Health Care Debate is Now Officially Underway (vote 60-39)

Senate Votes 60-39 to move Reid health care bill to floor for debate.

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Republicans will now provide what the closed-door sessions did not. We will continue to offer the commonsense, step-by-step cost-saving reform that Americans really want.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following statement Saturday after Senate Democrats voted to move forward with a partisan health care bill which increases premiums, raises taxes and slashes Medicare:

“The health care debate is now officially underway on this 2,074 page, multi-trillion-dollar health care experiment.

“This bill may have been drafted behind closed doors but now it’s the American people’s turn to have their voices heard.  For months, they have been asking Congress to do something about the high cost of healthcare and yet the sponsors of this bill responded with a half-trillion dollars in Medicare cuts, massive tax hikes, and an unsustainable expansion of new government programs which Congress’s non-partisan scorekeeper says will result in higher premiums, not lower.  It may be a lot of things, but it’s sure not reform.

“Republicans will now provide what the closed-door sessions did not. We will continue to offer the commonsense, step-by-step cost-saving reform that Americans really want.”

Lincoln and Pryor Turn Deaf Ear to Arkansas Constituents

Little Rock, AR – In response to Senator Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor’s decision to vote for the motion to proceed with Senator Harry Reid’s health care bill, Americans for Prosperity Arkansas State Director Teresa Oelke stated, “Today Senator Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor chose to move Arkansans one step closer to government run health care, which has been soundly rejected by 64% of the citizens they represent.”

Over the past three days, drawing record crowds, Americans for Prosperity “Hands Off My Health Care” bus tour has visited with thousands of Arkansans who are angry and disappointed their representatives in Washington have turned a deaf ear to their concerns about a government takeover of health care.

“This bill raises taxes by nearly a half trillion dollars, cuts Medicare by nearly a half trillion dollars, and spends $2.5 trillion when fully implemented. It is the wrong prescription for health care reform and the wrong prescription for our economy. Every vote Senator Lincoln and Pryor lend to its passage, is a vote in support of government run health care,” said Oelke.

The Unsustainable Public Option in the "HarryCare" Bill

by ALG News: The Harry Reid-Senate version of ObamaCare will start operating at massive budget-busting deficits starting in 2015, according to an Americans for Limited Government analysis of Congressional Budget Office data. By 2019, the “public option” will have spent some $361 billion more than it took in via new taxes.

So, how then does the bill earn the moniker, “deficit-neutral”? The same way the Pelosi-House version does: by rationing health care away from the nation’s elderly—cutting Medicare by some $436 billion. But that will not pay for this new entitlement—the so-called “public option”—in the long run. Cutting Medicare has its political limits—which is a nice way of saying that cutting it too drastically is a good way for Congressmen to get thrown out on their tails.

Seniors might support entitlement reform where the federal government attempted to figure out a way to fix the broken Medicare entitlement. Under the worst-case scenario, the Medicare Board of Trustees reports that after 2012, the program will lose about $433 billion through 2019. After that, it could be broke as early as 2028.

Economists here is much that could be done to help the situation, including breaking Medicare up into smaller, privatized companies and allowing insurance competition across state lines. But that is not the case being made to the American people in the “HarryCare” bill.  Instead, Congress is attempting to expand health care spending to an additional 36 to 45 million people in an open-ended, taxpayer-financed, government-run takeover. The House version of the legislation goes even further than the Senate, proposing over $890 billion in new spending.

The fact is increasingly clear that Congressional Democrats can only hide the costs in the “public option,” which is what they have done in both versions. But between the numbers, the cover-up comes apart. It took Medicare more than 40 years to run into deficits based on revenue shortfalls. The “public option” will lose hundreds of billions within 5 to 7 years.

As the Independent Institute notes, Florida has tried a similar approach to hurricane property insurance, creating a “public option” to “compete” with private insurers. The proposal also capped how much private insurance companies could charge. This had two predictable results: private insurers fled the state, and the so-called Citizens Property Insurance Corporation “still doesn’t have sufficient reserves to weather a major hurricane. When one comes, Florida taxpayers will be on the hook for the bill.”

