DriveThru – Get What You Need

If you haven’t turned on CSPAN, you need to.

The Democrats and Republicans are sitting at a table talking about the differences in their health care plans (and allegedly trying to come to some agreement).

I’m actually pretty glad that this is happening.  Why? Because even though they may not, at the end of the day, come to an agreement, this nationally televised health care summit is at least helping Americans understand, in pretty clear terms, what the Democrats want and what the Republicans want, why they disagree, and even where they do agree.  And that’s not something Americans always can understand easily when they’re bombarded with stock speeches and soundbites from floor speeches or in press conferences.   (And yes, this meeting of course contains some of that rhetoric).

For example, if you’ve been watching, you saw a disagreement between President Obama and Republican Senator Lamar Alexander over premium increases which lead to a great explanation of exactly why premiums would increase under the Obama plan.  And what’s even more interesting was that the president admitted that there was an honest disagreement over facts,  and that “by the end of the meeting” they would have those facts settled.

You can tune in to CSPAN to listen all day.

Just so you know, the health care debate isn’t dead.  We still need you to make your voice heard on health care — even if you’ve already done so.

The President is holding a bipartisan meeting on Feb. 25th to try to hammer out a new version of the health care bill.   (Although it looks like he might have a bill crafted by the time the summit begins).

What that means is now is the time to remind your lawmakers where you stand on health care, particularly on the funding of abortions with federal dollars.  The Massachusetts election may have slowed down the Democrats from pushing their current health care version forward, but it hasn’t stopped them altogether.

So make sure your two U.S. senators and representative know that whatever bill they come up with, at a minimum, needs to keep your money from being used to pay for abortions.

Don’t know who your 2 U.S. senators and representative are? It’s easy to find them on our website by typing in you zip code here. You can even find the closest district office to you, in case you want to make an in-person visit!

48 million viewers tuned in last night to watch President Obama’s State of the Union address.  State of the Union speeches aren’t really designed, anymore, to lay out a specific plan of action for the country.  Sure, presidents speak vaguely of things they’ll try to do to create jobs, help the economy, and reduce tax burdens on families–but we all know better than to listen to what a president says.  It’s what he does or has done, that matters.  (And Obama’s first year was quite disappointing for families).

But there is one thing that you can always be sure of with the State of the Union — the decorum. The pomp and circumstance. The tradition and order of it all.  It’s very presidential and…classy.

But last night, class wasn’t always in session.

As my colleagues Bruce and Jenny pointed out, the lack of decorum displayed by Obama when he publicly chastised the highest court in the land for its recent decision in Citizens United (read here and here) was enough to make many Americans cringe.

The visual was quite stunning: a quiet, dignified Supreme Court, sitting in silence (minus Alito’s comment), while a crowd of angry Democrats was seated around them like piranhas, jeering as they were led on by the leader of the free world.

No matter what party you’re from, or even if you never pay attention to politics, you knew intuitively that what Obama did in front of the Supreme Court was wrong.

Of course, there are those who say that Justice Alito should never have responded to the president’s attack.  One guy on Twitter said he was angry at Alito’s “disrespectful” move, and that it was “the president’s night” to do as he wished.  I’ll take double standard, party of one, please.

Whatever your thoughts on the president’s speech, his politics, or his plans for America’s future, the fact remains that he should have given the Supreme Court, at the very least, the same respect they showed him by showing up to the State of the Union.

Didn’t the president say that he wanted to “overcom[e] the numbing weight of our politics”?

Last night would have been a good start.

So, Scott Brown won the Massachusetts Senate seat, in case you’ve been hiding in a cave for the last 24 hours.

And now Senator Max Baucus is saying that the Dems might use a complicated “budget reconciliation” process to pass health care, because it only requires 51 votes for passage.  Take that Scott Brown.  And the rest of America.  Full steam ahead on health care!

It’s like that guy who keeps asking you for a date, and you keep turning him down politely, until you finally have to just play your mean card and slap him so he’ll stop asking.  The Massachusetts election result was that slap.

Then you have President Obama saying the Senate should wait for Brown to arrive before moving on health care and oh by the way, last night’s election loss was Bush’s fault.

And Barney Frank said he thinks health care is dead but also, get rid of that pesky 60 vote cloture rule thingy so we can pass it.

The truth is that last night’s election result really *was* a barometer of how Massachusetts voters–and the rest of the country–feel about the Dems’ health care reform. But many Dems don’t want to say it, or say it fully.

Massachusetts didn’t suddenly turn into a red state after 60 years of blue.  Voters simply turned red with anger over the failed health care proposal being rammed down their throats by Democrats who rejected the writing on the wall polls, ignored the townhall complaints, and dismissed the tea parties.

And that means that as much as Americans may be disenchanted with politics, they still care enough to remind Washington that they won’t be trampled upon.  God bless America.

