Senate Continuing Resolution Vote-a-rama | Catilin Halligan Nomination Withdrawn

Today In Washington, D.C. - March 22, 2012
Today the White House will withdraw the controversial nomination of Catilin Halligan to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. On March 6th, the ARRA News Service addressed "Halligan's Controversial Record." Halligan's activism on illegal immigration, supporting terrorists, and having her radical theory on the 2nd Amendment was deemed "Legally Inappropriate" by the Court.  This alone, evidences that she had no place serving  on a U.S Court of Appeals.

Thankfully, Republicans twice filibustered a vote on her nomination while many Democrats stood by with some actually agreeing with the Republicans. In a White House press release, President Obama expressed his disappointment calling out a minority of senators for blocking a vote on her nomination. President Obama is quoted as saying, "This unjustified filibuster obstructed the majority of senators from expressing their support. I am confident that with Caitlin’s impressive qualifications and reputation, she would have served with distinction." Well, Mr. President, we do not agree. At least for now. Halligan will not be on the "Court of Appeals."

The House is not in session today; they will reconvene on Monday, March 25th. Yesterday, the House passed (221-207), along party lines the Republican budget authored by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI). It cuts spending, repeals Obamacare, and would finally eliminate the deficit, giving the country a balanced budget for the first time since the late 1990s. However, in reality the repeal of Obamacare is expected to be traded off in the reconciliation process with the Senate. His primary emphasis is cutting spending and balancing the budget. Speaker Boehner stated "Our goal is to cut spending and balance the budget to help our economy grow. Passing this measure allows us to keep our focus where it belongs: replacing the president’s sequester with smarter cuts that help balance the budget, fixing our broken tax code to create jobs and increase wages, protecting priorities like Medicare, and expanding opportunity for all Americans.

The Senate reconvened and resumed consideration of S. Con. Res. 8, the Democrats’ first budget resolution since 2009. At 3 PM, the Senate is expected to begin a vote-a-rama, a long series of votes on many amendments one after another until all remaining amendments are disposed of, culminating in a vote on passage of the budget resolution.

Last night, the Senate began voting on amendments to the budget resolution. Democrats voted down a motion offered by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) which would have sent the budget back to committee requiring it to be balanced. Later, all 45 Senate Republicans and 34 Democrats voted for an amendment from Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) to repeal the medical device tax created by Obamacare. Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) offered the Republican budget that passed the House as an amendment and Senate Republicans overwhelmingly supported this balanced budget, while all Democrats rejected it.

This morning, voting continued with 6 more amendments. Among those was an amendment offered by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) to repeal Obamacare. Just like they did last week, all Senate Republicans voted to repeal Obama’s health care law, and all Senate Democrats went on record to vote down the amendment and protect Obamacare.

This weekend will mark the unfortunate third anniversary of President Obama signing into law the health care bill he and Democrats pushed through Congress despite it being unpopular, unworkable, and expensive. With the anniversary approaching, the mainstream media has been paying attention to this law and all the problems it’s creating, generating a plethora of stories.

Politico writes, “Even as the pitched ideological and legal battles have faded, a huge raft of complicated and potentially crippling practical challenges remain, raising questions about whether Obamacare ultimately will work and whether it will become the Rushmore-size achievement that President Barack Obama hopes for. Even the law’s most enthusiastic backers concede the path forward is difficult. . . . The federal role in building the health insurance exchanges is bigger than expected — and money wasn’t set aside. The Obama administration didn’t expect 33 states to refuse to build their own health insurance exchanges. . . . The anti-Obamacare drumbeat isn’t going away. Trade groups and industries keep targeting specific provisions, like the medical device tax. Pizza chains, burger joints and restaurant chains have been particularly vocal, saying that the financial burdens of Obamacare will cost jobs and add to the price of every mouthful. Insurers' and business groups' warnings about ‘premium shock’ — the possibility of big insurance price hikes — may deter people from signing up.”