In other words, like “public option” health insurance, Florida’s state-run hurricane “solution” proved to be unsustainable and drove Floridians off of private insurance. In the end, it simply created an unfunded liability.
On Saturday at 8PM, the Senate legislation will face an important test vote—on whether or not to proceed to the bill. Reid now admits he is not certain he has the 60 votes necessary to continue pushing the unpopular measure. And if the majority of Americans have their way, by 9PM, the “HarryCare” will have been toe-tagged for the dead room.

Reid's Senate health care bill: No Improvement

Heritage Foundation: Congress has outdone itself. On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid unveiled a health care bill weighing in at 2,074 pages, a new record. A vote on the bill is expected Saturday.

Heritage Foundation experts are still working through the specifics of the massive, $849 billion health care bill, as it is estimated to take up to 34 hours to read the entire thing. But they already know that "the major outlines of the bill are no different than the policy train wreck the House passed earlier this month," reports Heritage's Conn Carroll.

Both the House and Senate health care "reform" bills include:

1. A government "option." Both the House and Senate proposals would create a one-size-fits-all public plan to "compete" with private insurers. But the government will retain its role as regulator and thus stifle any competition and causing millions to lose their private coverage.
2. More people in failed programs. Both bills would place millions of Americans under the failing government-run Medicaid program, reducing subsidized benefits from those who truly need them and increasing the financial burden on the states.
3. Employer mandates. All employers of 50 people or more will be required to provide coverage that meets new federal standards or else face a hefty penalty. This mandate will disproportionately impact low-income workers.
4. Individual mandates. For the first time in history, all Americans will be forced to purchase federally approved coverage minimums. Those who fail to comply are subject to new tax penalties and, in some cases, jail time.

The bill's supporters may be congratulating each other for producing a health care bill that meets the President's $900 billion cap. But its $849 price tag is a preliminary estimate only, and it really only has one place to go -- up. "As history has proven, government health care programs end up costing much more than first promised," writes Carroll.

Both the House and Senate health care reform bills require individuals to purchase federally-approved health insurance, and those who fail to do so could face criminal prosecution. "Using [criminal law] to enforce one particular notion of appropriate insurance coverage is nothing less than a tyrannical assertion of raw government power over the private lives and economic rights of individual Americans," write Heritage legal scholars Brian Walsh and Hans von Spakovsky. This abuse of governmental power does not bode well for freedom, as it specifically targets those who choose to make their own decisions regarding their health insurance.

Visit Heritage's FixHealthCarePolicy.com to read the entire Senate health care bill and to find more in-depth analysis as our analysts continue to dissect this massive legislation.

Today in Washington D. C. - Nov 20, 2009 - Vote To Proceed is a Vote For Reid's Health Care Bill

The Senate resumed consideration of the motion to proceed to H.R. 3590, the vehicle for Democrats’ health care reform bill. The Senate will debate the health care bill all day, with time evenly divided between the majority and minority from 10 AM to 11 PM. Tomorrow, the Senate will be in session at 10 AM, and a cloture vote on the motion to proceed to the health care bill has been scheduled for 8 PM.

Yesterday, the Senate voted 98-0 to pass S. 1963, a $3.7 billion veterans health care bill. Prior to passage, the Senate rejected an amendment from Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) to offset the cost by cutting contributions to some international organizations.

Also yesterday the Senate voted 59-39 to confirm Judge David Hamilton to the 7^th Circuit Court of Appeals.

As the Senate gears up for two days of debate on Democrats’ 2,074-page health care bill that features half a trillion dollars in tax increases and another half trillion in Medicare cuts, Democrats are making the case to their senators that tomorrow’s vote is simply procedural, but that’s not at all the case.

