Garden State Patriot

I have set up an open thread for the day at Conservative Majority NJ. To access this, click here.

The first major vote in the Senate on healthcare will take place this Saturday at 8PM. The vote will be on the ‘motion to proceed’ with the bill. This is not a vote to pass the bill, just a vote to approve of bringing the bill to the floor for debate.

Senate Republicans have managed to get 10 hours of debate on the motion to proceed. Harry Reid initially wanted just 1 hour of debate.

Republicans, though, have dropped the idea of reading the bill on the floor. And now they will need one Democrat or Independent Joe Lieberman to join them in a filibuster.

One Senate aide summed it up this way:

“Under the rules, we would only have been entitled to one hour of debate before the vote. Now we have all day to flip one Democrat,” the aide said. “The reading would’ve been to an empty chamber after the vote had happened, press would’ve gone home, and Americans would’ve turned the channel. Now it’s show time.”

I should add, this effort is not without its shenanigans from the mischievous Senator Reid. In a post at Red State, Senator DeMint explains the meaningfulness of this vote and what Reid plans to do:

A defining moment is coming in this year’s health care debate.

Yesterday, Democrat leaders announced they may soon bring Harry Reid’s new health care bill to the Senate floor in an effort to grant the President’s wish for a government takeover of our nation’s health care by Christmas. This is in spite of the fact that 99 senators have never seen Reid’s new bill that was written in secret. Reid even hinted he may rush to a vote before the bill’s been public for 72 hours, as even Democrats have demanded.

To begin debate on this new version of Obamacare, Reid will play a shell game. He needs 60 senators to “vote to proceed” to an unrelated piece of legislation, and once he clears that hurdle he will strike that bill’s text and insert his new health care bill. But don’t be fooled by senators that will say they oppose a government takeover but just wanted to allow debate on health care, they are not being honest.

The simple fact is this: Any senator that votes to proceed to the Reid-Obama bill is voting for a government takeover of health care.

Why? Because, President Obama and Harry Reid cannot pass a government takeover without clearing 60 vote procedural hurdles in the Senate — but they also know that vulnerable Democrats likely cannot win reelection if they vote for this unpopular bill. So they want all Democrats to stick together on the vote to proceed, then some Democrats will vote against final passage of the bill and claim they tried to stop it.

Senators who say they just want to allow for debate are trying to deceive their voters while giving President Obama the crucial votes he needs to pass a government takeover of health care.

Voters should be watching and remember who stands up for their freedom and who stands with the special interests who want to ram through this takeover.

Again, to see the senators we need to target review my previous post here.

Cross-posted at CMNJ.

Here is a video by Dan Mitchell of the CATO Institute explaining the true costs of government-run healthcare. In fact, Mr. Mitchell makes this so easy to understand, even a liberal can get it.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oUx0S6Foss&feature=player_embedded#[/youtube]

Check out some more of Dan Mitchell’s videos here: Why Keynesian economics is wrong, How big government hurts economic growth, How big government hurts economic growth, and Making the case against the Value Added Tax.

Cross-posted at Conservatives with Attitude!

By now we have all heard the mantra from liberals and other pro-Obamacare people that we need reform because the insurance companies all too frequently deny claims. Well, what do the facts say?

I thought you would find these statistics from an AMA Report Card quite interesting. This data is for claims filed during the period 3/1/07-3/10/08:

Yep, that’s right. The carrier with the highest rate of denial of claims is none other than government-run Medicare! The only private insurer remotely close is Aetna.

So much for the argument by the single payer proponents that we need the public option to prevent this kind of abuse by the insurance companies. This data tells us quite clearly that under a government-run system we can expect the number of denied claims to increase – not decrease.

Shocking, eh?

Cross-posted at Conservatives with Attitude!

Yesterday I posted about which senators to target in the upcoming healthcare showdown. In addition, I mentioned that there were two State Work Periods coming up which, presumably, will mean that our senators will be back in New Jersey and available to their constituents.

This prompted me today to call Senator Lautenberg’s and Senator Menendez’ offices to see what their schedule and agenda was for these two breaks. Their answer? Neither office knows what the senators are doing. They don’t know if they are going to be in New Jersey, let alone if they have any events scheduled. Considering that the first break begins tomorrow, this seems a little suspicious to me (albeit not surprising). 

So, here we are with one of the most serious and important pieces of legislation to come before the Senate in our lifetimes and our two senators are MIA. They have no known plans for giving the people they represent a chance to speak with them about an issue that will impact their very lives before a potential vote in December. For all I know they will be on their way to St. Bart’s to console their fallen comrade, Governor Corzine.

Frankly, I think it’s time our two senators stopped hiding behind their desks. It’s time both of them showed some guts and faced their constituents.

Cross-posted at Red County and Conservatives with Attitude!

