You are correct Senders, the Health-Care bill will be found unconstitutional because the Federal Government can't force someone to buy something they don't want. There is also a provison in the Constitution that states any taxes must be applied equally to all and all those special deals to La., Neb., and Fla will also help to sink the bill.
Dems: Store closed for reform deals By: Patrick O'Connor and Jonathan Allen March 15, 2010 08:30 PM EDT
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is playing hardball with her rank and file in the run-up to an historic health care vote.
Instead of the typical wheeling and dealing to pick up much-needed support, Pelosi and her leadership team are warning members that the bill is final, and its language is set, so don’t come seeking major changes or handouts for your district.
Asked if she was willing to change the final legislation at the request of Democratic holdouts, the speaker said, “No.”
That message may sound good to voters angered by the “Cornhusker Kickback” or any other last-minute deals — but it’s sure to make life difficult for Pelosi as she struggles to find the 216 votes she needs to pass the final package.
Of course, Pelosi’s words may just be a warning to anti-abortion Democrats and other lawmakers with major concerns that the store is no longer open; they can either vote for the bill or vote against it, but the time is over for drawn-out negotiations. And, if the votes aren’t there, Pelosi may be forced to retreat on her hardball threat.
But for now, this stern warning from party leaders — and the corresponding appeal to ideology — is bad news for lobbyists and outside groups that have been working to make eleventh-hour changes in their favor, from industry-specific changes to the public option. The decision to preclude any changes means those groups are likely to be disappointed.
“No horse-trading,” said one Democratic source with knowledge of leadership’s thinking. “They are closed for business.”
Still, this doesn’t mean party leaders can’t or won’t court votes with the lure of provisions in future bills or campaign help from the president, but it indicates that House leaders plan to go to the floor with the reconciliation bill they have rather than making last-minute changes at the Rules Committee to attract more support. ............>>>>.............>>>>.............http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/34455.html
Top House Dem Says 'Votes Are There' to Pass Health Care Reform
Rep. John Larson's confidence is a departure from what other senior Democratic leaders have been saying -- that party leaders will line up the votes to pass the legislation but haven't yet
WASHINGTON -- A Democratic leader in the House voiced confidence Monday that his side has the votes necessary to pass the health care reform bill, and may do so as early as this week.
"I think the votes are there. I always believed that," said Rep. John Larson of Connecticut, the fourth-ranking Democrat in the House and the Democratic Caucus chairman.
Larson's confidence is a departure from what other senior Democratic leaders have been saying the past few days. The have couched their vote predictions.
"When we bring the bill to the floor, we'll have the votes," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.
And the top vote counter in the House, Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, was clear Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" that he was still short.
"We don't have (the votes) as of this morning. But we've been working this thing all weekend. We'll be working it going into the week," Clyburn said. The South Carolina Democrat had indicated Friday that "the votes will be there when we vote."
On Monday night, Larson was even more emphatic that the House Democratic leadership had rounded up the votes of wavering lawmakers.
HELLO FOLKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PAY ATTENTION.....why do you have cancer? who the hell knows,,,,,why do you have autism? who the hell knows.....honestly,,,it's no one's fault,,,,never has been and never will BPH?---just a podium puck.....do you like your cell phone/cable/microwave/alcohol/cigarettes etc...pay attention.....the lies are lies.....
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
My Healthcare Plan by Ann Coulter (more by this author) Posted 03/17/2010 ET Updated 03/17/2010 ET
Liberals keep complaining that Republicans don't have a plan for reforming health care in America. I have a plan!
It's a one-page bill creating a free market in health insurance. Let's all pause here for a moment so liberals can Google the term "free market."
Nearly every problem with health care in this country -- apart from trial lawyers and out-of-date magazines in doctors' waiting rooms -- would be solved by my plan.
In the first sentence, Congress will amend the McCarran-Ferguson Act to allow interstate competition in health insurance.
We can't have a free market in health insurance until Congress eliminates the antitrust exemption protecting health insurance companies from competition. If Democrats really wanted to punish insurance companies, which they manifestly do not, they'd make insurers compete.
The very next sentence of my bill provides that the exclusive regulator of insurance companies will be the state where the company's home office is. Every insurance company in the country would incorporate in the state with the fewest government mandates, just as most corporations are based in Delaware today.
That's the only way to bypass idiotic state mandates, requiring all insurance plans offered in the state to cover, for example, the Zone Diet, sex-change operations, and whatever it is that poor Heidi Montag has done to herself this week.
