Bart Stupak, A Pocket Full of Mumbles

The horse trading went long into the night. In the end the House Democrats bought, cajoled, wrangled and bullied enough votes to pass the health care debacle. The battle is far from over and will range into next November and beyond.

As a far right wing nut job I will enjoy the coming downfall of the Democratic Party. I will enjoy the stunned looks on the faces of those who will lose their union and employer health care plans if this legislation stays around long enough to take effect. I will enjoy the coming revolt of the middle and upper class taxpayers. I could of course, be wrong. Maybe the American people are tired of being free and maybe rugged individualism is dead. Maybe the vast majority of my neighbors are looking forward to the never ending growth of the Federal Government. Maybe everyone except we gun owning, SUV driving, meat eating, smaller government, right wing nut job pro lifers want the nanny state.

So now that the first battle of the “health care reform” movement is over we need to ask some questions. Is that it from the left? Will there be no further movement to start a government option? Will there be no push to get to a single payer system? If you believe that you need to get in the line that starts right behind Rep. Bart Stupak.

Rep. Stupak has become the Neville Chamberlain of our time.

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Tags: abortion funding, Bart Stupak, Ben Nelson, executive order, government health care
Posted Mar 22nd 2010 at 1:06 pm in Congress, Culture, Healthcare, History, News, Obama, Politics | 9402287 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/jjena/2010/03/22/bart-stupak-a-pocket-full-of-mumbles/Bart+Stupak%2C+A+Pocket+Full+of+Mumbles2010-03-22+20%3A06%3A10Jeffrey+Jena

There is Still Hope!

I am an optimist. I see the glass as half full (preferably with beer). So I am keeping hope alive!

There are a couple of ways this can still be stopped. The first is that numerous state attorneys are going to sue.

Virginia will file suit against the federal government charging that the health-care reform legislation is unconstitutional, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s office confirmed last night.

Cuccinelli is expected to argue that the bill, with its mandate that requires nearly every American to be insured by 2014, violates the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution.

There is a good chance that the Supreme Court will rule the bill unconstitutional based on the mandate for all Americans to buy insurance even if they don’t want it and that some of the bill only helps specific states at the expense of the rest. When it is declared unconstitutional, the Democrats will try to fix it with a new bill. By then we will have had another election. Even without a Republican takeover in the House and the Senate, there will be enough new Republicans to stop Obamacare.

Of course, the Supreme Court could find a way to stay out of the fight and let the bill stand. Then, we’re screwed.

(more…)

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Tags: Barack Obama, Big Government, government health care, ObamaCare
Posted Mar 22nd 2010 at 11:13 am in Healthcare, Obama, Political Humor, Uncategorized | 93782139 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/gknapp/2010/03/22/there-is-still-hope/There+is+Still+Hope%212010-03-22+18%3A13%3A46Greg+Knapp

What Now? Four Guiding Principles for Health Care

So where do we go from here now that Obama has succeeded in pushing through a corrupt and bloated healthcare bill?

Let’s start with some good news. This is not the end of the world. If this was 1920, Obamacare would be a paradigm-shifting expansion in the size and scope of Washington. But we do not have a free-market healthcare system today. Government already directly finances nearly one-half of all health expenditures, and the ostensibly private part of our healthcare system is immensely distorted by regulations and tax policy (particularly the exclusion of fringe benefits in the tax code).

Source: CATO Institute

We have deviated so far from a free market that only 12 percent of healthcare costs are paid for out-of-pocket by consumers. And health insurance, rather than being based on risk and protecting against catastrophic expenses, has morphed into a grossly inefficient form of pre-paid health care.

So what does this mean? The way to think of Obamacare is that we are shifting from a healthcare system 68 percent controlled/directed by government to one that (when all the bad policies are phased in) is 79 percent controlled/directed by government. Those numbers are just vague estimates, to be sure, but they underscore why Obamacare is just a continuation of a terrible trend, not a profound paradigm shift. Yes, it is very bad news. Yes, it will cost more than politicians claimed. Yes, it will reduce the quality of care. All those things are true, but we are going 79 mph in the wrong direction instead of 68 mph.

By the way, the 2008 elections did not make that much difference.

