Free Republic

Republicans woke up this morning with a spring in their step: Sens. Byron Dorgan and Chris Dodd both said they wouldn't run for another term...

Election 2010: The back-to-back Senate retirements of Byron Dorgan and Chris Dodd may be just the beginning. The people have seen the future of health care reform and found it doesn't work. Apres moi, le deluge. We don't know what the Mayan calendar says about 2010, but it's starting to look like the end of the world for Democratic electoral prospects. Americans who watched in shock as government tried to step between them and their doctors, may have the last laugh. The tea party isn't over until the angry mob votes. As rage grew over the attempt to nationalize one-sixth...

All indications are that Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi will skip the formal conference committee process to reconcile the Senate and House versions of Obamacare but instead will reconcile their difference through closed-door negotiations. But back in 2006 Harry Reid stood on the Senate floor and complained about legislative dealmaking outside of the formal conference committee process when the Senate was discussing asbestos legislation. He also whined about the use of "managers' amendments" to create legislative deals. Reid of course used "managers amendments" to slip in all of those secret deals in the Senate version of Obamacare. But back in...

President Obama has yet again summoned Democrats from House and Senate leadership to the White House to determine their final strategy to pass some bill that reconciles the disparate healthcare “reform” measures passed by each congressional body. Republicans were not invited to today’s meeting. Among those expected at the White House either in person or by teleconference are Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca.) and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.). If the majority leadership cannot agree to try to strong-arm the Senate-passed bill through the House without changes...

During the Summer of 2007, I was approached by a group of concerned veterans in regard to a problem they had run into. These men had been attempting to get approval to have a USO-style facility put into the local airport. Without such a facility, soldiers traveling through McCarran Airport have had to sleep on the floor while waiting for a connecting flight—sometimes up to 3 nights in a row. Their food costs are as high as $20 for a dinky sandwich and a small bottle of juice. The average soldier is paid roughly just a bit over minimum wage....

We no longer seem to be living in a constitutional republic. How could we be when the votes of our public officials are easily bought off with bribes, threats, and subversion of our Constitution? The Christmas fiasco of the Senate vote-buying ordeal to pass the health care bill is a perfect illustration of how Congress is out of control and no longer represents the will of the people. According to a CNN/ORC survey, the overwhelming majority of Americans are opposed to the Senate version of Obamacare, a bill that will nationalize one-sixth of the U.S. economy and grant unprecedented power...

There Will Be Blood (White House Edition) ... My sense is that there will be a few minor departures in the first half of 2010 but that the president will wait until after the mid-terms to make major changes. One likely scenario: Democratic majorities in Congress shrink dramatically in November, Obama decides to lower the partisan temperature and replaces Rahm Emanuel with someone better positioned to cut deals with Republicans (in the mold of Tom Daschle). Cabinet Unmaking The safest bet I will make here is which Cabinet secretary will be first to go... Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was the...

In the end what gave Harry Reid his 60 Obamacare votes were the secret bribes democratic leadership made to "convince" people from his own party to vote for cloture. The most significant of the "bennies" was the one which convinced Ben Nelson to switch from being pro-life to pro-choice. Nelson managed to win a share of the section of the manager's amendment on Equitable Support for Certain States, which will provide Nebraska, along with Massachusetts and Vermont, support in paying its share of additional costs to Medicaid in the health legislation. Not all of that pork went to members of...

The scriptures refer to reaping the whirlwind. That certainly describes Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson after the first state-wide poll since the controversial deal he cut in exchange for his deciding vote on the Senate health care bill. A new Rasmussen Reports poll shows that if he were running for re-election today, Mr. Nelson would lose to Nebraska's GOP Governor David Heineman by a stunning 61% to 30%. Only three years ago, Mr. Nelson won his current term with a solid 64% of the vote. Clearly, the senator's fall in public esteem is a direct reaction to his having voted for...

