusetts, says columnist Michael Graham, of the Boston Herald. 

Here are a few “highlights” of the current status of the Obamacare experiment in Massachusetts: 

• The Bay State’s “universal” health insurance scheme is already $47 million over budget for 2010; “Romneycare,” or “Obamacare Beta” as some are calling it, will cost taxpayers more than $900 million next year alone.
• Average premiums are the highest in the nation and rising.
• The state also spends 27 percent more on health care services, per capita, than the national average; those costs, contrary to what we were promised, have been going up faster here than nearly everywhere else.
• It’s creating bizarre marketplace mutations; in Massachusetts, Obamacare 1.0 is such a mess the governor is talking about imposing draconian price controls.
• Gov. Deval Patrick (D) has even suggested going to “capitation,” a system where doctors get a fixed amount of money per patient — and then that’s it; which means it would become in your doctor’s financial interest never to see you again. 

All this damage to the taxpayers, the insured and the responsible business owners . . . and for what?  The percentage of uninsured Bay State residents has gone from around 6 percent to around 3 percent.  In other words, it’s a dud, says Graham. 

The damage Obamacare would do to the current health care system — where 85 percent of Americans are happy with their health care, by the way — could be so great, the only institution big enough to repair it would be the government.  The fact that the government inflicted that damage would be a moot point, says Graham. 

Read more at the National Center for Policy Analysis

Americans need to understand the devastating significance of the House vote on the Senate health care bill set for March 18th. The Democrats have–by design–created the perfect storm to take over the US healthcare system, while providing an ideal distraction–reconciliation.

The deceptive practices to pass a government takeover of healthcare can be summed up as the ultimate betrayal by the Democrats against the American people in order to ram through their progressive, socialistic, freedom-stripping policies.

Furthermore, the Democrats talk of “reconciliation” or the nuclear option is nothing more than a diversion from what the real goal is–to pass the Senate version through the House and then have Obama sign it into law.

And once signed into law, does anyone really think that Obama will keep his promises of the “fixes” through the reconciliation process after he got what he wanted via the Senate bill? Seriously, he will have the healthcare takeover he wants, so why make the House and Senate suffer more.

In addition, I don’t think that the House will hold the bill to work out differences between the two chambers as is being floated. While it may be an optional maneuver, the Democrats need the tax increases to take effect now so they can offset some of their rabid spending.

The House Democrats have a choice: either stand with the American people and kill the bill or endorse the deception, betrayal, and bribes of Harry Reid, Obama, Pelosi, and the Senate Democrats, in addition to the destruction of the US health system. Either way, the American people will never forget.

Read more at RedState.com

Though he denies it, it now appears that House Democrat Jim Matheson has agreed to change his “no” vote on ObamaCare to “yes” – on the same day that Obama nominated his brother for a judgeship.  Coincidence?  

According to yesterday’s Weekly Standard:

Barack Obama will host ten House Democrats who voted against the health care bill in November at the White House; he’s obviously trying to persuade them to switch their votes to yes. One of the ten is Jim Matheson of Utah. The White House just sent out a press release announcing that today President Obama nominated Matheson’s brother Scott M. Matheson, Jr. to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.

Red State reports:

Media Matters, doing its typical shilling for the Obama Administration, threw up some lame talking points about Barack Obama appointing Scott Matheson, brother of Congressman Jim Matheson, to the federal bench.

The right has pointed out it has the appearance of bribery.

Today, trying to refute the accusation, Media Matters gives away the game. Casually in defending the appointment, Media Matters notes Scott Matheson told the White House in June of 2009 that he wanted Judge Michael McConnell’s job when it became available at the end of August 2009.

When does Barack Obama choose to appoint Scott Matheson?

Yesterday. The same day he has over the appointee’s brother, a congressman, to persuade the Congress to change his no vote on health care to a yes vote.

The Great Gavel Giveaway of 2010 is looking more and more like Gavelgate thanks to the industrious spinning of Media Matters trying to be helpful.

The statist creed is that they know better than you, the lowly, ignorant American people. This is what the Nanny State looks like.  They don’t really believe in “representative” government, because at heart, they’re control freaks.  They’re gonna make you do whatever they consider to be “for you own good” (to hell with the constitution), and you’re supposed to just sit back and take it!

A string of electoral defeats and the great unpopularity of ObamaCare can’t stop Democrats from their self-appointed rendezvous with liberal destiny—ramming a bill through Congress on a narrow partisan vote. What we are about to witness is an extraordinary abuse of traditional Senate rules to pass a bill merely because they think it’s good for the rest of us, and because they fear their chance to build a European welfare state may never come again.

The vehicle is “reconciliation,” a parliamentary process that fast-tracks budget measures and was created in 1974 as a deficit-reduction tool. Limited to 20 hours of debate, reconciliation bills need a mere 50 votes in the Senate, with the Vice President as tie-breaker, thus circumventing the filibuster. Both Democrats and Republicans have frequently used reconciliation on budget bills, so Democrats are now claiming that using it to pass ObamaCare is no big deal.

Yet this shortcut has never been used for anything approaching the enormity of a national health-care entitlement. Democrats are only resorting to it now because their plan is in so much political trouble—within their own party, and even more among the general public—and because they’ve failed to make their case through persuasion.

Read more at The Wall Street Journal

Fox News reports:

Democrats will use the controversial “reconciliation” rules requiring only 51 Senate votes to pass the “fix” to the Senate bill, as opposed to the 60 votes to stop a filibuster and proceed to a vote on a bill.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have been awaiting the president’s remarks direction on how health care reform will proceed.

Listen to Obama condemn, in his own words, the tactic he is now about to use:

View on Blip.tv

Michelle Malkin observes:

It’s official. After months of threatening to push the button on the so-called nuclear option, reconciliation — the parliamentary maneuver that Harry Reid said “nobody” is talking about and that President Obama said Americans didn’t care about last week — is a go.

The GOP is preparing for battle, according to Sen. John Thune.

The NRCC has gone code red.

Hugh Hewitt says: Let a million amendments bloom.

Steve Ertelt reports that Pelosi is still lying about abortion funding.

Phone/contact list for target House Dems here.

Democrats know this power grab is key to forcing the country permanently to the left. 

This is a fight to the bitter end!