(more…)

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Tags: Big Government, Dependency, government-run healthcare, health care, health reform
Posted Mar 22nd 2010 at 10:21 am in Congress, Economics, Healthcare, News, Obama, Politics, federal spending | 9380691 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/dmitchell/2010/03/22/what-now-four-guiding-principles-for-health-care/What+Now%3F+Four+Guiding+Principles+for+Health+Care2010-03-22+17%3A21%3A13Dan+Mitchell

Liberals in Congress Destroy Freedom in America and Their Own Re-Election Prospects This Fall

With this vote, the U.S. House has chosen big government over freedom; bureaucracy over people.

The American Conservative Union has opposed this bill from the start because of its massive cost and red tape. The more we learn and Americans learn about the devil in the details of this bill the more disgust among Americans will grow. Empowering IRS agents to determine if Americans have proper health care coverage is not health care reform. Raising taxes is not health care reform. Massive increases in government spending is not health care reform. Imposing fines on Americans who don’t toe the line with what the liberals want in their personal health care plans is not real health care reform.

History will indeed mark this moment – as some Americans become more dependent on government and government becomes more intrusive in the personal lives and financial decisions of its citizens. This is a moment when government growth took a giant leap toward swallowing up more and more of the hard earn money of Americans. This is a moment when common sense reform took a back seat to liberalism run amuck.

In responding to the Democrat’s claims that spending massive amounts of new money on a new government program would actually lower the deficit, the ACU notes that the Ways and Means Committee estimated Medicare would cost only $9 billion each year after 25 years but that on its 25th birthday Medicare spent $67 billion, or seven times the initial cost estimate. The pattern is consistent in federal spending and the massive health care bill’s cost will likely follow suit.

The American people are not stupid or naive.

(more…)

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Tags: government health care, health care reform, liberalism, Medicare, medicare spending
Posted Mar 22nd 2010 at 9:41 am in Earmarks, Economics, Healthcare, Politics, Tea Party | 9385083 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/dkeene/2010/03/22/liberals-in-congress-destroy-freedom-in-america-and-their-own-re-election-prospects-this-fall/Liberals+in+Congress+Destroy+Freedom+in+America+and+Their+Own+Re-Election+Prospects+This+Fall2010-03-22+16%3A41%3A34David+A.+Keene

The Socialists Won A Battle; Now It is Our Turn

Yesterday was my son’s 9th birthday and for his present, the government jacked his future. As he sat in the floor and happily opened his gifts, Bart Stupak appeared on television and revealed that he’d sold his soul. The joy was sucked from the room, but my son didn’t notice – thank God for innocence. The faces of the adults in the room fell as Stupak held his presser, as Pelosi gained another YES vote for health control.

The scene was an eerie replay for me; eight-and-a-half years ago that same boy sat in his bouncy seat while cooing and kicking his legs as his father and I watched the twin towers crumble to dust on live television. The feeling was the same.

A lot of people ask why I and others do what we do.

The scene I just described is my answer.

Last night the Democrat party died as it drove a spear through the torso of the Constitution and passed legislation that the majority of Americans overwhelmingly opposed. Nancy Pelosi sauntered into the capitol surrounded by fellow socialists, carrying the gavel used in 1965 to pass the now-bankrupt Medicare.

All summer long Americans filled town halls, emailed, called, and faxed their lawmakers, and they were forsaken. They were called Nazis, racists, homophobes; they were threatened, beaten, and called stupid because they disagreed with the minority who feels that the government should run our lives. Our lawmakers unofficially stopped representing us last spring.

Last night, our legislators officially broke the contract with America that is the Constitution. Last night, they ceased to represent us. Last night, a new party was born; the malignant tumor that is the progressive caucus consumed the Democrat party from within and gave birth to the mainstream Socialist Party.

