Will House Democrats Take the Bait?

"The White House may renege on passing fixes to the Senate's healthcare bill once the House has passed it, Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) claimed Thursday.

"'They're using reconciliation to pass the great big bill,' Gregg said during an appearance on CNBC. 'Once they pass the great big bill, I wouldn't be surprised if the White House didn't care if reconciliation passed. I mean, why would they?'"

...

"Bait and switch, baby. It’s not like the unsuspecting and unprepared Democrats haven’t already seen plenty of that already.

"'The plan, as it comes from the Senate, hangs out every Democrat who’s running for office to dry...'"

...

"The focus on reconciliation in the past few days confuses things a bit. The question in the health-care debate at the moment is whether Nancy Pelosi can get enough of her members to vote for the version of Obamacare that passed the Senate late last year...

"Some liberal House Democrats have problems with that bill — especially with some of its tax provisions, though also a few other things...

"But that amending bill wouldn’t change the basic character of what would be enacted (and to the extent it would change it at the edges, it would be mostly for the worse): Either way, if the House passes the Senate bill then Obamacare would become law..."

...

"House members would be left holding the bag. Target squarely on their chests, they would now get to face their fuming constituents after having passed a $2.5 trillion bill that would allow public funding of abortion, would send $100 million to Nebraska, $300 million to Louisiana, $100 million to Connecticut, would exempt South Florida's Medicare Advantage enrollees from annual $2,100 cuts in Medicare Advantage benefits, would raise taxes, raise deficits, raise health costs, empower Washington, reduce liberty, politicize medicine, and jeopardize the quality of health care. Most of all, they would feel the citizenry's wrath for having voted to pass a bill that only 25 percent of Americans support.

"Right now, the House holds all the power over ObamaCare."

...

"It should be noted, the possibility remains the House could pass the Senate bill at any point this year including in a lame duck session between the midterms and the opening of a new Congress. The Senate bill remains live until this session closes in December so the possibility exists that the Senate bill could be signed into law at any point this year."

A Six Trillion Dollar Bill

How much would ObamaCare cost for the first ten years?

Through the power of gimmicks, fabrication and wishful thinking, Congress has generated an illusion of relative fiscal responsibility. Democrats in Congress assure us that their bill will only cost about a trillion dollars for the first decade. But when reality comes home to roost, ObamaCare might result in pandemic sticker shock.

Senator Judd Gregg explains:

What they don't tell the American people is they're not spending anything in the first four or five years of the bill. No. They do raise your taxes throughout the ten-year period. They do cut Medicare throughout the ten-year period. But they don't spend the money. They don't start the spending programs until the year 2014. When this bill is fully phased in, when all these new programs, these massive expansion of entitlements are created, these brand-new entitlements, when all this new spending occurs — this bill will cost $2.5 trillion over that ten-year period.

[emphasis added]

The Democrats have also ignored the burden of ObamaCare on individuals and businesses:

Another gimmick pushes much of the legislation’s costs off the federal budget and onto the private sector by requiring individuals and employers to purchase health insurance. When the bills force somebody to pay $10,000 to the government, the Congressional Budget Office treats that as a tax. When the government then hands that $10,000 to private insurers, the CBO counts that as government spending. But when the bills achieve the exact same outcome by forcing somebody to pay $10,000 directly to a private insurance company, it appears nowhere in the official CBO cost estimates — neither as federal revenues nor federal spending.

So if we account for all of the budget gimmicks and hidden fees (requiring employers to purchase health insurance, the cost of the individual mandate, the burden of Medicaid mandates on state governments, the doc fix, sundry off-budget costs and calendar tricks) how much will ObamaCare cost?

$6.25 trillion. (Give or take a few hundred billion).

Via Left Coast Rebel

Via Memeorandum

More

We Pay Them to Lie to Us

Cato: ObamaCare price tag is $6 trillion.

Wouldn't it be great if you could count a whole month's income, but only two weeks' expenditures in your household budget?

Hawaii May Get to Opt Out of ObamaCare, but other states "shouldn't be able to opt out just because they feel like it"

Republican Shame

An open letter to the Republican senators who voted to confirm Geithner as Treasury Secretary:

Your vote to confirm Timothy Geithner as Treasury Secretary was very disappointing.  As others have said, "this was a perfect moment for Republicans to stand on principle."  But you failed to do so.

In light of Geithner's failure to pay his taxes, it is hard to imagine how he can summon the moral authority to perform his duties as Treasury Secretary.  Even the New York Times understands that "Americans expect the man who’s in charge of the I.R.S. to pay his own taxes."

Despite the fact that many have made the (specious) argument that "he's the right man for the job, no one else can do it, and he's the financial industry's man of the moment", it is hard for me to believe that among 300 million Americans, there is not a single one who is both honest and qualified for the job.

I hope you have a plan to redeem yourself after this unconscionable vote to confirm Timothy Geithner.

Sincerely,

RightKlik

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Shame on these cowardly Republican senators for voting to put a tax evader in charge of the I.R.S.

Corker (R-TN)

Cornyn (R-TX)

Crapo (R-ID)

Ensign (R-NV)

Graham (R-SC)

Gregg (R-NH)

Hatch (R-UT)

Shelby (R-AL)

Snowe (R-ME)

Voinovich (R-OH)

Obama's useful idiots.  What were they thinking?

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More

Enough Happy Talk

The White House Stimulus Meeting

"I thought he once said we are not red states or blue states. We are the United States of America. We are not Republican or Democrat. Look, he won as the man who reaches across. But here is an example in which he says ‘I won, you lost. It’s my way.’ He listens, but unless he gives something, it’s all a sham."

Obama’s Folly

One doesn’t make points at all about bipartisanship by explicitly attacking another partisan voice, no matter how much one disagrees with it.  By naming Rush and attempting to sideline him, Obama lifted Rush’s profile and practically anointed him his opposition.  It demonstrates that Obama still has no sense of his office, nor of “post-partisanship”, regardless of his endlessly empty rhetoric on the subject.

Opposing President Unity

Those who don’t get with the Obama program are going to be in for a rough ride, but if Republicans don’t stand up for conservative principles, they might as well pack their bags and go home.

Spendapalooza

It's taking a long time for this thing to sink in with Americans, but this Obama spending bill is not a stimulus bill. It's nothing more than good old-fashioned Democrat big-government spending on steroids.

The politics of ice cream

Every time Barack Obama opened his mouth he offered "ice cream" and fifty-two percent of the people reacted like nine year olds. They want ice cream.

The Incredible Porkiness of the Economic Stimulus Bill (Warning: very graphic)

Final thought: Obama's bipartisanship is a trojan horse.