T-Paw on Health Care

Add health care to the issues that Republican Punk loves Tim Pawlenty, the governor of Minnesota, on for the 2012 election. Politico has a new article on the way the good governor has thrown himself into the health care debate as the middle ground between the Massachusetts model of Mitt Romney and the harsh rhetoric of Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich:

Pawlenty said he has three major objections to Democratic plans: the public option, possible tax increases on small and medium-sized businesses and the “massive spending disaster” that would result if health care were added to a federal budget.

The Minnesota governor also supports the right to pool insurance risk across state lines, opening up private insurance markets to allow consumers to buy a policy from nearly anywhere, creating an electronic billing and prescription system, the prohibition of coverage denials based on pre-existing conditions, portability guarantees and incentivizing hospitals and patients to reduce the cost of individual visits.

His approach doesn’t always land him in the headlines, but it’s winning him notice as a serious voice in the debate without damaging his Minnesota Nice brand.

This approach is almost identical to what this blog would like to see done, and is almost certainly a middle ground that could pass through the Senate (though probably not the current House, which has too many liberals to accept giving up the public option while allowing people to buy across state lines.) The article is highly recommended reading for those who haven't already jumped on the Pawlenty band wagon.

P.S.
There is also a great one sentence description of the man I've come to adore:

“That’s Tim’s nature. He’s a quieter sort, he’s more about policy. I just don’t think it’s in his nature to use heavy rhetorical flourishes,” said Donatelli. “I think if he becomes a candidate, his message will be that he has been a successful conservative, pro-free market governor in a very blue state. That would be the one-sentence description of his political career.”

Another Tax-Payer Funded Witch Hunt

House Democrats are probing the nation’s largest insurance companies for lavish spending, demanding reams of compensation data and schedules of retreats and conferences.

Letters sent to 52 insurance companies by Democratic leaders demand extensive documents for an examination of ‘extensive compensation and other business practices in the health insurance industry.” The letters set a deadline of Sept. 14 for the documents.

By Sept. 4, the firms are supposed to supply detailed compensation data for board members and top executives, as well as a “table listing all conferences, retreats, or other events held outside company facilities from January 1, 2007, to the present that were paid for, reimbursed, or subsidized in whole or in part by your company.”

For employees or officers making $500,000 or more, the committee wants information on salary, bonus, options and pension.

An industry source interviewed for the article got it correct:

“This is nothing more than a taxpayer-funded fishing expedition designed to silence health plans."

Source: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0809/26251.html#ixzz0Oe0Hz9fn

Dems Prepared To Stuff Health Care Down Our Throats

They've got 60; they're now ready to try to use it, according to Politico and Mercury News, among others.

Of course, they blame this on the Republicans, because in the Democrats world, only reform that involves government expansion is true reform, and thus Republicans, who are holding out to only support something they believe in, don't support reform.

It is still unlikely that they will be able to get a public option out of the Senate, as it no longer has popular support (44 for, 47 against, according to the new CBS News poll that continues to show a steady downward trend for the idea) and moderate-to-conservative Dems (Landreiu, Nelson, Warner, Begich, Lincoln, Bayh, etc.) probably wouldn't be able to bring themselves to support it.

The scariest possibility is that the Dems may attempt to use Budget Reconciliation rules, which would only require 50 votes and would allow them to ignore up to 10 moderates, even though those rules are meant only for direct budget-related measures (Robert Byrd, a diehard liberal, has said he would oppose this bill, if they attempted to pass it in this fashion, out of precedent). It would be a decleration of war on Republicans and could be very costly in 2010, but might get the job done. As Republican Punk has said in the past, once a public option is in, there is no getting rid of it. It is an entitlement and people don't vote away entitlements (Welfare being the one exception, and that required a perfect storm even though it only affected a small minority of the population).

We'll keep you updated as news leaks on what a Republican-less reform package out of the Senate would look like.

Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI) Supports Further Confusing The Tax Code...for Pets?

This blog is always happy to print any story about the best named vaudeville villain...um, Congressman. However, it is unfortunate though that this "conservative" congressman doesn't believe in flat, broad-based taxes, but instead credits for favored interests (see: car industry.) But who knew the pet industry had a lobby?

U.S. Rep. Thaddeus McCotter [R-Mich.], has introduced legislation to create a tax deduction for pet owners’ expenses related to their pets.

According to the pet industry trade magazine, Pet Product News, McCotter, a Livonia Republican, introduced the legislation July 31 in conjunction with a Pet Product News survey on the industry.

The legislation is being supported by the lobbying arm of the pet industry, the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council (PIJAC).

According to the PPN story, the proposed legislation will amend the IRS code to allow pet owners to deduct up to $3,500 in pet related expenses, including veterinary care.