Senator Charles Grassley is confirming the expectation that the conference committee that will meet to reconcile the differences in the congressional health care bills will be dominated by abortion advocates. If so, the Senate language funding abortions may emerge in the final legislation. With the House and Senate approving divergent bills, a conference committee must meet to hammer out the final measure for each chamber to vote on before it can go to President Barack Obama. The Senate measure current funds abortions and paves the way for forcing insurance companies to pay for abortions while the House measure has the...

McClatchy Newspapers is the alleged “news” organization that runs terrorist propaganda out of Iraq as legitimate news. It’s Washington editor tried very hard to push local McClatchy reporters in North Carolina to write damaging stories on Blackwater. It hired anonymous Iraqis during the Iraq War to write lots of unverifiable stories about the horrors of American soldiers. Today, in another example of its bias, its national news feed runs the headline Who’s running the TSA? No one, thanks to Sen. Jim DeMint. Compare that to the Washington Post, which ran the identical story with the headline “Republican senator DeMint holds...

DETROIT — Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D@^khead, Nevada) was arrested for trying to blow up a Detroit-bound plane on Christmas Day.Most of the 278 passengers on the plane were rightwing teabagging mobsters from flyover country heading to Detroit to plot the overthrow of Congressional Democrats — by voting in elections in November 2010. The incident is rumored to be the first in a chain of bombings throughout the country in which Democrats, terrified of losing numerous Congressional seats next year, plan to blow up their opposition to remain in control of the country.

THE BRIEFING ROOM • THE BLOG THE BLOG TUESDAY, AUGUST 4TH, 2009 AT 6:55 AM Facts Are Stubborn Things Posted by Macon Phillips Opponents of health insurance reform may find the truth a little inconvenient, but as our second president famously said, "facts are stubborn things." Scary chain emails and videos are starting to percolate on the internet, breathlessly claiming, for example, to "uncover" the truth about the President’s health insurance reform positions. In this video, Linda Douglass, the communications director for the White House’s Health Reform Office, addresses one example that makes it look like the President intends to...

The Democratic leadership in the Senate put off dealing with the growing threat of the Iranian nuclear program so lawmakers could devote their energy to the rush toward passage of a national health care bill. Now, with that work done, Senate leaders say they will take action on Iran -- but only, in the words of Majority Leader Harry Reid, "sometime after we return in January."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is vowing to “deliver the goods” in passing the Senate health care reform legislation on Christmas Eve. “This Christmas I’m Santa Claus, and me and my elves are bringing every person in America the biggest, most expensive present they’ve ever received,” said Reid in an interview yesterday. “It’s so huge it may not even fit down the chimney, hahaha.”

[You may have to play around a bit to get the video to operate. Make sure you click "Full Program" or you might just get a 2-minute clip.] This 30 minute video (including about 17 minutes of Q & A) from several months ago is Richard Epstein's analysis of the bill proposed by the House. But the main regulatory features of that bill are the same as the one just passed by the Senate. The gist of Epstein's lecture is that the total effect of these insurance regulations is to kill private health insurance, so we will eventually all end...

Any legislation that passes is bound to be costly -- but no one knows how costly it will be. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the Senate version will cost $1 trillion over the next decade. But then, when Medicare was originally passed in 1967, it was estimated that the hospital insurance (Part A) would cost about $9 billion annually by 1990. By 1990 the actual cost to the government was $67 billion! Since then, Medicare has been expanded to include catastrophic coverage and also Part D, prescription drug benefits. The point is simply that it's impossible to estimate future...

Obama's health care bill, the poisoned Kool-Aid making its way through the Senate, will not confer any of its supposed benefits on Americans until 2013. But they will find themselves chafing at its restrictions and paying its taxes immediately after the law takes effect. This odd juxtaposition of "suffer now, benefit later" is the byproduct of the administration's sleight of hand in specifying 10 years' worth of cuts and taxes in the legislation, but deferring its benefits for the first four years. By comparing six years of spending with 10 years of taxing, it managed to appear deficit-neutral under the...