(more…)

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Tags: American Revolution, Ensuring Liberty, government health care, John Boehner, Michelle Bachmann
Posted Mar 22nd 2010 at 8:53 am in Congress, Culture, Healthcare, Obama, Politics, Tea Party | 93878173 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/dloesch/2010/03/22/the-socialists-won-a-battle-now-it-is-our-turn/The+Socialists+Won+A+Battle%3B+Now+It+is+Our+Turn2010-03-22+15%3A53%3A37Dana+Loesch

Capitalism and Health Care

It’s time for your weekly dose of Coffee and Markets, featuring The New Ledger’s Francis Cianfrocca, a podcast brought to you by the fine folks at Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com and LibertyPundits.com, your home for conservative podcasts. In this week’s edition, we talk about the end of capitalism and the future of health care.

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Download Podcast | iTunes | Podcast Feed

You can subscribe to the podcast by following the links above, and if you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

Daily Caller: Pelosi Rolls Stupak
McArdle: The Future After Health Care
NRO: Executive Order Won’t Work
Mark Steyn: Happy Dependence Day!
CBS News: The End of Hope and Change

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Tags: Barack Obama, Coffee and Markets, health care, Nancy Pelosi, ObamaCare
Posted Mar 22nd 2010 at 7:01 am in Coffee and Markets, Healthcare | 9349810 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/newledger/2010/03/22/capitalism-and-health-care/Capitalism+and+Health+Care2010-03-22+14%3A01%3A30The+New+Ledger

ObamaCare: Time to Fire Speaker Pelosi

This weekend, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ensured that the 111th Congress will live in infamy. Instead of listening to the people she used every procedural trick at her disposal to pass her health care legislation. She must be stopped.

Over the last year, the American people have witnessed a Speaker who will stop at nothing to achieve her vision of a Leftist government. She believes that she is no longer accountable to congressional rules, and national laws. Those are just guidelines that can be tossed away on a whim if determined they will prevent her from accomplishing her goals. On Sunday, she cast them aside with reckless abandon and forced through her government takeover of health care.
Nancy Pelosi has no regard for public opinion. Even in a hostile electoral environment, she asked members of her caucus to fall on their swords so that she might add another achievement to her increasingly shameful legacy. Her actions are deceptive, dishonest, and simply unconstitutional, but she shows no remorse. To her, the ends justify the means.

Let there be no doubt: Nancy Pelosi’s sole priority in this entire health care drama has been authorizing a government seizure of the American health care industry and nationalizing a full one-sixth of our economy. She ignored the cold hard facts of the federal budget. Plainly put, you cannot add $1 trillion dollars to the budget and then claim that it’s revenue neutral, cut $500 billion from Medicare, and won’t affect recipients. The math simply doesn’t work. But Nancy Pelosi doesn’t seem to have any problem with fudging the numbers when it’s to her advantage.
Worse yet, Speaker Pelosi has claimed that she would preside over the most ethical and transparent Congress in history. She has repeatedly denied Americans their Constitutional right to know what Washington is doing in their name, because she knows that if they find out, they will hold her caucus accountable.

For the sweetheart deals and arm-twisting tactics; for this unconscionable dereliction of her duty; for this gleeful defiance of the Constitution; and for the utter contempt with which she has repeatedly treated the American people, Speaker Pelosi MUST be fired.

(more…)

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Tags: 111th Congress, government health care, Nancy Pelosi, ObamaCare, public protests
Posted Mar 22nd 2010 at 6:21 am in Congress, Healthcare, News, Obama, Politics | 93570283 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/msteele/2010/03/22/obamacare-time-to-fire-speaker-pelosi/ObamaCare%3A+Time+to+Fire+Speaker+Pelosi2010-03-22+13%3A21%3A27Michael+S.+Steele

Hope and Change: Had Enough?

Back in 1946, an ingenious advertising executive named Karl Frost suggested a simple, straightforward political slogan to the Massachusetts Republican Committee: “Had Enough? Vote Republican,” it read. This slogan was soon found on billboards all across the country, and in November of that year the Republicans picked up fifty-five seats in the House and twelve in the Senate, seizing control in both chambers.

By that November, the country had suffered under the New Deal for fourteen years, and Americans, understandably, were fed up. Moreover, as Michael Barone pointed out last May, “After World War II Democrats wanted to retain wartime high taxes, pro-union labor laws, and wage and price controls, all manipulatable for political benefit by political insiders. Republicans  . . . won big enough majorities to lower taxes, revise labor laws and abolish controls.”

