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You Call That Bipartisan?

November 8, 2009 By Joan of Snark

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I spent yesterday watching the wankers in Washington, specifically the House of unrepresenting Representatives, debate and then vote on HR 3962, the health care “reform” bill.  A nauseating experience, really; it left me feeling almost shameful, the way one feels after gawking at a trainwreck.  It was clear most hadn’t taken the time to read all of the legislation; few stances or rebuttals were based on facts versus the MSM campaign talking points so every chair’s gavel got a workout as the unrepresenting representatives squabbled like little schoolchildren.

In the end, despite the announcement of 10.2% unemployment and a $1.2 trillion price tag, the Speaker of the Nuthouse got what she wanted.  The bill passed 220 to 215.  It was aided by the defection of Republican Louisana Representative Cao.  True to form, he again fell for the lies of the likes of Rahm Emmanuel and Nancy-Ann Deparle and President Walking Eagle.  Closed-door “promises” of future financial and campaign support were the 30 pieces of silver by which they secured his vote, thereby allowing great crowing about “bipartisan support” for the takeover of the entire field of medicine in America.

But I think “bipartisan” is more clearly shown by the sensible 39 Democrats who refused to vote for this abomination.  Of course, President Walking Eagle’s campaign arm, MoveOn.org, is now loudly raising money and threatening those Democrats in their reelection bids.  My suspicion is,  however, they will fare better than their fair-weather counterparts who voted in favor of HR 3962 after passage of the “Stupak amendment”, which rightly locked down the language preventing the use of taxpayer monies to pay for abortions.  While passage of the amendment allowed some Democrats to vote yes for the containing bill, it is almost a given that the amendment will quietly disappear in committee since allowing it a vote on the floor was only a reluctant appeasement move on the part of Pelosi to get those yes votes.

Dick Morris provides a further peek into the machinations behind the curtain:

  • The American Medical Association (AMA) was facing a 21 percent cut in physicians’ reimbursements under the current law. Obama promised to kill the cut if they backed his bill. The cuts are the fruit of a law requiring annual 5-6 percent reductions in doctor reimbursements for treating Medicare patients. Bravely, each year Congress has rolled the cuts over, suspending them but not repealing them. So each year, the accumulated cuts threaten doctors. By now, they have risen to 21 percent. With this blackmail leverage, Obama compelled the AMA to support his bill…or else!  [ My note:  this endorsement may be repealed, after it was revealed that the AMA did not follow its own procedure for providing endorsements and thereby rightly raised the ire of both members and non-members. ]
  • The AARP got a financial windfall in return for its support of the healthcare bill. Over the past decade, the AARP has morphed from an advocacy group to an insurance company (through its subsidiary company). It is one of the main suppliers of Medi-gap insurance, a high-cost, privately purchased coverage that picks up where Medicare leaves off. But President Bush-43 passed the Medicare Advantage program, which offered a subsidized, lower-cost alternative to Medi-gap. Under Medicare Advantage, the elderly get all the extra coverage they need plus coordinated, well-managed care, usually by the same physician. So more than 10 million seniors went with Medicare Advantage, cutting into AARP Medi-gap revenues.

Presto! Obama solved their problem. He eliminates subsidies for Medicare Advantage. The elderly will have to pay more for coverage under Medigap, but the AARP — which supposedly represents them — will make more money. (If this galls you, join the American Seniors Association, the alternative group; contact sbarton@americanseniors.org This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .)

  • The drug industry backed ObamaCare and, in return, got a 10-year limit of $80 billion on cuts in prescription drug costs. (A drop in the bucket of their almost $3 trillion projected cost over the next decade.) They also got administration assurances that it will continue to bar lower-cost Canadian drugs from coming into the U.S. All it had to do was put its formidable advertising budget at the disposal of the administration.
  • Insurance companies got access to 40 million potential new customers. But when the Senate Finance Committee lowered the fine that would be imposed on those who don’t buy insurance from $3,500 to $1,500, the insurance companies jumped ship and now oppose the bill, albeit for the worst of motives.

The only industry that refused to knuckle under was the medical device makers. They stood for principle and wouldn’t go along with Obama’s blackmail. So the Senate Finance Committee retaliated by imposing a tax on medical devices such as automated wheelchairs, pacemakers, arterial stents, prosthetic limbs, artificial knees and hips and other necessary accoutrements of healthcare.

There is still a long road ahead of this insane, tyrannical Democratic endeavor and while many feel the Senate is a more sensible group and some have assured me it doesn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell of passing there, where money and control are concerned, I’ve no more personal faith in the Senate than I do in those inhabiting the Nuthouse.  To be honest, Harry Reid is just as scary as Nancy Pelosi; they are two peas in a mean and withered old pod, and it will take every bit of Conservative strength to put them soundly in their place.

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Filed Under: Eroding Freedoms Tagged With: health care reform, House of Representatives, HR 3962, Obama administration, socialized medicine

Are You Willing To Trade Your Mother For An Illegal Immigrant?

July 7, 2009 By Joan of Snark

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The House is now on a mad dash to health care reform.  And when the House rushes anything, as has been the behavior of all of Congress during this administration, you can bet your mama’s last remaining years that they’ll go bye-bye as surely as your hard-earned tax dollars are disappearing under the cloaks of stimuli and bailouts.  And when what Congress is rushing is health care, your mama’s last remaining years will probably disappear even faster.

The Hill reports that House Democrats are hastily patching together what they are going to euphemistically call a bill that can be voted on in committees next week.  And they intend to set a new world land record by voting on the whole, bloody mess by July 31st.  They’re propping up the major players (Energy and Commerce Chair Henry Waxman, House Education and Labor Chairman George Miller, and Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel) to put on dog & pony shows starting today, complete with smoke & mirror meetings with rank-and-file members broken out by region, ostensibly to solicit their input and concerns.

