Prayers And Support For Sad Occurrences Over Christmas
The first is a Salvation Army Major who was accosted and shot in front of his three very young children on Christmas Eve. See the linked article for where to send donations.
Secondly, a father who was sent to Iraq- he was only a few days from his actual deployment, training at a base stateside- was unable to be with his family over Christmas despite his house burning down last week. I heard about it on a local radio station based in Littleton, New Hampshire, where the man’s family lives. The father was able to come home for one day and then had to go back to his unit. The family lost everything, though none of the three young children- all five years old or younger- were injured, nor was the childrens’ mother.? Donations may be made by calling the Littleton Police Department at (603) 444-2422 and asking to speak to the dispatcher.
Iranian officials are still cracking down on those brave enough to protest. Contact your Members of Congress- Senate and House- and the White House to urge our leaders to support the protesters before it’s too late.
A bridge has collapsed in India, and dozens are feared dead. I don’t know how to offer support here, other than prayer.
Of course, there are always the military service members overseas, their families, those the soldiers are fighting and their families- prayers and support for all sides so there may be peace and justice I’m sure would help.
I know these kinds of incidents and occurrences are not happy things to think about during the Christmas season- especially when we all have our own troubles in this recession. However, as those fortunate enough to be able to celebrate Christmas in relative peace and happiness, I hope we can remember to go out of our way to help those we run into and those we don’t while the spirit of the season is still upon us, and we get too caught up in the necessities of our normal daily lives once Christmas and New Year’s vacations are over.
Harry Reid Needs Sleep
So this is worth only a chuckle, but apparently Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) accidentally voted against his own bill before changing his vote. It wouldn’t have made a difference, of course, but it’s still funny.
Critical Vote On Health Care Passes Senate
Officially, the Senate has not passed health care reform. Unofficially, the fight is over for this round. Senate Democrats overcame a filibuster by a party-line vote of 60-40, including the two independent senators who caucus with the Democrats.
As I said, it’s not officially over; the above vote merely provided official “cloture.” However, it is merely window dressing to get the bill passed by Christmas Eve, which seems very likely now.
The Heritage Foundation outlines what this bill will do to America’s budget, the unborn and taxes. In short, it’s a bad bill, which we already knew. However, there is still hope. The Senate and House bills must be compromised in conference- where the two chambers make two bills into one- and then voted on again in each chamber separately. The two biggest issues, as far as I see, that could shut down this reform effort are abortion and the public option. The House bill includes the latter, the Senate one does not. The Senate bill, however, allows public funds to be used for abortion and the House one does not. I hope Representative Bart Stupak (D-MI) holds strong on his abortion language and kills the bill. A pro-life amendment would help the health care bill that finally passes (if one does) not fund the murder of the unborn.
Fox News has a very revealing analysis about where various monies went to various senators in order to bribe them votes for the cloture vote. As Fox notes in the article, uncertain votes were brought in line as a direct result of how the Senate leadership decided to use our money.
Stimulus Fail, Part 2 (Part 3? 4?)
The Washington Examiner’s Mark Hemingway takes it away with this one:
“A new analysis of the $157 billion distributed by the American Reinvestment and Recovery act, popularly known as the stimulus bill, shows that the funds were distributed without regard for what states were most in need of jobs.”
Later: “The Mercatus Center analysis also found that Democratic congressional districts received on average almost double the funding of Republican congressional districts. Republican congressional districts received on average $232 million in stimulus funds while Democratic districts received $439 million on average.”
Lastly: “Finally, the Mercatus analysis shows that a majority of the funds allocated went to public rather than private entities — nearly $88 billion to $69 billion.”
What a surprise- you mean to tell me the stimulus is failing again? I’m shocked. Really. (Okay, not really.)
