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Among conservatives, the GOP is often referred to as the "Stupid Party" for its tonedeaf, ham-handed, wrong-footed management of key issues like taxes and government spending. With the Senate's passage of government-run health care legislation, Democrats are making their bid to replace the GOP as not just the Stupid Party, but the stupidest party since the Whigs owned the title in the first half of the 19th century. But conservatives need to insist that the GOP press its opposition to big-government health care right through the 2010 elections. Think it's unnecessary to insist? Think again. Moderate Republicans have very little...

As haggling between House and Senate versions of national health care reform gets under way in Washington, Massachusetts residents may be feeling a bit of dejà vu. The insurance mandates and cost controls being negotiated on Capitol Hill are the same polarizing issues that echoed in Beacon Hill chambers three years ago. In 2006, then-Gov. Mitt Romney signed the nation's most ambitious and complex health reform initiative with the goal of providing universal health care coverage to all Massachusetts residents. Like the bill taking shape in Congress, the state's health legislation required all residents to obtain health insurance or face...

It’s no cause for celebration, and Sarah Palin’s not the type for schadenfreude, but she was right about the death panels. So right, in fact, that the death panels are receiving some very special and probably unconstitutional protection in the Senate health care bill. The creation of the so-called Independent Payment Advisory Board – the panel that decides who goes without coverage so costs can be cut – cannot be repealed, according to language Harry Reid has inserted into the bill, without a supermajority vote of two-thirds. Death panels? There are no death panels! Stop listening to that crazy cackling...

There is a right way to cover Sarah Palin and her PR strategy. Greg Sargent, Ben Smith and Matt Gertz double-check Palin’s claim (made on Facebook) that her infamous “death panel” post was a “metaphor” for how health care would be denied to the old or infirm. In the original post, it was pretty clear that Palin was talking about end-of-life counseling, not rationing. Obama himself acknowledged at an August 11 townhall that the "underlying argument" made by Palin was that his health care bill would "mean rationing of care":

Early this Christmas Eve morning, the Senate held its vote for final passage of H.R. 3590, the $2.5 trillion government takeover of the health care industry.  Democrats passed the bill on a 60-39  straight party-line vote.  And it’s still not a sure thing that the bill will ever become law. The bill still must pass the House unchanged by a Motion to Concur or must go to conference for an agreement between the House and Senate Democrats (they’ve excluded Republican leadership from every negotiation so far in this Congress).  Any conference report produced by backroom deals in conference would still...

At 7:16 a.m., the Senate passed on a 60-39 party line vote a sweeping health care bill that will tighten insurance regulations, provide insurance for 31 million more Americans and cost $871 billion over the next decade. "This is for my friend Ted Kennedy, aye," said Sen. Robert Byrd as he cast his vote.

(snip) Unlike McKeon and Shuster, Cantor endorsed Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in the 2008 presidential primary. Cantor's PAC transferred $5,000 to Romney's PAC in January -- about five months before the two Republicans participated in a forum for the National Council for New America in May. The report also indicated that Cantor's campaign committee also received $5,000 from Romney's PAC in May -- a donation that Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom chalked up to mutual admiration between the two.(snip)

WASHINGTON -- Senate Democrats are poised to pass a landmark health care bill that could define President Barack Obama's legacy and usher in near-universal medical coverage for the first time in U.S. history. Ahead lie complex talks with the House to reach final legislation in the new year. "We stand on the doorstep of history," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat. "We recognize that, but much more importantly, we stand so close to making so many individual lives better." The vote Thursday on the bill extending health care coverage to some 31 million uninsured Americans brings Obama...

While we slept this morning, the real mobsters, the ones dishing out and accepting bribes in the District of Criminals, completely screwed our country … with the first vote on Christmas Eve in more than a century. Atlas just shrugged.

The health care legislation about to be passed by the U.S. Senate requires all Americans to purchase health insurance. All Americans, that is, except for the Senate, other members of Congress and their staff. The Democrats refuse to even allow vote on the matter.....

