From the Palatine Tea Party…
March 29, 2010 – Beans healthcare vote of “yes” is just another vote among other votes over the last year which the voters in her district continue to reject. Her voting record is that of a far left progressive. This is not a progressive district and she continues to follow the failed policies of the Obama administration and Nancy Pelosi.
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Bean The Progressive”
-By Warner Todd Huston
With all the tales in the Old Media of the supposed violence committed by Tea Partiers going on since Obama’s takeover of our nation’s healthcare system, I thought it might be instructive to recall how hate-filled the unhinged left is in America today. A year ago, the good folks at Zomblog assembled a great series of photos showing the mental derangement exhibited by the human detritus at those once ubiquitous anti-war rallies that the distempered left hosted so often between the years 2003 and 2009… you know, those anti-war rallies that totally disappeared after Obama took office even as the wars rage on? Yeah, THOSE anti-war rallies.
In any case, if the left and the Old Media want to pretend that Tea Partiers are nothing but filled with hate, perhaps they should get a look at some of these photos? Of course, the fact is, none of this “violence” has been tracked to anyone in the Tea Party movement… but let’s not let facts get in the way of the Old Media’s good stories, eh?
As self-interested Congressmen try to fool the public into thinking that Tea Partiers yelled the “N” word at them, even as not one shred of proof exists that it ever happened, let’s be reminded of what real hatred looks like…
Let’s start out with a sign printed that depicts President Bush being hanged.
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A Little Reminder of the Left’s Unhinged Hatred”
-By Eric O’Keefe
Health care supporters in Congress clearly defied the will of voters. Will we hold them accountable?
We may never fully know the damage that will be done by the massive health care bill Congress passed on Sunday, but one thing is certain: It will lead to lower-quality care at higher costs.
Dozens of new health boards will come on line in the next few years, as bureaucrats gradually take control of our health care system. Who knows how many bright college students will decide to avoid medical careers because they don’t want to follow orders from these bureaucrats?
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Bigger danger of healthcare bill: the arrogance of Congress”
-By Warner Todd Huston
The despair in the field of medicine over Obama’s government takeover of America’s once vibrant healthcare system can be overwhelming for America’s doctors. Many have said that if Obamacare is implemented, they’ll hang up their stethoscope and retire. The gloom is overpowering.
But WAIT! Help is on the way. A new effort is underway to help these poor doctors get themselves out from under the U.S. Government’s thumb, a new website has been started to keep Obama’s socialist overreach at bay. If you are an American doctor, help has arrived to help you uphold your hippocratic oath and still serve your American free-market, capitalist principles.
At PracticeAbroad.com, you can help an American doctor to get to freedom by sending him to a country that values his skills more than Obamabots do.
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‘New Hope’ For American Docs: Help Them Move Overseas, Won’t You?”
From Congressman Peter Roskam’s Office (6th District)…
Roskam: “When two pillars of the Illinois business community, Caterpillar and John Deere, are forced to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in new costs for next year alone thanks to the health bill, it sends an ominous message about Illinois’ economic future.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Peter Roskam released the following statement today following the John Deere company’s announcement that the new healthcare legislation signed by President Obama this week will increase their taxes by $150 million in the first year, after Caterpillar announced it would cost them $100 million in their first year:
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Roskam: Healthcare Bill’s Enormous Costs to Illinois Manufacturers John Deere and Caterpillar”
From the Bob Dold for Congress campaign (10th District)…
The healthcare bill recently passed by Congress and signed into law by the President is an historic missed opportunity that will adversely affect the 10th Congressional District and chill the creation of new jobs. While nobody disputes that healthcare reform is needed, this legislation is the by-product of a corrupt and partisan process that ignored the voices of job creators throughout our country. By more than a 2-to-1 margin, Americans have voiced their opposition to this bill. Unfortunately, their voices fell on the deaf ears of Congress. When presented with an opportunity to work together and craft reforms with consensus, the U.S. Congress chose politics over policy.
I have always supported healthcare reform. Specifically, I have advocated the merits of addressing medical malpractice costs, and have promoted consumer-driven care as a means to reduce costs and expand coverage. However, this new healthcare reform addresses neither of these issues. This legislation threatens to bankrupt our great nation through tax increases, and places new and expensive burdens on small businesses. In short, this legislation does not address the root cause of the problem – healthcare is too expensive. Instead, it simply shifts the burden on to businesses, taxpayers and seniors.
