Democrats Delay, GOP Moves Forward

From US Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyoming) in the National Review online edition: 

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid chose tonight to delay, and not vote on his plan to raise the debt ceiling. Republicans requested over and over, on the Senate floor, to vote on the Reid plan tonight. The Congress needs to move past the Reid plan, which cannot pass the Senate, and cannot pass the House of Representatives. The Reid plan, full of gimmicks and budgetary tricks, hands the president another credit card to max out through his reelection — the biggest credit card in history.
      The plan Republicans support avoids default, cuts spending, caps future spending, and balances the budget. This approach is supported by 60 percent of Americans. With the Democrats’ latest delay on a real solution to our nation’s fiscal problems, they bring us closer to default. We have just four days left.
     America needs a credible plan for cutting spending. Instead of plans, they ask Americans to tweet #compromise while putting out slogans such as the “Boehner Drop.” This is not governing, this is politics as usual, and the American taxpayer foots the bill.
     Without a serious effort to cut debt and prevent default, President Obama will be presiding over the first-ever downgrade of our nation’s creditworthiness. This will raise interest rates, a “debt tax,” on all Americans, which may cost by some estimates $100 billion a year. An anxious market has already lost over 530 points this week.
    While Republicans offer solutions week after week, it’s the default Democrats who say no time and time again. Democrats were the only ones talking about a government shutdown during the debate over funding the government just a few short months ago. Now they are repeating that same playbook of scare tactics and electoral politics, with much higher stakes: our nation’s economy, an economy that we found out on Friday is not growing nearly fast enough to reduce unemployment. Democrats, if serious about avoiding a rating downgrade, will quickly move past the Reid plan. And the Congress should move forward with a plan that strengthens our financial future.

For more from the National Review online:   http://www.nationalreview.com  

What a Difference an Election Day Makes

What a Difference an Election Day Makes


Election Day 2010 in the United States sent a message to Washington and respective state capitals: Enough! Stop the spending, repeal ObamaCare, create policies that encourage jobs and innovation. As US Senator Mitch McConnell said in a speech at the Heritage Foundation http://www.heritage.org ,

"So the voters didn’t suddenly fall in love with Republicans; they fell out of love with Democrats. And while they may have voted to send more Republicans to Washington, they’re sending them here with clear marching orders: stop the big-government freight train and respect the will of the people who sent you there." Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky

So what happened? As we know, the President is still determined to push through his progressive (i.e., left wing Democrat) agenda. Despite the overwhelming Republican wins in the US Congress (60+ seats picked up by GOP, including the majority), some Democrats are attributing the resounding defeat at the polls in November 2010 as failure to communicate the American people. Instead of recognizing the rejection of ill-fated and wrong-headed policies of the Democrats over the past two years that were rammed through by the Obama-Pelosi-Reid trifecta, the President and his allies just don’t get it. Americans are sick of the spending, the overreaching of their national government and creation of America in the image of socialized Europe.

With excellent insight and with the power of a strengthened hand (GOP controlled House, a stronger Republican minority in the US Senate, combined with a weakened President, Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) stated:

"But, as I see it, the White House has a choice: they can change course, or they can double down on a vision of government that the American people have roundly rejected. If they choose the former, they’ll find a partner in Republicans. If they don’t, we will have more disagreements ahead.
“The formula is simple, really: when the administration agrees with the American people, we will agree with the administration. When it disagrees with the American people, we won’t. This has been our posture from the beginning of this administration. And we intend to stick with it. If the administration wants cooperation, it will have to begin to move in our direction.
“There is no reason we can’t work together to prevent a tax hike on small businesses. There’s no reason we can’t work together on energy independence, cutting spending, or increasing American exports by completing free trade agreements. And we can continue to work together to give our armed forces in Afghanistan, Iraq and around the world whatever they need to accomplish their mission." Mitch McConnell

More info on the Republicans in the US Senate: http://republican.senate.gov/public

And for the policy wonks among us, the Heritage Foundation has suggested their Solutions for America http://www.heritage.org/Research/Projects/Solutions-for-America that summarizes the electoral mandate by the center/right American voters on November 2010.

