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WASHINGTON – Democrats just don't get the election message from voters and are pushing a liberal, big government agenda at their party's peril, Republican officials said Sunday as they predicted a political price after the majority's victory on health care. Voters are "tired of the borrowing, the spending, the bailouts, the takeovers," said Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana, the No. 3 House GOP leader, pointing to GOP victories in gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey last week. The Democratic-controlled House narrowly approved a health care bill Saturday night, with 39 Democrats voting against it and a single Republican voting...

Following the election results a few days ago, November third, Speaker Pelosi said ‘we won’? You remember how the Republicans mocked her for this statement? well wel well, Pelosi did indeed win that night – she won the Health Care Reform bill. Had the Republicans won on Tuesday the two open congressional seats, the final HCR vote would have failed in a 218-217 vote. Here is how:

Listening to the debate on the floor today, it was clear that Democrats considered it a moral and ideological obligation to pass this bill—consequences be damned. The leadership is congratulating itself now—Pelosi is already the greatest speaker of all time apparently—but there's a tough rough ahead in the Senate. Pelosi could lose 39 votes. Reid can't lose any. Passage in the House definitely creates more pressure on Reid to get it done, but the slender margin—despite the size of the Democratic majority in the House and all the arm-twisting and deal-making (what did Cao get?)—has to make Senate moderates even...

Abortion opponents won a huge last-minute concession late Friday night after Democratic leaders agreed to grant them a vote on an amendment that would effectively bar insurers that participate in the exchanges from offering coverage for abortions. Members of the Rules Committee were expected to approve a vote on the amendment early Saturday morning after hours of negotiations in Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Capitol office. Leaders reluctantly made the decision after working for days to broker a truce that would garner a blessing from the Conference of Catholic Bishops. But the church, according to members and aides, wouldn't accept a compromise...

1. Why are all the details on Maj. Hasan so slow to come out? He is a member of the military, and thus his personnel records are open to the government. I mean, we knew more about Joe the Plumber at this point than about the Major. 2. Will Barack Obama have to give back his Nobel Peace Prize? 3. Will Barack Obama stand with the Muslims, should the political winds blow in an ugly direction? I'd say the Ft. Hood mini-jihad is an ugly direction all by itself. 4. Has anyone contacted John Murtha (Depends-PA) about this? Will he...

Place your bets here?

Majority leader: House will pass health bill By ERICA WERNER and RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Associated Press Writers WASHINGTON – The second-ranking House Democrat predicted that historic health care legislation will be passed Saturday as the AARP, the nation's premier lobbying group for the elderly, announced it was signing on to the bill. Rep. Steny Hoyer said House leaders expect to have the 218 votes needed to pass the sweeping bill, which would extend coverage to tens of millions of uninsured people and ban insurance companies from turning people away. President Barack Obama has the health care overhaul the defining social goal...

The Dems are spinning so hard after Tuesday’s elections that the earth may be in danger of flying off its axis. Some of the intellectual chaos they have generated was on display Wednesday afternoon on Chris Matthews’ “Hardball.” Admittedly, being on the Matthews’ show is a challenge for guests, who have to struggle to get a word in edgewise as the hyperkinetic host asks questions and immediately answers them himself and generally acts less like an interviewer than someone on sodium pentatol.

November 5, 2009 Election results warn Barack Obama and Democrats of disastrous 2010 Tim Reid in Washington Barack Obama and his Democratic Party were given clear warning yesterday that they face a potentially disastrous 2010 after big Republican victories on Tuesday signalled mounting voter discontent with the economy and the President’s spending plans. The Republican gubernatorial victories in Virginia and New Jersey also revealed significant cracks in the broad coalition that swept Mr Obama to power last November 4 and showed that floating voters — crucial to his win last year — are defecting to the Republicans in droves. The...

WASHINGTON -- Americans' opinion of the health care proposals now before Congress is eerily similar to public opinion of the Clinton health reform initiatives in 1994, according to an analysis published in the New England Journal of Medicine today -- and that may not bode well for Democrats.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama noted Wednesday's 30th anniversary of the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, while insisting he wants the U.S. and Iran to move beyond "suspicion, mistrust and confrontation."

