Is Passing Health Care Forgivable?


The vast majority of likely voters strongly oppose ObamaCare — and the best word to sum up the emotions and frustrations of those voters who have had to endure the insanity of the health care jihadists is that they hate ObamaCare.

And the two largest subsets of those strongly opposed are independents and senior citizens. Just ask Scott Brown’s campaign staff. He figured out real early that he could just walk into a nursing home and tell the seniors ObamaCare would cut half a trillion from Medicare.

Done. Next nursing home please.

And then, this fall in the mid-term elections, add ridicule to Medicare cuts: Washington thinks you can lower the deficit by spending $2.5 trillion on ObamaCare. Really. Congress says so.

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“Passing Bills without Voting On Them”


In the latest Mad-Magazine-like-Spy-vs.-Spy move, the House Dems have hatched a plan which reminds me of their ill-fated plan to delay seating Senator-elect Scott Brown until they had another ObamaCare vote on the Senate floor.

The Dems backed down. Similarly, they will back down from the Slaughter plan.

Former Speaker Gingrich describes the Slaughter plan in a tweet about a Brian Darling blog:

“Incredible. We’ve gone from passing bills without reading them to passing bills without voting on them.”

They haven’t tried it yet, they are thinking about it.

But now that the Senate Parliamentarian has ruled the obvious, that you can not vote on a reconciliation measure if the bill you are attempting to reconcile has not been signed into law — the Slaughter plan looks both desperate and comical.

It is also (obviously) unconstitutional and will, if carried out, create a public outcry that will make burning witches at the stake look rational.

Just like the Black Spy thought the White Spy was caged and an easy target, the trillion dollar President and the Speaker find themselves without the votes and trying again to cheat the U.S. Constitution, public opinion and voters who want Congress to stop the irrational ObamaCare quest and start over. Their persistent problem is they keep causing their colleagues mortal political harm with their increasingly hare-brained-Slaughter schemes.

You know, like lets-use-reconciliation-to-pass-the-hated-Senate-ObamaCare-bill. (It’s no shock that Obama has hit his lowest Gallup poll approval rating ever.)

Ironically, the trillion dollar President has created a bi-partisan health care effort, it’s just that it’s a bi-partisan alliance against his bill. What is causing cognitive dissonance in the White House and among the Democratic Party’s cognoscenti is the simple fact that the only thing bi-partisan about ObamaCare is the opposition to it.

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The Top Ten Healthcare Amendments


Our own Brian Darling has the top story at Human Events this morning.

President Obama and Democrats in Congress are readying a procedure known as reconciliation to railroad Obamacare through Congress. This abuse of process has been called the Healthcare Nuclear Option, because it’s a way to avoid a filibuster in the Senate.

Reconciliation was created in the early ’70s to allow Congress to balance the budget with a mere majority vote. It would allow Obamacare to be fast tracked with no hearings, no extended debate and no opportunity for members to engage in an honest give-and-take on changes to the package.

Obamacare is a take-it-or-leave-it proposition. Although most Americans want Congress to “leave” it, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) don’t care. Their desire to “take” power means they’ll use every means necessary to pass it.

It is important for opponents to use every means at their disposal to fight this idea. One of the few resources that the minority party has is that it can offer unlimited amendments at the end of the reconciliation process in the Senate and they can be issues that have no relation whatsoever to health care. All that a senator has to do is offer the non-healthcare related amendment, then waive the rules of reconciliation that limit the subject matter of amendments. It is done on most reconciliation measures and is considered a frequently used procedure to force votes on tough issues.


Dems to Self-immolate via Reconciliation


Brian Darling of the Heritage Foundation has moved the entire health care world from refitting weapons and/or R & R to DEFCON Two with these two posts, here and here. Darling is not only one of the few real operational experts on Senate Rules, he is a highly effective operative for the good guys. If Darling says the Dems are going to try it, they will. DRUDGE is now on board with his front page all-caps headline: BACK FROM THE DEAD: DEMS VOW TO RAHM THROUGH HEALTHCARE.

Add to this that Senator Reid just gave an interview saying Congress will pass ObamaCare in 60 days, and FireDogLake is reporting the Leadership is on-board for the reconciliation strategy. Also, FireDogLake is pushing the public option to be included in reconciliation. TIME and Washington Monthly are reporting that Reid intends to use reconciliation to insert the public option. Furthermore, former White House Communication Director for Obama, Anita Dunn says ObamaCare will pass Congress by November, just after Obama made another push for ObamaCare at his Nevada town hall.

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