© 2010, Jasper Welch, Four Corners Media, www.jasperwelch.org

Health Care Bill Wobbles

Wobbly from House, Health Care Bill Fuzzy in Senate

While it is likely that the Democrats in the House will see a narrow majority on the “deem pass” Senate Health Care bill and the second vote on “related fixes” on Sunday, the US Senate is another story.   And if any part of the fragile coalition of nervous Democrat legislators (liberal, moderate or socialist) sees the reality that the American people to do not support the messy, costly and socialistic Health Care bill, their votes may be peeled off as political reality sets it.  The US Senate is a labyrinth of tradition, rules and parliamentary procedures that mystifies most people outside the upper chamber.

From ABC News….Z. Byron Wolf reporting 3.21.2010 

http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/

Should the House pass the Senate bill and the package of reconciliation fix-its tonight, Senators will take over the reconciliation fix-its as soon as Tuesday.

That will set in motion a week or longer parliamentary floor battle with points of order, references to the budget act, the Byrd Rule and more.

For an appetizer, take a look at Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Judd Gregg’s statement tonight.

“Immediately after receiving the final reconciliation bill language, Senate Republican staff was ready and willing to meet with Senate Democratic staff and the Senate Parliamentarian to discuss the fact that the House reconciliation bill may be brought down by the 310(g) point of order in the Senate. Senate Democrats are mysteriously unavailable until after the House votes on the health care bill tonight. The Senate Democrats appear to be pushing off this meeting so that House Democrats will remain in the dark about what is likely to happen to the reconciliation bill on which many have staked their careers in Congress. House Democrats should be alarmed by this latest development, since the survival of the reconciliation bill is clearly at risk in the Senate.”

If Republicans can get the parliamentarian to agree with them even once, whatever ultimately passes the Senate will have to go back to the House. And Democrats in the House quietly admit that its very likely they will have to vote again on the reconciliation fixes at some point down the road.

Meanwhile, the US taxpayer should be very nervous that instead a supposed cost savings, the Democrats are still pushing Health Care insurance legislative that bends the cost curve up (higher costs, more taxes, less quality health care).    In response to Republican leaders, the Chief Actuary for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) notified them as follows:

WASHINGTON, DC – The Obama administration’s chief actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) notified Republican leaders Saturday that the “very tight time frame” and “complexity” of the Democrats’ health spending bill would prevent them from fully analyzing the costs and efficacy of the bill before the House voted on the legislation. The letter was in response to a request from House and Senate Republicans.

The Chief Actuary, Richard S. Foster, wrote: “In your letter, you requested that we provide the updated actuarial estimates in time for your review prior to the expected House debate and vote on this legislation on March 21,2010. I regret that my staff and I will not be able to prepare our analysis within this very tight time frame, due to the complexity of the legislation.”

Foster and his staff analyzed the Senate-passed bill and determined that it bent the cost curve up, estimating in a January 8 report that national health expenditures would increase by an estimated total of $222 billion, and that the additional demand for health services “could be difficult to meet” and “could lead to price increases, cost-shifting, and/or changes in providers’ willingness to treat patients with low-reimbursement health coverage.” Foster, in his letter today, expects the new health spending bill to be “generally similar.”

House Republican Leader John Boehner said: “The House of Representatives should not vote blindly on an issue that is so important to every American.  We deserve to have all the facts about how much this bill raise health care costs before we vote.  The decision to press ahead and jam this bill down the throats of the American people is just one more example of arrogance and irresponsibility from Washington Democrats.”

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said: “Americans deserve to have a full analysis of this bill, but won’t because of the mad dash forced by the Democrat leaders in the House. We now know that even the Obama administration’s chief actuary predicts more government spending, more price increases for consumers and less care for low-income patients. This debate was supposed about lowering costs for Americans not making things worse.”

Source:  Republican US Senate web  http://republican.senate.gov    “Leader Board”