DriveThru – Get What You Need

Erick Erickson at Redstate.com says it just right:

The Democrats have certainly realized that cameras are serious causes of intimidation. They do not want cameras to film the health care negotiations because they fear voter intimidation based on what happens. But they are outright desperate to get cameras into the courtroom in California to make sure all the faces of those who oppose gay marriage can be seen by the militant gay rights activists who threatened, bullied, attacked, and boycotted those who gave money to Prop. 8 donors. Intimidation at its finest.

Nicely put.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Here’s a quick recap from Saturday’s vote on health care reform.

The House of Representatives passed its version of government health care “reform” 220-215.  39 Democrats and 176 Republicans voted against the bill.  219 Democrats joined 1 Republican, Joseph Cao (Louisiana), to pass the bill. 

The Stupak/Pitts amendment that would prohibit federal funds from being used to pay for abortion or to cover any part of the costs of a health plan that includes abortion coverage, also passed, 240-194.  64 Democrats and 176 Republicans voted in favor.  One lone Republican, John Shadegg, voted “present.”  This vote is a win for pro-lifers — in a Democrat-controlled Congress.  Are those pigs flying?

And yes, it’s possible that the Stupak amendment could be stripped out in conference committee when the two chambers work out the differences in their versions.  But health care  “reform” has to clear the Senate first.

Moving forward, we await the unveiling of Senate Democrats’ version of health care.  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) says  he’ll release it after the Congressional Budget Office finishes tallying the cost of the plan, and that his version will “look markedly different” from the House bill.  Interestingly, Senator Joe Lieberman is promising to keep the bill from coming to the floor if it contains a public option plan.

I’ve mentioned it before but it bears repeating:  the only thing Americans oppose more than government health care is government health care that funds abortion.  Perhaps the Senate will listen.

Want to see what the 1,990 page House health care “reform” bill actually says—section by section? In plain English? Go here. 

And yes, the web site was put up by the House GOP.  With commentary.   But it’s more than the majority party has done to help Americans understand what they might be forced into.

Perhaps the Democrats haven’t been more transparent with the bill because they’ve been reading the latest poll numbers showing Americans still oppose the plan. In fact, since Rasmussen started tracking the issue in late June, there has never been majority support for the Democrats’ plan:

Perhaps the most stunning aspect of the numbers is how stable they have been through months of debate, town hall protests, presidential speeches, congressional wrangling and more…support has stayed between 41% and 46% since July.

What do the majority of Americans think? Well, 54 percent now oppose House Democrats’ version of the health care bill.  And last month? They opposed it.  And the month before? Same thing. And before that? You know the answer.

It’s like when my mom used to say, “How many different ways do I have to say it to you? No means no.”