WASHINGTON - Exultant Senate Democrats pushed President Barack Obama's landmark health care overhaul past a final procedural hurdle Wednesday, setting up a Christmas Eve vote to pass the legislation extending coverage to 30 million Americans. Democrats voted 60-39 to end a GOP filibuster and move to a final vote Thursday. All 58 Democrats and two independents hung together against unanimous Republican opposition. It was the 24th day of debate on the 10-year, nearly $1 trillion bill. "It is now only hours until this Senate will pass meaningful health care reform," said Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont.

(The) Independent Payment Advisory Board.. would be required.. to recommend (spending )changes to ..Medicare .. to limit the rate of growth in ..spending. Those recommendations would go into effect automatically...

Obama Defends Self Against Black Critics WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama on Monday rebutted critics who say he isn't showing enough compassion toward black America, citing his health care effort as one example he says "will be hugely important" for blacks. Obama said another example is the billions of dollars in aid to states included in the economic stimulus bill, money that was used to save thousands of teachers, firefighters and police officers from losing their jobs. He said many of those workers are black. "So this notion, somehow, that because there wasn't a transformation overnight that we've been neglectful...

The Weekly Standard’s John McCormack reports tonight that Illinois Democrat Sen. Roland Burris is claiming credit for inserting a provision that may benefit ACORN. But it’s not just the ACORN angle that’s scandalous. It’s the race hustler shakedown. Why, oh, why do we need to be funding massive new federal bureaucracies to create separate “Offices of Minority Health” in six separate health care agencies:

Trial lawyers are the second biggest donor to the Democrats’ Political Action Committee, trailing only the union bosses of the IBEW.

Joe Scarborough said on MTP yesterday and Morning Joe this morning that the health care bill soon to be passed in the senate is a gift to the insurance companies. Can someone here explain why? Seems to me it's going to be a lot more regulation and mandates that the insurers have to comply with. That will cost them more $$$ which will just be passed on to business/consumers in premium increases. Also, aren't these health care "exchanges" a lot like a public option?I guess I'd be curious to know what is in the senate bill that is actually a...

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/dcnow/2009/12/gop-sharpens-attack-on-democratic-healthcare-bill.html GOP sharpens attack on Democratic healthcare bill December 20, 2009 | 3:38 pm Part of the cost of securing key votes for healthcare overhaul comes down to dollars and cents as well as politics, so Republican senators today argued that other states should get the same benefit that was given to ensure a key Democratic vote. Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) won changes on tougher restrictions on abortion funding in order to get his vote. But he was also given language that the GOP says pays 100% of his state’s added costs to fund the expansion of Medicaid that the...

WASHINGTON--Senate Democratic leaders said Saturday morning they have secured the 60 votes needed to ensure passage of health overhaul legislation after reaching agreement with Sen. Ben Nelson to address his concerns with the bill's handling of abortion. "Every Democrat realized...we had to get it done," said Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat who helped broker the final deal. Sen. Nelson, a Nebraska Democrat, told reporters Saturday he intends to vote for the legislation.

(snip) And as a result, the best thing they can do is to stand up and be counted. To shout down those things that are unacceptable. And then to put forward our own good ideas and we are a party of ideas, have been from the beginning. We are now. We have a health care plan. We have an energy plan. We have plans that relate to winning the war in Afghanistan. These kinds of things we got to put forward. But stopping President Obama's agenda is also a very important agenda item for us. (snip)

As the Congressional Budget Office explained: "A mandate requiring all individuals to purchase health insurance would be an unprecedented form of federal action. The government has never required people to buy any good or service as a condition of lawful residence in the United States." Yet, all of the House and Senate health-care bills being debated require Americans to either obtain or purchase expensive health insurance, estimated to cost up to $15,000 per year for a typical family, or pay substantial tax penalties for not doing so. The purpose of this compulsory contract, coupled with the arbitrary price ratios and...