Early this morning, after weeks of raucus debate and exhausting negotiations, the U.S. Senate passed a historic health-care reform bill. The gravity of the rather solemn moment, however, was momentarily broken when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the main architect of the bill's passage, accidentally voted against it. With the debate on the bill entering its 25th day and the Senate's storied polite decorum eroding, the roll was called for a vote at 7:05 a.m.... Reid, clearly weary from the process, stood when his name was called and said "nay." Realizing what he had done, he quickly switched his vote...

“This fight [is] about people, real people.”Harry Reid unwittingly elucidated a perfect right-wing war cry for the New Year, as he basked in the Democratic glory of his health care win in the Senate.Right back at ya, buddy. In securing the Christmas Eve win, the Democrats compared the Senate Majority Leader’s strength and perseverance to that of several biblical figures, and even Babe Ruth.“Harry Reid has the patience of Job, the wisdom of Solomon and the endurance of Samson,” declared Iowa Democrat Tom Harkin. “He has hung in there day after day, has put this together, and he is about...

Here is video of Democrat Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid mistakenly voting "No" on his Senate Health Care Bill today before he and others in the chamber caught the mistake. He then changed his vote to "Yes." Reid joked later he was making an effort at "bipartisanship." That's as close as he will ever come to being right, and being bipartisan! . . . (VIDEO)

I want to commend Sen. Harry Reid, extraordinary work that he did, Speaker Pelosi, for her extraordinary leadership and dedication. Having passed reform bills in both the House and the Senate, we now have to take up the last and most important step and reach an agreement on a final reform bill that I can sign into law. And I look forward to working with members of Congress in both chambers over the coming weeks to do exactly that. With today's vote, we are now incredibly close to making health insurance reform a reality in this country. Our challenge then...

In the final minutes of the Senate health care debate, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said lawmakers would hear "an earful" about the national health care bill from constituents who are solidly opposed to the legislation. In response, Majority Leader Harry Reid cited the case of a young disabled boy in Nevada who Reid said will now have health coverage and said that Democrats will indeed hear an earful -- "an earful of joy and happiness." "Yes, we'll hear an earful," Reid added, "but it will be an earful of wonderment and happiness."

University of Chicago Law Professor Richard A Epstein has brilliantly argued that the Reid bill unconstitutionally turns private health insurers into public utilities. Luckily for those who haven't time to study his detailed argument, he's now summarized it nicely in the Wall Street Journal: "As Harry Reid's 2,000 page health-care bill is being rammed through the Senate, most of the public debate has been focused on its expanded coverage, its now defunct public option, and its high taxes. Lost in the shuffle has been its intensely coercive requirements on health insurance issuers, especially in the individual and small group markets....

Hi Freepers, I realize that only a few people are awake, but I am having trouble getting a clear, cliff-notes version explanation of the bill the Senate is about to vote on tomorrow. All I know for sure is that if Pelosi, Reid, and Obama are behind it--it must be very, very bad. It's finally sinking in that something "big" is happening. Up until now, I've avoided really examining the issue and its implications for fear of getting too upset. I've listened to coverage on every news network and end up being more confused. I realize that it may be...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiC7S12cwhE "TV AD: HARRY REID FAILED!" Video - Description - quote: OurCountryPAC December 20, 2009 More info: http://www.TeaPartyExpress.org Senator Harry Reid has shown contempt for the American people and the people of Nevada. Now, "We The People" are fighting back, and the Tea Party Express (and its principal sponsor, the Our Country Deserves Better Committee) fights back with this TV ad campaign against failed Democrat Senator, Harry Reid. Category: News & Politics Tags: harry reid failed our country deserves better tea party express tv ad sharron angle sue lowden danny tarkanian

Self-Evident Truths: Sen. Dianne Feinstein says it comes under the Commerce Clause. Rep. Steny Hoyer says it's mandated by the "general welfare" clause. Despite liberal wishes, health care is not a right. The "living Constitution" that Democrats and their court appointees have given us may be the death of our freedoms. Their constitution adapts to the times and serves the whims of the elitists. The Constitution is supposed to limit government powers. It does not allow government to do anything it feels like doing. Cass Sunstein, the head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, is the author of...