President Obama says we need national health care because Natoma Canfield of Ohio had to drop her insurance when she couldn't afford the $6,700 premiums, and now she's got cancer.
Much as I admire Obama's use of terminally ill human beings as political props, let me point out here that perhaps Natoma could have afforded insurance had she not been required by Ohio's state insurance mandates to purchase a plan that covers infertility treatments and unlimited OB/GYN visits, among other things.
It sounds like Natoma could have used a plan that covered only the basics -- you know, things like cancer.
The third sentence of my bill would prohibit the federal government from regulating insurance companies, except for normal laws and regulations that apply to all companies.
Freed from onerous state and federal mandates turning insurance companies into public utilities, insurers would be allowed to offer a whole smorgasbord of insurance plans, finally giving consumers a choice.
Instead of Harry Reid deciding whether your insurance plan covers Viagra, this decision would be made by you, the consumer. (I apologize for using the terms "Harry Reid" and "Viagra" in the same sentence. I promise that won't happen again.)
Instead of insurance companies jumping to the tune of politicians bought by health-care lobbyists, they would jump to tune of hundreds of millions of Americans buying health insurance on the free market.
Hypochondriac liberals could still buy the aromatherapy plan and normal people would be able to buy plans that only cover things such as major illness, accidents and disease. (Again -- things like Natoma Canfield's cancer.)
This would, in effect, transform medical insurance into ... a form of insurance!
My bill will solve nearly every problem allegedly addressed by ObamaCare -- and mine entails zero cost to the taxpayer. Indeed, a free market in health insurance would produce major tax savings as layers of government bureaucrats, unnecessary to medical service in America, get fired.
For example, in a free market, the government wouldn't need to prohibit insurance companies from excluding "pre-existing conditions."
Of course, an insurance company has to be able to refuse NEW customers with "pre-existing conditions." Otherwise, everyone would just wait to get sick to buy insurance. It's the same reason you can't buy fire insurance on a house that's already on fire.
That isn't an "insurance company"; it's what's known as a "Christian charity."
What Democrats are insinuating when they denounce exclusions of "pre-existing conditions" is an insurance company using the "pre-existing condition" ruse to deny coverage to a current policy holder -- someone who's been paying into the plan, year after year.
Any insurance company operating in the free market that pulled that trick wouldn't stay in business long.
If hotels were as heavily regulated as health insurance is, right now I'd be explaining to you why the government doesn't need to mandate that hotels offer rooms with beds. If they didn't, they'd go out of business.
I'm sure people who lived in the old Soviet Union thought it was crazy to leave groceries to the free market. ("But what if they don't stock the food we want?")
The market is a more powerful enforcement mechanism than indolent government bureaucrats. If you don't believe me, ask Toyota about six months from now.
Right now, insurance companies are protected by government regulations from having to honor their contracts. Violating contracts isn't so easy when competitors are lurking, ready to steal your customers.
In addition to saving taxpayer money and providing better health insurance, my plan also saves trees by being 2,199 pages shorter than the Democrats' plan.
KUHNER: Impeach the president? By Jeffrey T. Kuhner
The Democrats are assaulting the very pillars of our democracy. As the debate on Obamacare reaches the long, painful end, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is confronting a political nightmare. She may not have the 216 votes necessary to pass the Senate's health care bill in the House.
Hence, Mrs. Pelosi and her congressional Democratic allies are seriously considering using a procedural ruse to circumvent the traditional constitutional process. Led by Rep. Louise M. Slaughter, New York Democrat and chairman of the House Rules Committee, the new plan - called the "Slaughter Solution" - is not to pass the Senate version on an up-or-down vote. Rather, it is to have the House "deem" that the legislation was passed and then have members vote directly on a series of "sidecar" amendments to fix the things it does not like.
This would enable House Democrats to avoid going on the record voting for provisions in the Senate bill - the "Cornhusker Kickback," the "Louisiana Purchase," the tax on high-cost so-called "Cadillac" insurance plans - that are reviled by the public or labor-union bosses. If the reconciliation fixes pass, the House can send the Senate bill to President Obama for his signature without ever having had a formal up-or-down vote on the underlying legislation.
Many Democrats could claim they opposed the Senate bill while allowing it to pass. This would be an unprecedented violation of our democratic norms and procedures, established since the inception of the republic. Article 1, Section 7 of the Constitution stipulates that for any bill to become a law, it must pass both the House of Representatives and the Senate. That is, not be "deemed" to have passed, but actually be voted on with the support of the required majority. The bill must contain the exact same language in both chambers - and in the version signed by the president - to be a legitimate law. This is why the House and Senate have a conference committee to iron out differences of competing versions. This is Civics 101.