Source: http://washingtonindependent.com/54265/michigan-gop-congressman-supports-government-funded-health-care-for-pets

A Democrat We Can Get Behind

Claire McCaskill, Senator from Missouri and a big-time Obama supporter-turned-leading administration critic from the moderate wing of the Democratic party, has made it her goal to kill Pelosi's push for three new, top-shelf jets to ferry congresspeople and other "dignitaries" (quotes laced with heavy sarcasm) around.

“This just makes no sense. Talk about the wrong message at the wrong time,” McCaskill said. “While American families are tightening their belts there is no way we should be buying extra executive jets. No wonder so many people think we don’t get it."

Everyone who has a grain of fiscal common sense should be getting right in line behind her. This blog is.

Source: Glenn Thrush

Armadillo as Liberty

Tom Coburn is quickly becoming my favorite senator. Here is an excerpt from his floor speech on the stimulus:

"You know, in Oklahoma, I trap armadillos in my yard. They come in, they'll ruin a little yard, because they like grubworms. So all you gotta do is put a few marshmallows out, put a marshmallow or two in the trap cage, and you'll catch those suckers. We'll that's what Washington is doing to American liberty...

We steal your liberty. We steal your freedom. We steal your choice...

Now there's two things I do with those armadillos, one of two things. I either put 'em in the back of my pickup and take 'em 10 or 15 miles away from my property, or I shoot 'em. And that's exactly what's gonna happen to us. We're either going to be carried far away from what we know and trust and believe in to be right, or we're gonna be extinct as a nation."

Hat Tip: Glenn Thrush

P.S.
Bias in Mr. Thrush's writing has gotten really bad in recent weeks. If you remember, about a week ago Mr. Thrush thought Zell Miller was being racist by using Gorilla Glue to metaphorically glue President Obama to his chair. Well, he hasn't been afraid to let his bias slip in recent weeks, and this post was no different. He made a big deal out of the fact that Mr. Coburn shoots the Armadillos in his yard. Good. Frickin'. Lord.

Henry Waxman Threatens To Forego His Committee

When you can't get what you want, ignore everyone else:

Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) has threatened to bypass his own committee and move a sweeping health care bill to the House floor if conservative Democrats in the Blue Dog Coalition don't agree to back the package.

Waxman had agreed to include language in the bill that would grant an outside commission authority to recommend cuts to government-funded health care programs. According to Ross, he had also agreed to include Senate language that would let doctors and other health care providers negotiate rates with the government-sponsored public health care plans.

But in the Friday session, Waxman told the group that he was taking both concessions off the table, Ross said afterward.

Even Democrat leadership, such as Whip Jim Clyburn and DCCC chairman Chris Van Hollen are uncomfortable with this blatently unfair move. But this is the hard-nosed (no pun intended) old-liner Waxman we're talking about, so we'll see.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25380.html#ixzz0MCkZMMPI

At Least Someone's Trying

Rep. John Tanner (D-TN) is taking on the futile, but notable, task of reforming redistricting.

So Tanner has once again — for the third Congress in a row — introduced legislation that would end political gerrymandering by nationalizing standards for congressional districting and taking away redistricting power from State Legislatures. Tanner’s bill would require each state to establish an independent, bipartisan commission to redraw congressional district lines, with its members equally appointed by the two parties in the statehouse. The group’s chairman would be elected by the original commissioners.

The national standards in Tanner’s bill seek to ensure that districts reflect organic communities, rather than surgically carved out blocs of voters. The redistricting commission would aim to make districts equal in population size, adhere to traditional boundaries such as city limits and maintain contiguity and compactness.

They specifically would not be allowed to take into consideration voting history, party affiliation of voters or consequences for the incumbent.

Anyone who ever complains about the lack of moderation and consensus on even the simplest issues in Congress needs to call their representatives and senators and ask them to support this legislation.

Source: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25365.html#ixzz0MCaC3uiD

Dems Want To Pull Military Information Funding

The Defense Department wants nearly $1 billion next year for its greatly-expanded Information Operations programs. But lawmakers are putting on the brakes, saying the end product is often ineffective “propaganda” and a costly distraction from the military’s core mission.

The House Appropriations Committee fired the first shot Tuesday, ordering deep cuts from the 2010 budget and the termination of many IO activities now underway. Altogether the Pentagon’s $998 million request would be cut in half, and the remaining funds frozen until the Defense Department submits a fuller accounting of its plans and where the money has been going since 2005.

Iran has "propaganda" in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, and Lebanon. Syria has "propaganda" in Iraq, Palestine, and Lebanon. Russia has "propaganda" in Eastern Europe. China has growing "propaganda" all over the world. Meanwhile, the Pentagon tries to counter it with a program to show people that we are not the charicatures they think we are, and the Democrats want us to fight a war one-handed.