This is really bad, for four reasons: first, since a majority of public employees are members of unions, the money is going to sources of voting power for Democrats as opposed to helping all Americans (assuming, of course, it did help, which is doubtful). Secondly, the money was not distributed for efficienty of employment- even though that was its selling point. Thirdly, the money was spread by two departments not Congress, which means either those departments are biased (unlikely) or they are following a formula, as the study Hemingway quotes concludes, and that means the formula is skewed. Fourth, this is almost exactly 20% of the $770 billion approved by Congress, and it’s been ten months or so since it was approved.
George Will called it- “Which suggests that Stimulus II is…primarily designed to save a few dozen jobs — those of Democratic members of the House and Senate.”
Tom Coburn for President?
I’m saying it after reading this piece about Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK). Coburn might just be the guy who kills the health care reform bill in the Senate.
Coburn, as I understand it, is a pain to everyone on both sides. It’s awesome to see. Coburn even killed a guardrail in his own state that he considered waste, and held up paying for some veterans’ benefits because he wanted the money to come out of unspent stimulus funds. (This last one is controversial, for obvious reasons, but I blame the other senators for not initially wanting the funding to come from the stimulus funds. I think an argument could be made they were playing politics, not Coburn…) He has also put forth a health care bill, albeit one that misses the boat on payment reform and other issues, in addition to decrying the Democratic bill.
This is a guy I can like. Anyone else?
Update: Daily Kos had a very fair criticism of Coburn’s holding up voting on military funding that ends tomorrow evening. However, it looks like Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has dropped his single-payer amendment, and Coburn’s demand to read the entire amendment through is no more. This should lead to a normalization of Senate business, and get the military funding issue done.
Update: The military bill was passed.
Update: A buddy sent me a link with this article showing Coburn really standing up for the troops and provide them the best rifle around. This also shows his true dedication to the free market and how competition improves quality.
Taking $1 From Every American
Last evening thelobbyist’s founder Nick Brown gave me the quote of the day: “So what you’re telling me is they took a dollar from every American to pay off [Senator Mary] Landrieu (D-LA) to vote for health care reform?”
In short, Senator Landrieu demanded $300 million for her vote to start debate on the Senate’s health care bill. Initially worth $100 million, her critical vote for Democrats is increasing in price. The Senate is trying to hide its bribery by claiming the money is for any qualifying ?state,” saying, among other things, that it would be states that ?during the preceding 7 fiscal years? have been declared a ?major disaster area.?” In other words, for Hurricane Katrina and Louisiana.
Can we please call our senators and kill this bill? Then, next year, let’s vote the bums out. Please. In both parties. Starting fresh is a great way to go. Or, we could always rebel. Put a government in place that represents the people, institute constitutional term limits, have transparency with every political donor required to be listed on political websites and in every office, eliminate business subsidies, eliminate bailouts and cut the waste in defense, education, Medicare and Medicaid. Oh, and put in a flat tax or, even better, the Fair Tax that Mice Huckabee has made almost famous.
Senator Reid Releases Senate Health Reform Bill
Various news sources have information for the willing:
Congress.org has five interesting provisions about the bill, as well as a link to the bill itself.
CNN has an article, a political analysis of sorts as well as a link to the bill.
NRTL blasts the bill, according to Politico.
AP, NYT, and NPR compare the House and Senate bills.
Remember- this bill does not include the more-than-quarter-trillion dollar “Doc Fix” bill that failed in the Senate a month ago. So whatever the Congressional Budget Office says…add that to it. The current CBO score is $849 billion, which includes Medicare cuts and raising some taxes, and will reduce the debt by $127 billion. So, in reality, the debt will increase by $118 billion, unless the government and CBO estimates are underestimates, which is generally the case.
Either way, the CBO score is great momentum for Senator Reid (D-NV) with fiscally conservative Democrats- who may ignore the “Doc Fix” numbers for the final vote on the Senate bill- and bad for those of us opposed to many of the Democratic health reform concepts. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, abortion is covered in the bill and there is a public option. This is bad because they are bad ideas, but good because it will allow moderate Democrats to oppose the bill if abortion and the public option are included, as some have said they will do. Whatever else happens, let’s at least hope the public option and abortion are eliminated. Contact your Senators.