With H.R. 3962, aka the Socialize and Destroy America’s Healthcare System Act, having passed the House all eyes are now turning to the U.S. Senate. While I am of the opinion that Harry Reid will pull every trick out of his hat and use every underhand tactic to pass the Senate bill, this will be a tougher road to hoe for the Democrat leader.

The Republicans have a lot more leverage in the Senate than their colleagues in the House. This, of course, starts with the filibuster. Republicans would need one other senator (assuming they can keep RINOs like Olympia Snowe on the reservation) if they are to successfully filibuster the healthcare bill that emerges from behind Harry Reid’s closed doors. Senator Lieberman, as Michael pointed out, plans to filibuster any measure with a public option.

Should the Republicans fail in their effort to filibuster, they would need 11 senators to defeat the bill. Which begs the question, which senators should we target? I asked that very question to one of my contacts on the Hill. And according to this Senate GOP source, the following senators would be the ‘most important and persuadable’: 

• Blanche Lincoln – Arkansas
• Michael Bennet – Colorado
• Ben Nelson – Nebraska
• Evan Bayh – Indiana
• Mary Landrieu – Louisiana
• Mark Pryor – Arkasnas
• Mark Warner – Virginia
• Mark Begich – Alaska 

My source considerd these senators ‘less persuadable, but still possible’: 

• Kent Conrad – North Dakota
• Byron Dorgan – North Dakota
• Claire McCaskill – Missouri
• Tim Johnson – South Dakota
• Jim Webb – Virginia 

And lastly, these senators were described as ‘probably not persuadable, but couldn’t hurt’: 

• Bill Nelson – Florida
• Kay Hagan – North Carolina
• Mark Udall – Colorado

As we know, this entire process has utterly lacked transparency, with Republicans shut out of the process and Harry Reid working behind closed doors to merge/cherry pick from three Senate measures. This process is apparently taking longer than Reid anticipated and my understanding is that the Senate bill may not be voted on until December.

When the bill finally reaches the Senate floor, the first important vote will be on the Motion to Proceed. Like any bill, this requires a majority vote but can also be filibustered. If the Motion to Proceed passes, then the bill comes up for debate.

Aside from any potential filibuster, Senate Republicans will use all parliamentary procedures at their disposal. There is talk of actually having the entire bill read on the Senate floor. Republicans also would propose a ton of amendments, all of which would require debate.

In sum, there is more reason for optimism that this could be stopped in the Senate. However, Democrat Senators will also be under immense pressure from their caucus to support Obama’s top legislative priority. Thus, it will require an even greater amount of pressure from all of us. And the senators listed above are are where we need to start.

Also, I would point out that, according to the Senate calendar, two breaks are upcoming in November which would offer people the opportunity to see their senators back in their home states. They are as follows:

For Senate contact information click here.

Cross-posted at Conservatives with Attitude!

Back in August, when town hall meetings were at a fever pitch, I attended three of Rothman’s ‘listening sessions.’ While Rothman deserved credit for taking the heat at that time, it was evident that he had no intention of ever changing his mind and voting the will of his constituents despite his rhetoric to the contrary. I said as much here.

Among the many things Rothman said at the time was that he would not vote for a bill that rationed care, included abortion or covered illegal immigrants. Mark Kalinowski of the North Jersey Tea Party Group details this in his Facebook post today:

At his August 10th town hall meeting in North Arlington, Democratic Congressman Steve Rothman told the citizens assembled that he would not vote for any bill that would lead to rationing of medical care. (Video of him saying so is located on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VradLPeiynQ) Last night, bill HR 3962 came up for vote. One of the core purposes of this bill — the remarks of the ignorant and the power-hungry notwithstanding — is to have the federal government take over medical care. Whenever this anti-free market approach has been tried by other governments around the world, it has always led to rationing. In fact, the people who wrote this bill understand this, because they removed the following sentence outlawing rationing from a similar bill (HR 3200) weeks ago: “In developing such recommendations, the Committee shall take into account innovation in health care and ensure that essential benefits coverage does not lead to rationing of health care.” (This language was not added back into HR 3962.) Unfortunately, there are a lot of horrible politicians out there, and firmly among them is the thoroughly dishonest Steve Rothman. Voters in his district have just found out in a most spectacular, obvious way that Rothman’s word is no good. (Politicians like Rothman who are so willing to lie to themselves should never be trusted.) For the harm Rothman has caused to our country and our Constitution, for his willingness to violate our unalienable moral rights (such as our right to refrain from paying for other people’s health insurance), and for his stunning betrayal of his constituents, Rothman must be voted out of office in 2010.