And people wonder why Hobbes prefered the sole sovereign.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25327.html#ixzz0M76hV9UR

Mayo Clinic Opposes House Health Care Bill

The Mayo Clinic, which President Obama and his supporters tend to (rightfully) hold up as an example of strong health care, even if they do misdiagnose the reasons why it is best in the country, has come out clearly against the health care bill currently floating in the House:

Although there are some positive provisions in the current House Tri-Committee bill – including insurance for all and payment reform demonstration projects – the proposed legislation misses the opportunity to help create higher-quality, more affordable health care for patients. In fact, it will do the opposite.

In general, the proposals under discussion are not patient focused or results oriented. Lawmakers have failed to use a fundamental lever – a change in Medicare payment policy – to help drive necessary improvements in American health care. Unless legislators create payment systems that pay for good patient results at reasonable costs, the promise of transformation in American health care will wither. The real losers will be the citizens of the United States.

Link: http://healthpolicyblog.mayoclinic.org/2009/07/16/mayo-clinic%E2%80%99s-reaction-to-house-tri-committee-bill/

Eric Cantor: Democrats Running An Appropriations Autocracy

From a new Politico editorial:

By the time the remaining three appropriations bills are completed later this month, the Democrats will most likely have passed 12 appropriations bills under an eye-popping 12 closed rules. During the 12 years Republicans controlled the House, which ended in 2006, the most appropriations bills to come to the floor in one year under a closed rule was four. That happened in 1997.

Obey and the Democratic leadership justify their heavy-handedness by claiming that when given open rules in 2007, Republicans used dilatory tactics to hold the appropriations process hostage. (In 2008, Congress packaged most appropriations bills in an omnibus, which it didn’t pass until this past February.) Democrats vow not to allow Republicans to engage in this supposed intransigence again.

Yet the facts belie the Democrats’ argument. In 1995, the first year of the Democrats’ last period in the minority, the House considered appropriations bills on 31 days for a total of 205 hours. Yet in 2007, when Republicans were relegated to minority status, appropriations bills took just 23.3 days for a total of 170 hours. Republicans offered amendments we believed were important, and as the facts indicate, we did not engage in any kind of extraordinary delaying.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25167.html#ixzz0Luoi4sVI

Speaker Pelosi Resorts To Blatant Class Warfare

The speaker would like the trigger raised to $500,000 for individuals and $1 million for families, “so it’s a millionaire's tax,” she said. “When someone hears, ‘2,’ they think, ‘Oh, I could be there,’ because they don’t know the $280,000 is for one person.

“It sounds like you’re in the neighborhood. So I just want to remove all doubt. You hear ‘$500,000 a year,’ you think, ‘My God, that’s not me.’”

Once we reach the point where people start voting to screw another group in order to get what they want, truly American liberalism is over. We need to address the decrease in social mobility, so that no one falls for this "well, it's not going to affect me" garbage.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25144.html#ixzz0LpcT6aSv

Chris Dodd's Lobbyist Hypocrisy

Sen. Chris Dodd’s recent anti-lobbyist comments have drawn a big laugh at the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

“It is worth noting that over the years you have accepted nearly $1 million in campaign contributions from lobbyists and millions more from PACs,” NRSC Executive Director Rob Jesmer wrote to Dodd. “In fact, during the second quarter of this year alone, almost 40 percent of your total contributions came from PACs.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25132.html#ixzz0LpIFeAd5

Leahy Plays The Race Card By Saying Republicans Played The Race Card

“You have one leader of the Republican Party call her the equivalent of the head of the Ku Klux Klan. Another leader of the Republican Party called her a bigot,” the Vermont Democrat said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “The leadership of the Republican Party came out against her long before we had the hearings, long before they looked at her record. I think that’s unfair.”

“I hope we don’t go back to the day when we used to have African-Americans up for confirmation and say yes, but you belong to the NAACP so we’re really suspicious of you,” said Leahy. “Come on, stop the racial politics. ...”

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, tried to jump in, saying, “Come on, Pat, I want to disagree ...” but Leahy continued

Sessions defended his party as simply conducting a vigorous investigation of Sotomayor’s background.

“No Republican leader said she was a bigot,” said Sessions. “There’s nothing wrong with us asking about her personal views about legal positions that she took as a member of any organization. That’s a normal thing to do.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25138.html#ixzz0LpDii6XZ

Democrat-Appointed Head of Congressional Budget Office Says What John McCain and Virtually Every Health Economist Has Been Saying For A Year

In an ominous sign for proponents, Congressional Budget Office Director Doug Elmendorf told the Senate Budget Committee that none of the bills he has seen would contain health care costs to reduce them significantly over time. This is the main argument offered by Obama and Democrats as to why Congress can spend $1 trillion and save money.

