Committee Votes 14-9 in Favor of Baucus Plan

The Senate Finance committee has voted in favor of the Baucus-Obama Health Care Plan, with all 13 Democrats and one Republican, Senator Snowe, voting for the bill; the nine other Republicans vote against it.

The bill imposes a 40 percent tax on health-insurance plans. This is a particularly interesting component of the plan given Obama's emphatic and oft repeated promise: "I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 per year, will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes."

No word on how Democrats plan to explain to their constituents why they support the plan to break Obama's tax pledge.

Via Memeorandum

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Artificial Stupidity: How the Democrats Got Their "Reduces the Deficit" Claim

Snowe: Yes on Finance Committee Healthcare Plan

Olympia Snowe…ruin health care in your own state…and leave me alone.

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) said today she would vote to approve the healthcare bill before the Senate Finance Committee.

The Washington Post found that Snowe has voted with her party only 58.4 percent of the time over the course of 308 votes. She crossed party lines on the $787 billion stimulus bill. Only Susan Collins (R) had a lower party unity score (58.1 percent).

With Snowe's support on the Health Care plan, Democrats can claim a bipartisan product heading into the floor debate. According to the New York Times, Democrats seemed a bit more chipper after hearing Ms. Snowe’s decision.

Snowe's empty rhetoric: "Is this bill all that I would want? Is it all that it can be? No. But when history calls, history calls."

With Republicans like this, who needs Democrats?

Via The Hill

Via Memeorandum

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Senator Roberts likens Baucus Plan to an instrument of death, killing elderly parents

The Baucus plan appears to take a “Lizzie Borden ax” to lop off various Medicare payments, amounting to a “big shell game.”

Olympia Snowe and the Consequences of a ‘Yes’ Vote

Snowe's healthcare vote puts her top Commerce perch at risk.

Lieberman Opposes Baucus Plan

LCR: Olympia Snowe Yes on Obamacare

ObamaCare: Not in My Back Yard

Contra Obama

"ObamaCare would be good for you...but for me or my constituents, not so much"

We've been through this before. Serious efforts to compel or encourage members of Congress to enroll in the very health care plans that they wish to foist upon the American public have failed to garner support from Democrats. Members of Congress simply cannot be expected to give up their Cadillac plans, their VIP treatment, and their extraordinary perks.

To appease Senators in states whose governments have already driven the cost of health insurance through the stratosphere, preferential treatment is in the works. Senator Baucus has set up new health insurance taxation to phase in slowly for states such as Olympia Snowe's Maine. For the 17 states with the highest-cost premiums, ObamaCare would come in a gentler form, taxing insurance plans at a more forgiving threshold than for the rest of the country.

Nobody seems to want plain old ObamaCare in their own back yard. It has become something of a NIMBY phenomenon.

This week, we were treated to the finest example of this sickening hypocrisy:

The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, has secured a special deal protecting his state against the costs of expanding Medicaid under one of the major health care bills moving through Congress.

Mr. Reid, a Democrat, complained about the impact on Nevada when the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, unveiled his bill on Sept. 16.

Now Mr. Baucus has modified the bill to spare Nevada and three other states, and Mr. Reid, who faces a potentially difficult race for re-election next year, is taking credit for getting a “major increase” in federal money for his state.

The Senate bill, like a companion measure in the House, would expand Medicaid to cover childless adults, parents and other people with incomes less than 133 percent of the poverty level, or $29,327 for a family of four. The federal government would pay most of the new costs — anywhere from 77 percent to 95 percent, with a higher share in poorer states, in the first five years.

Under Mr. Baucus’s original proposal, the federal government would have paid 87 percent of the new costs in Nevada. Under the modified version, the federal government would pay 100 percent of the new costs for the first five years.

Seems fair to me!

Update: Hawaii May Get to Opt Out of Health Bill

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Extraordinary Health Care Perks for Congress

Little Known Office on Capitol Hill Provides VIP Medical Care for Low Price

Harry Reid makes special deal to protect Nevada from Obamacare.

Interactive refresher: From a bill to a law - health care

ObamaCare: No Insurance, Go to Jail!

Obama has spoken with Letterman more than he has spoken with General McChrystal.

Fresh Links

Snowe falls away, leaving Senate Dems without GOP health support.

45% Of Doctors Would Consider Quitting If Congress Passes Health Care Overhaul

Get busy patriots! Obama's using Twitter to rally his troops.

Finally Olympia Snow promotes a good idea

She urged her colleagues to “allow private insurance companies to offer national plans, with uniform benefit packages that are offered across state lines.”

Another fantastic, must-read article from TS: "Fables for Adults"

1994: 51% said the more they heard about Hillarycare, the less they liked it. 2009: 54% say the same about ObamaCare.

Flashback: Obama Says ACORN Will Shape His Agenda.

"ACORN? What's ACORN?" MSM asleep at the wheel

Politico makes lame excuses for MSM bias

Obama Speech No Game-Changer

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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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.