The New York Times has an interesting chart on the 39 Democrats who voted “No” on Speaker Pelosi’s version of health care “reform.”
The bill, H.R. 3962, passed 220 to 215 on Saturday night.
Click here for more on health care.
WSJ – Why Some Dems Voted Against ObamaCare
Political Wire – Lieberman Says He’ll Join Filibuster
The Hill – President Obama Urges Senate to Pass Health Bill
Politico – Huckabee ‘Very Serious’ About Presidential Run
Clive Crook – Obama Lost Sight of the Center
Real Clear Politics – Breaking Down the Democratic Defectors
RedState – Another Czar Bites the Dust
Federal Debt: $11.979 trillion
On most days, the New York Times’ opinion page is a gallery of liberal stereotypes. There’s Maureen Dowd, whose “liberating” neo-feminism somehow renders her as joyless as a puritan schoolmarm; Frank Rich, the kind of “tolerant” liberal whose Cliff’s Notes understanding of history leaves with him only three totalitarian regimes to compare Republicans to; and then there’s Thomas Friedman…
Friedman is inarguably the Times’ greatest success story. His books are consistent best-sellers and he’s a regular fixture on television and the lecture circuit. This mostly owes to the fact that Friedman substitutes enthusiasm for erudition. He’s an emotive presenter, but his ideas usually center around haute couture social engineering (his affection for “the green economy”) or aging conventional wisdom (how “The World is Flat” became a hit over a decade after globalization was a household concept is beyond me).
I introduce these criticisms as penance for what I’m about to say: Thomas Friedman has gotten something completely and commendably right.
In his new column, “Call White House, Ask for Barack” (a title that owes to a wonderfully direct James Baker quote featured in the piece), Friedman argues that it’s time to throw up our hands and leave the Israeli-Palestinian peace process behind … at least until an outside factor motivates the parties towards substantive work. It’s a rare tour de force and an enticing look into what a significant public intellectual Friedman could be if he spent less time on fashionable shibboleths. Among the best passages:
It is obvious that this Israeli government believes it can have peace with the Palestinians and keep the West Bank, this Palestinian Authority still can’t decide whether to reconcile with the Jewish state or criminalize it and this Hamas leadership would rather let Palestinians live forever in the hellish squalor that is Gaza than give up its crazy fantasy of an Islamic Republic in Palestine.
A rare — but decisive — win. Here’s hoping to more like this from Friedman.
Back before he took his oath of office, there were moments when Barack Obama seemed to have an intellectual clarity that occasionally allowed him to transcend partisanship. One such moment came in an interview with the Reno Gazette-Journal’s editorial board during the 2008 presidential primaries, when he made the (utterly true) claim that Ronald Reagan had been a transformative president in a way that figures such as Richard Nixon or Bill Clinton had not.
Of course, the fact that Obama wasn’t praising the content of Reagan’s legacy was obvious at the time. Long before he was praising the virtues of Whole Foods arugula to Iowa caucus-goers (denizens of a state without a single Whole Foods location), The One was a Columbia undergraduate sympathetic to the nuclear freeze movement that thought Reagan was Dr. Strangelove with Pomade. So this is a man who has never been a fellow-traveler with us Reaganites.
That being said, there are certain times when presidential grace requires biting history’s bullet (especially when it’s in service of a noble cause). Thus, President Obama’s decision to snub Germany’s invitation to help commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall’s demise is as petty as it is revealing.
Two decades ago, the world witnessed the parting shots of perhaps the most protracted struggle between liberty and tyranny in human history. That this victory was achieved without any actual shots owes to the man that Obama once rightly recognized as transformational. Yet while Obama was able to take time out of his presidential campaign to visit a Germany eager to enshrine him as a golden calf, he can’t find room in his day-planner for a return trip to celebrate the greatest human liberation of the 20th century.
Being wrong about the Cold War in the 1980s can be chalked up to an honest mistake fueled by a lack of intellectual sophistication. Being wrong about it 20 years later ought to disqualify you from any public office … let alone the highest in the land.
Tonight, the House of Representatives voted 220-215 to narrowly pass Speaker Pelosi’s 2,000-page, trillion-dollar-plus health care “reform” bill.
Just one Republican, Rep. Joseph Cao (Louisiana) voted “Yea.” Thirty-nine Democrats joined with all other House Republicans in opposition.
From Politico.com:
With just hours remaining until an historic vote on a sweeping health-care reform measure Saturday evening, at least 31 Democrats have said they will vote against the bill as of 6:00 p.m., according to a POLITICO analysis.
Just nine more ‘no’ votes would be enough to sink the bill if Republicans maintain, as expected, a solid front of opposition.
UPDATE:
Politico.com just updated it’s count. The number of House Democrats committed to voting “No” is now 32.