SALT LAKE CITY — Still looking for that perfect gift for the Mitt Romney fans on your Christmas list? How about a ticket to Romney's only Utah appearance on his upcoming tour to promote his just-finished book, "No Apology: The Case for American Greatness"? It's not until March 13, but tickets for a speech by the former presidential candidate at the Salt Palace go on sale at 10 a.m. Thursday. The tickets, priced at $25 through Jan. 31 or $95 with a private reception with Romney, include a pre-signed copy of the book that's scheduled to be released March 2....

President Obama finally makes it back to familiar and frozen Copenhagen, scene of his earlier success in winning the Olympics for Chicago, trying to figure out a way to make zero plus zero amount to something big. His prospects aren't good. He leaves behind a chaotic debate over his health care "reform," a debate awash in irony, confusion and incredulity. The next stop is farce. ObamaCare, which the president promised would be a simple, thrifty, economical cure-all for the health care system, runs to 2,074 pages that a roomful of Philadelphia lawyers (or worse, Washington lawyers) couldn't parse. But...

Here is video of Gov. Mitt Romney on with Sean Hannity tonight where he discussed the Democrats' push to pass a Health Care Bill in the Senate by Christmas. On the economy, Mitt Romney said the Democrats have failed to create jobs, particularly with the Stimulus Bill passed early this year. Romney said "borrowing your way to prosperity" is a strategy that will not work. Romney said the "American people are a lot smarter than the Democrats give them credit for." Romney said he would give Obama "a failing grade" on his performance as President thus far. Instead of focusing...

Maybe Leavenworth has a TV studio he could use . . . Keith Olbermann has vowed to break the law and go to jail if ObamaCare requires him to buy health care insurance. Keith made his macho boast in the course of his melodramatic Special Comment this evening. View video here.

Hannity and Dick Morris discussing ObamaCare. Consensus is that Pelosi will take whatever the Senate passes and ram it through the House in reconciliation. Passing this monstrosity is all the dems care about, even if it isn't what they want. They WILL NOT LET Obama make his state of the union whine in January without this bill having been signed into law. Dems are having a mass psychotic break on this, even if it means the Repubs retake both houses next November. Taxes take place immediately but benefits don't until 2013-2014. And they may get away with it since Obama...

(snip) MCCAIN: Let me say I have great admiration and respect for Senator Durbin... (snip) MCCAIN: Let me give you a couple of points of straight talk. I resent it enormously when Senator Reid comes to the floor and accuses Republicans or compares Republicans to those who fought against the abolition of slavery. He said that. That's -- that's unacceptable. As far as the president's commitments are concerned, he made that commitment to the American people, so he didn't tell the American people the truth when he was campaigning for president. How's that?(snip)

I wondered earlier today how the specifics of the health care bill emerging from the Senate differ from the plan that passed in Massachusetts under Mitt Romney, and the answer from his conservative critics is fairly clear: The bill isn't any different, writes the American Spectators Phillip Klein. Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom emails over his view: There are some similarities. For instance, the concept of the "exchange" where people can shop for affordable health plans was pioneered in Massachachusetts. But Mitt's Romney's health care reforms are different in several important respects. First, the bill signed by Governor Romney did not...

(snip) On Twitter, Politico's Ben Smith asks, "At this point, how is current proposal substantially different from Romneycare?" The answer is, it ain't. (snip) So now, if Obamacare passes, Romney will be left telling angry primary voters that the only real difference between the two plans is that he implemented his policies at the state level, while Obama did it through the federal government. Sure, it's clearly worse if the federal government is implementing bad policies, but it's hard to see how such an argument would pass muster with anybody but those who are already ardent Romney supporters. It's sort...

SALT LAKE CITY - Over the course of two weeks, Utah Republicans had the chance to see the two most talked-about potential presidential candidates in their party. Mitt Romney attended an event for ADX security systems and Sarah Palin visited to sign her bestselling book. The Utahpolicy.com, Fox 13 Insider Poll finds that Mitt Romney is taken far more seriously as a potential presidential candidate. 53.5 percent of Republicans say they expect Romney to be the Republican party candidate to face Barack Obama. 31.3 percent of Democrats think Romney will be the candidate. Only 4.7 percent of Republicans and 6.3...