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Dold: Healthcare, an Historic Missed Opportunity”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Amusingly enough the Washington Post has a blog called PostPartisan. I say amusing because it is obvious that there is nothing “post” partisan about it if a rant against tea partiers by Jonathan Capehart is any indication. He thinks that Obama was speaking to the tea partiers in his latest healthcare address and so posted his titled, “A message from President Obama to Tea Party America.”
In an effort to come rushing to the aid of the president and in an effort to castigate all those racist tea partiers he so dislikes, Capehart excerpted a segment of Barack Obama’s recent healthcare speech (what is this one, like number 200 or so?) and pointedly asked tea party activists what was wrong with it — or rather what is wrong with them for not being in thrall to this president?
Capehart is mad at those tea partiers that think Obama is a “Manchurian candidate sent here to destroy the United States” and found the following segment of Obama’s millionth healthcare address particularly inspiring, claiming that it spoke to the “true character of this nation.”
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Liberals Value Good Intentions Above Both Truth and Outcomes”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Rep. Bart Stupak caught at Work in Washington D.C.
Why did this “pro-life Democrat” throw away his supposedly principled stand against Obamacare’s forced federal funding of abortion last weekend? Maybe his Friday announcement of $726,409 for “airport maintenance and improvements” has something to do with it?
This money is going to several airports in his home district back in Michigan.
Maybe it’s just a coincidence? Do ya think?
Let’s face it. There is no such thing as a “pro-life” Democrat, nor a religious one, for that matter.
You know what they say? Stupid is as Stupak does.
“Melissa Bean voted to take us further down this spending path which will bankrupt future generations. It doesn’t matter what political persuasion you are, that’s not right!”
-By Matthew J. O’Connor
With the house of representatives’ imminent passage of Obamacare this evening, the mainstream Sunday political talk shows this morning were already starting in with their “post-passage” spin and genuflection styled reverence of the “new” president who ”transcended politics” accomplishing the near impossible, ”healthcare reform.”
What the mainstream media’s new “post-passage” screed conveniently omits, from its freshly painted narrative, is the fact Obamacare legislation has made an absolute mockery of the legislative process; a process that was abused in ways that cannot be defended on account doing as much would be arguing against the very principles of political liberty, equity and fairness as set-forth within the ultimate social contract underpinning our entire system, the Constitution.
A bold statement? You bet it is and it’s in the arena of bold due to the egregious nature of how the Obama administration and its party led congress has conducted itself over the past 14 months in their, “at all costs” pursuit of their prized ideological trophy, Obamacare.
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Obamacare’s Awaiting Legal Phoenix”
Watch it and weep…
The United States of America was murdered today by a vote of 219 to 212.
I should note how ill-mannered the Democrats are by their hoots, catcalls, and generally immature behavior the evidence of which can be heard on this video.
From the Walsh for Congress campaign (8th District)…
(Lake Zurich, Ill)– Yesterday, Melissa Bean voted down a bi-partisan effort that would have forced members of the House to cast their vote for or against Obamacare in the light of day. In so doing, Melissa Bean, who voted for an even more expansive government takeover of health care last year, has endorsed the so-called “deem-and-pass” sleight-of-hand House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appears intent on employing to get Obamacare passed on Sunday. Twenty-eight Congressional Democrats joined every Congressional Republican in voting against allowing the use of this procedural gimmick.
Former U.S. Attorney Generals Ed Meese and William Barr had this to say about the “deem-and-pass”,
The “deem and pass” and similar options under consideration in the House of Representatives plainly violate at least the spirit of the Constitution’s bicameralism and presentment requirements. Those constitutional requirements were intended to ensure democratic transparency with a straightforward up-or-down vote in each House on all bills that become law. More importantly, these requirements were designed to ensure that the new national government actually followed “the consent of the governed,” which the Declaration of Independence had declared before the world to be the only basis of legitimate government.
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Bean Puts Party Politics Ahead of Constitution, Constituents: Votes to Sanction Shady ‘Deem-and-Pass’”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Of course, nothing could be better than the Tweet I saw from Sky_Bluez: “Stupid is as Stupak does.” That about sums up the whole day so far.
But here are a few others from various folks on my Twitter feed that are worth noting…
This was all in the space of an hour or so. Tweets like this have been going on all day long!
-By Warner Todd Huston
Robert Creamer of the HuffyPost penned a very revealing piece that proves that Democrats simply don’t care at all about anyone’s “health,” but that this whole fiasco is solely about political “wins” and power. If someone happens to get a little healthcare out of the thing, that is purely incidental to the actual purpose of Obamacare.
Creamer’s piece describes the top 10 reasons why voting yes on Obamacare is “good politics for Democrats.” Tellingly, not one of the reasons is because healthcare “reform” is good for the people. In fact, most of his “reasons” that Dems should vote for Obama’s socialist take over of our healthcare system is because it’s good for Obama’s political fortunes.