Were I in the shoes of Michael Steele, I would buy up billboard space all over the country and slap up the same slogan – for something similar should be possible this November. The healthcare debate was over some time ago. When Scott Brown won Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat in January, it was made abundantly clear that Barack Obama and the Democratic Party had lost that debate decisively. Now, in the face of fierce public opposition, they have jammed the bill through Congress, and they have done so without the cover of a single Republican vote. For this – as William Daley, the mastermind of the Chicago machine, warned in an op-ed that appeared in The Washington Post on Christmas eve – they will pay dearly and not just this coming November.

Abraham Lincoln once observed, “Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed.” It is possible, of course, that events will intervene between now and November. It is conceivable that the healthcare bill and the manner in which it was passed in both the Senate and the House will be forgotten. But this is not likely. If the Republicans stick together, mount a principled opposition to the Obama administration on all fronts, and recruit first-rate candidates to run in every district at both the state and the federal levels in November, it is highly likely that there will be a political earthquake in this country on a scale not seen since 1932.

(more…)

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Tags: Abraham Lincoln, alexander hamilton, FDR, federalists, had enough
Posted Mar 22nd 2010 at 5:27 am in Congress, Economics, Featured Story, Healthcare, History, Obama, Politics, Tax Reform, federal spending | 93454128 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/prahe/2010/03/22/hope-and-change-had-enough/Hope+and+Change%3A+Had+Enough%3F2010-03-22+12%3A27%3A28Paul+A.++Rahe

Sunday Health Care Open Thread: Round Two Edition

UPDATE: Reconciliation passes, 220-210, along with the government takeover of the student loan business.

***

UPDATE: Bill passes 219 to 212.

***

Tonight, the House of Representatives will conduct a series of votes that will result, most likely, in the passage of the greatest expansion of government in our nation’s history. The vote is the outcomes of side deals, winks and nods, and the closest our system can come to open bribery. Democrats in Congress may think this is the end of the health care debate. It is only the beginning. Tonight marks a low point in our nation’s history, but, let’s draw inspiration from one of its highest points. (Check here for updates throughout the night.) The battle starts anew tomorrow.

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Tags: government health care, ObamaCare, Senate health bill
Posted Mar 21st 2010 at 5:33 pm in Congress, Featured Story, Healthcare, Open Threads, Politics | 93430626 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2010/03/21/sunday-health-care-open-thread-round-two-edition/Sunday+Health+Care+Open+Thread%3A+Round+Two+Edition2010-03-22+00%3A33%3A45Publius

Stupak Finally Sells Out: 8-9 Pro-Life Dems Will Vote for Bill to Fund Abortions

From The Hill:

Democrats have reached a deal on an executive order on abortion that could hand them a victory on healthare.

“Eight or nine” Democrats, including Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), will announce the deal at a 4 p.m. press conference, according to an anti-abortion Democrat.

“We’ve changed [our votes],” said Rep. Steve Driehaus (D-Ohio).

(more…)

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Tags: abortion funding, Bart Stupak, executive order, government health care, ObamaCare
Posted Mar 21st 2010 at 12:53 pm in Congress, Healthcare, News, Obama, Politics, federal spending | 93254305 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2010/03/21/stupak-finally-sells-out-8-9-dems-will-vote-for-bill-to-fund-abortions/Stupak+Finally+Sells+Out%3A+8-9+Pro-Life+Dems+Will+Vote+for+Bill+to+Fund+Abortions2010-03-21+19%3A53%3A56Publius

Media Matters Jumps to Defend Unsolicited White House Emails to Federal Employees

Media Matters, the defender of liberal media, jumped into the developing controversy and debate over White House Health Reform Director Nancy-Ann DeParle’s unsolicited White House emails to federal employees. Media Matters scolds and makes fun of CBS News and Fox News for highlighting the issue, calling the claims “pure speculation”. Ironically, Media Matters doesn’t deny that the unsolicited emails have been sent but rather they defend the emails by saying, “it appears they are sent out to everyone on the whitehouse.gov mailing list.” Well, duh. That’s the problem. Why are federal employees on the whitehouse.gov email list? And why are federal employees being hounded to do the White House’s political bidding for a trillion dollar entitlement program?

