Today in Washington D. C. - April 28, 2009

Today the Senate began consideration of the nomination of abortion activist Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to be Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Up to eight hours of debate is scheduled. Also, at noon, the Senate will vote on final passage of S. 386, a bill to crack down on financial fraud (yesterday's vote to invoke cloture).

Last night, House and Senate Democrats announced (without elected Republican input) an agreement on a conference report for the fiscal 2010 $3.5 trillion budget. The bill is expected to be voted on in both the Senate and the House tomorrow. Fast tracking at its worst! The Democrats announced their deal on a conference report which to no one’s surprise includes language, known as reconciliation instructions, to prevent filibusters on major health care reform. The AP explains, “Most importantly, the measure would allow [President] Obama’s health plan to pass the Senate by a simple majority instead of the 60 votes that are needed for plenty of other legislation.”

Despite Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad’s (D-ND) opposition to using reconciliation and his assurances that “I am going to argue strenuously against it in conference committee,” the reconciliation instructions were included anyway. In fact, Conrad, who chaired the conference committee, according to Politico, was the deciding vote on whether to include reconciliation in the budget. A majority of each chamber’s conferees is needed to agree to the conference report, and the Senate went in with Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) supporting reconciliation and Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) opposed, leaving the decision to Conrad. Apparently Conrad’s principled objections to using reconciliation didn’t withstand the pressure from Democrat leaders to give themselves a tool to bypass Republicans on health care.

Sen. Judd Gregg, ranking Republican on the Budget Committee, was not pleased with this turn of event:. “‘I can understand shaking Hugo Chavez’s hand, but I can’t understand embracing his politics ... cutting down the minority,’ said Sen. Judd Gregg in a pointed allusion to Obama’s encounter with the Venezuelan strongman at the recent Summit of the Americas,” Politico reports. Also unhappy with the self-proclaimed fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrats, “the New Hampshire Republican — once Obama’s choice for secretary of commerce — went on to lecture Blue Dog Democrats for allowing themselves to be ‘bamboozled’ and treated as ‘rubes’ by the White House” and agreeing to a budget awash in a sea of red ink.

As previously reported might happen, the Democrats in the reconciliation process stripped amendments adopted in the Senate to protect the people. Scrapped was the amendment by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) designed to hold President Obama to his promise not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 per year and a key amendment from Sen. Mike Johanns (R-NE) to prohibit the use of reconciliation to pass a carbon cap-and-trade bill. Both amendments had been adopted with more than 60 votes. So the Cap-and-trade tax bill can proceed (be rammed through the Senate without the protection of thoughtful discussion, oversight and negotiation).

Future Long Term Economic Forecast: Big Spending and Higher Taxes on the horizon. Americans will experience the severity of the promised "Change" including less money for higher priced goods and services from a growing number nationalized industries and service providers.

---

Tags: DHHS, economic forecast, federal budget, Kathleen Sebelius, US Congress, US House, US Senate, Washington D.C. To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!