Tomorrow at 8 PM, the Senate is set to vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to the bill. Democrat leaders are telling skeptical centrist Democrats that the vote simply allows debate to move ahead and nothing more. In fact, Roll Call reports today, “A new study of Senate voting patterns shows the chamber has approved more than 97% of all bills subject to a cloture motion to begin debate — a finding that could undercut Democratic efforts to paint a key health care vote on Saturday as procedural. According to a new Congressional Research Service report, since 1999 the Senate has approved 97.6 percent of all bills when lawmakers first voted to begin debate.”

Roll Call further explains, “While technically a procedural vote, the minority party has used the 60-vote threshold over the years as a way to block legislation they dislike. More significantly, these sorts of votes have figured heavily in election fights, most famously when Republicans accused Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) of flip flopping during his 2004 presidential campaign after he tried to explain how through a procedural motion he had voted for a supplemental appropriations bill before he voted against it.”

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) laid out the stakes in a must-read earlier in the week. Sen. DeMint wrote, “Senators who say they just want to allow for debate are trying to deceive their voters while giving President Obama the crucial votes he needs to pass a government takeover of health care. Voters should be watching and remember who stands up for their freedom and who stands with the special interests who want to ram through this takeover.”

And voters are already not pleased with the Democrats’ trillion dollar government takeover plans for health care. A new poll from respected firm Quinnipiac yesterday found that a majority disapprove of the health care bill the House passed, 51%-35%. A majority also disapproves of President Obama’s handling of health care, 53%-41%. Even more telling, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute Peter Brown says, “Independent voters disapprove 59 - 35 percent of the President's handling of health care and disapprove 57 - 29 percent of the plan itself.”  Obviously, this has to be weighing on the minds of centrist Democrat senators.

Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell said on the floor this morning, “Americans want reform. But higher premiums, higher taxes, and cuts to Medicare to create more government isn’t reform. Yet that’s precisely what they’d get with this Democrat bill.”

If Democrat senators oppose all of that, they need to vote no on cloture on the motion to proceed. As Sen. DeMint wrote, “The simple fact is this: Any senator that votes to proceed to the Reid-Obama bill is voting for a government takeover of health care.”

Senate Ethics Committee Admonishes Burris - It's Meaningless - Burris Should Resign

The Washington Post: "Sen. Roland W. Burris (D-IL) has been admonished by the Senate ethics committee for his public comments about his appointment last December to the body. In a three-page "public letter of qualified admonition" issued Friday, the committee formally reprimanded Burris for statements -- some made under oath to an Illinois legislative committee -- in which he denied trying to raise any campaign contributions for indicted former governor Rod Blagojevich for his political committees. . . . A letter of admonition is the mildest form of rebuke that the ethics committee can administer. "

Ozark Guru: Imagine calling in a gangster and saying we admonish you - go and sin no more. He would laugh himself to death. The Senate Ethics Committee admonishment is all fluff and meaningless and the end result is that Roland Burris remains a U.S. Senator. He benefits from lying under oath, collects his salary, remains part of the black caucus, votes with the Democrats to place American further into debt, gets to admonish fellow Senators and others who have more integrity from the floor of the Senate, and remains a breathing living example of what corruption and deceit can get you. At least, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) has someone he can smugly to look down on.

Here we have just another example of Chicago politics roaming the halls of the White House and the halls of Congress. Is Burris, the US Senate, Washington D.C., and Illinois without honor? Makes one wish for the Japanese culture where the dishonored end their own disgrace. Burris was not elected. No, under oath, he lied his way into office and was accepted because of an apparent rush to appoint a Senator to support the Democrat agenda. And for some contorted reason, this appointment had to be a democrat black man to replace a former democrat black man who was just sworn in as President.  Talk about racial profiling - what an insult to men and women of any ethnic or political background in Illinois!  Metaphorically, both Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King must have rolled over in their graves. 

Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich must be chuckling at the joke he has played on Illinois and America in response to his being rejected by Barack Obama and his "advisers." Blago thought he was "loved" by them. Since Blago was not acceptable to join them (he should get down on his knees and thank God for this), he appointed Roland Burris who was worthy of them as now evidenced by the incompetence, lying and deceit which we have seen in the Obama administration and the Democrat controlled Congress. Being dishonorable seems to be a qualification these days in the Obama administration and the Senate ethics commission just rubber stamped their approval. Burris should resign! But then again, we haven't seen hell freeze over yet.

People Aren't Drinking the Global Warming Kool-Aid

by William Warren:

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William Warren's cartoons are a free service of ALG News Bureau. They may be reused and redistributed free of charge.

Dick Morris says Sen. Blanche Lincoln is in trouble . . .

Dick Morris was in Arkansas yesterday speaking at the American for Prosperity "hands of our health care rallies in Little Rock at State Capitol and later in Conway and Hot Springs Village. Morris was the former political adviser to both President and former AR Gov Bill Clinton (D) and 2008 GOP& presidential candidate and former AR Gov Republican Mike Huckabee (R). He now is seen regularly on Fox News as a political analyst. He has authored many books and articles popular with middle America.

Speaking to the rally, Morris chided Senator Blanche Lincoln for her liberal votes and ties to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Obama. The attendees booed when the names of Reid, Pelosi and Obama were mentioned. Morris related that Sen. Lincoln is in political trouble over the health care issue and citing a recent poll showing the two-term Senator and Former Congresswoman is barely leading lesser-known seven announced Republican U.S. Senate candidates. Morris believes that Lincoln will fall even farther in the polls if she votes for Reid's or Pelosi's health care bills.

According to the Arkansas News Service, Dick Morris was interviewed by Rob Moritz and Morris identified that "Sen. Blanche Lincoln and other congressional Democrats in Arkansas will have difficulty getting re-elected next year because they will have a hard time separating themselves from the national Democratic agenda."

Morris also told the Arkansas News Bureau that “Until now, voters could fool themselves and tell themselves that (they can vote) for Democrats locally and Republicans nationally. Now people are learning that if you’re a Democrat it’s an automatic vote for a certain position and you can’t ever change that, and I think that’s creating a sense that is really imperiling to the so-called moderate Democrat.”

Jobs Created in Mayberry & the Land of Oz

By Gary Varvel

By the Numbers - Pelosi Led Democrats' Historic Budget Imbalance

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By the Numbers - Pelosi's New Era of Irresponsibility - U.S. National Debt

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Breaking News - First Vote on Reid's Health Care Bill is 8 PM on Saturday

[Correction made to post on 11/23] Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) filed cloture and scheduled a vote on his “mammoth" 2,074-page health care reform bill (H.R. 3590) at 8 PM on Saturday. The Democrats wish to rush the vote before Senators return home for Thanksgiving. If the vote passes then bill would be debated and could likely pass and wind up in conference with the House and with only the Democrats crafting the final compromise bill suitable to just the Democrats because no Republican or Conservative democrat votes would be needed. Well, now we will see if the Republicans stand strong and if old lions like Sen Joe Lieberman and other conservatives will stand tough and defeat this bill.

Republicans were able to "wrangled 10 hours of debate out of Democrats" instead of their original plan to debate for an hour and slip out of town. One Republican Senate aide  related "Now the American people will have all day to understand what this vote means and potentially persuade some Democrats why it would be a bad vote." As Reported by Roll Call, “Under the rules, we would only have been entitled to one hour of debate before the vote. Now we have all day to flip one Democrat,” the aide said. “The reading would've been to an empty chamber after the vote had happened, press would've gone home, and Americans would've turned the channel. Now it's show time.”

Emily Pierce of Roll Call summarizes:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Thursday afternoon set the procedural wheels in motion for a crucial vote on a major health care reform bill Saturday night at 8 p.m. and scored a coup by apparently persuading Republicans to abandon their plans to have the entire 2,074-page bill read aloud on the Senate floor.

Speaking on the floor of the Senate on Thursday afternoon, Reid filed a motion to limit debate, or invoke cloture, on the motion to proceed to a House-passed tax bill that will serve as a shell for the $848 billion Senate health care measure that he unveiled Wednesday.