Building support for President Barack Obama’s health reform package by sending consecutive emails to federal employees’ official government email inboxes and instructing them to forward the emails to their “friends, family and online networks” is not only unethical but possibly illegal.

Media Matters also complains that the story has no anonymous quotes from frustrated federal employees in order to prove the story. Which is a fair point. I’ll give them that. So here are two anonymous quotes from State Department employees that didn’t sign up for the White House emails but are still receiving political musings from Nancy-Ann DeParle and the White House:

Anonymous Quote #1:

“ I didn’t sign up for this. Why do I have to bother with political fights from work. This is inappropriate and distracting to REAL issues.”

Anonymous Quote #2:

“I have been receiving these emails at my state.gov address, unsolicited e-mails such as the one below on a near weekly basis.  Kinda threatening dontcha think? Budget problems if it doesn’t pass?”

Department of State employees receive hundreds of official government emails every day on pressing issues like the Israeli-Palestinian issue or the Iranian nuclear weapons issue. Should they have to worry about partisan political emails threatening budget complications if Obama’s bill isn’t passed?

(more…)

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Tags: Barack Obama, federal employees, government health care, Hatch Act, Media Matters
Posted Mar 21st 2010 at 12:43 pm in Healthcare, Obama, Politics, federal spending | 9295424 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/rgrenell/2010/03/21/media-matters-jumps-to-defend-unsolicited-white-house-emails-to-federal-employees/Media+Matters+Jumps+to+Defend+Unsolicited+White+House+Emails+to+Federal+Employees2010-03-21+19%3A43%3A36Richard++Grenell

ObamaCare: To Pass Or Not to Pass

Over the last several days, old friends and family around the country have contacted me with the same questions: ‘Do they have the votes? What is going to happen?’ Maybe they think that, living inside the Beltway, I get some secret newsletter that can divine what Congress will do. To all of them and you, let me be clear: I have no idea what is going to happen tonight. We have slipped well beyond any rational political thought or calculation. By any traditional analysis, this bill would have been buried long ago. So, while I don’t know what is going to happen, it is worth thinking a bit about what is going on. On that I have something to say.

The Democrats and the White House are lost in a legislative “fog of war” right now. They are focused on twisting enough arms, offering jobs and negotiating specific “deals” (bribes) to get them to 216 votes. Their attention and energy is focused exclusively on a final vote in the House tonight. No one is looking even one minute beyond that horizon. They are like a general who pours all his reserves into taking a symbolic bridge, never realizing that his lines have already collapsed and his flanks have been turned. They may take the bridge and get to 216 votes. (I’ve learned to never bet against Congressional leadership and an Administration united for a single legislative victory. ) But, they have already lost the war. They have deluded themselves that if they can…just…get…this…bill…passed, the public’s anger and attention will subside, they can put health care ‘behind them’ and they can focus on other ‘popular’ measures that will shore up their election prospects in November.

What they don’t realize is that today’s vote isn’t the end, but just a new beginning in the debate over health care. Buckle up, because if they manage to cobble together enough votes to pass the Senate Health Bill today, we’re set for weeks and perhaps months of a constitutional and political crisis the likes of which we haven’t seen in our lifetimes.

(more…)

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Tags: Center for American Progress, George Soros, government health care, individual mandate, insurance companies
Posted Mar 21st 2010 at 9:17 am in Congress, Featured Story, Healthcare, Obama, Politics | 92886225 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/mikeflynn/2010/03/21/obamacare-to-pass-or-not-to-pass/ObamaCare%3A+To+Pass+Or+Not+to+Pass2010-03-21+16%3A17%3A47Mike+Flynn

Obamacare: A Social Justice Nightmare for the Whole World

According to AP reports, “Catholic nuns are urging Congress to pass President Barack Obama’s health care plan, in an unusual public break with bishops who say it would subsidize abortion.”  Reportedly, 60 leaders of religious orders sent lawmakers a letter pleading with them to pass the Senate healthcare bill.

The AP clearly has not noticed the virtual ongoing war within the Catholic Church, especially with regards to government responsibility as opposed to private/church responsibility.  In no sphere is this internal war more evident than when it comes to matters involving the Church’s Doctrine on Social Justice.