Of course there will be no real determinations on how to pay for it all, including their pet “public option” and coverage for illegal immigrants.

A large portion is expected to come from reductions in Medicare and Medicaid.  But that won’t pay for the full overhaul.  As for raising money, ideas have included a national sales tax, taxing soda and a “surtax” on people making more than $250,000.

I fully anticipate thousands of pages that will go unread, with a “conservative CBO” estimate well in the trillions of non-existent dollars to implement.  But the larger costs will come from the trashing of yet another private sector, an area that is a personal, individual responsibility and one in which the government has no place. 

 

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Filed Under: * Featured Posts *, Eroding Freedoms Tagged With: health care reform, House of Representatives, illegal immigrants

Insanity Wins Again

June 27, 2009 By Joan of Snark

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It was close and there were even real doubts it would actually happen, but at the end of what felt like an eternal 15 minutes for the final vote, the House passed HR 2454 yesterday; its infamous energy cap & tax …errrr… trade legislation.  Despite being called out for the use of not only erroneous but governmentally-driven deliberately-skewed science, and despite there being not even one valid reason to throw the U.S. economy into a depression by taxing Americans for…everything, Nancy Pelosi achieved her goal of being able to pack her bag for Copenhagen, where she desperately wanted to be able to boast that the House is willing to step up to the delusion of global warming.

This was another case where very few (if any) had read the entire 1,200-odd page bill (including Henry Waxman, its primary sponsor), and a 300 page amendment was tossed onto the stinking, steaming pile at 2:30 a.m. Friday morning.  I suspect only John Boehner (R-OH) had given the amendment more than a glance; he actually led the House through a review of it before the final vote and it was heartwarming to hear him point out its insanity, point by point.

But insanity seems to be the norm these days and even spelling out the appalling consequences in plain English couldn’t trump it.

The vote was close:  219 – 212 with 3 not voting.  In the end, passage of this tyrannical legislation swung on 8 Republicans who voted to tax their constituents and the country into oblivion.  Here is the list of traitors; whether or not they are your own unrepresenting representative they need to understand America’s anger with the damage they’ve done so now is the time to (again) flex those 1st Amendment muscles and pick up the phone.  Let them know they have disgraced themselves by selling out all Americans to lies and special interests and they will receive no further support unless they make this right.   They have until July 2nd to change their vote so CALL THEM:

  1. Mary Bono Mack (CA) – (760) 320-1076 or (951) 658-2312
  2. Mike Castle (DE) – (302) 428-1902 or (302) 736-1666 or (302) 856-3334
  3. Steven Kirk (IL) – (847) 940-0202
  4. Leonard Lance (NJ) – (908) 518-7733 or (908) 788-6900
  5. Frank LoBiondo (NJ) – (609) 625-5008
  6. Chris Smith (NJ) – (609) 585-7878 or (732) 350-2300
  7. John McHugh (NY) – (315) 782-3150 or (518) 563-1406 or (518) 661-6486 or (315) 697-2063
  8. Dave Reichert (WA) – (206) 275-3438

While it was fascinating to watch the day’s events play out, I find this whole matter extremely maddening. Despite rumors this will never make it through the Senate, it’s more important than ever that those particular pantywaisted waffles understand – in no uncertain terms – that their job is to squash this like the poisonous bug it is.

UPDATE:  It was revealed today that this bill voted on by the House doesn’t even exist.  That’s right.  IT DOESN’T EVEN EXIST.  Apparently Friday’s late-night 300-page amendment has not yet been integrated into the final version of the bill.  The two big piles of paper are sitting side-by-side on a clerk’s desk waiting to be pieced together.

So not only did no one actually read the whole bill before voting on it, they couldn’t have read it even if they’d wanted to read it.

This, my friends, is YOUR hard-earned tax dollars at work.

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Filed Under: Hypocritical Politicians Tagged With: cap and trade, Energy Bill, House of Representatives, HR 2454, Waxman-Markley energy bill

House Considering Encouraging Members To Continue To Pollute

May 22, 2009 By Joan of Snark

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Who really cares if the United States is broke?  It’s just another “do as I say, not as I do” day in Washington.  Despite the fact that not even the bill’s sponsor, the dishonorable Henry Waxman, actually read all 900+ pages of his cap & trade tax legislation before voting it out of committee (the very same legislation that is intended to “curb” pollution, particularly that of automobiles), the House apparently thinks it might be a good idea to spend at least $68 million to renovate two parking garages used ONLY by members of Congress and their staff.

Do the math.  There are 435 members in the House of Representatives so it works out to spending $156,322 per Representative for private parking.  Just like the most tender of pork, it’s being baked into the proposed $753 million renovation of the Cannon House Office Building since the garages are just south of it.

Of course, estimates for renovations could be off by as much as “40 percent,” Terrell Dorn, the director of physical infrastructure issues for the Government Accountability Office (GAO) testified to the House Committee on House Administration.  So do a little more math and that means spending a whopping $218,850.57 per Representative.  For private parking.

The great irony?  This is all right next to a Washington Metro subway station.  Which is a most convenient way for all of these hasty “green” Representatives to save on fossil fuel and cut down on carbon emissions.  But just like President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Al Gore, and all the other breast-beating “environmentalists”, any sacrifice required to be “green” is only a sacrifice to be made by everyone else.

Do I really need to even mention it’s also yet more waste of our tax dollars?

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Filed Under: Hypocritical Politicians Tagged With: House of Representatives, House parking garage, private parking

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