In doing so, Reid also asked for and received the consent of Republicans to avoid more votes this week as well as a threatened, lengthy reading of the Senate bill. Reid’s move means the Senate will wrap up work Saturday and avoid coming into session next week.

Reid needs the votes of all 60 Members of the Democratic Conference in order to beat back a filibuster on the motion to proceed to the debate, given the unanimous opposition of all 40 Republicans in the chamber. Sixty votes are needed to invoke cloture.

One senior Senate Republican aide said the GOP leadership agreed to forego [sic] the reading of the Senate bill as well as separate, simple majority vote on starting debate on the bill in exchange for an all-day debate on the measure Saturday.

Read the following great explanation by on why the Saturday vote is so important, and why no Democrat should get a pass on claiming it’s simply “procedural” make sure you read Sen. DeMint’s post at Red State: Sen Jim DeMint summarized the battle very clearly:

To begin debate on this new version of Obamacare, Reid will play a shell game. He needs 60 senators to “vote to proceed” to an unrelated piece of legislation, and once he clears that hurdle he will strike that bill’s text and insert his new health care bill. But don’t be fooled by senators that will say they oppose a government takeover but just wanted to allow debate on health care, they are not being honest.The simple fact is this: Any senator that votes to proceed to the Reid-Obama bill is voting for a government takeover of health care.

Why? Because, President Obama and Harry Reid cannot pass a government takeover without clearing 60 vote procedural hurdles in the Senate — but they also know that vulnerable Democrats likely cannot win reelection if they vote for this unpopular bill. So they want all Democrats to stick together on the vote to proceed, then some Democrats will vote against final passage of the bill and claim they tried to stop it.

Senators who say they just want to allow for debate are trying to deceive their voters while giving President Obama the crucial votes he needs to pass a government takeover of health care.

Voters should be watching and remember who stands up for their freedom and who stands with the special interests who want to ram through this takeover.

The Reviews On Vic Snyder's Healthcare Bill Are In

A respected political commentator Michael Barone don’t think too highly of Vic Snyder’s reelection prospects: He leads of his article with, "Sometimes a poll result slaps you in the face. That was the case for me when I saw Public Policy Polling’s results in the 2nd congressional district of Arkansas. PPP has the incumbent, Democrat Vic Snyder, leading three unknown Republicans (two-thirds to three-quarters of respondents could not describe their feelings toward them) by margins of 44%-43%, 44%-42% and 45%-42%. No, it doesn’t matter which Republican got the best score. The news here is that a seven-term Democratic incumbent, an intelligent man (he has earned an M.D.) with no disqualifying personal characteristics or accusations of scandal (so far as I know) is running significantly below 50% and is essentially tied with three unknown Republicans." [Full Article]

Liberals' Establishment of Religion

by Ken Blackwell, Contributing Author: One of the reasons liberals are so hostile to public expressions of Christianity is because it threatens the monopoly that the religion of liberalism enjoys in the public square. The late Ted Kennedy was more than a leading senator, to liberal supporters. He was a secular saint. His appeal was essentially religious. He made it fairly explicit in his famous concession speech to the Democratic National Convention that re-nominated President Jimmy Carter. Kennedy reduced thousands of liberal delegates to tears with this emotional peroration:

May it be said of our Party in 1980 that we found our faith again. And may it be said of us, both in dark passages and in bright days, in the words of Tennyson that my brothers quoted and loved, and that have special meaning for me now:

"I am a part of all that I have met
[Tho] much is taken, much abides
That which we are, we are --
One equal temper of heroic hearts
Strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."

For me, a few hours ago, this campaign came to an end. For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.

Not for Ted Kennedy the cool rationalism of his party’s founder, Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson had famously said “if I had to go to Heaven in a political party, I would not go at all.” For Ted Kennedy and for those weeping delegates, the Democratic Party holds that place that used to be reserved for church and church alone. It’s no wonder that those teary believers—more than 90 percent of whom tell researchers they never go to church—end their search for the meaning of life in political activism.