December 23, 2009 Reid: Real People Understand The Urgency For Health Reform Washington, D.C.—Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor this afternoon. Below are his remarks as prepared for delivery: “The health care votes we have held this week have been procedural in nature. Each has been a party-line vote. And much of this debate has focused on politics. “But health reform is not about procedure, or partisanship, or politics. “It is about people. People like the thousands who write us every day. A small, small fraction of those letters are right here on...

Just in ...

It didn’t take long for Jim DeMint’s outrage over highly unusual language protecting a care-rationing board to generate a response from Sarah Palin. This came just days after Politifact called her statement about “death panels” the “lie of the year,” but the attempt to rule any Congressional motion that changes the rulings of the Independent Medical Advisory Board out of order in perpetuity has highlighted once again this rationing board and its potential impact in a government-run system. And that, Palin writes at her Facebook page, was her point all along: No one is certain of what’s in the bill,...

Turns out Harry Reid just kind of forced the money into his hands, you see. “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. But the Democratic senator, who has faced a heap of criticism for appearing to trade his vote on health care for millions in federal Medicaid money, said he’s considering asking that the Nebraska deal be stripped from the bill. Though he defended the exemption as a “fair deal,� he said he never asked for the full federal...

Tuesday, December 22, 2009 "Democrats Ensure America Will No Longer Be the Last Best Hope of Earth" by Dennis Prager SNIPPET: "As the passage of the bill that will start the process of nationalizing health care in America becomes almost inevitable, so, too, the process of undoing America's standing as The Last Best Hope of Earth will have begun." SNIPPET: "Just as the left has waged war on America's Judeo-Christian roots, it has waged war on individual liberty and responsibility." SNIPPET: "Barack Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are right about one thing -- they are indeed making history. But...

Recall the moments in 2008 when Democrats like Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Barack Obama campaigned on the platform of — must … control … gag … reflex — “Honest Leadership, Open Government”?  This picture should jog your memories, and your own gag reflexes, especially that sanctimonious pose by Reid.  The trio have managed to make themselves either satirists of the highest order or influence peddlers of the lowest while struggling to pass the second item on their legislative agenda.  /1209/30877.html">Politico’s Josh Gerstein reviews the ObamaCare compromise bill that Reid struggled to get past a wee-hours cloture vote in the...

The most intriguing mystery of the Senate's health bill was on page 328 of the final package of amendments assembled by Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., under a subject heading innocuously titled "infrastructure to expand access to care." It is a provision that grants $100 million to a single unnamed "health care facility," located in an unidentified state. The only clues to the beneficiary: The facility must be affiliated with an academic health center that houses the only public dental and medical school in the state. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., requested the provision, hoping that the University of Connecticut...

Final score: Cowboys 24-Saints 17; Democrats $2.6 trillion-America's middle class…screwed.

Here a new ad running against Reid, Nevadans are fed up with this man's deception, lying and pay-offs, + Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons blasts Dingy Harry for the Health Care Bill... (Video)

The Senate early Monday voted 60 to 40 to cut off extended debate on the Democratic-authored health care overhaul bill, the first major step toward passing the measure later this week. The vote, which saw all 58 Democrats and two independents vote to end the latest debate while all 40 Republicans opposed the maneuver, ended at 1:19 a.m. and capped a day of debate that turned partisan and often angry. “If the people who wrote this bill were proud of it, they wouldn’t be forcing this vote in the dead of night,” Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said as...

Politics: Sen. Mary Landrieu was the new "Louisiana Purchase." Sen. Ben Nelson got the federal government to pick up his state's future Medicaid tab. Maybe we should just put Senate votes up on eBay. Nelson, the 60th vote in the middle-of-the-night Senate party line vote on health care reform, will go down in American political history as the inventor of the permanent earmark. His seemingly principled stand against including federal funding for abortion evaporated like the morning dew as he decided to take what was behind door No. 1. The deal for Nelson includes special Medicaid funding for Nebraska, along...

