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Tuesday, December 22, 2009

We will break the law to get health care reform.....

As is well known, the coming train-wreck trumpeted as health care reform passed the first major hurdle under the cover of darkness, in the wee hours of the night. Voting along straight party lines at 1am on Monday morning, the legislation was passed out of cloture, allowing it to advance one more step toward becoming reality.

It moved a significant step forward in a vote held shortly after 1 a.m. ET. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was able to hold together all 58 Democrats and two independents to overcome unanimous GOP opposition in a 60-40 vote, after winning over the last known holdout, Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb. Sixty votes was the minimum amount needed to move the bill forward.

Over the last several months it has become clear Democrats will do whatever it takes to get some form of health care legislation passed into law. Though the most liberal started with great aspirations of huge, sweeping "reforms" such as a public run option, coverage for illegal immigrants, unfettered access to abortion, (paid for with federal dollars) and other ridiculous and ruinous policies, many of those items have been dropped. Now not only are we going to get a bill that does nothing make make improvements to the current system-no matter what side of the aisle you're on-but it would appear at this point the only people who will benefit from this crap legislation are insurance companies-who's profits will soar-and the federal government-with a whole slew of new taxes, fines and penalties, to be foisted upon the American people.

Sadly, one of the worst aspects of this legislation is the fact that it looks as though it will be passed along straight party lines. Never before in history has such major legislation been enacted without some form of bipartisan support. While Democrats like to assail Republicans for being the party of "no", insinuating they offered no alternatives, this is patently false. Republicans have offered several alternatives. The problem is Democrats wanted no part if anything looking like compromise. They pandered to the liberal base and now even most of them lost. Rather than compromise and bipartisanship we got over-reaching by lawmakers and ended up with essentially nothing more than huge government intervention and a boondoggle of cash for our representatives to waste and pilfer at will. If this is Nancy Pelosi's version of Christmas, she can keep it.

Finally, it is very important people realize Democrats will do anything to get this bill passed and then mandated forever into law. On Saturday, they completely ignored parliamentary procedure when Sen. Bernie Sanders to cut off the reading of his single-payer proposal.
When an amendment is introduced, it has to be read on the Senate floor unless the rest of the Senate agrees to cut off the reading, and typically, the requirement is waived through "unanimous consent." Yet today, Sen. Tom Coburn insisted that Sanders' 767 page bill be read on the Senate floor, which was on pace to take more than 12 hours. But about three hours into the reading, Sanders withdrew his amendment, and this stopped the reading of the bill -- even without unanimous consent.

Then on Monday Sen. Jim DeMint pointed out language in the bill which will make parts of it nearly unrepealable by future lawmakers.
there's one provision that i found particularly troubling and it's under section
c, titled "limitations on changes to this subsection."
and i quote -- "it shall not be in order in the senate or the house of representatives to consider any bill, resolution, amendment, or conference report that would repeal or
otherwise change this subsection."
this is not legislation. it's not law. this is a rule change. it's a pretty big deal. we will be passing a new law and at the same time creating a senate rule that makes it out of order to amend or even repeal the law.
i'm not even sure that it's constitutional, but if it is, it most certainly is a senate rule. i don't see why the majority party wouldn't put this in every bill. if you like your law, you most certainly would want it to have force for future senates.
i mean, we want to bind future congresses. this goes to the fundamental purpose of senate rules: to prevent a tyrannical majority from trampling the rights of the minority or of future congresses.

Not only are they passing reform no one wants, they are now including changes to the rules about the way laws are made (or unmade) without a 2/3 majority vote on it. This is not only egregious, it is outright illegal. Mr. Reid cannot change the rules of the House and Senate to suit him. That isn't the way our Constitution works. It is clear this Democratic majority truly believes they are above the law or reproach. It is a disgusting perversion to believe one side of the isle is beyond question. Ever. For all eternity.

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