health care – Page 12

Pelosi fine with jailing the uninsured.

I fiddled with cutting down this video…

…of Speaker Pelosi admitting that she’s fine with sending people who don’t want to be insured to jail (H/T: Infidels are Cool); but I’m not all that happy with the results. Which is interesting, because I’m also not happy with the notion of throwing poor people into jail just because Speaker Pelosi wanted to raid taxpayer wallets and pocketbooks for the benefit of the Democratic Party’s various special interest groups.

Again.

See also Hot Air, AoSHQ – and probably everybody else soon enough.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Dorwin Award*: Robin Carnahan.

Watch with some amusement as Missouri Secretary of State (and Senate hopeful) Robin Carnahan (D) refuses to answer two simple questions:

Does she support the House’s health care rationing bill?

and

What is her opinion on the Stupak amendment?

(See also: The Conservatives.com)

While Carnahan’s response to the first question might be at least considered a standard attempt at mealy-mouthing, and thus not overly outrageous; I cannot imagine how any progressive watching that could be pleased at her ‘answer’ to the second question. Every credible side in the health care dispute concedes that the Stupak amendment is relevant to the discussion, and people are keeping track of who has what opinion of it. Robin Carnahan’s going to have to choose a side.

Moe Lane

PS: What exactly did the Carnahan family do in Missouri to justify their quasi-hereditary political status in that state? Save St. Louis from a rampaging Mississippi River monster?

*See here and here for the reference.

Crossposted to RedState.

2010 battle maps: Stupak and No on Health care rationing.

Jay Cost (H/T: @MelissaTweets) has written an article on the Democratic party that is impossible to excerpt properly:

How To Divide a Party, In Three Easy Steps!

So, you’ve decided to become the leader of a big political party. Only one problem: it’s too big! What to do?

Well, you’ve come to the right place. Here at the Horse Race Blog, we’ve developed a three-step guide to making that broad party a little more…narrow. Just follow these simple instructions and your majority party will be smaller and a little easier to handle in no time!

…and summarizing said article (the very short version: it’s a bad idea to run a national party as if it were an urban regional one) doesn’t do it justice. Instead, I suggest that you first read it, then take a look at the maps after the fold. Continue reading 2010 battle maps: Stupak and No on Health care rationing.

Which Republican did this? [UPDATED.]

[UPDATE] I was emailed that it was Louie Gohmert (R TX-01). Looking for video.

[ANOTHER UPDATE]: Short, sweet, and to the point:

I’m not following the floor action on the House health care rationing bill – I figure it’ll eventually pass the House somehow, and I am still fighting a cold – so I didn’t see this. Which is a shame, because it must have been hysterical:

Fun stuff…Hoyer led the House in cheering for John [Dingell]. Nice touch and all but then a Republican got up and asked unanimous consent that [Dingell] be given back the Chairmanship of the House Energy And Commerce Committee. Pelosi replaced him, the Dean of the House, with Henry Waxman because [Dingell], being from Michigan, would never have moved on Cap and Tax.

Well played. I’d love to know who did this, and whether it was done on his or her own initiative.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Doctor No, health care rationing, and unanimous consent.

(H/T: Big Government) Senator Tom Coburn is living up to his nickname:

Sen. Tom Coburn, the Oklahoma Republican who developed a close friendship with President Obama when they served together in the Senate, is threatening to have the entire health care bill read on the Senate floor.

Senior Senate Democratic aides had heard Coburn was considering having potentially thousands of pages read aloud in effort to stall passage. “If he did this it would be even outrageous for a guy who’s become known as Dr. No around here,” one of them told POLITICO.

Good luck on getting Coburn to back down on this: we’re talking about a guy who has a hold on a veterans’ bill because it’s not addressing his concerns about cost duplication and discrimination. We’re also talking about a guy with an approval rating somewhere around 60 with his constituents – so that argument is out, too. Ed Morrissey thinks that this could delay the bill for up to half a year; I don’t expect it to go that far, but Coburn’s poised to be able to do one heck of a monkeywrenching job on the health care rationing bill for at least the rest of 2009…

Moe Lane

Crosssposted to RedState.

Rep. Bill Owens (D NY-23) breaks his word on the public option.

(H/T: Big Government) I’m actually not upset about this, seeing as I knew all along that he’d break his word. Fish swim, birds fly, ‘conservative’ Democratic legislators betray their principles on cue. And so it is, here:

GOUVERNEUR, NY – Congressman-elect Bill Owens was sworn in at noon today.

Owens indicated in a press release that he was now in favor of the bill in direct contrast to his earlier position during his campaign.

According to Politico.com, Mr. Owens assured voters that he felt the public option had no place in the health care reform bill. Contrary to that position, Mr. Owens now indicates that he intends to vote in favor of the bill even though it now contains a public option.

More at the link, including the three other promises that Owens has already broken. I would like to believe that this is a record of some sort, but it’s probably not.

Moe Lane

PS: Do not expect any so-called ‘Blue Dog’ or supposed ‘conservative’ Democrat to voluntarily get in the way of their party’s health care rationing bill. They vote as they are bid – and the ones doing the bidding are not their constituents.

Crossposted to RedState.

Sen Roland Burris (D-IL) advocates death penalty for non-insured!

