DriveThru – Get What You Need

All of the DriveThru bloggers want to wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Rep. Bart Stupak, the author of the Stupak pro-life amendment to the House version of healthcare reform (which prohibits public funds from funding abortion), says that the White House and Democratic leadership are pressuring him to keep silent about the Senate’s version of  so-called “compromise” language that supposedly swayed Ben Nelson to provide the 60th vote to move the bill along last Monday morning.

Stupak says he’s not easily intimidated:

“We’re getting a lot of pressure not to say anything, to try to compromise this principle or belief.” Stupak said. “[T]hat’s just not us. We’re not going to do that. Members who voted for the Stupak language in the House – especially the Democrats, 64 Democrats that voted for it – feel very strongly about it. It’s been part of who we are, part of our make up. It’s the principle belief that we have. We are not just going to abandon it in the name of health care.”

Although the Senate Dems are poised to pass their version of a healthcare bill on Christmas Eve, it now looks like the administration will put off further action (such as a conference committee to reconcile the House and Senate versions) until February. Apparently there are some problems with the economy, or something, they’ve been alerted to.

From a policy perspective, 2009 has been an interesting year for one-man, one-woman marriage. Bad: Iowa, Vermont, D.C. Good: Maine, New York and New Jersey. But I have to be honest, the marriages making the news are pretty discouraging.

Tiger’s philandering, Kate and Jon’s public ugliness, Beyonce’s parents—married for 29 years—divorcing in the wake of a paternity suit. And too many people I actually know are also divorcing.

Ugh.

Marriage needs a little Christmas, as the song goes, and it’s needed now. Thankfully, the Christmas story inspires.

It’s difficult to imagine entrusting an unborn child, let alone the holy child, to a young teenage girl and a man who is not the father, but the Christmas story is about beating the odds. Statistically, it was improbable that the couple would marry–let alone stay together to raise a family–but God knew something about the heart of Mary and the integrity of Joseph, that made them perfect for His divine plan.

The rest of this story is impossible to ignore. It thrills and divides and challenges and repels. If untrue, we are hopeless and hapless humans in search of meaning and our own solutions. If true, the impossible is possible—from feeding the hungry, to living with and faithfully loving another impossibly flawed person. It’s not humanly possible. The touch of the divine makes it possible.

Every marriage needs a little Christmas, a little more divine grace for one another, and now is the perfect season to try it out.

Apparently some senators are miffed that Ben Nelson’s holdout on the Reid manager’s amendment to the healthcare bill netted the state of Nebraska $100 million in Medicaid payments. Nelson told Fox News that three other senators told him that they want the same deal:

“Three senators came up to me just now on the (Senate) floor, and said, ‘Now we understand what you did. We’ll be seeking this funding too’, Nelson said.”

Other “incentives” handed out by Reid:

• Exempting certain health insurance companies in Nebraska and Michigan from taxes and fees. (p. 367)
• Providing automatic Medicare coverage for anyone living in Libby, Montana. (p. 194)
• Earmarking $100 million for a “Health Care Facility reportedly in Connecticut. (p. 328)
• Giving special treatment to Hawaii’s Disproportionate Share Hospitals. (p. 101)
• Boosting reimbursement rates for certain hospitals in Michigan and Connecticut (p. 174)

More votes are scheduled for today with the big Senate vote on the overall bill scheduled for tomorrow.

Five out of 12 major anti-family policies in the omnibus spending bill are related to funding abortions and liberalizing sex education. You can thank bill-supporting Members of Congress (House, Senate) and our President for the following “gifts” just before Christmas 2009:

• Elimination of abstinence education funds ($zero$)
• Funding for Planned Parenthood (Title X funding boost to $315M)
• Publicly funded abortions for D.C. residents in our nation’s Capitol
• U.S. funding for U.N. population control, including China’s one-child policy and subsequent abortions (U.S. Taxpayers will pay $5M more)
• International family planning – fund overseas abortions – Mexico City Policy – ($103M more)

The Heritage Foundation posted a Web article titled, “Twelve Anti-Family Gifts From Congress,” [Dec. 22, 2009],   that lists another seven egregious funds and policies passed in by Congress in the omnibus spending bill. Policies such as more funding to keep people on welfare, needle exchange, limiting free speech, ending D.C. scholarship program, domestic partner benefits for D.C. employees and legalized “medical” marijuana … “high” in a pear treeeeee …

Supporting Members of Congress voted in favor of this bill, and President Obama signed it into law. We certainly hope they enjoy all the Piggy Pudding they passed in the $1.1 Trillion Pork-nibus spending bill with more than 5,000 earmarks.

Though this battle was lost in 2009, the war is far from over in 2010.

MORE INFORMATION

• See a PDF of The Heritage Foundation’s Twelve Anti-Family Gifts From Congress … 
• See Appendix for 2010 Budget of the U.S. Government … 
• See Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2010 – H.R. 3288 (omnibus spending bill) …  [PDF]

So says Kathleen Sebelius, the Health and Human Services Secretary. And the fact that the last-minute, so-called “pro-life” amendment (that supposedly eased Ben Nelson’s qualms about public funding of abortion) was negotiated by Senators Barbara Boxer and Patty Murray would have sent shivers of fear through any ordinary pro-lifer. Somehow Ben missed all of that.

But Ed Morrissey at Hot Air asks a question that even a fifth-grader would correctly answer every time: “If the government forces us to pay into a fund, and then controls the distribution of those funds, are those funds not ‘public’?”

Too bad it wasn’t a fifth-grader who Reid needed at 1 a.m Monday for his 60th vote.