Analyze Kennedy’s Epistle to the Gentiles and you will see that the concern, the work, the cause, the hope, the dream that is the subject of his panegyric is government. Government giveth and Government taketh away. The only Government worthy of that capital G is one that provides health, education, and welfare. All Americans are invited into the Democratic Church. Only the heretical conservatives are excluded.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi was at the Kennedy School at Harvard last week. Liberals go to Harvard the way Muslims go to Mecca. Pelosi was basking in liberal approval for having been the first Speaker to deliver on the promise of universal health care. She established her bona fides early in her sermon. “For thirty years I’ve been an advocate of single payer,” she said. Single payer is liberal speak for socialized medicine, run entirely by the state, paid for by the state. But we have to make some tactical compromises, she said. Well, there may have to be a few little detours on the road to the Heavenly Liberal City.

“We all have our theology in politics,” she said to murmurs of approval from her audience. When Gov. George W. Bush said in a Republican debate in 2000 that Jesus Christ was his favorite political philosopher, liberals were aghast. But when Nancy Pelosi speaks of “theology,” we must assume she uses the word the way Webster defines it: “the study of religious faith, practice, and experience; especially : the study of God and of God's relation to the world.”

For Pelosi, God commands universal health care without a restriction on funding abortion. And God apparently also commands the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act. Pelosi invoked the patron saint of San Francisco. She recited the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi. It was probably the first time in history that that gentle saint was dragged in to bless the slaughter of innocents and the abolition of matrimony.

Predictably, there were no ACLU protests. And no atheizers ran to MSNBC to deplore her breaching the Wall of Separation between Church and State. Pelosi was perfectly free not only to preach her religious ideas, but to impose jail time and fines on those who dissent. In the Gospel According to Nancy, the liberal Preacher of the House promises to bring the liberal Heaven to Earth. Is it any wonder growing numbers of Americans think it’s a living hell?
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Mr. Ken Blackwell is a conservative family values advocate. He submited this article to the ARRA News Service Editor which also appears in his Column on Town Hall. Blackwell is a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Commission and is a senior fellow at the Family Research Council and American Civil Rights Union.

Today in Washington D. C. - Nov 19, 2009 - Reid's 2,000 Page Bill Full of Tax Hikes, Medicare Cuts, Trillions In Costs & Budget Gimmicks

The Senate will began consideration of S. 1963, a $3.7 billion veterans health care bill. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) has offered an amendment to offset the cost by cutting contributions to some international organizations. At 2 PM, the Senate will resume consideration of the nomination of Judge David Hamilton to the 7^th Circuit Court of Appeals. At 2:30, the Senate will begin a series of votes, first on confirmation of the Hamilton nomination, then on the Coburn amendment to S. 1963, then on final passage of the bill.

Last night, after weeks of working behind closed doors, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) unveiled his “mammoth" 2,074-page health care reform bill (H.R. 3590). Reid still has not filed cloture on this health care bill, but if he files today, a cloture vote on the motion to proceed to the bill is expected on Saturday.

Unfortunately, as Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell explained this morning, it’s clear that Democrats were not listening to the American people and have produced another monstrosity that raises taxes, raises premiums, and slashes Medicare: In addition, he said, “The Majority Leader’s bill is 2,074 pages long. When fully implemented—and the way to look at the true cost of this bill is how much will it cost over a 10-year period—when this 2,074 page bill is fully implemented it will cost $2.5 trillion. According to CBO, federal health care spending will actually go up, not down as a result of this mammoth effort to rewrite one-sixth of our economy.”

The AP notes that the bill includes “higher payroll taxes” and a variety of new fees. The Washington Post points out that the bill “add[s] an array of tax increases, including a rise in payroll taxes for high earners.” All told, Sen. McConnell, said, “It raises taxes $493 billion.” The Washington Post also acknowledges, “Like the House bill, Reid's proposal would be financed through billions of dollars in Medicare cuts, as well as new taxes.” Indeed, Sen. McConnell explained, “Hospitals, Medicare Advantage, nursing homes, home health, hospice—all of those will be slashed in this $465 billion cut to Medicare.”