And The Wall Street Journal reports, “Health insurers are privately warning brokers that premiums for many individuals and small businesses could increase sharply next year because of the health-care overhaul law, with the nation's biggest firm projecting that rates could more than double for some consumers buying their own plans. The projections, made in sessions with brokers and agents, provide some of the most concrete evidence yet of how much insurance companies might increase prices when major provisions of the law kick in next year—a subject of rigorous debate. The projected increases are at odds with what the Obama Administration says consumers should be expecting overall in terms of cost. . . . The gulf between the pricing talk from some insurers and the government projections suggests how complicated the law's effects will be.”

Yahoo News points out, “Just like a typical three-year-old, the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) is undergoing a period of rapid growth and development. For those who still cling to the nostalgic notion that once legislation is passed and signed the lawmaking stops, think again. The single largest piece of regulation ever passed has grown 10-fold in its short life, to more than 20,000 pages standing seven feet tall, since the President signed it into law on March 23, 2010.”

Yesterday, National Review Online’s Andrew Stiles looked at how Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell’s office worked to illustrate these rules and regulations. “In the three years since Obamacare — the legislative darling of the president’s first term — was signed into law, it has grown from an adorable 2,700-page binder full of rules and kickbacks into a towering 7-foot-3-inch, 300-pound behemoth totaling more than 20,000 pages of byzantine mandates and regulations. . . . Now, thanks to some enterprising staffers in the office of Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, the American people can finally see what their elected officials created. The so-called Red-Tape Tower became an instant hit on social-media sites after McConnell’s press office tweeted a photo on March 12 of all 20,000-plus pages of regulations that the administration has released since Obamacare became law.”

Last week, every Senate Republican supported Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) amendment to defund Obamacare. This morning, every Senate Republican voted for another Sen. Cruz amendment to the budget to repeal Obamacare. Unfortunately, as they have every time, the Senate Democrat majority voted to kill the amendment.

However, last night there was an interesting development. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, offered an amendment to repeal the job-killing medical device tax imposed by Obamacare, and 34 Democrats voted for it. Politico notes, “Thirty-four Senate Democrats joined Republicans on Thursday night in a nonbinding but overwhelming vote to repeal a key tax in President Barack Obama's health reform law. The Senate voted 79-20 to get rid of the law's 2.3 percent sales tax on medical device-makers. . . .

"Assuming none of the provision's backers rescind their support, there is now plenty of support to surpass the 60 votes needed to repeal the device tax — if it comes to a vote on another bill in the future.. Republicans have long railed against the tax, which they say stifles innovation in the medical device industry. They say that the tax is particularly unjust because it taxes sales and not profits, so startup and struggling companies will be taxed just like thriving established companies. ‘The importance of this vote cannot be overstated,’ said Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who introduced the amendment and a similar bill in the last Congress. ‘For the first time, Democrats and Republicans have come together in recognizing how bad this tax is. We cannot stop here. We must continue the fight to get rid of this tax.’”

Republican Leader McConnell commented, “Today’s bipartisan vote to repeal the medical device tax is an important step in the right direction. Unfortunately, Obamacare remains a job-killer that grows the government and slows the economy, which is why it’s important to repeal the whole thing.”

Frustratingly, we must recall that many of the Democrats who voted to repeal the medical device tax were present in the Senate in December 2009 when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) moved the Obamacare bill through and not one of them voted to stop it. Any of those Democrats could have stopped this tax from being implemented, but instead they all voted to create it.

National Journal notes this growing uneasiness, writing, “President Obama’s health care law — a killer issue in 2010 but an afterthought among voters in 2012— will face another round of attacks in 2014 as its thorniest parts go into effect, potentially supplying Republicans fresh ammunition in their war against ‘Obamacare’ and creating renewed problems for a plethora of vulnerable Democrats.” Is there hope in the future? Maybe if the people finally stand and tell their elected members of Congress, enough is enough.

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