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This week the House considers a health care plan put forth by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). The bill increases spending by TRILLIONS, guts private Medicaid, expands Medicare, raises taxes to European-levels, and takes over private insurance.
Today's Wall Street Journal editorial lays out the details:
Speaker Nancy Pelosi has reportedly told fellow Democrats that she's prepared to lose seats in 2010 if that's what it takes to pass ObamaCare, and little wonder. The health bill she unwrapped last Thursday, which President Obama hailed as a "critical milestone," may well be the worst piece of post-New Deal legislation ever introduced.
In a rational political world, this 1,990-page runaway train would have been derailed months ago. With spending and debt already at record peacetime levels, the bill creates a new and probably unrepealable middle-class entitlement that is designed to expand over time. Taxes will need to rise precipitously, even as ObamaCare so dramatically expands government control of health care that eventually all medicine will be rationed via politics.
Yet at this point, Democrats have dumped any pretense of genuine bipartisan "reform" and moved into the realm of pure power politics as they race against the unpopularity of their own agenda. The goal is to ram through whatever income-redistribution scheme they can claim to be "universal coverage." The result will be destructive on every level—for the health-care system, for the country's fiscal condition, and ultimately for American freedom and prosperity...
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Today, all 40 Republican senators wrote a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) asking that in the interest of full transparency, as promised by President Obama, that he immediately release the new Senate Democrat health care bill to the American public.
Here's the text (click here for PDF):
Hon. Harry Reid
Majority Leader
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Mr. Leader,
On Monday, you announced that you had sent health care legislation to the Congressional Budget office (CBO). As you know, this legislation will have a profound impact on the lives of every American, including the next generation who will be forced to pay for it. Our national debt stands at nearly $12 trillion, with a deficit of $1.4 trillion. The health care bill will likely be more than 1,000 pages long and is the single most important legislation we will consider and debate this year in Congress.
With an issue this large and complex, we need full transparency at every stage in the legislative process. President Obama was elected, in part, on his promise to bring greater transparency to the workings of the federal government. The American people and every member of Congress should be allowed to read the bill that was sent to CBO. The bill should be made available for taxpayers to read and learn how the federal government is spending their money. We are writing to request that you immediately make all materials sent to CBO publicly available on the internet.
Sincerely,
(Signed all 40 Republican senators)
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A new, comprehensive, 14-state study from the insurance company, WellPoint, shows that if ObamaCare is implemented, the cost of private insurance could triple for families and small businesses.
Reports The Wall Street Journal:
Washington is captivated by the Senate melodrama over the so-called public option, salivating at the ring of Harry Reid's political bell (see below). But the most important health-care questions continue to be about the policy substance—particularly those that Democrats don't want asked.
Foremost among them is: How will ObamaCare affect insurance premiums in the private health-care markets? Despite indignant Democratic denials, the near-certainty is that their plan will cause costs to rise across the board. The latest data on this score come from a series of state-level studies from the insurance company WellPoint Inc...
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The people of South Carolina have given me the privilege of representing them in Congress for more than 10 years now, and over that period I’ve learned a great deal about how things work in Washington. One of the more unfortunate things I’ve come to realize is that Congress has the power to corrupt even those with the most honorable intentions. Too often, I‘ve seen good, honest citizen legislators come to Washington only to realize that in Congress, you either conform to the system or find yourself on the outside looking in. As a result, the American people are left with more “career politicians” who go along to get along in Congress, and end up beholden to special interests, lobbyists, and big government policies.
Though there is no simple solution to this trend, there is a clear place to start: term limits. With term limits, we can put an end to the “if you can’t beat them, join them” approach to legislating, and begin enacting responsible legislation that is in the best interest of our nation. As a result, I will soon be introducing a constitutional amendment limiting current and future members of Congress to serving three terms (six years) in the House and two terms (12 years) in the Senate...
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From Gallup.com:
"By 58% to 38%, Americans would generally prefer to see Congress deal with healthcare reform 'on a gradual basis over several years' rather than 'try to pass a comprehensive reform plan this year.'"
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As Senate negotiations continue on the government overhaul of America’s health care system, the issue of federal funding for abortion still remains. Despite President Obama’s assertions to the contrary, the health care takeover would expand federal funding for abortions under the Democrats’ current proposal. Chairman Max Baucus’ bill, recently approved by Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee, passed without language explicitly prohibiting the use of taxpayer dollars to fund elective abortions. Conservative lawmakers have offered several amendments in markups of health care reform legislation to prevent coverage of abortion, but all were voted down in committee.
The only way to prevent the health care bill from using American taxpayer dollars to fund abortions, is for the Senate to add provisions explicitly prohibiting coverage and funding of abortion in the final version of the bill. Such prohibitions are absolutely necessary to protect taxpayers who are morally opposed to having the government use their hard earned money for the coverage of abortion procedures. I encourage my fellow Americans who believe in protecting the unborn to reach out to their Members of Congress in an effort to make their voices heard as Washington considers health care reform over the coming weeks.
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Was yesterday's Senate vote against a "doc fix" a breakthrough in the fight against government-run health care? It's hard to say, but it was definitely a step in the right direction. While doctors certainly deserve fair pay for the services they provide, this was the wrong way to go about making the fix, as an editorial in today's Wall Street Journal explains:
Yesterday saw some rare good news on the health-care front, with the stealth Democratic plan to move $247 billion in ObamaCare costs off the books collapsing in the Senate on a procedural vote of 47 to 53. Maybe there's more anxiety among Democrats about a huge permanent increase in government health spending than the White House is willing to let on.
A dozen Democrats (plus independent Joe Lieberman) voted against Majority Leader Harry Reid's gambit, which would have superseded automatic cuts in Medicare payments to doctors scheduled for 21% next year and higher after that. Democrats had included this fix as part of "comprehensive" reform but that pushed costs too high, while President Obama is insisting on a bill that doesn't increase the deficit on paper...
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Earlier this afternoon, Sen. DeMint joined with congressional colleagues from both sides of the aisle and several pro-life family groups, including Focus on the Family, to voice opposition to allowing taxpayer funding to pay for abortions in new health care legislation being pushed by President Obama and congressional Democrats.
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The news on Democrats' proposed health care plans in both the House and Senate only gets worse as the days go by. Now The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the plan passed by the Senate Finance Committee would impose burdensome marginal tax rates on middle-income American families -- up to a 34-percent increase.
Reports WSJ:
None of the new distortions that the Senate health-care bill will layer onto the already-distorted tax code have received the attention they deserve, but in particular its effects on marginal tax rates could use scrutiny. Incredibly, for those with lower incomes, ObamaCare will impose a penalty as high as 34% on . . . work.
Central to Max Baucus's plan—assuming the public option stays dead—is an insurance "exchange," through which individuals and families could choose from a menu of standardized policies offered at heavily subsidized rates, provided that their employers do not offer coverage. The subsidies are distributed on a sliding scale based on income, and according to the Congressional Budget Office 23 million people will participate a decade from now, at a cost to taxpayers of some $461 billion...
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Once again, lawmakers' infamous "pet projects" or "earmarks" are pulling taxpayer funds away from projects of national importance.
A study released by the Center for Defense Information found that $2.6 billion intended to purchase military guns, ammunition and training will instead be used to fund projects such as a new institute named after the late Ted Kennedy.
Reports The Washington Times:
Senators diverted $2.6 billion in funds in a defense spending bill to pet projects largely at the expense of accounts that pay for fuel, ammunition and training for U.S. troops, including those fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to an analysis...
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