And of course, it wouldn’t be a Democrat health care bill without a whole host of budget gimmicks to make it appear to cost less than it actually does. Politico notes, “The Senate bill pushes back implementation of major parts of the reform to 2014 -- a change from 2013 under the Finance Committee bill.” This is precisely to make it appear to cost less. In fact, as Sen. McConnell explained, once the bill is fully implemented, in the 10 years following 2014, not 10 years from today, it costs a staggering $2.5 trillion.

Something else delaying implementation of the bill until 2014 allows Democrats to claim is that the bill reduces the budget deficit by $127 billion by 2019. Yet this is minuscule when compared to the cost of the bill, and even more absurdly, this amount is exceeded by the budget deficit for October alone--$176 billion. Yes, Democrats already spent the money they expect to save with this bill, and then some. An oft-stated goal of Democrats with their health care reform plans is to “bend the cost curve” and reduce federal spending on health care. But according to the CBO, “Under the legislation, federal outlays for health care would increase during the 2010–2019 period, as would the federal budgetary commitment to health care.”

To quote Sen. McConnell summed up the problems in his floor speech today: “So what is the bottom line here? After 6 weeks of drafting a bill behind closed doors, the Majority has produced a bill that increases premiums, raises taxes, and slashes Medicare by half a trillion dollars to create a new government program. This is not what the American people want. I don’t believe they think this is reform. This is not the direction to take.”

Arkansas' Non-Existent Congressional Districts Get Big Bucks

Jobs 'Saved or Created' in Congressional Districts That Don't Exist: "ABC News has found many more entries for projects like this in places that are incorrectly identified. Late Monday, officials with the Recovery Board created to track the stimulus spending, said the mistakes in crediting nonexistent congressional districts were caused by human error."

24 Jobs at $951,895.83 each in Arkansas’ '76th Congressional District. Wow - that kind of money would really stimulate Arkansas!

Republican United States Senate candidate Col. Conrad Reynolds (U.S. Army, Ret.) issued congratulations to Arkansas’s non-existent 76th, 6th, 7th, 15th, 5th and 00th Congressional Districts “saving or creating” 48 jobs to the tune of nearly $24 million according to Recovery.gov:

“I wish to congratulate President Obama and Sen. Lincoln for creating a stimulus program which not only allegedly ‘creates or saves’ jobs, but appears to ‘create or save’ entirely new congressional districts.

Having managed millions in taxpayer dollars during my military career, I knew I would be held accountable for reporting errors or mismanagement. Sadly, this type of error in Washington is not surprising, given that the stimulus bill was hurried through and voted on without ever having been fully read.

We must restore accountability in Washington and responsibility for those who recklessly account for our runaway spending. I call on Sen. Lincoln to publicly demand from President Obama an immediate fix to these outrageous errors and demand a thorough and transparent accounting of the money spent, its location and the true amount of jobs created so citizens can be better informed and begin to have their faith in government restored.”

By the Numbers - Continued Unemployment Claims Since Democrats' Stimulus

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Is He Apologizing?

by William Warren:

"So ... Is he apologizing for Hiroshima and Nagasaki?"
"Either that or looking for his approval rating."

By the Numbers - Obama's First 100 Day Spending Spree - Public Debt Outlook

Note: CBS News Reports: "It's another record-high for the U.S. National Debt ... topped the $12-trillion mark. Divided evenly among the U.S. population, it amounts to $38,974.34 for every man, woman and child. . . . This latest milestone in the ever-rising journey of the National Debt comes less than eight months after it hit $11 trillion for the first time. . . ."

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Today in Washington D. C. - Nov 18, 2009 - Reid & Democrats Want Health Care Vote Next Week - What 's in the Bill?

