By TVC Executive Director Andrea Lafferty
Most Americans are busy with Christmas shopping, welcoming family members from out of town and preparing food for Christmas celebrations this week.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), however, is the Grinch who stole Christmas for every member of the Senate, their families, and staff members who are being forced to stay in D.C. for a Christmas Eve day vote on nationalizing health care.
Reid is handing out cash for cloture votes like Santa Claus handing out candy canes during the Macy’s Day Parade.
Reid’s is using bribes, extortion, threats, and secrecy to ram through Obama’s socialized medicine plan – at a time when most Americans are thinking about the celebration of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem.
Reid has handed out $300 million to Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) for her vote; $100 million in Medicaid assistance for Senator Ben Nelson’s (D-NE); a sweetheart insurance deal for Nebraska and Michigan insurance companies to benefit Nelson and Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI); Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) gets $100 million for a hospital; Sen. Roland Burris (D-IL) gets money for ACORN; Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) gets $10 billion for community health centers; Sen. Ben Nelson (D-FL) gets a special deal in Florida for Medicare Advantage Recipients; Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) gets extra Medicare benefits for Montana residents; Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) wins Medicare funding for Iowa hospitals; Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) gets higher Medicare payments for rural hospitals.
How many more bribes will he offer to get nationalized health care? He’s clearly willing to do anything to get it done.
Abortion Coverage Still In Bill
Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) claimed he was not going to vote for the Reid bill unless there were prohibitions against the use of federal dollars to kill unborn children. Nelson sold us out and voted for cloture last week, which gave Reid the 60 votes needed to push for a vote on Christmas Eve.
The abortion coverage is still in the bill. It’s just hidden. Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) has exposed this fake prohibition against the use of federal money for abortion. In Politico, Brownback noted:
The amended bill in the Senate does not include the Stupak amendment language from the House bill that would prohibit federal funds from being used to pay for elective abortions. Instead, states are given the option to opt out of providing insurance coverage of abortions. But while states are given the option to opt out, taxpayers in a state that opts out would still see their federal tax dollars fund elective abortions in other states. In other words, even taxpayers in states that opt out of providing abortion coverage cannot opt out of paying for elective abortion.
The bill would also undermine existing state restrictions on abortion because it pre-empts state laws and conflicts with some existing state regulations. What abortion proponents have been unable to achieve through the legislatures or the courts, they would now achieve through a so-called health care reform bill.
Also, the bill as written allows executive branch officials to require that private health plans cover abortion simply by defining them as “preventive care.” This is possible because amendments to strike this definition were defeated. Smuggling this kind of fundamental change into the bill is particularly offensive, since, as President Barack Obama himself said, this is supposed to be a health care bill, not an abortion bill. So much for the status quo.
Did Nelson vote for this because of the bribe from Reid or from the threat from the White House to close down the Strategic Command air force base in his state? Twenty Senators are asking for an investigation into the White House threat against Nelson.
Many Nebraskans are angry with Nelson for his vote, including his home state colleague U.S. Senator Mike Johanns (R). According to Johanns: “Nebraskans are frustrated and angry that our beloved state has been thrust into the same pot with all of the other special deals that get cut here. In fact... they're outraged that a backroom deal for our state might have been what puts this deal across the finish line.”
Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman said he wants no part of special favors and made it clear that “the responsibility for this special deal lies solely on the shoulders of Senator Ben Nelson.”
Unrepealable Legislation?
If you were not already steaming over this unconstitutional bill, how about this? Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) uncovered a provision hidden in the Reid bill that prohibits future Congresses from amending or repealing a rationing board in Reid’s health care bill. DeMint points out that this provision is a change in the Senate rules, which needs a two-thirds majority to change. But, he was told by the Senate President on December 22, that the provision is only a “procedural change” – not a rule change. In effect, Reid’s bill will make it impossible to change after it is passed.
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.
Senate Battle Rages
Many Republican Senators are doing whatever they can to stop Reid from ramming socialized medicine down our throats. On Wednesday, they will challenge the lack of transparency displayed by Reid and his Democrat cronies in the Senate. At issue is whether Reid has violated Rule 44 of the Standing Rules of the Senate, which requires Senators to publicly disclose congressionally directed spending (earmarks).
TAKE ACTION: Contact your two U.S. Senators immediately and urge them to vote NO on Reid’s plan to nationalize our health care. Action is needed before the Christmas Eve day vote.