One last note: this is the preliminary CBO score Democrats are all excited about. The final one is supposed to be out today.
Don’t Panick Yet- Healthcare Reform Still Needs Senate Passage
One of my friends sent me a text early Sunday morning (1:15 a.m. EST) saying that a trillion dollar House bill had been foisted on America. While it is true that a more-than-trillion dollar bill was passed by the House of Representatives 220-215, this should not yet be a cause for panick.
No, the bill is not good news. However, as Hot Air points out, “Take heart, righties…the likelihood of 60 votes in the Senate, especially after a vote this narrow, [is] very slim indeed.” (Also, see my piece?here on how I think Reid could very well fail in his goal to pass health care reform.)?Furthermore, the upcoming Senate bill (which is still being scored by the Congressional Budget Office) is certainly going to be more moderate than the House one, given the influence of moderate Democratic senators such as Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and Kent Conrad (D-ND) and Independent Joe Lieberman (D-CT). Democrats need 60 out of 100 votes in the Senate, not the 50%+1 (or 218) necessary in the House of Representatives, and assuming all Republicans oppose the bill, even just one of the three Senators listed above voting with Republicans to not close debate on the bill would kill it. Therefore, Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) must keep the bill more moderate. (Unfortunately, of course, liberals will kill it if it’s too moderate, so he can’t make it an actual good bill, just a less-worse one.) This balance of power is what gives Americans reason to hope that this disastrous Democratic form of health care reform does not work. Allow me to briefly explain.
After spending over 14 months in D.C., both at The Heritage Foundation and in health care lobbying, I’m certainly not an expert on the political process, but I know it fairly well, and any number of things could happen that would derail health care reform. The first is getting a Senate bill passed. The second is to get the House and Senate bills to conference and make one combined bill. The third is to then vote on that combined bill in both chambers. However, a number of things along the way could derail the process. A few examples: a Senate bill could be killed in the inital chamber vote; the conference bill could be killed in either the House or the Senate (remember, many liberals are declaring they won’t vote for a bill without a public option, and some won’t vote for a bill that’s pro-life); and, lastly,?the bill could pass in its conference-created form in one chamber but?be modified slightly in the other and therefore have to be voted on again in the chamber that passed the conference bill. This latter course could make the bill unpassable, as the changes could be very minor or very large.
We should all be actively involved in contacting our representatives in Congress, becoming active through organizations such as The Heritage Foundation?or Americans for Prosperity?and generally following the debate so when voting comes around next year we know who to vote out of office. One example of a Republican who?perhaps should be?gone: Representative Joseph Cao (R-LA), who represents a Democratic district and voted in favor of the House bill.
The Lion Rests His Head (1932-2009)
My mornings generally begin with rolling out of bed to Willie Geist (of Morning Joe fame) and his new show Way Too Early.? He was being assisted by the regulars of Morning Joe in breaking the news of the passing of Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy; a burden that no one man could carry on his own.? Even as staunch a Conservative as I am, I cannot help be feel the full weight of this somber moment.? Ted Kennedy was an icon; the personification of liberalism as understood today.? To myself, and many other younger Conservatives, he was the opponent.? We would argue in class, not against teachers and later professors and their beliefs; but against Ted Kennedy and the movement of which he was the avant-garde as if we were engaged in some form of transcontinental dialogue.? No matter how much one disagreed with the man?s views, politics, or personal life, you cannot take away his importance from the left and ultimately from America.