Update (4:53 pm): The Washington Post: Reid to unveil $849 billion health-care bill
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Yesterday the Senate voted 70-29 to invoke cloture on the  nomination of Judge David Hamilton to the 7^th Circuit Court of Appeals.  today, a vote is expected on the nomination.  After that, the Senate will take up S. 1963, a veterans health care bill.

Yesterday, the Senate voted 100-0 to pass H.R. 3082, the $133.9 billion fiscal year 2010 Military Construction-Veterans Affairs appropriations bill.  Prior to passage, the Senate rejected, by a vote of 57-43, an amendment Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) which would have prohibited funding to outfit prisons in the United States to house Guantanamo Bay detainees.

In the House, Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) urged opposition to H.R. 3961, the Pelosi “doc fix” bill that will add more than $200 billion to the deficit: "With the national debt rising above $12 trillion, and less than two weeks after House Democrats rammed through the $1.3 trillion Pelosi health care plan, now comes a $200 billion deficit spending bill. Under the guise of helping doctors, one analysis projects that Speaker Pelosi’s latest health care bill will cost taxpayers nearly $2 trillion over the next 75 years. As unemployment continues to rise, it seems there is no level of federal spending and national debt that Washington Democrats aren’t willing to pile on struggling families and future generations. This latest proposal is being brought forward because Democrats refuse to address health care reform in a fiscally responsible way.  We should not reward their budget-busting health care plan with yet another deficit spending bill.. . ."

ABC is reporting, "Bill raising doctor fees under Medicare would cause premiums to increase."

Today at 5 pm, Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will present the health care reform bill to Democratic senators at a special caucus meeting. Senate Democrats have been saying that they want to hold the first vote on Reid’s health care bill so the Senate can move to the bill before the Thanksgiving recess next week.  But that may prove difficult, given the the reluctance of a few key Democrats to vote for the bill.

Last month, eight Democrat senators wrote to Reid, demanding “complete budget scores” from the Congressional Budget Office and full legislative text posted for “at least 72 hours prior to the first vote to proceed to the legislation.” Sens. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), Evan Bayh (D-IN), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Joe Lieberman (ID-CT), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Mark Pryor (D-AR), and Jim Webb (D-VA) wrote, “The legislative text and complete budget scores from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) of the health care legislation considered on the Senate floor should be made available on a website the public can access for at least 72 hours prior to the first vote to proceed to the legislation.”   But Reid is likely to only have a preliminary, rather than full, CBO score for the bill this week.   Will Sens. Lincoln, Bayh, Landrieu, Lieberman, McCaskill, Nelson, Pryor, and Webb vote to move to a health bill without 72 hours for reading it or without a full CBO score?

The New York Times writes today, “Senator Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska, says he is not sure he is ready to help a Democratic health care proposal clear even the most preliminary hurdle: gaining the 60 votes his party’s leaders need to open debate on the measure later this week. Two of his fellow Democrats, Senators Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, are proving tough sells as well, raising the prospect that one or perhaps all three of them could scuttle the bill before the fight over it even begins on the Senate floor.” The Times notes, “There is no Republican on whom Mr. Reid can count for support in the procedural vote. . . . Senators Landrieu, Lincoln and Nelson have all said they cannot commit to backing the preliminary step until they see the final legislation, which is being written by Mr. Reid and his lieutenants and could be unveiled as early as Wednesday.”

The NYT also explains that all three have been skeptical of several provisions expected to be included in the bill, such as a government-run insurance plan. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said last month, “We all recall Senator Kerry's . .  2004 campaign of explaining why he voted for it before he voted against, and I think it is perfectly clear that most Americans will treat the vote to get on the bill as a vote on the substance of the bill.”

So will Democrat senators who have expressed their reservations about the substance of this health care bill vote to move forward with it and then try to explain later why they opposed it? Will Democrats who said they need a full CBO score vote to proceed to a health bill that only has a preliminary one? We may know by the end of the week. Reid and most Senate Democrats appear to want the health care vote next week. Don't Care What 's in the Bill?