United Liberty

News is breaking that Democrats plan to have separate votes for the Senate version of ObamaCare and the reconciliation package:

House leaders have decided to take a separate vote on the Senate health-care bill, rejecting an earlier, much-criticized strategy that would have permitted them to “deem” the unpopular measure passed without an explicit vote.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said Saturday that the House would take three votes Sunday: first, on a resolution that will set the terms of debate; second, on a package of amendments to the Senate bill that have been demanded by House members; and third, on the Senate bill itself.

This tells me that they probably have the votes to move forward, though I guess anything is still possible and there are enough members who are publicly undecided to swing it. I just think that’s unlikely at this point.

Enjoy ObamaCare, America.

After posting the allegations against Sean Hannity yesterday, I received a response later in the day from the Freedom Alliance, who are calling the charges “false and malicious.”

They note that Hannity has “contributed $100,000 to the Wounded Warriors Foundation, over $200,000 to the 2. Freedom Alliance, and over tens of thousands of dollars to other military charities and individuals.”

The Freedom Alliance also says that the money, currently $15 million, is being disbursed as children of soldiers come of age, and that the money already disbursed cannot be counted as an accurate measure of how the fund has handled money.

You can read Freedom Alliance’s response in full here.

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) asked the Congressional Budget Office to include the Medicare “doc fix” in its estimates for ObamaCare, which has been specifically excluded to help keep down estimated costs. If the fix were included, the cost of the bill would have exceeded $1.1 trillion, making it much tougher to sell the bill to members.

Here’s the story:

Congressional budget scorekeepers say a Medicare fix that Democrats included in earlier versions of their health care bill would push it into the red.

The Congressional Budget Office said Friday that rolling back a programmed cut in Medicare fees to doctors would cost $208 billion over 10 years. If added back to the health care overhaul bill, it would wipe out all the deficit reduction, leaving the legislation $59 billion in the red.

The so-called doc fix was part of the original House bill. Because of its high cost, Democrats decided to pursue it separately. Republicans say the cost should not be ignored. Congress has usually waived the cuts to doctors year by year.

One of the big talking points for Democrats is the long-term deficit reduction (past the first decade). The CBO says the “doc fix” and other factors could change that (emphasis mine):

Yesterday, our friends at the Cato Institute hosted a panel dealing with conservatism and war, moderated by Grover Norquist with Rep. Tom McClintock, Rep. John Duncan and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher on the panel.

It’s refreshing to hear conservative Republicans, outside of Rep. Ron Paul, talk about the mistake of going to war in Iraq:

According to conservative activist Debbie Schlussel, an overwhelming amount of the revenues from the annual concerts promoted by talk show host Sean Hannity to help families of fallen soldiers are going to pay overhead and other expenses:

[L]ess than 20%–and in two recent years, less than 7% and 4%, respectively–of the money raised by Freedom Alliance went to these causes, while millions of dollars went to expenses, including consultants and apparently to ferret the Hannity posse of family and friends in high style. And, despite Hannity’s statements to the contrary on his nationally syndicated radio show, few of the children of fallen soldiers got more than $1,000-$2,000, with apparently none getting more than $6,000, while Freedom Alliance appears to have spent tens of thousands of dollars for private planes. Moreover, despite written assurances to donors that all money raised would go directly to scholarships for kids of the fallen heroes and not to expenses, has begun charging expenses of nearly $500,000 to give out just over $800,000 in scholarships.
[…]
According to its 2006 tax returns, Freedom Alliance reported revenue of $10, 822, 785, but only $397,900–or a beyond-measly 3.68%–of that was given to the children of fallen troops as scholarships or as aid to severely injured soldiers.

Yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a preliminary score of ObamaCare that shows an estimated cost of $945 billion over the next 10 years (text of the reconciliation bill was posted online, as well). The CBO also estimates that the legislation will result in deficit reduction of $138 billion over the same period of time. The report also indicates that 98% of the spending in the bill in the first decade comes in the last six years.

Because the estimate came in under $1 trillion, House Democratic leaders feel this helps their cause. Of course, the reason it comes in under $1 trillion is because Democrats tweeked the excise tax on health insurance plans. The legislation is also missing the $300 billion doc fix, which will come out separately.”

Also, it’s important to remember that the CBO score wasn’t a final analysis of the bill if you actually read it (emphasis mine):

With ObamaCare dominating the news and blogs this week, you may think that it’s the biggest issue on the minds of Americans. You’d be wrong.

Gallup finds that jobs and economy are our top concerns:

The poll also finds that in the long-term, Americans are more worried about budget deficits and the economy than health care.

Republicans started Wednesday off with 37 Democrats firmly against or leaning against voting for ObamaCare. That number dropped to 36 after Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) traded his vote for a ride on Air Force One, or as someone said on Twitter, a chance to sit in the “big boy chair.”

Kucinich had been firmly against the bill because he supports a single payer, government run system. No doubt he got reassurances from President Barack Obama, who has said that his plan is another step in that direction.

Other vote counts indicate that Republicans are still in the game. Byron York counts 209 members against the bill, 204 in support of it and only 18 undecided members. The count over at Fire Dog Lake is 209 against and 205 in favor.

One thing is clear, the only thing bipartisan about this vote is the opposition.

Who are the undecided members?

Here is a list of members that may be sitting on the fence. Some of them probably know how they are voting and are trying to get some thing out of the reconciliation package or a project in some other bill.

Just call these members.

We are told that ObamaCare will bring down costs and reduce the budget deficit and all these other wonderful things. Supporters of the bill need only look to Massachusetts to see how wrong they are in those claims.

Massachusetts Treasurer Tim Cahill, a Democrat turned independent, says the health care reform law that passed in his state in 2006 is breaking the budget. He also took some shots at health care “reform” efforts on the national level, which are very similar to the Massachusetts plan:

“If President Obama and the Democrats repeat the mistake of the health insurance reform here in Massachusetts on a national level, they will threaten to wipe out the American economy within four years,” Cahill said in a press conference in his office.

Echoing criticism leveled by congressional Republicans in recent weeks, Cahill said, “It is time for the president, the Democratic leadership, to go back to the drawing board and come up with a new plan that does not threaten to bankrupt this country.”
[…]
Cahill said the law is being sustained only with the help of federal aid, which he suggested that the Obama administration is funneling to Massachusetts to help the president make the case for a similar plan in Congress.

“The real problem is the sucking sound of money that has been going in to pay for this health care reform,” Cahill said. “And I would argue that we’re being propped up so that the federal government and the Obama administration can drive it through” Congress.

If you had any question whether or not President Barack Obama was fulfilling his pledge for transparency, this story should convince you that he worse than George W. Bush:

The review of annual Freedom of Information Act reports filed by 17 major agencies found that overall, the use of nearly every one of the open-records law’s nine exemptions to withhold information rose in fiscal year 2009, which ended last October.

Among the most frequently used exemptions: one that lets the government hold back records that detail its internal decision-making. Obama had directed agencies to stop using that exemption so frequently, but that directive appears to have been widely ignored.

Major agencies cited that exemption to refuse records at least 70,779 times during the 2009 budget year, compared with 47,395 times during President George W. Bush’s final full budget year, according to annual FOIA reports filed by federal agencies. Obama was president for nine months in the 2009 period.

Departments used the exemption even though the Justice Department’s Office of Information Policy, which advises them on FOIA, told them after Obama took office that they could exercise discretion and disclose such records. Doing so “will be fully consistent with the purpose of the FOIA,” it said.

That’s the hope and change we were waiting for.