Note #1: The source for the quote of the June draft of HR 3200 comes from: http://theblogprof.blogspot.com/2009/11/change-prohibition-against-rationing.html

Note #2: I predicted Rothman’s would go back on his word; for example see this from the August 16th Bergen County Record: http://www.northjersey.com/news/opinions/letters/The_debate_on_health_care_reform.html?c=y&page=3

Note #3: The final roll call for the November 7, 2009 vote on HR 3200 can be found here: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2009/roll887.xml. If your congressman or congresswoman voted for this move toward socialized medicine, let’s vote him or her out of office too!

Mark is correct. With yesterday’s vote, Rothman has now gone on record as holding his constituent’s in contempt as well as going back on his word. Like every other representative in Congress who voted for government-run healthcare, he has also violated the oath he took to uphold the constitution. 

Mr. Rothman is no longer worthy of the office he currently holds. As a resident in his district, I will personally do everything in my power to make sure that the vote he cast last night is one of his last. And I’m sure I will not be alone in that endeavor.

Cross-posted at Red County and Conservatives with Attitude!

A very, very sad day for America.

Yeas – 220

Nays – 215

One Republican vote. 39 Democrats opposed.

As scary as it is, I have been watching C-Span for most of the day. One of the big issues in this debate is abortion. As I mentioned in my post below, the Stupak Amendment was being brought up to stop taxpayer funded abortions from being in the final bill.

However, politically the right move for the GOP was to vote AGAINST the amendment. This way pro-life Dems would not want to vote for the larger (and more dangerous) healthcare bill.

But National Right to Life pressured Republicans. They told them that even a ‘present’ vote would be considered a ‘no’ vote, thus affecting their rating from that group. Only one Congressman, Rep. Shadegg had the guts to vote present. The rest of the Republicans went along.

Additionally, earlier today in the debate Rep. Boehner, in a heated exchange with Charlie Rangel, asked for reassurance that the amendment would be in any final bill. No such commitment was given. So, even with the passage of the Stupak Amendment it may well be meaningless.

Now, pro-life Dems will be able to freely vote for the bill. The vote is due fairly soon. And if it passes by a small margin with the support of pro-life Dems it is the Republican’s own fault.

And it’s also the fault of a one-issue, myopic group - National Right to Life.

Cross-posted at Conservatives with Attitude!

[UPDATE] RE: Stupak Amendment – The Stupak Amendment will supposedly contain legislation preventing funding of abortion to make it more palatable to pro-life Dems. As such, we should be putting pressure on our Republican reps to vote AGAINST this amendment. It’s a dangerous move but will make it harder for the overall bill to pass. Act accordingly! [UPDATE] Michelle Malkin:

Rep. Stupak: Health care has the votes whether anti-abortion amendment passes or fails. Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) told reporters that regardless of the outcome of the vote on his amendment, which would severely restrict coverage of reproductive health issues, the House health care bill is headed for passage. He is whipping support for the amendment and estimates he has 225 votes. If he’s right, the amendment will pass, and he predicted enough pro-life Democrats will vote yes on the final bill to put it over the top. But if it fails, he said, enough pro-lifers will have been satisfied to have had their vote on the floor that they’ll turn around and support the final bill anyway.

[UPDATE] More info on the undecideds: Politico

The President just met with Pelosi and other Dem House leaders. They are trying to twist arms to get the last votes. We need to pressure them to stop. Personally, I just got through to Rothman’s office and told them to make sure he votes NO or suffer the consequences next year.    

Here are the key Representatives to call:

• Allen Boyd (FL) at 202-225-5235 – UPDATE: Voting NO
• Collin Peterson (MN) at 202-225-2165 – UPDATE: Not picking up, mailbox full
• Kathy Dahlkemper (PA) at 202-225-5406 – UPDATE: Not picking up, mailbox full
• Tim Holden (PA) at 202-225-5546 – UPDATE: No answer, Hearing NO
• Jim Cooper (TN) at 202-225-4311 – UPDATE: Voting YES
• Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin (SD) at 202-225-2801 – UPDATE: Not picking up, mailbox full
• Joe Donnelly (IN) at 202-225-3915 – UPDATE: Not picking up, mailbox full
• Ben Chandler (KY) at 202-225-4706 – UPDATE: Leaning NO
• Zack Space (OH) at 202-225-6265 – UPDATE: Not picking up, left message
• Charles Wilson (OH) at 202-225-5705 – UPDATE: Not picking up, mailbox full
• Gabrielle Giffords (AZ) at 202-225-2542 – UPDATE: Voting YES
• Harry Mitchell (AZ) at 202-225-2190 – UPDATE: Voting YES
• Henry Cuellar (TX) at 202-225-1640 – UPDATE: Not picking up, mailbox full
• Dennis Moore (KS) at 202-225-2865 – UPDATE: Not picking up, mailbox full
• Mike Ross (AK) at 202-225-3772 – UPDATE: Not picking up, left message

Call 202-224-3121 or go here to get the direct dial number of your Congressman.

Red State has more on the key Congressmen/women. But this is the 11th hour in the House. Call NOW to make your voice heard.