Axelrod, message maven for Obama, says they will have the votes in the House. Really. It says so right here, on ABC NEWS. And Chuck Todd of NBC News tweets: Clyburn on #MTP (Meet the Press) says House Dems do NOT yet have the votes. Matches Pelosi who said “when you have the votes, you call the vote.” AP is now also reporting the U.S. | Read More »
The Congressional Budget Office Director, in today’s blog, says CBO cannot “score” or provide a cost estimate for Obama’s health care plan because CBO needs more detail. It’s amazing, the Trillion Dollar President wants to change the world, but doesn’t have legislative language to do it. Not even to give to CBO. Where’s the bill? The CBO Director went out of his way today (in | Read More »
The left-right-center squeeze is on. (See this post for the latest parade of liberal attacks on the bill.) Now, Senator Ben Nelson has rejected the abortion “compromise” language. It’s not just abortion either, Senator Nelson also cited other concerns he had with the legislation. So, if you are counting Senators who are not YES votes, that count would be: 1. Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) 2. | Read More »
Michael E. Hammond is one of three mentors I have been lucky enough to work for during my career. When I worked for him, he was the General Counsel of the U.S. Senate Steering Committee. He has run for Congress twice in New Hampshire and is now the General Counsel of Gun Owners for America. He is one of the two smartest political strategists I | Read More »
For those attempting to figure out what is in the Senate ObamaCare bill, you are in the company of 99 U.S. Senators who have not seen the bill. At least that is what today’s New York Times is reporting: “frustration has been growing among some lawmakers over the delay, especially as they are asked repeated questions about a bill they have not yet seen. “I | Read More »
On Friday, every Republican Senator sent U.S. Senate Majority Leader Reid a letter which said, where is the bill text? Here is an excerpt from the letter: “The American people and every member of Congress should be allowed to read the bill that was sent to CBO. The bill should be made available for taxpayers to read and learn how the federal government is spending | Read More »
A unified Republican Senate signed a letter to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Reid with a simple request, can the American people see the bill you sent to the Congressional Budget Office? Here is the text of the signed letter: On Monday, you announced that you had sent health care legislation to the Congressional Budget office (CBO). As you know, this legislation will have a profound | Read More »
Desperate men do desperate things, and those who have any doubt just how desperate the Dems are over passing health reform should read the Washington Post editorial that puts the lie to what the White House and Senate Majority Leader Reid are attempting to do — put $241 billion in new health reform spending off-budget. Off-budget is Washington speak for lets-spend-the-money-but-not-count-that-we-are-spending-it. Taking ever so slight | Read More »
While Senator Snowe’s yes vote in the Senate Finance Committee was a shock to liberals and conservatives, it is neither a defeat for conservatives nor a victory for liberals. The bill would have passed Committee regardless of how Sen. Snowe voted. Senator Snowe, in her own words, said her vote was a maybe on the Senate floor. Smart political observers like Carrie Budoff Brown at | Read More »
This is a politically significant and original analysis of the Vapor bill — one without legislative language — that lays out very real issues that are, in part, driving the pressure on Congress to produce the legislative language prior to consideration on the Senate floor. MEMORANDUM FROM: Michael Hammond RE: The Baucus “Bill” TEN IMPORTANT QUESTIONS WHICH ARE UNANSWERED IN THE BAUCUS SUMMARY: QUESTION 1 | Read More »
Thank you Karl at HotAir! There are some politically and historically significant blog posts, and this is one of them. If you read something else today, read Karl’s post here. Seems those who have cut deals with the Dems: the American Medical Association, Phrma, the hospitals and the insurers are all having trouble with the Dems sticking to their deals. Hmmmm. With these industries not | Read More »
Politico (again) breaks a major story this morning with its outing of the Dem secret plan that Brian Darling of the Heritage Foundation has been warning of for more than ten days: a former House and Senate leadership aide sent an email sketching out another route to passage. Instead of introducing a Senate bill, Majority Leader Reid could insert the merged health care reform language | Read More »
The unsatisfied quenching of the Dem thirst for health care reform continued as the Senate Finance Committee received their vapor score for their vapor bill which had the net effect of discrediting the Congressional Budget Office. U.S. Rep. Shadegg renamed CBO the Cooked Books Office with a stinging post (as in, that’s gotta hurt): Could you make your family budget look good in a ten-year | Read More »
The MSM would like the American public to believe that the Senate Finance Committee bill was scored by the Congressional Budget Office. After all, WaPo, the NYT and the WSJ reported: WaPo: “The bill would cost $829 billion over the next decade.” NYT: “The budget office analyzed the bill … its newly projected cost — $829 billion over 10 years.” WSJ: “The latest Senate health | Read More »
How sustainable a political position does this sound like: You can’t see the Senate ObamaCare legislative language and we will not tell you how much it costs. Here is how the San Francisco Examiner put it in their editorial: When then-Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama promised not to sign major legislation until it had been posted on the Internet for public reading at least five | Read More »
What it Means: Vapor bill: A bill which moves through the legislative process in one or more houses of the U.S. Congress without legislative language. The best example of a Vapor Bill is the Senate Health Care Reform bill, which has no legislative language, but has been amended in the Senate Finance Committee. The term Vapor Bill was derived from the word Vaporware, a term | Read More »
I know that there are many people who are incredulous that the U.S. Senate can proceed to a blank, shell health care bill next week — a vapor-bill. Every person knowledgeable about Senate procedure believes that the Democrats are both arrogant and desperate enough to bring up a blank bill on the Senate flooor, and are planning for it and expecting this unprecedented action by | Read More »
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