House ethics investigators have been scrutinizing the activities of more than 30 lawmakers and several aides in inquiries about issues including defense lobbying and corporate influence peddling, according to a confidential House ethics committee report prepared in July. The report appears to have been inadvertently placed on a publicly accessible computer network, and it was provided to The Washington Post by a source not connected to the congressional investigations. The committee said Thursday night that the document was released by a low-level staffer. The ethics committee is one of the most secretive panels in Congress, and its members and staff...

…Thanks so much for reforming the health care system that will cover 94% of the population up from the 88%-90% legal population that are anyway covered. … Thanks for coming up with a plan that will be “self-sustaining” and “deficit neutral” just as social security was supposed to be. Now let me ask you a few questions, Mr. and Mrs. Democrat:

Writing In the Wall Street Journal, Brian Anderson reviews the concluding volume of the Marxist trilogy by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri. Hardt and Negri are the authors of Empire (2000), Multitutude (2004) and now Commonwealth. The books are published by Harvard University Press, supported with the surplus value extracted by capitalists from the back of the proletariat. Hardt is a professor of literature and Italian at Duke University. From the Press's Web page on Commonwealth (linked above), we learn that Negri is also a distinguished academic. The Press is sparing in its description of Negri's credentials to advance the...

The Dems are spending millions of dollars and are bringing in all the star power they got, from former President Clinton to Obama, and ended with VP Biden, to give the Dems a win in a Dem state. So even IF the Dems keep NJ, it will be done only after pulling all the capital in their book, a thing they cannot repeat in all important ’10 races. Wining NJ only under the above circumstances in addition to a third party candidate that helps the Dems, will confirm the Democrats’ biggest fear: ’10 is a tough year for them, as...

The Obama administration made an emphasis of their intention to be open and transparent when it was still the Obama campaign. Now, at a critical moment, the major decisions being made behind closed doors. In fact, multiple Fox News shows have a video of that closed door as a symbol of the lack of transparency of the process. Now, it should be noted that the Obama administration is not the first one to make critical decisions about legislation behind closed doors. In fact, that's pretty much something all administrations have done. Yet, this one made a point that they would...

Rep. Bart Stupak (D.-Mich.) told CNSNews.com yesterday that he has organized a group of “about 40 likeminded Democrats” who will vote to kill the health-care bill if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) does not allow a floor vote on his amendment to prohibit federal funds from going to insurance plans that cover abortion. Under Stupak’s plan, the approximately 40 Democrats in his camp would join with all House Republicans in voting to defeat the special House “rule” that would set the terms for debating and amending the health-care bill on the House floor when it is brought up for a...

John wrote about the "great escape" by Democratic members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. It consisted of that group leaving a hearing, via the back door, after Republican Darrell Issa made clear that he planned to subpoena Bank of America for documents relted to Countrywide's infamous "Friends of Angelo" VIP mortgage program. Democratic Senators Chris Dodd and Kent Conrad were, of course, among Angelos "friends."

A White House effort to undermine conservative critics is generating a backlash on Capitol Hill — and not just from Republicans. “It’s a mistake,” said Rep. Jason Altmire, a moderate Democrat from western Pennsylvania. “I think it’s beneath the White House to get into a tit for tat with news organizations.” Altmire was talking about the Obama administration’s efforts to undercut Fox News. But he said his remarks applied just the same to White House efforts to marginalize the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a powerful business lobby targeted for its opposition to climate change legislation. “There’s no reason to gratuitously...

Democrats in Congress care more about protecting terrorists' rights than protecting the American public, a Republican lawmaker charged Wednesday. Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) made the incendiary claim during an interview on a conservative news radio program that the decision to close the terrorist detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba would "strengthen the hands of terrorists." "I've been on the Judiciary Committee as well as the Armed Services Committee, and it has bewildered me as to why this Democratic majority has worked to seemingly protect the rights of terrorists more than to protect the American people," Franks said in an interview...