One would think that Democrats should vote for this “reform” because it’s good for the people, but that idea doesn’t seem to factor into Creamer’s reasons at all. And from the political calculations we’ve seen during this last year of healthcare debate, he isn’t much different than those whose vote will create this socialized healthcare program.
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Democrats Don’t Care About ‘Health,’ It’s All About Politics”
-By Matthew J. O’Connor
Saying healthcare developments on the hill are anything less than fluid is a statement the deem and pass madame, Louise Slaughter (D., NY) herself would hardly make. However, this would be relying on pragmatic thought, on my part, and these days with the congressional democrats running the hill, pragmatism has been anathema to all things dems, including the political grand daddy of all, the Constitution.
So, on second thought, I’ll leave Rep. Slaughter out of the issue of fluidity, for now. But I will bring her back in on the subject of political strategy, in fact, lets also bring in Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as the two seem to share the same skills sets and a similarly high aptitude in the art and science of political deception.
There are many nuances in politics but when the strategy itself is purposefully moved from the nuance to that which has a big red bull’s eye on its back, it is easy to take the bait and start running in the direction chasing the bulls eye. I have fallen prey to such tactics and before long find myself chasing the allurement of the bulls eye, chasing after it with incredulity that the left could dare be so bold . . . but then it dawned on me.
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Dems’ Chicago Playbook Fail: Federal Court”
-By Frank Salvato
“An elective despotism was not the government we fought for; but one in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among the several bodies of magistracy as that no one could transcend their legal limits without being effectually checked and restrained by the others.” – James Madison
As the American people stare down the barrel of a Progressive ideological coup in the form of the institution of so-called “healthcare reform,” it is tremendously important that we take heed of how Progressive Democrats are going about achieving their long sought-after goal. To be succinct, it has been an ugly and often times unconstitutional process. But the bribing of Senators with taxpayer monies, the bartering of favors by the White House and the threats of withheld support for Democrat candidates by President Obama himself, pale in comparison to the tactic soon to be employed by House Speaker and über Progressive Nancy Pelosi.
The Self-Executing Rule, better known as “Deem & Pass,” is an unconstitutional procedural tactic that exists in the US House of Representative’s rules. It is stunning that it exists and it is equally as stunning that it was ever allowed to be adopted as a legitimate procedure.
‘I Will Support and Defend the Constitution of the United States’”
-By Warner Todd Huston
GOP Minority Leader John Boehner (R, OH) is calling for a stand-up, out-loud vote on the House floor for Obamacare.
Boehner wants each House member to be called on a roll call vote and to “stand up before God, their country, and their constituents and announce their vote.”
In fact, we should support this roll call vote no matter which side of the Obamacare issue you stand upon. All Americans should know where their representatives stand.
-By Matthew J. O’Connor
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) yesterday released its latest report scoring the cost assessment of the healthcare reconciliation [Slaughter i.e. Pass & Deem i.e. Fix] bill that Congressional Democrats have been secretly working on – in their attempts to render an optical illusion that Obamacare, over a 10 year period, would cost less than $1 Trillion, the Congressional Democrat’s version of a $99.99 price-point.
The CBO scored the House’s “fix” bill at around $940 Billion – and from the moment it was released yesterday afternoon, Speaker Pelosi’s office started in with the Maytag super spin cycle and the mainstream media, true to form, fanned the wires with the CBO’s ”good” news through their efficient process of non-fact checking and non -analysis. Feigned reporting from the mainstream media establishment that mainstream America has increasingly come to reject.
The lack of an objective mainstream media over the past several decades has significantly impacted our society by allowing political correctness to manifest and become the reporter’s proxy. Never more than now has the American public needed the application of objective investigative reporting from its traditional news media. As America currently has a collective “pit” in its stomach as it witnesses the Obama administration and congressional democrats running fast and loose with the rules in their attempt to fundamentally transform the American healthcare system.
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Obamacare’s Eminence Front”
-By Nancy Salvato
“By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Hence once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
Tension, leading to the deadly confrontation between British troops and an angry mob, better known as the Boston Massacre, had mounted for many months before violence erupted. The city was occupied by British troops tasked with enforcing tax laws. Townspeople worried troops would soon be quartered in their homes. Sailors feared being impressed into service by the Royal Navy; dockyard workers were frustrated by the loss of work to off duty soldiers. A lack of general security, combined with the new laws, fueled the flames of revolution.
Not everyone favored cutting the ties to Britain; however, King George III refused to entertain the concerns of the colonists and left them the choice of submitting unconditionally or declaring their independence.