UPDATE – 9:35 p.m.:
“At least 34 Democrats have said they will vote against the bill as of 8:45 p.m.,” according to Politico.com. That is just six shy of the 40 needed to defeat the bill.
See the list Dem “No” votes here.
In this week’s Freedom Minute, CFIF’s Renee Giachino discusses Congress’ ever-growing trend of reckless government spending and what the nation’s growing debt means for America’s families and furture generations.
Watch the video below.
The vote on Speaker Pelosi’s 2,000-page, $1 trillion-plus plan for government-run health care – still scheduled for later today – is coming down to the wire. Several Members of Congress are saying and the media is reporting that the Speaker still doesn’t have the necessary 218 votes for passage – despite her working through the night to strike backroom deals with so-called moderate Democrats.
The vote, whether it happens tonight or is delayed for a day or two, is going to be close. As many as 23 House Democrats have vowed to join with all Republicans to vote against the bill. There are several Democrats still on the fence.
The Hill has this updated whip count of key Dems and their positions on the bill.
The American people must keep the pressure on their Representatives in Congress to vote “No” on the Pelosi-Obama government-run health care scheme. We can defeat it!
CFIF staff is heading down to the U.S. Capitol now to join with thousands of Americans to rally against the bill. If you live in the Washington, D.C.-area, please join us at the event, the details of which can be found here.
Keep calling, writing and faxing your Representatives in opposition to the House bill. Ask your neighbors, friends and family members to do the same. We are winning. We can win. And, we will win if we all do our part to turn up the heat in opposition to government-run health care.
There’s a fascinating article in today’s Wall Street Journal discussing the best way for government to help spur job creation.
Unfortunately, in troubled economic times the language of recovery is too often tilted toward large, established companies or to “small businesses,” a broad term that traditionally applies to businesses with fewer than 500 employees. The conventional wisdom is that such businesses account for half of the labor force and are therefore the engine of future job creation.
That’s not quite the case. The more precise factor is not the size of businesses, but rather their age. According to the Census Bureau, nearly all net job creation in the U.S. since 1980 occurred in firms less than five years old. A Kauffman Foundation report released yesterday shows that as recently as 2007, two-thirds of the jobs created were in such firms. Put more starkly, without new businesses, job creation in the American economy would have been negative for many years.”
The article by three experts at the Kauffman Foundation targets four measures needed to “create incentives to foster the creation and growth of new businesses.”
• First, welcome immigrants seeking scientific training at American universities by creating a “job creator’s” visa for immigrants who have founded a company in America and demonstrated they have at least one employee.
• Second, unleash America’s academic entrepreneurs by allowing university professors to commercialize ideas outside of their home university’s technology licensing office.
• Third, provide easier access to capital so that more flexible standards would allow prudent lending, when it is sorely needed by many firms to remain alive or meet demand when it begins to grow.
• Finally, make it easier for companies seeking capital to go public by allowing shareholders benefited by Sarbanes-Oxley to vote on whether or not they want to comply with all of the law’s (costly) requirements.
You can read the entire article here.
In a sign that trying to scare or shame people into supporting “climate change” regulation isn’t working, some Environmental groups are emphasizing the positive aspects of legislating in the Earth’s name. A sample:
Now, some groups have muted their alarms about wildfires, shrinking glaciers and rising seas. Not because they’ve stopped caring about them — but because they’re trying to win over people who might care more about a climate bill’s non-environmental side benefits, such as ‘green’ jobs and reduced oil imports.”
Perhaps the best evidence that the Environmental Left is learning the popularity of arguing for American held jobs and reducing our dependence on foreign oil is the opening statement by an activist to a group of college students in Kansas:
Take climate change off the table, okay?” Jackson said, after reciting evidence that the climate really is changing. “You don’t have to buy it for everything I’m about to say, because everything we do [to combat climate change] is a good idea for at least three other reasons.”
Not all Environmental groups agree with this new wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing approach. Their intent to keep focusing on alarming the public about impending doom makes it difficult to know who to root for. On the one hand, it’s nice to know at least some people on the Left want to maintain truth in advertising. On the other, it’s a compliment of sorts to have the opposition parroting conservative arguments because they’re persuasive to neutral audiences. Either way, the discord won’t help pass climate change legislation. Thank goodness.
Following the huge turnout for and success of Rep. Michelle Bachmann’s “House Call” yesterday, Congressman Steve King (R-IA) is calling on the American people to make a second “House Call” tomorrow by joining him and other Members of Congress to once again rally against Nancy Pelosi’s health care “reform” bill.
In a statement released earlier today, King said:
Nancy Pelosi and Washington liberals cannot ignore what transpired yesterday in Washington. Americans from every state stormed Capitol Hill. They took over the Hill. And they loudly chanted ‘Kill this bill!’
