The Foundation
"[T]he Constitution ought to be the standard of construction for the laws, and that wherever there is an evident opposition, the laws ought to give place to the Constitution." --Alexander Hamilton
Page I of IV
Government & Politics
ObamaCare in the Emergency Room
There are no two ways about it -- the health care summit that took place Thursday in Washington was a sham and a farce. But it's a fitting chapter for the bill being debated.
Barack Obama invited various congressmen to join him for a "discussion" about his latest health care takeover plot, which looks an awful lot like last year's Senate proposal, only more expensive. Obama released his "new" plan Monday to great fanfare, though there was precious little new about it.
About one new feature, the Associated Press editorialized, the proposal "would allow the government to deny or roll back egregious insurance premium increases that infuriated consumers" via a seven-member panel of all-knowing insurance premium gurus. Funny thing is that all 50 states already require insurance companies to justify premium increases. Obama's proposal amounts to little more than federal price controls. Yet with his best Wizard of Oz impression (pay no attention to the stuff behind the curtain), Obama asserted, "Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, I am an ardent believer in the free market." Sure -- if you say so.
CNN actually came closer to the mark: "If enacted, the president's sweeping compromise plan would constitute the biggest expansion of federal health care guarantees since the enactment of Medicare and Medicaid more than four decades ago." The key words are "biggest expansion."
Another part of Obama's proposal is the supposed elimination of the "Cornhusker Kickback," the $100 million in Medicaid relief for Nebraska that bought Sen. Ben Nelson's vote. When reading the fine print, however, we see that the kickback has simply been extended to every state by transferring all new Medicaid spending through 2017 directly to the federal ledger.
Obama is trying mightily to win over "obstructionist" Republicans -- or so his media minions tell us. More likely, however, it's the 38 House Democrats who voted against ObamaCare in November that are his target. Since the House passed its trillion-dollar version by a not-so-comfortable majority of five votes (220-215), Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has lost three votes with the retirements of Reps. Robert Wexler (D-FL) and Neil Abercrombie (D-HI), and the death of Rep. Jack Murtha (D-PA). Also, Rep. Joseph Cao (R-LA), the lone Republican in either chamber to vote for the bill, says he will not support it again, and pro-life Democrats -- whose leader, Michigan's Bart Stupak, wasn't invited to Thursday's photo-op -- continue to vow opposition if abortion funding is included. Pelosi conceded Wednesday that she doesn't yet have the votes for passage. That's, of course, if you believe anything she says.
The administration pushed the idea of using the reconciliation process to ram the bill through the Senate if Republicans don't heel. Reconciliation, which is a procedure contrived in 1974 to circumvent filibustering on budget bills, would allow Senate Democrats to pass ObamaCare with only 51 votes. Doing so would greatly enhance Republicans' election prospects in November, though enough Democrats may calculate the price is worth paying.
The White House isn't without Plan B. If the complete takeover fails, Democrats will just grab smaller pieces of the pie. The alternative would be to extend insurance coverage to about 15 million Americans by requiring insurance providers to allow people to remain on their parents' plans until age 26, and by expanding Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program. (Most Democrats do behave like children, so these proposals certainly make sense to them.)
Perhaps the tone and purpose of the summit can be encapsulated by an exchange between Obama and Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), the number-two House Republican: The president chastised Cantor for using "props" that "prevent us from having a conversation." The prop? Cantor was sitting behind a copy of the current 2,400-page Senate bill. Heaven forbid Republicans bring the actual bill to a summit about the bill. Next time, though, Eric, bring the Constitution.
This Week's 'Braying Jackass' Award
"[Republicans] should stop crying about reconciliation as if it's never been done before." --Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)
Video of the Week
In 2005, when Republicans were considering the "nuclear option" to stop Democrats' filibuster of dozens of President George W. Bush's judicial nominees, Democrats lined up at every microphone in sight to denounce the idea, claiming it was a "naked power grab," a "constitutional crisis" and "how democracy ends." Times sure have changed. Watch the video.
The BIG Lie
"It's about jobs. In its life, [the health bill] will create four million jobs -- 400,000 jobs almost immediately." --House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
We're still waiting for all those jobs promised by the stimulus bill.
New & Notable Legislation
The Senate passed a $15 billion "jobs" bill Wednesday by a 70-28 vote. Thirteen Republicans, including newly minted Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, joined Democrats in voting for passage. The centerpiece is a payroll tax cut for businesses that hire new employees, but it's unlikely that short-term tax relief will have a real effect on unemployment. The bill now goes to the House for consideration, though leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus have announced their opposition to the bill, which they called inadequate and just a "tax bill," not a jobs bill. No word yet from the Congressional White Caucus.
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) introduced the Dietary Supplement Safety Act (DSSA), S. 3002, which would empower the Food and Drug Administration to regulate dietary supplements such as vitamins. The FDA could arbitrarily reclassify supplements as drugs or pull them off the shelves altogether. Find that one in the Constitution. With Republicans like this, who needs Democrats?
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) plans to introduce legislation to repeal the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy that prohibits homosexuals from disclosing their pathology while serving in the military. The White House supports his bill, but no timeline for its implementation has been established. Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) introduced a more aggressive bill in the House that calls for repeal in 2010. Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates have indicated support for repealing the law but stated that the Pentagon would need at least a year to study implementation. General James Conway, head of the U.S. Marine Corps, dissented. "My best military advice ... would be to keep the law such as it is." Conway added that the only question that mattered is this: "Do we somehow enhance the war fighting capabilities of the United States Marine Corps by allowing homosexuals to openly serve?"
House Democrats expressed their displeasure with the slow pace of their Senate counterparts by producing a list of 290 House-passed bills that are stalled in the upper chamber. The various pieces of that legislation range from routine naming of buildings to more significant legislation like health care, Wall Street reform and climate change. Democrat leaders Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid were both quick to blame Republicans, but Reid's Democrats had held a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate until earlier this month. The Democrats have few if any friends across the aisle, but their worst enemies seem to be located within their own caucus. All in all, these 290 stalled bills are the best news to come out of the Swamp all week.
Hope 'n' Change: That Demo Culture of Corruption
The White House is being accused of offering juicy government jobs to two Democrats in exchange for their withdrawal from potential primary battles in this year's election cycle. The charges, which come from the Democrats themselves, are quite serious and carry punishments including jail time, assuming anyone would prosecute.
Read more here.
Village Academic Curriculum: Federal Standards Are No Prize, Either
Even with the establishment of additional federal standards for education in the No Child Left Behind legislation signed by President George W. Bush back in 2002, states were granted flexibility in how they enacted these mandates, as the Bush administration left at least that modicum of local control intact. But the Obama Department of Education wants to wipe that pretense away and require states to adopt "college- and career-ready standards" in order to qualify for part of $14 billion in Title I funding.
One fig leaf covering this power grab is that all but two states (Texas and Alaska) are collaborating -- with the encouragement of the White House -- on setting up standards which would be acceptable to the federal government. It's clear, however, that local control of education is rapidly becoming a thing of the past.
Recently, Barack Obama offered himself as a prize to the student who best describes "why your school is special and why it should be a model for other schools around the country, working to boost attendance and increase the number of graduates prepared for college or a career." The winning school would be the lucky recipient of a presidential visit, with the narcissist-in-chief stopping by to read a commencement address off his teleprompter.
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