Yesterday, the so called Doctor Fix failed in the Senate. This was the measure that would stop Medicare cuts set to go into effect next year. The measure would have cost $247 billion over the next ten years. Harry Reid wanted to pass it on its own mostly in order to not have the cost be included in the final health care bill. The AMA was strongly behind the measure and the Democrats were hoping to get them aboard health care reform. Thirteen Democrats joined all the Republicans to defeat the measure.

Republican critics pilloried the White House for making it too easy to request e-mail updates about health reform, but it turns out the GOP could have spam problems of its own. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) sent a tweet this morning from her @michelebachmann account saying: "If you're interested in receiving mobile updates from me, text MN6 to 467468 or visit Bachmann.house.gov and subscribe. Thanks so much!" The homepage of her congressional site allows users to sign up for the "Bachmann Bulletin" by entering only a first name, last name and e-mail address. Then you get a confirmation message that says,...

The public option has been a political football since early summer. The President has said more than once that he prefers it but will not demand it. This was considered capitulation by many on the left who see the public option as necessary for “real” reform. Meanwhile, belying the President’s public statements, there are reports that the President’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel has been quietly but firmly twisting arms in the back rooms to insure the public option is included in the final bill. Even now, pressure is mounting on Harry Reid to include the public option in the...

Clearly, there was momentum for the GOP this summer that has slowed or reversed in autumn. The party used that momentum to get top candidates into key Senate and House races, which will reap benefits if voters are angry at the Democrats a year from now. But the 1993-1994 scenario is not, so far, repeating itself

In politics, it's impossible to know just how serious such a statement is. For Democrats determined to get a health care bill, Sen. Roland Burris is like the house guest who couldn't be refused, won't soon be leaving and poses a plausible threat of ruining holiday dinner. Suddenly, he can no longer be ignored. The Illinois Democrat, appointed by disgraced former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, says he'll only vote for a bill to provide health care to millions more Americans as long as it allows the government to sell insurance in competition with private insurers.

Now that the Senate Finance Committee has approved its health care bill, it’s a good time to step back and take a look at the long term consequences should its provisions be enacted into law. The bill prohibits insurance companies from refusing coverage to people with pre-existing conditions and from charging sick people higher premiums. [1] It attempts to offset the costs this will impose on insurance companies by requiring everyone to purchase coverage, which in theory would expand the pool of paying policy holders.

By now, most are probably aware that President Obama is proposing a one time $250 check to seniors because there won't be a COLA (cost of living adjustment) increase this year to Social Security. With the bulk of the $787 billion stimulus package still unspent, some lawmakers say, President Obama should not be adding yet another $13 billion to the deficit by funding a one-time $250 Social Security payment.

Or, I'm confused. There's two stories today that simply don't make sense together. First, here's the bold proclamation by Max Baucus. When it comes time to vote, every Democrat in the Senate -- and perhaps more than one Republican -- will support legislation overhauling the nation's health care system, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee predicted Thursday. That assertion by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., was a notable show of confidence coming in the midst of negotiations with Majority Leader Harry Reid and White House officials to finalize legislation that can satisfy liberal Democrats without alienating moderates -- and get...

President Obama has said he will not sign a health care reform bill unless it's paid for. If it doesn't lower costs, he will suggest spending cuts to make sure the deficit doesn't grow. That's a promise he says he will keep. But what about future presidents and members of Congress?

The CBO just scored the house version of cap and trade. A House-passed bill that targets climate change through a cap-and-trade system of pollution credits would slow the nation's economic growth slightly over the next few decades and would create "significant" job losses from fossil fuel industries as the country shifts to renewable energy, the head of the Congressional Budget Office told a Senate energy panel Wednesday. CBO Director Douglas W. Elmendorf emphasized that his estimates contained significant uncertainties and "do not include any benefits from averting climate change," but his message nevertheless contrasted sharply with those of President Obama...