Ah, politics. Remember how the Senate and House have been secretly negotiating a master health care bill behind closed doors, because House Dems have said they didn’t like the Senate bill? Enter Scott Brown. The one guy who could derail the health care plan by winning today’s Massachusetts election and then lending his vote to filibuster the bill and keep the Dems from steamrolling their plan to fruition. All of a sudden, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer says that the House might be able to accept the Senate’s plan. In Roll Call:

The White House and Senate Democratic leaders are floating the possibility of the House simply adopting the $871 billion Senate-passed measure, with the understanding that lawmakers would then move changes through the reconciliation process to bring it closer to the House version.

And man, can those Dems move fast when they want to:

Hoyer on Tuesday confirmed it is feasible for Democrats to wrap work on the package in the next 15 days, before the deadline for the Massachusetts secretary of state to certify the election results.

That means you *still have time* (and it’s more important than ever) to contact your lawmaker and tell him or her to vote no on any health care bill that does not include, at a minimum, the pro-life Stupak language that I talked about here. You can make your voice heard EASILY in a number of ways:

• Facebook or Tweet it
• Email or write your lawmakers
• Set up a in-person meeting in your representative’s local district office OR
• Write a letter to the editor of your local paper by using Citizenlink’s easy media guide to find all your local media outlets.   (Don’t know who your lawmaker is? Go here and just type in your ZIP code).

Remember last year when the Department of Homeland Security published a report cautioning law enforcement officials to see Christians and pro-life activists as right wing extremists, capable of domestic terrorism?

Now we find out that guy who was just re-nominated to head up “frontline of defense” for America (the TSA; their words, not mine),  apparently also believes that Christians and pro-lifers are right wing nut jobs, to be handled with fear and trepidation.

H/T to RedState.

In this video, Erroll Southers spews the same fear-mongering rhetoric against Christians and conservatives that we saw in the “The Modern Militia Movement” memo that was issued by the federal government almost a year ago.

To be fair, when Southers was specifically asked in this video what kinds of “home-grown” terrorist groups are problems, he said white-supremacist groups — but then conveniently added that they usually hold Christian identities and “anti-abortion” views.

Advertising and Public Relations 101: If you say something long enough and loud enough, people start to believe it.

Christians and pro-lifers are right-wing extremists.

Right-wing extremists are domestic terrorists.

Christians and pro-lifers are terrorists.

Repeat.

You might think that the health care debate is over.  That you’re stuck with whatever abortion-funding, higher-taxing, premium-increasing, health care “reform” plan Congress comes up with.  But that’s not true—yet.

You still have time to stop this ugly train.  You still have time to persuade your U.S. representative to vote NO when the bill comes to the floor.

Right now, the House and the Senate are working out the differences in their versions of the bill behind closed doors.  When they’re done—they’ll quickly throw the bill on the House and Senate floors for a vote. That’s why *right now* is so important.  Now is the time to contact your U.S. representative and tell him or her that the health care plan is unacceptable, particularly because the Senate-passed version includes abortion funding.

And while phone calls are good, in-person visits to your representative’s home district office are better.  Check out this toolkit to help you set up a meeting at your lawmaker’s office.  You still have time!

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.

While Saturday night’s 60-39 vote to move the health care bill forward was disappointing, all is not lost. 

Americans have all this week, while their senators are home for the Thanksgiving break, to contact local offices and urge their senators to vote NO on the 60-vote hurdle coming up after the holiday.  Did we mention the bill still includes federal funding of elective abortion? Yes, it does.  And we now know that the “reform” will cost far more than the $849 billion that the Dems are touting.  

So eat a lot of turkey this Thanksgiving, and while you’re at it, make a quick phone call to your senators’ local offices and say “vote NO” on the next health care vote coming up.  Just go here, type in your zip code, and then click on your senators’ names to find the contact information for their state offices.  Quick and easy.

Remember when President Obama said that under his health care plan (the Democrat plan), no federal dollars will be used to pay for abortion? 

And remember how Democrats repeatedly told constituents concerned about abortion funding in health care that the Hyde Amendment  “will not change,” – leading many constituents to believe that the Hyde Amendment would keep federal dollars from going toward abortion or plans that cover abortion? 

The message the Democrats have been sending to the public is don’t worry, we took care of it.  No federal funding of abortion.  No problem.

Well, last Saturday, 64 Democrats and 176 Republicans took the extra step to make sure that the government health care plan didn’t fund abortion.  They passed the Stupak/Pitts amendment which guaranteed that no federal dollars would pay for abortion or any health care plan that covers abortion.

And out of nowhere, Democrats are mad, mad, madder than my mom was when one time I threw a rock at her car because I didn’t want to leave a friend’s house.

Why would they care? Didn’t the Democrats’ health care bill already exclude abortion funding? Didn’t the President promise that no federal dollars would be used to pay for abortion? (Yes).  So why all the complaining over an amendment that simply codified what Democrats were saying was already in place?  

Because, as we’ve known all along, they prevaricated.