I was reminded of a story I heard while on Capitol Hill.? An older gentleman reminisced about a time when he was a mere intern working for then-Senator Paul Sarbanes of Maryland.? Underneath the House offices and Senate offices are a number of tunnels and a little train system that ferries people between their respective office buildings and the Capitol.? When you are travelling these halls you always run the chance of brushing elbows or exchanging glances with statesmen you see all-too-often on the news.? The makers of history.? This gentleman sat down in one of the carts for the train to head toward the Capitol, and as many people do, stared straight forward in an effort to maintain his invisibility amongst other passerbyers.? His cart quickly filled up with the larger than life Ted Kennedy and his Chief of Staff, which caused the young intern?s heart to jump into his throat.? Senator Kennedy looked at him, smiled and asked who the young intern was, who he was working for, whether he was enjoying DC, et cetera.? The short train ride concluded and both man and young man exchanged farewells, I imagine the Senator?s was more boisterous than the intern being left frozen like a deer in headlights.
Around a month later, the intern was back on the underground train again.? This time only Senator Kennedy sat with him in the cart which rendered the young intern silent again (this gentleman did not go into politics, understandably so).? Senator Kennedy smiled at him, and said, ?I hope you?ll forgive me but I can?t remember your name.? But I would like to know how your internship with Paul [Sarbanes] is going; are you still enjoying it??? You thought the intern was blown away before, now he had a whole new level of admiration for the Massachusetts Senator.
Senator Kennedy was best at that sort of interaction, from what I hear.? He may have met and dined with and drank with over a thousand people between his and the young intern?s two meetings, but he remembered people and their stories.? He was a statesman.? That is all that I have the authority to judge him on.? There will be reminders of his vitriol on the judiciary committee towards Republican Court appointees, his politics and practices, and most of all reminders of that July night in 1969.? I will refrain from speaking ill of the dead for this particular piece, but my hopes are that the man?s death does not become politicized. Ted Kennedy was a symbol after all, so his name and memory will be invoked for years to come.? In the end, he was a statesman and will live in politics long after he lived in our world.
-rj
Because their Majority… isn’t Major Enough
Now, I know that I may be a bit behind with this one. However, I wanted to use Chris Matthews? expressed concern with overturning the 60 vote cloture rule (and by that I mean to point out that Mr. Matthew?s argument in having the 60 vote rule overturned) demonstrates his lack of respect for the Founders, their wisdom, and how our government is to work.
The Senate was established as the more ?prudent? and contemplative house of the two legislative bodies. The House of Representatives more closely represents the constituency, and is more favorable to the ideologically inclined. This point has been exacerbated for some years as district ?gerrymandering? has become a tool for solidifying seats, and in doing so, polarizing the House. That is a topic for another time perhaps. We are here to ponder the question of the Aristocracy of the Legislator.
I have thought of Mr. Matthews as a more ardent scholar of politics and the machinations of our government when it came to television punditry. I cannot point to a specific reason why I once held such a prejudice, but in recent years I have discovered that I was sadly mistaken: I mean, badly mistaken. Unfortunately, Bethesda has such an effect on people. This video, in which he argues for new rules in the Senate regarding filibusters, demonstrates his lack of empathy for any minority-party in the Congress. Why wasn?t Mr. Matthews advocating these new rules when the Republicans were in power? Any true Conservative would have said no had the Republicans attempted such a bold move toward tyrannical majority-rule, and low-and-behold, they didn?t unless I?m wrong.
Imagine, the Cloture Rule was established in 1917, so before this occurred stopping a filibuster was even more difficult than it is today. The 60 vote rule that currently governs the Senate (Rule 22) is a fair and prudent barrier to constant turmoil and change. This recent attempt by Democrats demonstrates their collective disregard for practices that allow for prudence and full examination of the facts. I have a friend whom I debate on and off, who shies from his liberal tendencies and refuses to call himself anything other than a Moderate. Hopefully, others who call themselves ?moderates? see that this change does not allow for moderation at all, and a constant chipping away at such barriers to majority super-rule by the governing parties will help accelerate the speed at which our Republic is crumbling from the inside.
-rj