The Doctrines on Social Justice are, perhaps, the most misunderstood and lied-about facets of the Catholic faith.  Just about everyone in public life, including even the majority of Catholics themselves, completely ignore the fundamentals of Social Justice teaching.  They summarily conclude that Social Justice is a synonym for socialist redistributive policies, which seek to equalize material outcomes for all.  I call this the Kumbayah Fallacy.

These nuns have fallen hook, line and sinker for the Kumbayah Fallacy.  Right along with all the liberation theologians, who have shamefully wrapped Marxist doctrine around the cross of Christ for decades.

This mingling of socialism with Christianity makes a diabolical mockery of the Church’s genuine Social Doctrine, as delineated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  In fact, the Catholic Church explicitly rebukes all forms of “communism” and “socialism” right there in plain sight in the Catechism.  While the Church also condemns completely unfettered capitalism, with no regulations whatsoever, She saves most condemnation for the Marxist doctrines, which attempt to regulate the economy “solely by centralized planners,” as this “perverts the basis of social bonds” between human beings.

While President Obama has made wide use of his claim to fighting for Social Justice, especially with his zeal towards a government takeover of our healthcare system, he has utterly ignored the natural – fully predictable – unintended consequences of his attempt to reorder the best medical delivery system the world has ever created.

In fact, this reordering of the American medical delivery system to suit the whims of socialist reformers, President Obama is ensuring a genuine Social Justice nightmare for the whole world.

(more…)

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Tags: catholic church, catholic nuns, disease prevention, drug research, government health care
Posted Mar 21st 2010 at 7:23 am in Congress, Culture, Healthcare, Justice/Legal, News, Politics | 93094147 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/kashiver/2010/03/21/obamacare-a-social-justice-nightmare-for-the-whole-world/Obamacare%3A+A+Social+Justice+Nightmare+for+the+Whole+World+2010-03-21+14%3A23%3A55Kyle-Anne+Shiver

Tipping the Scales Against Washington

Several hours into last month’s marathon health care summit, President Obama became exasperated.  Republican lawmakers Rep. Paul Ryan and Sen. Jon Kyl had plainly laid out their party’s objections to his massive legislation by emphasizing a major philosophical point of departure between the two parties.   Democrats place a great deal of faith in the effectiveness and wisdom of the federal government in handling complex social and fiscal issues, they said, whereas Republicans view centralized planning and onerous regulation with a jaundiced and skeptical eye.  This virtuosic issue-framing wouldn’t do, Obama concluded:  “Any time the question is phrased as, ‘Does Washington know better?’ I think we’re, kind of, tipping the scales a little bit there—since we all know that everybody is angry at Washington right now,” he griped.

Indeed.  Ryan and Kyl were stating the obvious: The American people don’t trust big government.  Reinforcing those insecurities and applying them to the health care debate was precisely the point of raising the issue, and the president knew it.  In fairness, negative perceptions of government bureaucracy certainly pre-date the Obama administration and the current “reform” battle.  Cracks about the DMV’s inefficiencies and the Post Office’s red ink have long been political punch lines.  (Oddly, Obama once unfavorably cited the Post Office while advocating increased federal involvement in health care).  Those warmed-over bromides notwithstanding, much of today’s scorn for big government can be laid at the feet of policies proposed and instituted by President Obama and his party.  Americans’ skepticism toward government intervention has grown more acute after a series of recent high-profile federal flops.

“Making Home Affordable” was the federal program introduced in February 2009 that touched-off Rick Santelli’s infamous Tea Party-catalyzing rant.  It was a $75 Billion mortgage program devised to protect homeowners from foreclosure.  Nobody relished the thought of fellow citizens being forced from their homes, but critics of the plan argued it would reinforce foolish bank lending practices, reward individuals for living far beyond their means, and punish responsible taxpayers with current mortgage payments.  Epitomizing the program’s backwardness was the case of bus driver Minta Garcia.  According to CNN, Garcia had managed to “buy” an $800,000 home that her family couldn’t remotely afford.  Inevitably, she soon fell hopelessly behind on her payments.  Thanks to Obama’s tax-funded munificence and empathy, she and others like her could qualify for personalized government bailouts.

