The big winner: Republican Lamar Alexander. In his opening comments, Senator Alexander noted that the 2,700-page Senate bill cuts Medicare by about half a trillion dollars and dumps 15 to 18 million low-income Americans into a Medicaid program that none of us would want to be part of because 50% of doctors won’t see new Medicaid patients. Senator Alexander said the Senate bill is like a car that can’t be recalled and fixed, and that we ought to start over. He outlined a basic six-step Republican counter-proposal that would help Americans buy insurance across state lines, end junk lawsuits against doctors, and expand health savings accounts. All are musts in any sensible health-care bill. The senator requested that before going further that Democratic congressional leaders and especially President Obama “renounce this idea of going back to the Congress and jamming your bill through on a partisan vote through a little-used process we call reconciliation.” He cited the view of the Senate’s constitutional historian, Senator Robert Byrd, that using the reconciliation process to appropriate 17% of the economy would be an outrage.
OK, now what? The Obama-Pelosi-Reid trio will indeed attempt to run the reconciliation scam past the American public. President Obama is the spokesman for a highly organized Radical Progressive Movement to change America in the spirit of FDR and Woodrow Wilson. It is, at the end of the day, just that simple. Read Cass Sunstein’s The Second Bill of Rights, Robert Creamer’s Stand Up Straight, and Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals. And don’t forget the Communist Manifesto, which focuses on centralization of the means of communication in the hands of the state (the Fairness Doctrine), centralization of credit in the hands of the state (bank nationalizations), and a heavy progressive/graduated income tax (allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire). If you have not read all four, you cannot possibly appreciate the magnitude of the problem liberty- and freedom-oriented Americans face.
Without question, Harry Reid will pull the reconciliation lever. And without question, Reid has the 51 votes he needs. Before the reconciliation charade is completed, the House will need to sign off on the Senate bill. As things stand today, Nancy Pelosi cannot deliver the votes. I don’t see Bart Stupak and his allies signing on. Nor do I see Dennis Kucinich and his allies falling into line. Without Stupak, Kucinich et al, Nancy Pelosi’s goose is cooked. She will take the fall for the failure of Obamacare. Harry Reid, for his part, will lose his Senate seat in November, the Democrats will lose the House and quite possibly the Senate, and President Obama will be a lame-duck, one-term president. That’s it!
P.S. How often did you hear the word “unconstitutional” or mention of Article I Section 8 during this summit?
P.P.S. Today is the day that conservative Americans will most likely be calling their Senators and Congressman (especially those that are Blue Dog Democrats) and telling them that if they push
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