“In the legislation that has been reported we do not see the sort of fundamental changes that would be necessary to reduce the trajectory of federal health spending by a significant amount,” Elmendorf said.

“And on the contrary, the legislation significantly expands the federal responsibility for health care costs.”

Elmendorf said health analysts say the way to do it by changing the preferential tax treatment for health insurance.

“We have a subsidy for larger health insurance policies in our tax code, and that like other subsidies encourages more of that activity,” Elmendorf said. “Reducing that subsidy would reduce that.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25031.html

Barbara Boxer Called Out On Subtle Racism

Stuff like this is way too common; I'm glad someone finally called her out on this condescending behavior. It is unfortunate that California has become so adverse to Republicans, because she does not represent the state well to people who think it is simply full of liberal elitism and race gentrification.

Hat Tip: The Politico

Issue Numbers Good for Republicans to Keep Hammering Debt Message

Now that Congressional Republicans have rediscovered their fiscal souls and oppose deficit spending again after 8 years of letting the Bush administration run rough-shod all over them, a variety of polls released yesterday seem to show that this is probably their best issue (along with Gitmo, which is a tad bit more controversial), and a much stronger one than we thought.

These numbers can all be found on Polling Report (most of it here: http://www.pollingreport.com/budget.htm) and don't require much commentary.

• 50% of Americans say they will base their 2010 congressional vote on the candidates feelings concerning Economic Stimulus(stimuli?). The next biggest issue is 23%.
• 54% of Americans are either not very or not at all confident that the last stimulus will ever work. 52% do not even think it will produce jobs.
• Depending on the poll, either a 52%-36% or 61%-33% margin opposes a new stimulus.
• 71% would prefer a slower recovery to an increased deficit.
• And, to those who do not believe people will vote based on deficit issues, 67% (correctly)believe that the deficit affects their everyday lives and finances.
• Finally, President Obama has fallen, for a few polls in a row now, to the point where the country is virtually split right down the middle (with a few undecided) on whether they approve of his economic policies.

Tom Coburn Knows How To Get It Out Of Her!

Tom Coburn, Senator from Oklahoma and hero of hardcore small government conservatives, seems to have a knack at putting Sotomayor on the spot. Watch as he calls her out on a lesser known, but arguably more important, speech she gave where she stated that foreign law should affect American judges' reasoning, and watch how she struggles to wash those comments away.



Then, there is a great (if not that enlightening) exchange concerning gun rights, full with I Love Lucy reference.



Finally, here she is punting on a straight-forward, very specific question concerning abortion, something she has done quite a bit of during these hearings, which, in all honesty, is probably the right strategic move. Also, note Coburn being the Southern Gent that he is.



Source: The Politico

Strict Party Line

The Senate health committee approved a massive health care overhaul bill in a party-line 13-10 vote Wednesday morning, a major step in the push to create a government run health insurance plan.

"It actually will penalize Americans who have insurance today who are happy with their doctors," said Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.). "We're headed in the wrong direction, and unfortunately there are only two numbers you need to remember, and that's 13 and 10" the number of Democrats who voted for and Republicans who voted against the bill.

Source: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/24964.html#ixzz0LLzO4JOZ&C

Sorry Harry, A Conservative Second Stimulus Is Still One Stimulus Too Many

Harold Ford, Jr., former Rep. and Senate candidate from Tennessee and currently the leader of the moderate Democratic Leadership Council (of Bill Clinton fame), has a new editorial on the Politico calling for a new stimulus. You can read it for yourself here: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/24927.html.

Ford stakes out an honerable position: attempting to craft a package that would entice Republicans and Blue Dog Dems concerned about the economy. In fact, his proposals, consisting of loans, not grants, to the States and a "vacation" from payroll taxes, paid for with returned TARP money, were central tenets of the Republican stimulus alternative. Surprisingly, he even advocates sacrificing expanded coverage in health care in order to get both reform and this new stimulus package without further breaking the budget:

It is also critical that we take concrete steps to restore fiscal balance in the long run. New budget estimates for health care reform show that tough measures to rein in spending and curb reimbursements can have a significant impact on the rate of growth in costs. The unfortunate truth is that cost-cutting may need to be prioritized over expansion of coverage, which, in any case, is unsustainable without massive cost savings.

The problem is the last stimulus went too far. If we could refund some of that money, specifically the $200 billion or so that had nothing to do with stimulus and solely sought to further the progressive agenda, conservatives and most of the nation could get behind this. Unfortunately, Pelosi, Reid, and Co. have made it clear to people like Paul Ryan and John Thune who would like to pursue this path that it is not going to happen. If that is the case, we are at such a tipping point budget-wise that the negative effects of any added debt are so great in the long term that the benefits in abating the recession now would be moot when the economy lurches back into a deeper one in 10 years.