The Slaughter Solution is a dagger aimed at the heart of our system of checks and balances. It would enable the Democrats to establish an ominous precedent: The lawmaking process can be rigged to ensure the passage of any legislation without democratic accountability or even a congressional majority. It is the road to a soft tyranny. James Madison must be turning in his grave.
Mr. Obama is imposing a leftist revolution. Since coming to office, he has behaved without any constitutional restraints. The power of the federal government has exploded. He has de facto nationalized key sectors of American life - the big banks, financial institutions, the automakers, large tracts of energy-rich land from Montana to New Mexico. His cap-and-trade proposal, along with a newly empowered Environmental Protection Agency, seeks to impose massive new taxes and regulations upon industry. It is a form of green socialism: Much of the economy would fall under a command-and-control bureaucratic corporatist state. Mr. Obama even wants the government to take over student loans.
Yet his primary goal has always been to gobble up the health care system. The most troubling aspect of the Obamacare debate, however, is not the measure's sweeping and radical aims - the transformation of one-sixth of the U.S. economy, crippling tax increases, higher premiums, state-sanctioned rationing, longer waiting lines, the erosion of the quality of medical care and the creation of a huge, permanent administrative bureaucracy. Rather, the most alarming aspect is the lengths to which the Democrats are willing to go to achieve their progressive, anti-capitalist agenda.
Obamacare is opposed by nearly two-thirds of the public, more than 60 percent of independents and almost all Republicans and conservatives. It has badly fractured the country, dangerously polarizing it along ideological and racial lines. Even a majority of Democrats in the House are deeply reluctant to support it.
Numerous states - from Idaho to Virginia to Texas - have said they will sue the federal government should Obamacare become law. They will declare themselves exempt from its provisions, tying up the legislation in the courts for years to come.
Mr. Obama is willing to devour his presidency, his party's congressional majority and - most disturbing - our democratic institutional safeguards to enact it. He is a reckless ideologue who is willing to sacrifice the country's stability in pursuit of a socialist utopia.
The Slaughter Solution is a poisoned chalice. By drinking from it, the Democrats would not only commit political suicide. They would guarantee that any bill signed by Mr. Obama is illegitimate, illegal and blatantly unconstitutional. It would be worse than a strategic blunder; it would be a crime - a moral crime against the American people and a direct abrogation of the Constitution and our very democracy.
It would open Mr. Obama, as well as key congressional leaders such as Mrs. Pelosi, to impeachment. The Slaughter Solution would replace the rule of law with arbitrary one-party rule. It violates the entire basis of our constitutional government - meeting the threshold of "high crimes and misdemeanors." If it's enacted, Republicans should campaign for the November elections not only on repealing Obamacare, but on removing Mr. Obama and his gang of leftist thugs from office.
It is time Americans drew a line in the sand. Mr. Obama crosses it at his peril.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Providing health care unconditionally a matter of decency
The March 15 letter from Nick Coupas [“We spend trillions on other things; why is health care different?”] should be required reading for all thoughtful Americans. His letter not only makes sense but adds objectivity and compassion to a discussion that so far has shown none of those virtues. Health care should live up to its name: health care. Care for all people: old or young, rich or poor, male or female, conservative or liberal, etc. It does not matter. When people are sick, they are in trouble, they deserve to be treated, cared for. Ability to pay should not be a factor. Health care should not be the privilege of a few lucky ones, it should be a right of everyone. It’s [like] that already in most advanced countries of the world. Health care is not there to create wealth for big companies and their CEOs, nor to add a few millionaires to the American landscape. It’s not about Republicans and Democrats, about being re-elected, about right-to-life, about personal agendas. Purely and simply, health care is — or should be — about the health of people, all people. It’s about treating diseases, alleviating suffering, restoring quality of life. It’s about not letting the most vulnerable, the less-privileged amongst us sink into despair, homelessness and bankruptcy. It’s about the kind of people we really are, about decency.
ROGER MALEBRANCHE, MD Broadalbin The writer is former chief of surgery at St. Clare’s Hospital.
Roger you can provide cheaper health-care by putting in tort reform in the bill which is conspicuously absent along with buying health insurance across state lines which also isn't in the bill. No this is about power and control over the American people and as soon as this bill becomes a law they will push for cap and trade along with immigration.
So there, you were all so anxious to toss all the Republicans out so you got your dream come true. Hope you are happy! Did it feel good to vote for the third party and abstain from voting at all? You get the government you deserve each and every time.
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
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