“We can kill this bill and stop the government takeover of health care. We need the help of every American willing to stand up for freedom and liberty. I urge all Americans who oppose this bill to come to Washington tomorrow morning and join us to stop this bill.”
The rally will take place at the U.S. Capitol at 1:00 p.m. tomorrow, November 7, 2009.
CFIF is calling on its Washington D.C.-area activists and all others who can make it to attend this important rally.
Pelosi has scheduled a floor vote on her “reform” legislation for tomorrow at approximately 6:00 p.m. News reports are suggesting that the Speaker is still scrambling for votes.
Someone in Congress really wants to keep their job. Representative John Adler, a Democrat who represents New Jersey’s 3rd Congressional District, just announced that he will be voting against H.R. 3962, the government takeover of health care.
This comes as a bit of a surprise since rarely are New Jersey Democrats of the moderate “Blue Dog” variety. Then again, President Obama won Adler’s district last year, but only with 52 percent of the vote.
Call Representative Adler at 202-225-4765 to thank him for standing up for taxpayers and freedom. Or if you live in his district, you can reach his local offices at 856-985-2777 or 732-608-7235.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer are publicly predicting that the House health care “reform” bill, which is scheduled to be voted on tomorrow, will pass. But several news reports indicate that both are scrambling today to find the votes.
Even the ultra-liberal Moveon.org, which is pulling out all the stops in support of government-run health care, is worried. In an e-mail sent out to liberal activists earlier today, the group was panicked. The e-mail reads:
Dear MoveOn member,
After months of build-up, tomorrow is THE big House vote on landmark health care reform. But according to news reports, Democrats don’t yet have the votes to win!
This is crunch time. … Right now, it’s all coming down to a key group of moderate Democrats who are on the fence — and we hear they’re getting inundated with calls from health care opponents. …
There you have it. The phone calls, letters, faxes and e-mails against ObamaCare are working. Pelosi and Hoyer are scrambling for votes. Their ultra-liberal allies are panicked. An overwhelming majority of Americans are making their voice heard AGAINST House Democrats’ plan for a government takeover of health care.
Keep it up! Pelosi’s 2,000-page “reform” bill can be defeated. But the Americans people must continue to “inundate” Congressional offices between now and tomorrow.
This week’s installment of the Liberty Update, CFIF’s weekly e-newsletter, is out. For those readers who don’t receive it in their e-mail inboxes or if you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, below is a summary of its contents:
CFIF Staff: Let-Them-Eat-Cake Nancy
Lee: The Obama Way – First Throw Down, Then Throw Up
Senik: Conservatism, Feet Planted
Ellis: Conservative Activists vs. the Republican Establishment, and the Future Is What?
Batkins: The White House War on Speech
Freedom Minute Video: No Ceiling on Reckless Government Spending
Podcast: ObamaCare’s “Demonstration Projects” – Interview with Bob Dorigo Jones
Jester’s Courtroom: Nothing Casual About This Lawsuit
Editorial Cartoons: Latest Cartoons of Michael Ramirez
Quiz: Question of the Week
Notable Quotes: Quotes of the Week
If you are not already signed up to receive the Liberty Update, sign up here.
There are a lot of awful provisions in Speaker Pelosi’s 1,990 page stab at health care “reform.” For millions of small businesses across the country, a 5.4 percent surtax is high on the list of undesirable provisions.
The Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) released an estimate that determined one-third of small businesses will be hit with the new 5.4 percent surtax. Roughly speaking, small businesses can look forward to forking over another $150 billion next year in new taxes to feed Washington’s spending binge.
The lesson: Small businesses must trust Congress. Only Congress knows that the best way to bring down a 10.2 percent unemployment rate is to tax small businesses, raise utility rates through Cap-and-Trade legislation, take over $2 trillion from the private sector through taxes and determine corporate pay scales… Congress knows best.
Here is the JCT cost estimate. To read more on health care, click here.
During his nationally televised address on health care to a joint session of Congress in September, President Obama stated:
There are also those who claim that our [health care] reform effort will insure illegal immigrants. This, too, is false — the reforms I’m proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally.”
Well, either the President wasn’t being totally honest when he made that statement or Nancy Pelosi wasn’t paying attention or just flat out ignored it. H.R. 3962, the 2,000-plus-page (and growing), $1.3 trillion (and growing) “reform” proposal that the House will be voting on tomorrow – and for which President Obama has pledged his support – in fact does enable illegal immigrants to receive health care.
According to a November 2, 2009 Congressional Research Service report, “The House bill contains no express restrictions on noncitizens – whether legally or illegally present, or in the United States temporarily or permanently – accessing and paying for coverage available through the health insurance exchange.”
