They Should Have Read the Bill...

The story of the healthcare bill was the story of backroom deals, thousand+ page long manager amendments forced on the full floor at the last moment, avoiding the committee process, etc... Al this resulted in congressman being unable to read the bill (something RPV helped Congress with), and inevitably things were surprisingly included and omitted from the bill.

The best known mistake was Democrats omission of coverage of preexisting conditions for children. There was also the exemption of House and Senate staff from the bill.

However some conservative was able to sneak in $250 million in funding for abstinence education. I'm sure Democrat activists wish that aspect had been stripped from the bill. I tip my hat to the conservative with the spine and ability to include this funding in the bill.

Health Care Reform Vote Today... UPDATES

Schedule for the day... *note: "Deem and Pass" has been shot down by Dem. leadership and will not be used.

1pm - House Convenes

5-6pm - "Rules" vote: If the House clears the rule, they can move on to the next of the three important votes that will take place today.

8pm - Senate Bill vote: Note that for this vote and the next, the Minority and Majority leaders will actually be managing their respective sides when the bill hits the floor. This is unusual, as normally, the committee chairs do the honor.

9pm - Reconciliation Bill vote: After the Reconciliation vote, look for an unrelated vote, as you never want to end the day on a controversial bill in case of a miscount or other hiccup that may require Congressmen to be present for a recount. It wouldn't be good for half of the Congressmen to be boarding planes to head back home when you decide you need a recount!

For more interesting facts and tips on how to understand the procedures going on today, I would recommend going to "The Hitchhiker's Guide to Healthcare".

Also, watch LIVE what happens on the Hill on CSPAN.

UPDATE 4:02pm: Bart Stupak has reached a middle ground with the President who declared that he would sign an executive order which would clarify the abortion language in the bill, therefore Stupak and his "block" have switched their votes to "yes". TEXT HERE.

UPDATE 7:08pm: Rules passed 224 yea, 206 nay. Roll Call HERE.

UPDATE 10:47pm: Senate version of bill passed 219 yea, 212 nay. Roll Call HERE.

UPDATE 11:04pm: Voting on Motion to Recommit HR 4872.

UPDATE 11:07pm: Motion to Recommit failed.

UPDATE 11:35pm: Reconciliation Bill passed 220 yea, 211 nay.

"Freedom dies a little bit today." Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.

Cross posted @ WCTRC

Abortion and the Healthcare Debate

In the last few days the Democrats have made through on their promise to do "whatever it takes" to pass healthcare. They were willing to start an ethics investigation into and drive out a member of their own party who opposed healthcare, and now seem willing to make a possibly unconstitutional rules change to get it through as well.

The backdrop of this Democrat desperation is that all they have to do is pass a bill through a legislative body (The House of Representatives) in which they have a 40 vote majority. If that were such a good and important bill this wouldn't be that hard.

With an impending vote it seems the one person who is doing the most to stand up for the unborn, and get Democrats to vote against the bill is Bart Stupak. Since the current bill does not include the Stupak Amendment, Bart Stupak and a group of 6-12 other Democrats who voted yes last time have committed to vote no on the bill. Confident that he had the votes to stop the bill, Rep. Stupak announced it was dead on arrival when it was first announced that Nancy Pelosi was trying to pass the Senate version of the Healthcare bill.

Since then Rep. Stupak has tried to get the House leadership to include his amendment on this version of the bill. However the leadership is ignoring him and is working to pass the bill without fixing the abortion language. The Democrat laeadership seems ready to ignore the concerns of its pro-life members, and doesn't seem to care about protecting human life.

If Obamacare passes, Stupak says, it could signal the end of any meaningful role for pro-life Democrats within their own party. “It would be very, very hard for someone who is a right-to-life Democrat to run for office,” he says. “I won’t leave the party. I’m more comfortable here and still believe in a role within it for the right-to-life cause, but this bill will make being a pro-life Democrat much more difficult. They don’t even want to debate this issue. We’ll probably have to wait until the Republicans take back the majority to fix this.”

“Throughout this debate, even when the House leaders have acknowledged us, it’s always been in a backhanded way,” he laments. “I’m telling the others to hold firm, and we’ll meet next week, but I’m disappointed in my colleagues who said they’d be with us and now they’re not. It’s almost like some right-to-life members don’t want to be bothered. They just want this over.”

Sadly we have hardly heard a peep about the abortion aspect of the healthcare bill from the Republican leadership recently. There has been a lot of talk about mandates, medicare, and costs (which are all very important), but by ignoring the abortion aspect they are leaving a very important argument against the bill off the table. Hopefully this is not a signal on how the Republicans plan to campaign this year, because if they ignore the abortion issue they will be hurt this fall. Pro-lifers are important activists and voters who will work hard for whoever they believe will protect the unborn, and they should not be ignored by the GOP during this election cycle.

It will be interesting to see how the next couple days turn out. There is currently a vote scheduled for Thursday. However many including the Democrat House Whip say the votes are not there yet. It also appears the Slaughter Rule is not off the table yet.

For an updated whipcount check this out, and please contact your congressman to urge them to vote no.

Congressional Republicans on Healthcare

As the debate over healthcare heats up in the House of Representatives here are what a couple of our Republican representatives have had to say about it recently.

Congressman Rob Wittman (R-VA 1) urges that all sides be heard in this debate. So far the Democrats have regularly kept Republicans out of the formulation of key legislation. Something this important needs to have all voices included.

Representative Paul Broun (R-GA 10) made the point that the public option will kill people. While many are blasting this as a radical statement, sadly it is true. When government decides who gets certain procedures and who doesn't, they are in effect handing death sentences to certain people. When the government is running healthcare why should they make sure that the old or mentally retarded get the procedures? They are just a drag on society, aren't they?

If you oppose government run health care, please let your representative know immediately.

Does Creigh Deeds Care if his Constituents Lose Their Jobs?

One of the biggest debates going on in Washington D.C. right now is on the Cap and Trade bill. The House of Representatives recently passed this totalitarian bill, and now we are waiting on the senate to vote on it. Throughout this debate Bob McDonnell has voiced strong opposition to the job that will kill jobs, raise taxes, increase government control, and do nothing about the environment. Ever since the vote in the House of Representatives Republicans have been calling on Deeds to take a position on this bill. So far Creigh Deeds has taken no stance on the bill. Deeds' silence on this bill is even more curious because according to a recent RPV press release,

"One of the MeadWestvaco plants in his own Senate district stands to be directly affected by this bill. Many of the workers at the plant may lose their jobs because of the increased costs that will be imposed on the plant if the bill is passed in the Senate."

Assuming this statement is correct (we already know this bill will hit rural areas hardest) Deeds silence begs the question, does he care if his constituents lose their jobs? If he really cared about his constituents wouldn't he fight tooth and nail against this bill? Deeds refusal to oppose cap and trade tells Virginians he prefers partisan politics and standing with the national Democratic party over fighting for Virginians best interests. The Warner/Kaine administration was marked by partisanship. This is the tradition Creigh Deeds has pledged to follow, and sadly he is taking it to a new low by allowing Virginia to lose jobs in his support for partisan politics.