Congress is Back in Session: Senate Dems To Push 'Repealing The Free Speech Protections'
Warning: Harry Reid Is Back In D.C. |
The House will reconvene today at 2 PM. The House will take up several administrative "naming" of building bills today which will not require an identifiable vote by representatives many of whom may be making their way back to D.C.. A few other bills will be introduced for voice vote which will be identified tomorrow.
The Senate also will reconvene at 2 PM today and will begin a period of morning business. At 5:30 PM, the Senate will vote on confirmation of the nomination of Jill Pryor to be a judge on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals and on confirming 3 members to the Social Security Advisory Board.
Following those votes, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has scheduled a vote on cloture on the motion to proceed to S.J. Res. 19, Democrats’ radical constitutional amendment that would gut the core political speech protections of the First Amendment.
In a must-read op-ed for Politico today, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell writes, “Throughout August, senators had the opportunity to travel around their states and listen to the concerns of their constituents. The American people have a lot on their minds these days — important issues they expect the Democrat-run Senate to address: things like high unemployment, threats of terrorism, rising health care costs and the ongoing crisis at the border. Unfortunately, hardly any of those things will be on the Senate’s agenda when it returns Monday.
“That’s because the Democrats who control the Senate say they’re more interested in repealing the free speech protections the First Amendment guarantees to all Americans. Their goal is to shut down the voices of their critics at a moment when they fear the loss of their fragile Senate majority. And to achieve it, they’re willing to devote roughly half of the remaining legislative days before November to this quixotic anti-speech gambit.
“The proposal they want to consider would empower incumbent politicians to write the rules on who gets to speak and who doesn’t. And while no one likes to be criticized, the way for Senate Democrats to avoid it is to make better arguments, or even better, to come up with better ideas — not shut up their constituents.
“Not surprisingly, a proposal as bad as the one Senate Democrats are pushing won’t even come close to garnering the votes it would need to pass. But to many Democrats, that’s just the point. They want this proposal to fail because they think that somehow would help them on Election Day — they think it will help drive to the polls more left-wing voters who don’t like having to defend their ideas.
“If all this seems like an object lesson in why most Americans are so disgusted with Washington right now, that’s because it is. With legislative priorities like this, it’s no wonder a recent Quinnipiac poll found that just 14 percent of respondents say they think the government in Washington can be counted on to do what’s right most or all of the time.”
By spending their time on a partisan amendment that threatens core free speech protections in the Bill of Rights instead of anything the public is concerned about is telling of where Democrats’ priorities lie: with campaigning rather than governing.
Something the Senate could and should be addressing is the fallout from Democrats’ unpopular health care law. On Friday, the Lincoln Journal Star reported, “Health insurance will cost more in Nebraska next year for most people buying policies individually . . . according to the state's dominant carrier, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska, and the Nebraska Department of Insurance. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska said its members statewide will see an average premium increase of 8 to 9 percent in 2015 . . . . Bigger changes are in store for individual customers who purchased insurance under the Affordable Care Act for 2014 through the government’s federally facilitated marketplace. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska said a variety of factors attributable to the act — including required expanded benefits, higher use of medical services, guaranteed requirements, insurance rating pools and ACA-related taxes and fees — will contribute to a 19.5 percent average premium increase for 2015 ACA plans.” And according to the Alaska Public Radio Network, “Alaskans who buy health insurance on the Affordable Care Act marketplace will see a significant rate hike for next year. The state Division of Insurance says consumers can expect to pay an increase of more than 30 percent on average for coverage. Two insurers offer individual plans on the marketplace – Premera Alaska and Moda. Premera’s plans will increase the most – an average of 37 percent. Premera spokesperson Eric Earling says even that increase is not enough to pay for customers’ claims. ‘We do have a pretty clear influx of folks with some very significant medical costs that in the past was spread across the insured market, including employers,’ Earling said. Earling says the way the individual market is structured under the Affordable Care Act is not sustainable in a small population state like Alaska. . . . Earling says Premera would have to increase rates by more that 70% next year to break even. . . . Moda, the other company offering individual plans on the marketplace, will increase rates by an average of 27 percent.”
Instead of even debating the problems of Obamacare, Senate Democrats will be pushing their partisan campaign agenda.
As Leader McConnell further writes, “For months, the Senate has done little more than consider more creative ways to save the jobs of Democratic politicians in November. Yet at a time when millions of Americans are unemployed, middle-class families struggle each month just to pay the bills, the government is failing our veterans and serious crises overseas only seem to grow worse by the day, Democratic leaders shouldn’t be focused on legislative show-votes, including their latest attempt this week to silence the voices of the American people. Instead, they should work with Republicans to help these Americans out. That means, as a start, clearing the dozens of jobs bills already passed by the Republican-led House of Representatives. It also means helping us pass any number of bipartisan proposals aimed at kicking the economy into gear, helping alleviate the stresses and financial burdens on working families and formulating true bipartisan health reform that doesn’t punish the middle class the way Obamacare does. All of this is within reach and easily doable if Democrats would only put aside their political playbook for once.”
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2 Comments:
Ain't gonna happen!
There will be a repeat of history over this one.
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