Just a few days earlier, the Congressional Budget Office (“CBO”) noted in its preliminary cost estimate of H.R. 3962 that in 2019 there would be “about 18 million nonelderly residents uninsured (nearly one third of whom would be unauthorized immigrants).” In other words, CBO projects that six million illegals – nearly half of all illegal immigrants currently living in the United States, according to official government estimates – would be provided health care under the legislation by 2019.
Repeated attempts to amend the underlying legislation upon which H.R. 3962 was drafted to provide for adequate verification of U.S. citizenship and to explicitly exclude illegal immigrants from receiving health benefits under the bill have all failed.
Rep. Tom Price, Chairman of the Republican Study Committee, has a more thorough analysis of the issue here.
Remember when the Obama Administration promised that, if we only passed his potent “stimulus” plan, unemployment would top out at 8%? In contrast, according to Obama, if the American people foolishly refused his master plan, unemployment might rise as high as 10%?
Well, this morning, the U.S. Department of Labor provided yet another wakeup call and simple math lesson to Mr. Obama. Unfortunately, the unemployment rate has now risen to 10.2%. Worse, Obama’s ineffective “stimulus” has only exacerbated the problem by adding to our unsustainable federal debt and creating a forward-looking business climate that is inhospitable to creation of new employment and enterprises. Something to keep in mind as Obama issues new promise after promise regarding his healthcare, carbon cap-and-tax and other agenda items.
Politico – Pelosi Still Dealing as Health Care Vote Nears
The Hill – Thousands of Protesters Pay ‘House Call’
WSJ – Jobless Rate Tops 10%
Washington Post – Senate Votes to Renew Home Buyers Tax Credit
Miami Herald – Florida a Battleground State … Again
San Diego Union-Tribune – Fear of Health ‘Reform’ is Warranted
Charles Krauthammer – The Myth of ’08, Demolished
Breitbart – Obama Back-Tracking on Net Neutrality?
Federal Debt: $11.946 trillion
What if suddenly, after eight years of a “cowboy presidency” and the election of a worldly, foreign policy-hesitant President, America’s biggest nemesis voluntarily offered to deescalate tensions? As the Obama Administration waits for such a breakthrough moment with North Korea, Iran, Hamas, Sudan, Venezuela, and others, a new article in Foreign Policy by David E. Hoffman analyzes the actions of a different man in a similar moment.
Hoffman’s primary criticism of President George H. W. Bush during the tumultuous year of 1989 is that he failed to appreciate the scale and speed of change inside the Soviet Union. On more than one occasion, Bush took a cautious, wait-and-see approach when evaluating Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev’s liberalization programs of perestroika and glasnost. It literally took the Berlin Wall falling down before Bush convinced himself that Gorbachev was serious about implementing fundamental changes both inside and outside Russia.
The title of the article, “1989: The Lost Year,” reflects the missed opportunities that, if realized and acted on, could have led to a much smoother Soviet transition from orthodox communism. Would President Obama be able to distinguish real reforms from empty platitudes, or would he make the same mistakes as Bush Senior? For all of the current president’s stubbornness in ramming through his domestic agenda, he’s shown a conspicuous lack of clarity when it comes to foreign affairs. From urging restraint during the Russian invasion of Georgia to dithering on Afghanistan troop levels, Obama shows signs of being caught off guard in the unlikely event his overtures to America’s enemies actually work.
With all the focus this week on off-year elections and the impending House healthcare vote this Saturday, it would be easy to miss the steady progress of two “climate change” proposals. The first is a bill approved today by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. If signed into law it would require industry to cut emissions of greenhouse gases by 20 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels. As usual, the committee’s Chairwoman, Barbara Boxer (D-CA), thinks “this is a great signal for Copenhagen that there’s a will to do what it takes to advance this issue.”
Why does Senator Boxer care about Copenhagen? Because that’s the next destination on the U.N.’s perpetual climate change treaty writing circuit. For months, supporters of creating an internationally binding treaty to enforce hard caps on emissions and “carbon reparations” payments from rich to poor countries have seen the December meeting in Copenhagen as the moment when the Al Gore-negotiated Kyoto Protocol could become global. Boxer, with the help of the Obama Administration, is ready to put taxpayer money where the Environmental Left’s mouth is.
One snag though. Apparently, the global economic recession is putting the brakes on countries’ ability to raise taxes without creating jobs or improving infrastructure. How odd. Now the treaty’s negotiators are talking as if it may take another year to get an agreement signed. Thankfully, such a timetable puts any ratification decision by the U.S. Senate after next year’s mid-term elections. As the 2010 campaign issues continue to pile up, people looking to rebuke Obama & Co. for healthcare reform can also send a message that higher taxes, greater wealth redistribution, and lower productivity are as unpopular when imposed by foreign powers as they are when mandated domestically.
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