Reid is basically defending senators getting paid off for their vote, a reporter asks about the pet projects that Senators receive, Reid tries to interrupt the question before he's finished asking it..(Video)

At least common thieves don't destroy an entire health care system and socialize the American economy when they commit their felonies. Too bad we can't say the same for our illustrious Democratic senators who sold out the nation. In exchange for criminally unconstitutional favors for their respective states, they voted to pass the Senate health care bill just 38 hours after it had been made available to the public for review. Everyone knows about Sen. Mary Landrieu's negotiating $300 million for her state in non-guaranteed Medicaid payouts. She was even cocky about her institutionalized larceny. Sen. Bernie Sanders finagled $10...

Here is video of Democrat Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid speaking on the Senate Floor where he confused the AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) with the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). Reid was singing the praises of his Senate Health Care Bill when he said: "These are some of the reasons why AARP - the American Association for the Advancement of Colored People - uh, I'm sorry - American Assocation of Retired People - not the NAACP - I'm sorry about that . . . "That's what happens when you push bills through at 1:00...

Here is a hard-hitting new ad that hammers Nevada Democrat Sen. Harry Reid as having "failed" the people of Nevada and America by labeling American soldiers in Iraq as having failed when he infamously declared that the war was "lost." The ad hits Reid for his leadership (or lack thereof) in the Senate, and says "our country deserves better," and proclaims, "We the voters are going hand you a pink slip and vote you out of office." Reid is up for re-election to the Senate in Nevada in 2010. . . . . (VIDEO)

Video @ The source link

MANAGER'S AMENDMENT INTENSIFIES RATIONINGThe Manager's Amendment to the Senate health care restructuring bill offered by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) on December 19 contains two provisions that intensify the rationing already present in the Reid Substitute. See http://www.nrlc.org/HealthCareRationing/ReidSubstitute.html .– Taking a significant step closer to the powerful Federal-Reserve-Board-like Federal Health Board envisioned by former Senator Tom Daschle, Obama's original nominee for health czar, the Manager's Amendment renames and expands the authority of what the Reid Substitute called the "Independent Medicare Advisory Board." Its new title is the "Independent Payment Advisory Board" [Section 10320(b), p. 189] and it is directed to...

Obama the hypocritical eco-loon ... Obama the Neo-"Com" ... Obama beech-slapped by Sarkozy during a U.S. diplomacy lesson ... and other awesome PhotoChop work by Jamie.

WASHINGTON -- The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of right-to-life organizations in all 50 states, strongly opposes the abortion language contained in the "manager's amendment" filed today by U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (Nv.). Reid intends to press for Senate approval of the language during the days immediately ahead, without allowing an opportunity for any revisions to be considered. The following statement may be attributed to NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson: "The manager’s amendment is light years removed from the Stupak-Pitts Amendment that was approved by the House of Representatives on November 8 by a bipartisan...

This just in, reported by The Washington Post: "Sen. Ben Nelson (Neb.), the final Democratic holdout on health care, announced to his caucus Saturday morning that he would support the Senate reform bill, clearing the way for final passage by Christmas". Yesterday we ran the article which follows and today Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson (Dem) has announced his support for Health Care Reform. Was he bribed? Look for earmarks for Nebraska on the bill. Was he threatened?

Dear Every Senator:You shall not pass this monstrosity Harry Reid calls health “reform” because in your twisted arrogance you are blind, unable to see everyone around you recoiling in horror, from the left to the moderate to the right to the voice of the American people expressed in every last poll spewing from the MSM. You know when CNN reports, actually reports, such widespread discontent that you people haven’t the capacity to see beyond the fog of the Twilight Zone surrounding your District of Criminals.

You can now add the KOmmies to the ranks of those who HATE the Harry Reid version of ObamaCare. For some reason, the Democrats seem intent on committing electoral suicide in order to ensure that some bill, ANY bill, passes the Senate by Christmas. You can see the KOmmie angst over ObamaCare (ReidCare) in this THREAD, "Voters Revolt: Only 33% Support for New Senate Health Care Bill." The KOmmies object to ReidCare because it doesn't include their beloved option. Rational people oppose it because it does way more harm than good. In fact, Robert Byrd may be the first...