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The Shot Heard Round the World”
We are coming to crunch time, folks.
If you don’t want to see the end of the United States as a free country, if you abhor the idea of the emergence of the new European States of America, then call your Illinois representatives and tell them to vote “no” on this Obamanation of a bill.
-By Warner Todd Huston
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 dismiss this silly little man’s 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.
Barack Obama fully intends to destroy the health insurance industry and replace it with a socialist nationalized healthcare program.
Call your representatives in Congress and tell them to vote “no” on this un-American legislation.
Congress Switchboard: (202)224-3121
VP Biden Says Obama Plans to ‘Control Insurance Companies’”
Keep calling D.C., folks. This socialist healthcare bill will be the end of the United States as we know it and will be the beginning of the Euro States of America. We will no longer be a representative republic but a socialist-democratic tyranny.
This bill will destroy America as it is and materially alter the relationship between citizen and government.
Congress Switchboard: (202)224-3121
White House Switchboard: 202-456-1414
-By Matthew J. O’Connor
We all know ‘the 800 pound gorilla in the room’ expression means, something that is being avoided despite its obvious presence. The healthcare legislation being pushed by the President and Congressional Democrats is about a corrupt and unconstitutional legislative process that has been characterized as much by a majority of Americans who now see President Obama and the Congressional Democrats as breaking the rules to secure passage of their brand of healthcare legislation.
The corruption and ugliness of the process has increasingly caught the attention of common everyday citizens who realize Washington is now playing a different game altogether. One which will affect: their relationship with their government, their liberty and the amount of taxes they pay. A game everyday Americans don’t want to pay detailed attention to but now have to because the stakes are just too high.
A certain unease has cast a pall over the current system in Washington for America common is losing faith in those entrusted to protect the American dream and enterprise.
This is where the story of the current Obamacare showdown is headed. It’s headed to the collective voice of main street. A 21st. century main street that is quite sophisticated, dialed-in and ready to be heard.
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800 Pound Gorilla (Squawking 7500) and the Deeming of America”
-By John Armor
We are apparently at crunch point on the efforts of President Obama, Speaker Pelosi in the House, and Majority Leader Reid in the Senate to pass by whatever means necessary the “health reform” bill. In the national debate, however, no one has asked whether the Supreme Court has any role in this matter. It does, and it may be definitive.
There is a question of what the bill is, since there are many versions, and several are under wraps. The opponents of the bill, whatever it is, includes Democrats and Republicans who believe that the bill is ill-thought takeover of one sixth of the national economy that will increase the cost of medical care, decrease its quality, and severely damage the national economy.
But this column is not about the merits or demerits of whatever is in the bill. It is about the methods being used to push it through Congress and the consequences of ways of getting around normal, legislative passage (Article I, Section 7, US Constitution).
At this point, it looks like the House will use the Slaughter Rule to “pass” it through the House without ever having a vote on it. The about-to-be-invented Rule is named for the Congresswomen who is the Chair of the Rules Committee and came up with this idea.
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When Congress Cheats on Its Rules”
OpenCongress has online the healthcare bill that will soon be facing a vote in the House of Representatives.
Health Care Bill Summary – by OpenCongress: this is the full text of H.R. 4872, the Reconciliation Act of 2010. This bill would amend the Senate version of the health care reform bill to bring its provisions more in line with the House version.
This is a budget reconciliation bill, resulting from instructions that were included in Congress’ 2010 budget plan. Under the rules, debate of this bill would be limited to 20 hours in the Senate, meaning no filibuster, and amendments would be severely limited. The House is expected to vote on this bill on Sunday 3/21/10. The roll call is predicted to be very tight, likely coming down to a single vote.
Apologies that the formatting of the bill text on this page is a bit messy — because Congress does not publish official info in ways that are compliant with the Eight Principles of Open Government Data, the OpenCongress team was obligated to manually assemble the HTML web code from the original .pdf document. We’re working now to make this bill text work like other bills on the site, so you’ll be able to permalink and comment on individual sections of bill text. For a summary of the Reconciliation Bill and ongoing news & blog coverage, see our Blog, follow us on Twitter, and let us know what you think by writing us with your questions and comments writeus@opencongress.org.
http://www.opencongress.org/house_reconciliation
From the NRCC.
-By Warner Todd Huston
The folks at the Palatine Tea Party has some good video and photos of the protest outside Representative Melissa Bean’s offices (D, 8th District).
The protest was held at noon on Monday, March 15.
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Palatine Tea Party: Healthcare Protest At Rep. Bean’s Offices”