(more…)

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Tags: government health care, jon kyl, mortgage bailout, ObamaCare, Paul Ryan
Posted Mar 20th 2010 at 7:25 pm in Congress, Economics, Environment, Financial Services, Healthcare, News, Obama, Politics, federal spending | 9130285 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/gbenson/2010/03/20/tipping-the-scales-against-washington/Tipping+the+Scales+Against+Washington2010-03-21+02%3A25%3A59Guy+Benson

Dems Ditch ‘Deem and Pass’

From The Hill:

Top Democrats confirmed Saturday that the House would hold separate votes on the Senate healthcare bill and the reconciliation bill, making fixes to it.

Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), one of the chief deputy whips, Rep. Melvin Watt (D-N.C.), and Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), all of whom said that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) won’t use the tactic of deem and pass for healthcare reform.

The move effectively kills the “deem and pass” strategy Democrats had been eyeing to make changes to the Senate bill through a rule on the bill, which at the same time would have deemed the original Senate healthcare bill to have passed the House.

(more…)

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Tags: deem and pass, government health care, louis slaughter, ObamaCare, reconciliation
Posted Mar 20th 2010 at 2:19 pm in Congress, Healthcare, News, Obama, Politics | 92998129 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2010/03/20/dems-ditch-deem-and-pass/Dems+Ditch+%27Deem+and+Pass%272010-03-20+21%3A19%3A30Publius

VP Biden Says Obama Plans to ‘Control Insurance Companies’

The indispensable Jake Tapper of ABC News took an interview with Vice President Joe “Foot in Mouth” Biden that contains a nugget of information that tends to prove that Barack Obama intends to destroy America’s insurance industry and place it under the full control of the federal government.

Tapper asked VP Biden what he’d been hearing from the members of the Democrat Congress that are vulnerable over this healthcare debate and Biden’s reply let slip the administrations ultimate goal; full government control of the insurance industry. (My bold)

BIDEN: Well, I yes. Some of them I say they say, well, Joe, look, man, I mean, you know, you guys haven’t massaged this very well. And, you know, this thing has gone on so long, I don’t know. And my response is, hey, man, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. I’m telling you, you know, pre-existing, they’re going to be covered. You know we’re going to control the insurance companies.

Granted Joe Biden is the court jester of the Obama Administration. He is a fool of the highest order. It would be easy to dismisshis words. However, the idea that Obama wants to take full federal control of the insurance industry fits quite nicely with Obama’s claims as a candidate — that he was for a single payer plan all along.

(more…)

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Tags: ABC News, government health care, insurance industry, Jake Tapper, Joe Biden
Posted Mar 20th 2010 at 11:01 am in Congress, Economics, Healthcare, Obama | 92542149 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/wthuston/2010/03/20/vp-biden-says-obama-plans-to-control-insurance-companies/VP+Biden+Says+Obama+Plans+to+%27Control+Insurance+Companies%272010-03-20+18%3A01%3A55Warner+Todd++Huston

ObamaCare: The Slaughter House Three

In Kurt Vonnegut’s 1969 novel, Slaughterhouse Five, the main character, Billy Pilgrim, is an American POW who hides in a meat cellar as Dresden is being fire bombed.

In 2010, the Slaughterhouse Three, Obama, Pelosi and Reid, shove every American in a meat cellar as they fire bomb America with their rationing-based health care plan. ObamaCare is a plan designed to strip Freedom and Liberty from every American.

Obama, Pelosi and Reid now have decided to avoid an up/down House vote on the Senate Bill and to enforce the “Slaughter House Rule”. In other words, when you do not have the votes, just change the rules, pass the changes to the bill and pretend you passed the “real” bill. Previously, the public was outraged that members of Congress did not read the bill prior to voting. This is even worse. With this latest charade, Obama, Pelosi and Reid are forcing House members to pass the bill without voting on the bill. …So much for a democratic republic and The Constitution.