SALT LAKE CITY -- Mitt Romney is preparing for a more prominent presence on the national scene with a new book coming out next spring. Tickets go on sale next week for a major book event in downtown Salt Lake City in March. One year since the presidential election ended, Romney is stepping up his profile with national TV appearances, newspaper Op-Eds, fundraising for fellow Republicans and a new book called "No Apology: The Case for America's Greatness." The book comes out March 2. One of the first events in a national book tour will be at the Salt Palace...

Details: Can Congress require all Americans to buy a new Buick every year or pay a tax equivalent to the price of a used LeSabre? Some members of Congress claim that power in the health care debate. Indeed, all the leading health care bills being debated in Congress require Americans to either secure or purchase health insurance with a particular threshold of coverage, estimated to cost up to $15,000/year for a typical family. Such a purchase mandate has never been attempted.

Officials are in the early stages of deciding if Salt Lake City wants to compete for the 2012 Republican National Convention — so early, in fact, that they have not yet formed a bid committee to decide. Salt Lake City was invited by the Republican National Committee to attend an "interested parties" presentation in Washington, D.C., three weeks ago, said Scott Beck, president and chief executive officer of the Salt Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau. Beck attended, along with a representative from the governor's office. There, they learned what requirements in terms of amenities a host city would have to...

Currently, the only people left defending the Massachusetts health care reform are liberals who want to see Obamacare passed ... and Mitt Romney. On Sunday, while the Senate debated a bill to have the government takeover the health care system, Romney went on CNN and argued that his state takeover of health care worked out quite well for Massachusetts. Asked by John King to respond to criticism offered by his likely 2012 presidential rival Tim Pawlenty about how spending exploded in Massachusetts after the implementation of RomneyCare, Romney responded...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said Sunday that Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has his facts wrong in criticizing the health care plan Romney instituted in his state. Pawlenty has repeatedly pointed to the Massachusetts plan of his potential rival for the 2012 Republican nomination as the perfect example of how not to do health care reform. The Minnesota governor has made that case in numerous interviews, speeches and op-eds that, while not focused on the Massachusetts program, make his criticism of it clear. Presented with a clip of Pawlenty arguing that the Massachusetts plan did not come close to meeting...

On Friday night, Michael Savage kept reiterating that he was leaving early because he was going have dinner with potentially the next president of the United States.He was trying to be secretive by using the phrases "him or her" and "he or she" -- but the only big name Republican anywhere near him in San Francisco was Mitt Romney who addressed some type of economic conference. (And Governor Palin was en route from Texas to Virginia, I believe, though perhaps I have the wrong date...)I was expecting to see reports about this meeting of two great minds, here on Free...

They believe the liberal base expects them to deliver and will punish them if they don't. Voters are increasingly worried about unemployment, but Democratic leaders in Congress remain obsessed with passing health- care reform. Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin was asked recently if a health-care bill would pass the Senate by the end of this month. "It must," he said. "We have to finish it." Still, many in the trenches are uneasy about the sprawling, complex bill they privately acknowledge has no bipartisan support, doesn't seriously tackle soaring costs and will increase insurance premiums. That may explain Majority Leader Harry...

Here is a list of 2012 candidates. Generally, I am dwelling on the negatives as this is what is going to limit them in their ability to win but will mention any unique positives. Please share your thoughts on these or any other potential candidates. Romney - Romneycare is an albatross. He is a Mormon which impacts appeal. Is popular in Michigan due to his father. Sometimes comes across like a used car salesman. Is probably more conservative than his record and gets a bad rap due to his need to make compromises to get elected in The People's Republic....

Mitt Romney says that like other presidents, Barack Obama inherited a recession. But the former Massachusetts governor feels unlike his predecessors, Obama has made the recession he inherited worse, not better. In an op-ed in Wednesday's USA Today, Romney says what he calls the president's inability to "stem" the rise in unemployment should not be a surpise. "With no experience whatsoever in the world of employment and business formation, he had no compass to guide his path. Instead, he turned over much of his economic recovery agenda to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, themselves nearly...