I am fed up with those Democratic strategists who parade to cable-news shows and pollute the pages of newspapers with the pap that the way for Democrats to win in 2010 is to throw mud at Republicans. John Harwood in the Monday New York Times gave a fair account of this dumbed-down view of American politics. There is a time for Democrats to attack Republicans, but only to promote real change helping real Americans.

WASHINGTON – Insurance companies aren't playing nice any more. Their dire message that health care legislation will drive up premiums for people who already have coverage comes as a warning shot at a crucial point in the debate, and threatens President Barack Obama's top domestic priority. Democrats and their allies scrambled on Monday to knock down a new industry-funded study forecasting that Senate legislation, over time, will add thousands of dollars to the cost of a typical policy. "Distorted and flawed," said White House spokeswoman Linda Douglass. "Fundamentally dishonest," said AARP's senior policy strategist, John Rother. "A hatchet job," said...

The Democratic National Committee reportedly has decided to yank a new TV commercial on health care reform at the request of former Sen. Bob Dole, who complained to the White House that the ad was deceptive. The New York Times reported Sunday that Dole's request was granted within hours. A DNC spokesman said as soon as Dole complained the DNC "immediately" agreed to scrap the ad

Hello, dummies! Oh my God, look at you. Anyone else hurt in the accident? Seriously, Senator Reid has a face of a Saint – A Saint Bernard. Now I know why they call you the arithmetic man. You add partisanship, subtract pleasure, divide attention, and multiply ignorance. Reid is so physically unimposing, he makes Pee Wee Herman look like Mr. T. and Reid’s so dumb, he makes Speaker Pelosi look like an intellectual. Nevada is soooo screwed! If I were less polite, I’d say Reid makes Kevin Federline look successful. Speaking of the Speaker… Nancy Pelosi, hubba, hubba! Hey baby,...

wonder if the Democrats have any self awareness. To be fair, I often wonder that about a lot politicians. (and likely not nearly enough about myself) Since the health care debate started, I have lost track of all the taxes that one or another has proposed. I hope I remember them all: a soda tax, a cigarette tax, a value added tax, cutting the credit for charitable donations, Cadillac health insurance plans, employer funded health insurance plans, a windfall profits tax on insurance companies, an excise penalty for not having health insurance, an excise penalty to employers for not providing...

ou want to hear a scary number. When Medicare first passed in the 1960's, the program was worth $60 million yearly. The budget in Fiscal Year 2008 was $413 billion for Medicare. That's a roughly an increase of 8000 times in less than fifty years. So, yesterday, we heard that the CBO had scored the newest health care bill and scored it's cost at $812 billion over the next ten years. We also know that entitlement programs, especially those that involve health care, grow exponentially. Just think about this scary thought. If Medicare grew from $60 million to $400 billion...

Passing health-care reform could be harmful to the health of congressional Democrats. Just look at how President Barack Obama's standing has fallen as he has pushed for reform. According to Fox News surveys, the number of independents who oppose health-care reform hit 57% at the end of September, up from 33% in July. Independents are generally a quarter of the vote in off-year congressional elections.

There is some poetic irony in the fact that I am tracking the case of Dr. Anna Chacko at the same time I am tracking the events surrounding ACORN. That's because both have similarities. Both Chacko and ACORN used weaknesses in the American system to exploit, and both exploited those weaknesses for evil deeds. It's really that simple. As such, much like the case of Dr. Anna Chacko, everyone should care about unraveling exactly what ACORN has done and how they did it. Because if it's truly unraveled, then we can identify the weaknesses they exploited and fix them.

The entire health care reform debate has been nothing short of an unmitigated disaster for the Democrats. First, the Democrats have been fighting amongst themselves and then going to the media to blame the Republicans. Do they really think that anyone will believe them? The Democrats still can't figure out if there will or will not be a public option. That has nothing to do with Republicans. Moderates don't want it. Liberals are desperate for it. That's how it stacks up, and we are now into the seventh month and still no one knows if it will or will not...

