Freedom Line Blog

The Associated Press reports:

WASHINGTON – The health care bill headed for a vote in the House this week costs $1.2 trillion or more over a decade, according to numerous Democratic officials and figures contained in an analysis by congressional budget experts, far higher than the $900 billion cited by President Barack Obama as a price tag for his reform plan.

While the Congressional Budget Office has put the cost of expanding coverage in the legislation at roughly $1 trillion, Democrats added billions more on higher spending for public health, a reinsurance program to hold down retiree health costs, payments for preventive services and more. …

The officials who provided overall cost estimates did so on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to discuss them.

Earlier this week, the editorial staff of The Wall Street Journal informed its readers that, “Speaker Nancy Pelosi has reportedly told fellow Democrats that she’s prepared to lose seats in 2010 if that’s what it takes to pass ObamaCare.”

So Pelosi is forcing a vote without any significant debate in the House this week on the nearly 2,000-page bill, which was crafted behind closed doors without any public or bipartisan input and which appears to be expanding by the minute in terms of its price tag and assault on individual freedom.  It certainly would seem as though the Speaker is being true to her word of passage of ObamaCare at any cost, now doesn’t it.

Immediately following the 2006 elections, when Democrats took control of the House of Representatives, then-Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi said, “The American people voted to restore integrity and honesty in Washington, D.C., and the Democrats intend to lead the most honest, most open and most ethical Congress in history.” 

It wasn’t the first time Pelosi (and other current Congressional leaders) made that promise.  Nor was it the last.

Today, nearly three years later, the lead story on Politico.com begins:

A leaked document shows that House ethics investigators are probing the activities of nearly three dozen lawmakers…

“The House ethics committee said Thursday that it was opening two new investigations — one into the foreclosure scandal of Rep. Laura Richardson (D-Calif.) and one involving financial questions about Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and her husband.

“But shortly after the committee met, chairs Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and Jo Bonner (R-Ala.) interrupted proceedings on the House floor to say that an internal document on secret committee proceedings had been leaked to The Washington Post — and that it would name the names of many other members who had drawn the attention of either the committee or the Office of Congressional Ethics.

“According to the Post, the document identifies more than 30 House members.”

Read the full Politico.com story here. 

The Washington Post had the scoop.  The report by the Post’s Ellen Nakashima and Paul Kane can be read here.

For those of you who haven’t had a chance to read Speaker Pelosi’s 1,990 page monstrosity of a health care bill, CFIF has provided a few summaries here and here.

Today, a short one-page document was released covering the major provisions in the health care bill.  It is a brief overview organized by page and section.  You can read it here.

After taking intense criticism for not being open and transparent, the House of Representatives just posted a new version of health care “reform” online.

If you have a slow Internet connection, then you better take a coffee break while downloading.  The bill is 1,990 pages or more than six football fields long when placed end-to-end.

Pelosi’s pledge on the legislation, “It will not add one dime to the deficit.”  How does she get there you ask? Of course by raising taxes in an effort to make the bill “deficit neutral.”

More analysis to come…

From the Associated Press:

A government-sponsored ‘public option’ for health care lives, though it may be more attractive to skeptics if it goes by a different moniker, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday.

“In an appearance at a Florida senior center, the Democratic leader referred to the so-called public option as ‘the consumer option.’  Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., appeared by Pelosi’s side and used the term ‘competitive option.’

“Both suggested new terminology might get them past any lingering doubts among the public – or consumers or competitors.”

Read the full article here.

In this week’s Freedom Minute, CFIF’s Renee Giachino comments on how the culture of corruption in Washington has gotten worse, not better, under Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s leadership.  Watch the video below.

In a recent interview with Charlie Rose, Speaker Pelosi not only hinted at a Value-Added Tax (VAT) to pay for health care “reform,” she practically endorsed the idea as a way to equalize tax treatment between the U.S. and Europe.

Pelosi stated, “Somewhere along the way, a value-added tax plays into this.  Of course, we want to take down the health care cost, that’s one part of it.  But in the scheme of things, I think it’s fair to look at a value-added tax as well.”

The implementation of a VAT would assuredly break President Obama’s pledge that no one making under $250,000 would see a tax increase of any kind.  A VAT is essentially a massive sales tax (over 20% in some countries) on all consumers.  What’s worse, a VAT is typically not transparent, that is, prices go up but consumers don’t see the tax when they’re at the checkout counter.

See below for Obama’s pledge.  Studies on the regressive and horrible idea of a VAT here and here.

In his weekly descent into leftist frivolousness today, Wall Street Journal token columnist Thomas Frank argues that Democrats have remained far too…  get this…  “civil” in contemporary political debate.  Frank absurdly claims that in response to conservative activism, Democrats “pine for civility, pretending that the argument comes down to the scary rhetoric issuing from the right.”

On what planet is he living?  As noted by Tony Blankley in his most recent commentary, Democrats have met citizen activism by labeling them “evil” (Senator Harry Reid), “un-American” (House Minority Leader Steny Hoyer), “racist” (Jimmy Carter)  and accusing them of employing “Nazi” tactics (House Speaker Nancy Pelosi).  In contrast, Republican leaders have maintained a professional, restrained, rational tone, as illustrated by Senators Mitch McConnell and Jon Kyl, and Representatives Paul Ryan and Eric Cantor.  Frank proceeds to unfurl his usual litany of anti-capitalist tirades and bogeymen, but that’s nothing new.  Asserting that Democrat leaders have somehow taken the rhetorical high road, however, is remarkably silly even for him.

Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives plan to pass a resolution censuring Congressman Joe Wilson (R-SC) for saying “you lie” during the President’s ObamaCare live infomercial Wednesday night, and refusing to apologize on the floor of the House, even though he has apologized to the President.

We assume that this censure will follow that of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for calling Town Hall protesters “Nazis” and that of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for saying that the CIA lies to Congress all the time.

Too bad there won’t be enough time left that day to deal with the people’s business.  How large is the deficit now?