RomneyCare is big government forcing its will on a formerly free people. It's anti-American, anti-free-markets, anti-Liberty and unconstitutional. Listen to the Reagan tape. RomneyCare is the socialism he's talking about. RomneyCare = ObamaCare. No difference. Government is not the solution, it IS the problem!! Free Republic will not support gun grabbing, abortion pushing, gay rights pushing, big government socialist RINOS!! In fact we will actively campaign AGAINST them!! Free Republic is a pro-Life & Liberty small government conservative site for pro-Life & Liberty small government conservatives!! Take a freaking hike if you don't like it. RINOS be damned!! Hope this...

then you must believe all of the following (via The Health Care Blog): Health reform adds a heap of new cost saving political obligations on Congress. A partial list: 1)that Congress not extend the five-year shelter for states from their share of the cost of a 15 million person Medicaid expansion (e.g. more than a 30% increase). Presently, states are sheltered from Medicaid cost sharing for this expansion until 2014, but then have to find $34 billion in new money to pay their share. States, who are drowning in Medicaid costs already, will press hard to have their existing matching...

The Truth About the Health Care Bills - Michael Connelly, Retired Constitutional Attorney Well, I have done it! I have read the entire text of proposed House Bill 3200: The Affordable Health Care Choices Act of 2009. I studied it with particular emphasis from my area of expertise, constitutional law. I was frankly concerned that parts of the proposed law that were being discussed might be unconstitutional. What I found was far worse than what I had heard or expected. To begin with, much of what has been said about the law and its implications is in fact true, despite...

Let me be clear: I don't like Romney. I wouldn't vote for Romney. I hope he never runs for President, and if he tries, I hope he never gets the nomination. In other words -- I don't like Romney! However, -- I am tired of having to scroll past an anti-Romney ad as the #1 entry on every article lately. Why does every post start with an anti-Romney ad? As far as I know, he isn't even running for anything right now. In fact, why should every article begin with an anti-Anyone ad? I've always considered most Freepers to be...

Per Fox, Massachusetts hospitals are suing the state for huge losses under RomneyCare/MassCare. Fox says that under Mini-Obamacare, hospitals get as little as 40% of the money due them for the care they provide. Massachusetts is currently running a $3 billion deficit under MassCare, which was instituted in 2006. If you like MassCare, you'll LOVE Obamacare.

A new analysis by a leading MIT economist provides new ammunition for Democrats as the Senate begins formally debating the historic health-reform bill being pushed by President Barack Obama. The report concludes that under the Senate’s health-reform bill, Americans buying individual coverage will pay less than they do for today's typical individual market coverage, and would be protected from high out-of-pocket costs. So Democrats will argue that under the Senate bill, Americans would pay less for more.

(CNN) -- Catholic, Orthodox and Evangelical Christian leaders last week issued a bold political statement. They intended to target the Obama administration. Inadvertently, they may have also hit probable Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney. Mitt Romney ought to rank atop the Republican candidates for president in 2012. He finished second in votes cast in the primaries of 2008. He is a candidate with immense private-sector economic expertise in a time of urgent economic debate. But Romney has a political problem: his Mormon religious faith. A Gallup survey in December 2007 found that 18 percent of Republicans would not vote for...

During the past few months, the United States has been embroiled in a debate about the government takeover of Health Care. Our friends "across the pond" in Great Britain have been discussing healthcare as well. The UK discussions are not about a government health care takeover, that has already happened, their discussions have been about how awful the medical care is in the British socialized medical system. We are constantly that a most important part of treating cancer is early detection. The newest revelation about the over-worked British medical system is up to 10,000 British lives a year are lost...

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will determine what medical treatments are and are not available to you under the Senate health bill. It is quite possible she will determine if you live or die. A serach of the Senate health bill will bring up "secretary" 2,500 times,

I ask you respectfully and as a patriotic American to look at the following troubling lines that I have read in the bill. You cannot possibly believe that these proposals are in the best interests of the country and our fellow citizens.

Romney's Legacy: Socialized Healthcare RomneyCare