The latest version of ObamaCare is troubling on many fronts. ObamaCare takes control of every American’s health care life. This plan would not improve the current system, and is fatally flawed because it:

• Rations and denies access to healthcare. Denying access to healthcare is the most inhumane and unethical means of cutting costs;
• Costs $1 TRILLION ( $100 Billion more than The Senate Bill) ;
• Creates over 110 Federal Agencies, commissions and boards;
• Creates The Health Insurance Rate Authority….a direct violation of States’ Rights;
• Establishes a “ Comprehensive Database” on Americans;

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Tags: deem and pass, government health care, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, ObamaCare
Posted Mar 20th 2010 at 9:29 am in Congress, Healthcare, News, Obama, Politics, federal spending | 9293074 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/djanda/2010/03/20/obamacare-the-slaughter-house-three/ObamaCare%3A+The+Slaughter+House+Three++2010-03-20+16%3A29%3A38Dr.+David+Janda

Podcast: Obamacare’s Endgame

Those of you eager to listen to this week’s Coffee & Markets will have to wait til Sunday (we want to see how things turn out on Capitol Hill), so here’s a brief podcast from TNL Editor Benjamin Domenech with a few thoughts on the eve of health care reform’s final vote, including: “Obama’s dedication to passing this spectacularly flawed and unpopular health care bill appears to be based on the assumption that the American people like a winner even if the victory comes at their expense.”

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You can subscribe to the podcast by following the links above, and if you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

TNL: How Obamacare Will Reshape the Workforce
DC Examiner: Pro Reform Liberals Admit This Wasn’t a Battle Against Special Interests
Heritage: More Bad News in the House Health Care Bill
Keith Hennessey: Understanding the Health Care Bill
Jane Hamsher: 18 Myths About HCR Debunked
The Note: Rep. Frank Says HCR Could Still Fail
NRO: Obamacare’s IRS Connection
NEMJ: 46% of Family Doctors Forced Out of Medicine Under Obamacare
Fred Barnes: Health Care Wars Only Beginning
HCN: 10 Disasters in Obamacare, 10 Solutions for Real Reform

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Tags: Barack Obama, Coffee and Markets, entitlements, health care, ObamaCare
Posted Mar 20th 2010 at 8:29 am in Coffee and Markets, Healthcare | 926868 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/newledger/2010/03/20/podcast-obamacares-endgame/Podcast%3A+Obamacare%27s+Endgame2010-03-20+15%3A29%3A34The+New+Ledger

Madame Speaker, Let Every Member Stand and Be Counted

We were elected to make tough choices, not run from them.  On Thursday, House Democrats sparked widespread outrage by voting to authorize the use of the controversial “Slaughter Solution” to force amassive government takeover of health care through the House without voting on it.  They voted to protect themselves instead of their constituents, who are fed up with the lack of accountability and transparency in Washington.  But there is no hiding from this vote.

That’s one reason why I sent a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) requesting that she hold a special “call of the roll” for the final health care vote this weekend.  Under this procedure, each lawmaker will be required to stand up and declare how he or she is voting on this bill.  This weekend’s votes will be among the most consequential votes we will ever cast as Members of Congress. I believe the stakes are too high, and this bill too controversial, for anything less than complete transparency and accountability.  It’s time to stand up and be counted.  I discuss the letter and the vote this weekend in the weekly GOP address you can view here:

Democratic leaders keep telling their Members that once this bill passes, it will be more popular.  They’re dead wrong.  Seniors will be furious about the Medicare cuts.  Small businesses will be furious about thejob-killing new taxes and mandates.  Veterans will be furious that it doesn’t protect Tricare.  And EVERYONE will be furious about the army of new IRS agents.

That’s why the only responsible course of action is to scrap this health care bill.  Let’s start over with a clean sheet of paper.

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Tags: deem and pass, government health care, Nancy Pelosi, ObamaCare, reconciliation
Posted Mar 20th 2010 at 7:59 am in Congress, Featured Story, Healthcare, News, Obama, Politics, federal spending | 92914132 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/jboehner/2010/03/20/madame-speaker-let-every-member-stand-and-be-counted/Madame+Speaker%2C+Let+Every+Member+Stand+and+Be+Counted2010-03-20+14%3A59%3A12Rep.+John+Boehner