Okay, the healthcare bill process seems to be a little less about poor uninsured Americans than it is about good ol’ fashioned “The Price is Right” politicking.

A wavering Sen. Landrieu got $300 million for her state of Louisiana in exchange for her vote, which transaction has already been dubbed “The Louisiana Purchase.”

Ben Nelson, the 60th vote that the Dems needed for last night’s 1 a.m. vote, apparently got the American taxpayers assurances that we would fund $100 million for Nebraska’s increased Medicaid payments in a section of the bill entitled “Equitable Support for Certain States.” I like the use of “equitable” in the title – it’s a nice touch, don’t you think?

Now I have a fun pre-Christmas health-care bill challenge for you. (There’s probably only a small room-full of D.C. types who actually know the answer to this at the moment, so this is a genuine sleuthing request.) Here it is: See if you can figure out which hospital, (that will now receive $100 million in capital improvement funds via Harry Reid’s last-minute “generosity”), fits this description (page 328 of Reid’s amendment) :

“…to be used for debt service on, or direct construction or renovation of, a health care facility that provides research, inpatient tertiary care or outpatient clinical services. Such facility shall be affiliated with an academic health center at a public research center at a public research university in the United States that contains a State’s sole public academic medical and dental school.” (emphasis added)

My guess is that you’ll find only one such existing institution, and it will be located in a state with at least one Democratic Senator. Please send your contest entries via the comments section.

There will be no prize for the correct answer other than bragging rights.

UPDATE: Oh, sorry, thanks for playing. But the Washington Post reports that Connecticut and the embattled Sen. Dodd are the lucky winners. Maybe we can change the contest. Who on earth added the tax on indoor tanning to the healthcare bill?

UPDATE 2: Not so fast. Dodd may have asked for it, but ABC News reports that schools in a dozen states could lay claim for it.

Golf champion, Tiger Woods, became a legacy on the green, but he certainly didn’t model his moral code after NBA Lakers’ champion, A.C. Green. Sexual secrets have a way of rising to the surface, and now Woods has much regret and much to repair.

Sports reporter, Chris Erskine of the Los Angeles Times, contrasts Lakers’ national champion, A.C. Green to golf pro, Tiger Woods. Despite years of temptation and being in the national spotlight, A.C. Green was a virgin when he married – even after 40 years.

Young singles, be encouraged by Green’s story and ask yourself, who’s living a happier life: Tiger Woods or A.C. Green? Sex has consequences, so save it for a stable, faithful, committed marriage. A.C. Green did – for more than 40 years! If you want the best, most satisfying sex without the hardships and negative consequences, order’s important. First a faithful, loving, committed marriage, then great, satisfying sex can blossom.

Popular culture tells us that if the sex is good, the relationship will also be good. What a crock! Any physically healthy male and female can have sex, but where’s the commitment, love and promise of a future? 

No, a “good relationship” is not defined by sex. Rather, great sex is a byproduct of a great, stable and loving relationship. The sexual act without relationship and commitment is void of meaning and has no long-term satisfaction. Don’t you want more – the best?

My advice? Follow Green’s example.

Read the full article, Tiger Woods, meet A.C. Green [Los Angeles Times, 12-10-2009].

I love Joe Arpaio, the hugely popular Maricopa County, AZ, sheriff, who drives the ACLU nuts for making his inmates wear pink underwear, or feeding them bologna sandwiches rather than hot meals at the taxpayers’ expense.

And he’s stepped in it once again. Apparently believing that Christmas music may improve inmate morale (fewer fights, knifings, disputes over the TV remote, etc.), Sheriff Joe is piping all sorts of seasonal music 10 hours a day into the common areas of Maricopa County jails during the Christmas season. The inmates are only free from the aural assault if they stay in their cells.

So far, six lawsuits have been filed this year to stop the Sheriff’s annual musical torture, alleging that Christmas music constitutes “cruel and unusual punishment” in violation of the 8th Amendment.

I was about to write the prisoners’ complaints off to the fact that they have too much time on their hands and are chafing from the pink underwear.

Then I had a more empathetic, kind of a ghost-of-Christmas-past reaction: “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” gives me a nervous tic every time I hear it. Jose’ Feliciano’s 1970 “Feliz Navidad,” was fine for the first 30 years and 10 thousand times I heard it, but it now makes me curse in German. And any song sung by Burl Ives immediately causes a stabbing pain behind my right eye (or is that the pencil that I’m jabbing into it?). There are several more such songs that evoke similar reactions in me.

I’m sorry, Sheriff Joe, but unless you’ve got some Mannheim Steamroller or Trans-Siberian Orchestra Christmas music piped into the lunchroom, I’ve got to go with the prisoners on this one.

Oh, and I’m okay with the “barking dogs” rendition of Jingle Bells. That never gets old.

UPDATE: No I don’t really know any German curse words. And please don’t send me any, either!

Senator Reid is determined to somehow jam his unpopular health care bill through by Christmas.  That means we could see a vote as early as 1AM on Monday morning.  Talk about voting on legislation under the cover of darkness.

The most important vote will come first—the 60-vote threshold to end debate on the bill itself, known as cloture.  If the Democrats cannot  even get 60 votes to end debate and move to a final vote on the bill, they’re in trouble.

Call or email your senators right now and say vote NO on cloture.  The health care bill, with all of its problems, still includes federal funding of abortion and subsidizes private plans that cover abortion.  And if you live in Nebraska, Senator Ben Nelson MUST hear from you.  The Dems really need his vote to pass health care and so far, he’s held off from supporting the bill because of the abortion funding provisions. But who knows how long he’ll stay the course.  Call him.