Today in Washington D. C. - July 22, 2009 - No End to the Greed

The Senate resumed consideration of the fiscal 2010 Defense authorization bill, S. 1390. The bill would authorize $679.8 billion in military funding. At noon, the Senate will vote on an amendment from Sen. John Thune (R-SD) that would allow individuals with concealed carry permits from their home state to carry a concealed firearm in other states that allow that. 60 votes in favor will be required for the amendment to pass. Yesterday, the Senate voted 58-40 to adopt an amendment from Sens. Carl Levin (D-MI) and John McCain (R-AZ) to cut $1.75 billion for F-22 procurement. Also approved yesterday, by a vote of 93-1, was an amendment from Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) to expand the active-duty Army by 30,000 soldiers.

At 2 PM, the Senate will conduct a live quorum call with respect to the impeachment of Judge Samuel B. Kent of Texas. Since Kent has resigned his post, the impeachment proceedings are expected to be dropped.

President Obama and other Democrats have spent a lot of time in recent days pointing fingers at Republicans for their concerns about Democrats’ proposals for a prohibitively expensive government-run health care plan. However, with 60 votes in the Senate and a 78 member margin in the House, it is other Democrats who are throwing wrenches in the gears of the president’s ambitious health reform plans.

The Hill wrote yesterday, “President Obama sharply criticized Republicans on Tuesday for following a ‘familiar script’ to ‘block health care reform.’ The president, seeking to prod the Democratic-controlled Congress to show significant progress on health care reform before the August recess, directed blame at the GOP for the stalled legislation.” Politico reported, “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid followed President Barack Obama's lead today in blasting Republicans for opposing a plan to overhaul the nation’s health care system and create a government-subsidized insurance program.” And according to another Politico story, “Hoping to make the political stakes clear and define the health care fight on their own terms, each of the Democratic committees, along with Obama’s own political apparatus and MoveOn.org, issued statements or emails focused on a series of unvarnished political assessments offered by Republicans.”

Despite the attempts by Reid and the president to shift blame for problems with Democrats’ health care bills to Republicans, it is Democrats who are creating the major obstacles to enacting their own health reform proposals. In an article titled “Democrats divided on health care overhaul,” the AP noted yesterday, “With a self-imposed deadline for action in jeopardy, the Democratic [House] leadership juggled complaints from conservatives demanding additional cost savings, first-term lawmakers upset with proposed tax increases and objections from members of the rank-and-file opposed to allowing the government to sell insurance in competition with private industry.” In fact, Blue Dog Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, led by Rep. Mike Ross (D-AR), forced Democrat chairman Henry Waxman to delay a vote on the House health bill in his committee. And House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said, “I want to make it very clear that there's progressives, Blue Dogs and everybody in between who have expressed concerns, and we're working on that.”

In the Senate, a number of Democrats have said outright that they reject the idea of a government-run health care plan. Last week, Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus complained about President Obama not being helpful in creating a bipartisan health care bill: “Basically, the president is not helping us,” Baucus said. “That’s making it difficult.” It was Senate Budget Committee chair Kent Conrad (D-ND) who asked CBO director Douglas Elmendorf if the Democrats’ bills will contain health care costs. When Elmendorf said that in fact the Democrat plans would only add to health care costs, it “fuel[ed] an insurrection among fiscal conservatives in the House and push[ed] negotiators in the Senate to redouble efforts to draw up a new plan that more effectively restrains federal spending,” according to The Washington Post. And Politico reported Monday that several Democrat senators “issued a letter to the Democratic and Republican leaders of the Senate urging them to slow down” on health reform.

On top of congressional problems, Democrat governors spent the weekend expressing concerns over how much Democrat health reform plans could cost their states. All of this has led to Democrats in Congress walking back their pledges to have a health bill completed by the beginning of Congress’ August recess. McClatchy writes today, “House Democratic leaders were wary about the prospects for consensus before leaving July 31 for a lengthy summer recess.” And House Ways and Means Committee chairman Charlie Rangel (D-NY) said, “No one wants to tell the speaker that she's moving too fast, and they damn sure don't want to tell the president.”

Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) in her newsleter to constituents yesterday said "We cannot solve this problem overnight, but by looking for reasonable solutions to our nation’s health care crisis, we can help lower health care costs and provide access to stable, quality health care to all Arkansans." And according to Politico, “Reid would not commit to passing a health care bill by the August recess [yesterday].” President Obama, Harry Reid, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi can attack Republicans all they want but it is not the republicans that control the votes needed to pass any bill they wish. it is the public that is speaking out and it is clear that Democrat concerns are the driving force in stalling the president’s health reform ambitions.

The majority of the American public does not want the government taking over control in anyway of their personal health care. In fact, as identified yesterday in a video, the figure identified for the number of uninsured is far overstated -- many people are uninsured because they wish to be left alone, are illegal (they don't belong here) or they can afford health care but opt to not buy insurance because they see themselves as invincible or too young to care. Americans are angry and want Congress to stop the abuse of power through rampant spending and expanding of government programs including the excessive political favors via the Obama Czars. Is there no end to the greed in Washington D.C.?

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