ACORN wants people to register to vote – as long as they’re Democrats. Republican registrations go into the trash. Here is a first-hand account of how it happens. In February 2008, Fathiyyah Muhammad of Jacksonville, Florida, heard that ACORN was paying people three dollars for each voter they could register. ACORN paid her three dollars for each voter she registered, but Fatiyyah Muhammad says that the group threw out her votes and fired her when she brought them registrations of Republican voters. Fathiyyah Muhammad voted for Obama. “I’m a Republican,” she says, “and this was the first time that I...

Administration officials and top Democrats on Capitol Hill are suggesting that President Obama's top commander in Afghanistan stepped "outside the chain of command" when he made a public plea last week for more troops. Gen. Stanley McChrystal made an open appeal in London last week for increased military presence in Afghanistan and took aim at an alternative plan proposed by Vice President Biden -- one that called for troop withdrawal and airstrikes against Al Qaeda targets.

After a summer of setbacks on health care reform, Democrats on Capitol Hill again seem to think they have found a formula for success. The latest iteration of Obamacare, emerging this week from the Senate Finance Committee, is said to be a move to the center, avoiding the albatross of a government insurance option and costing "only" $900 billion.

Here's somethings you may not know about any bill that comes out of the Senate Finance Committee. There doesn't need to be a full final bill. All there needs to be is a very detailed outline. Go to the Senate's site and this is the bill. It's 223 pages and spends half it's time comparing itself to current law. That's not a bill but rather a plan. The House Health Care bill is over one thousand pages, and it's strictly text of the bill. That's an actual bill.

In this week’s New Republic, Ed Kilgore writes a piece entitled “Some Revolution: Why The 2010 Election Will Not Be A Repeat Of 1994.” The piece is a pretty good summary of arguments I've read concluding that 2010 won't be bad for Democrats. These arguments are worth a closer analysis.

Now, I bet the audience and I had the exact same thought. Nancy Pelosi, Patrick Kennedy, and Bill Clinton must all be fuming. After all, Nancy Pelosi was worried that some of the explosive language in the debate could lead to violence. Patrick Kennedy compared some of the statements made in the health care debate to terrorists. Bill Clinton made similar remarks. Now, if ever there was language that coarsens the debate, it's proclaiming the other side wants people to die. Isn't it fair to say that accusing your opponents of being murderers could lead someone to violence? "Strangely" Nancy...

CIVILITY, OURS AND THEIRS Share Post PrintSeptember 28, 2009 Posted by John at 9:43 PM It is quite remarkable that the Democratic Party now--belatedly, to say the least--wants to make an issue out of civility. Mark Steyn quotes Lloyd Marcus: The Left published a cartoon depicting former black Secretary of State Condolezza Rice as an Aunt Jemima; another depicted Rice as a huge-lipped parrot for her Massa Bush. Neither were considered racist by their creators or publishers, or even widely condemned on the Left. In opposition to black Republican Michael Steele's campaign torun for U.S. Senate, a liberal blogger published...

Liberals have oft exalted communist Cuba’s “free” health care system. Isn’t it wonderful? Why can’t we do that? Of course, for one thing, the “free” system in Cuba isn’t nearly so wonderful as “Sicko” Michael Moore made it in his propaganda film. Frankly, I wouldn’t take my dog to a Cuban hospital. It isn’t just Michael Moore; CNN depicted the Cuban system as a model for America, too.

As the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, takes on the delicate task of melding two competing versions of major health care legislation, aides say he will lean heavily on President Obama to arbitrate a number of contentious issues that still threaten to divide liberal and centrist Democrats and derail a final bill.

Anyone that's still not convinced that the Baucus bill is rotten should be convinced after they read this latest discovery. Under the health care bill being considered in the Senate Finance Committee, Americans who fail to pay a penalty for not buying insurance could be charged up to $25,000 by the Internal Revenue Service or face up to a year in jail, according to congressional analysts.

The new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll asked respondents whether they would prefer to see next year's elections result in a Congress controlled by Democrats or a Congress controlled by Republicans. The result: 48 percent say they would prefer Democrats in control, and 45 percent say Republicans. That three-point Democratic lead is down from seven points lead in July and nine points in April.