Government Takeover of Health Care

Scott Brown Wants Health Care His Way

January 21, 2010

Infowars.com - On the day after Scott Brown won a Senate seat in Massachusetts, Democrats and the liberal media gnashed their teeth and beat their chests in lamentation. It is the end of Obamacare, they wailed. It’s the return of the “radical right” (i.e., statist Republicans who also love big government but like to use it to pummel small defenseless countries), they moaned. Chris Matthews basically said it was the end of the world. So did Keith Olbermann and the rest of the limo libs at MSNBC.

Well, the liberals should fear not Scott Brown. He is a Big Government Republican. He wants a “health care” plan too. Scott wants to do it his way, as Frank Sinatra might have crooned. It didn’t take long for Mr. Brown to show his true colors.

The crew at MSNBC can stop their gibberish about the rise of the “teabaggers” (as they snidely and pornographically like to call people who insist on constitutional government). They can stop whining about the loss of their “super majority,” that is to say their blank check to ram legislation down the throats of the American people at gunpoint.

Scott is on their side.

Pelosi: Whatever Happens in MA Senate Race, Health Care Will Pass

January 19, 2010

SFGate Politics Blog - Unlike just about every Democrat west of Faneuil Hall, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi isn't fretting about oh, NEARLY EVERY POLL showing Republican Scott Brown winning Ted Kennedy's old Massachusetts Senate seat.

Here's our latest video from Shaky Hand Productions, featuring The Speaker:

If you prefer printed word, here's what she said:

So if Brown wins, what does that mean for the health care bill?

"Certainly the dynamic would change depending on what happens in Massachusetts," Pelosi told us and our notebook-toting brethren Monday in San Francisco at an MLK event. "Just a question about how we would proceed. But it doesn't mean we won't have a health care bill."

She went on to say that Brown has said he want to go back to the drawing board on health care. Not in my House, Madame Speaker said.

"There is no back to the drawing board," Pelosi said. "The Republicans in Congress have said we will kill health care reform. They are the handmaidens of the insurance company."

"Let's remove all doubt, we will have health care -- one way or another," Pelosi said. "Back to the drawing board means a great big zero for the American people."

Maybe she's read some sort of classified weather report on a blizzard that will only prevent Republican voters from voting Tuesday in Massachusetts, but Pelosi didn't want to go too crazy until the votes were counted.

"It doesn't matter what the poll says," Pelosi said. "It matters who votes."

Health Bill Can Pass Senate With 51 Votes

January 16, 2010

Bloomberg - Even if Democrats lose the Jan. 19 special election to pick a new Massachusetts senator, Congress may still pass a health-care overhaul by using a process called reconciliation, a top House Democrat said.

That procedure requires 51 votes rather than the 60 needed to prevent Republicans from blocking votes on President Barack Obama’s top legislative priorities. That supermajority is at risk as the Massachusetts race has tightened.

“Even before Massachusetts and that race was on the radar screen, we prepared for the process of using reconciliation,” said Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

“Getting health-care reform passed is important,” Van Hollen said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” airing this weekend. “Reconciliation is an option.”

Using reconciliation would likely force Democrats to scale back their health-care plans. The procedure is designed to make deficit-cutting easier by reducing the number of votes needed to pass unpopular tax increases and spending cuts. Lawmakers can’t include policy changes that the parliamentarian deems have only an “incidental” connection to budget-cutting, and senators would need 60 votes to override those rulings ...

Obama Asks Congress to Bypass Conference Committee to Finalize Health Bill

January 6, 2010

Lipman Times - President Barack Obama asked Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday to speed up efforts to finalize a health bill by renouncing to a traditional conference committee meant to resolve differences between the House and Senate versions, the Washington Post reports.

If Democratic leaders agree, the House would work on and amend the Senate version of the legislation before sending it back to the Senate for a final vote. Renouncing to a conference committee would help speed up action on the health bill and allow a passage before the State of the Union address in early February.

With the tight margin of votes in the Senate, House Democrats would likely have to make several concessions, including renouncing to a government plan, opposed by moderates in the Senate. Besides the public option, several differences remain between the two versions, including who to tax to finance the cost, the number of people to cover and abortion and illegal immigrants coverage.

Obama agreed at Tuesday evening’s meeting to help strengthen affordability measures beyond what’s in the Senate bill, the aide said.

Pelosi suggested Tuesday that House members wouldn’t insist on the government plan as long as the final bill provides “affordability for the middle class, accountability for the insurance companies, … accessibility by lowering cost at every stage.” [Editor's Note: The real goal of the healthcare bill is to mandate that every American have health insurance (those who resist will be charged a penalty collected by the IRS) and to create an electronic health record for each person, which will allow the government to implement RFID and GPS technology as a means to control and track society.]

Democrats reacted defensively to criticism that they are taking the final, most crucial stage of the debate behind closed doors, contending they’ve conducted a transparent process with hundreds of public meetings and legislation posted online. Republicans seized on a newly released letter from the head of the C-SPAN network calling on congressional leaders to open the final talks to the public, and cited Obama’s campaign trail pledge to do just that.

Government-run health insurance option appears doomed