…alternatively, he’s just dumber than soap. From a CNS interview (H/T: Instapundit):

CNSNews.com: “So, in general, if a person doesn’t want health insurance, do you think they should be required by the government to actually have to get it?”

Senator Burris: “Under state law, we have every one required to have automobile insurance. Now, think about that.

Sure, let’s. You see, ‘under state law’ people are not actually required to have automobile insurance: people are required to have automobile insurance if they want to own a car. So, either this is not a good analogy – which means that Senator Roland Burris is dumber than soap – or it is a good analogy; which would mean that he thinks that people should be required to have insurance if they want to stay alive. Heaven forbid that I suggest that any sitting Senator could possibly be about as sharp as a sack of wet mice, so I am forced to assume that he’s ready to have the willfully non-insured executed for their crimes.

Also: the Preamble to the Constitution contains the enumerated right for Congress to mandate that people buy health insurance! Except that it’s only visible to people using those special glasses that Ben Franklin made…

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

CBO scores the GOP health plan.

Here’s the main takeaways from the CBO analysis:

The total cost to the taxpayer would be 61 billion (as Hot Air notes, this is opposed to the 1.2 trillion of taxpayer money that the Democrats want to spend).
The plan will essentially keep the total percentage of insured individuals at around the current percentage of 83% (The Democrat’s main selling point on their version is that it will insure 96% of the population – including illegal immigrants).
Premium rates would decrease across the board.
The plan assumes tort reform, no government-option health care, and the ability to buy insurance across state lines.

In other words, there is no way whatsoever that the Democratic party in Congress is going to support this plan: it clashes horribly with the current ruling party’s shrill insistence that we are in a dire crisis with regard to health care, which just happens to require a solution that will eventually result in no private insurance and a state-run health care system. It also directly affects the economic well-being of trial lawyers, which will hurt that group’s ability to make political contributions, which will hurt the Democratic party. So, expect to see much made of the fact that the GOP plan will not expand coverage, and a good deal of pounding the table and shouting about deficit reductions. Expect to not see much made of the fact that this plan will mostly leave people – and their bank accounts – alone about their health care decisions…

Moe Lane

PS: Twelve hour online GOP health care forum starts at 1 PM.

PPS: You should be up to page 1,062 on the Democrats’ health care rationing bill by now.

Crossposted to RedState.

Page 602 and counting on the Democratic health care rationing bill…

…at least, I would be if I was daft enough to take seriously Speaker Pelosi’s suggestion that you can take a 1,900 page bill and understand it in 72 hours. Fortunately, neither did the NRCC – which is why they’ve come up with this handy pacing clock. a page every two minutes, folks. Every page of which references/rescinds/alters a bunch of other laws, which probably themselves reference/rescind/alter a bunch of laws in their turn. With no breaks for three days.

Excuse me: it’s now page 603. By the time I get this published, page 604. And I’m reasonably certain that most of the Democratic legislators that put this monstrosity together haven’t made it past the table of contents, at that.

Moe Lane

PS: And it’s not even as if Reid’s eager to go with health care rationing this year, at this rate.

PPS: Reminder: the GOP is having a twelve-hour online town hall on health care tomorrow, starting at 1 EST.

PPPS: 606 pages. And counting. Goes quicker than you thought, doesn’t it?

Crossposted to RedState.

A hearty ‘Good morning!’ to some of our elected officials!

Now that the elections in NJ and VA are over – and now that there’s going to be some really critical votes coming up on both cap-and-trade and health care rationing – I just wanted to greet some members of the two states’ Congressional delegations.

Robert Andrews, NJ-01 (Burlington/Camden/Gloucester)
John Adler, NJ-03 (Burlington/Camden/Ocean)
Frank Pallone, NJ-06 (Middlesex/Monmouth/Somerset/Union)
William Pascrell, NJ-08 (Essex/Passaic)
Steven Rothman, NJ-09 (Bergen/Hudson/Passaic)
Donald Payne, NJ-10 (Essex/Hudson/Union)
Rush Holt, NJ-12 (Hunterdon/Mercer/Middlesex/Monmouth/Somerset)
Albio Sires, NJ-13 (Essex/Hudson/Middlesex/Union)

(Link)

Glenn Nye, VA-02 (Accomack/Northampton)
Robert C Scott, VA-03 (Charles City/New Kent/Surry/Henrico/Prince George/Hampton/Newport News/Norfolk/Richmond)
Tom Perriello, VA-05 (Greene/Campbell/Bedford/Albemarle/Nelson/Fluvanna/Buckingham/Cumberland/Appomattox/Prince Edward/Charlotte/Lunenberg/Franklin/Henry/Pittsylvania/Halifax/Mecklenberg/Brunswick)
Jim Moran, VA-08 (Arlington/Alexandria/Fairfax)
Rick Boucher, VA-09 (Lee/Wise/Dickenson/Buchanan/Scott/Russell/Tazewell/Washington/Smyth/Bland/Giles/Grayson/Wythe/Pulaski/Montgomery/Carroll/Craig/Floyd/Patrick/Allegheny/Roanoke/Henry)
Gerry Connolly, VA-11 (Fairfax/Fairfax/Prince William)

(Link)

Hi!

WE SEE YOU.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.