Barack Shows His True Colors: I’ll Steamroll Health Reforms Through Congress
O: We are Going Nuclear… No Matter What the Majority of Americans Want!!
President Obama declared for the first time today that he is prepared to steamroll his troubled health reform legislation through Congress with only Democratic support, a move Republicans denounced as the “nuclear option.”
Signalling that his patience had now snapped after a year-long fight over health reform, Mr Obama laid the ground for Democrats in Congress to muscle the Bill through using a high-risk legislative maneuver known as reconciliation, which overrides a Republican filibuster.
Although he did not use the word “reconciliation”, Mr Obama made clear that is the uncompromising route he now intends to take with his top domestic priority. White House aides and top Democrats on Capitol Hill have also stated in recent days that, in the face of unanimous Republican opposition, the legislation will now be forced through.
By using reconciliation, Democrats can get the health reform package through the Senate with a simple majority, rather than needing the Bill to pass the 60-vote threshold needed to overcome a Republican filibuster. Mr Obama’s party ceded their 60-stong majority in the upper chamber after losing the late Edward Kennedy’s Massachusetts seat in January.
That shock defeat was in large part due to growing public hostility to Mr Obama’s health reforms, which many see as too expensive at a time of exploding deficits. Forcing the Bill through Congress is, therefore, a high-risk strategy that Republicans vowed to exploit.
In a speech from the White House, Mr Obama conceded the risks involved. “I don’t know how this plays politically, but I know it's right”, he said.
He added: “The American people…are waiting for us to lead. And as long as I hold this office, I intend to provide that leadership.”
He added: “We have debated this issue thoroughly, not just for a year, but for decades.”
Mr Obama rejected Republican calls to start drafting new legislation. “For us to start over now could simply lead to delay that could last another decade or even more.
“I have therefore asked leaders in both houses of Congress to finish their work and schedule a vote in the next few weeks.”
The push for a swift endgame to the bruising health care battle was carefully choreographed by the White House after Mr Obama’s “bipartisan” health care summit with congressional Republicans last week.
He used that encounter to place four Republican ideas into his final health reform package today. That enabled him to declare that he was reaching out to the opposition, at a time when Democrats are in fact preparing to shut them out of the process altogether.
Eric Cantor, the number two Republican in the House, said: “If the president simply adds a couple of Republican solutions to a trillion dollar health care package that the American people don’t support, it isn’t bipartisanship. It’s political cover.”
Mitch McConnell, the senior Republican in the Senate, warned that Republicans would use the health care issue to damage Democrats in November’s congressional mid-term elections.
If the Democrats “jam” an expensive Bill through Congress, Mr McConnell added, “it will be the issue in every single race in America this fall.”
Reconciliation is a procedure created in 1974 that was designed at the time to help Congress push through difficult budget legislation, and in particular measures aimed at cutting deficits. These could not be filibustered and would only need a simple 51 vote majority in the Senate to pass. It was therefore designed to address fiscal, and not social policy. Mr Obama and Democrats have, therefore, been stressing in recent months that his reforms are aimed at reducing long-term deficits by cutting health costs.
Both parties have used reconciliation more than 20 times each since 1980, but never to pass a piece of legislation as expensive as sweeping as Mr Obama’s health reforms. Bill Clinton used it to overhaul the welfare system; President Reagan to give health benefits to people who lose their jobs. George W Bush used it twice to ram through huge tax cuts in 2001 and 2003.
Source: UK TimesOnline/Fox Nation
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America… We Have Been Had… And Continue To Be, Let’s Get to Work ~
Ok, Patriots, you just heard the President say "Make your voice heard" so let them hear us...Here's a list of the 30 Democrats that are "on the fence". This list is compliments of Dick Morris' website.
He's put the names and numbers together for us. Now all we have to do is accept the President's invitation to make our voices heard. Pick up the phone and start calling!!!
Harry Mitchell (202) 225-2190 (480) 946-2411
Gabrielle Giffords (202) 225-2542 (520) 881-3588
Ann Kirkpatrick (202) 225-2315 (928) 226-6914
Jerry McNerney (202) 225-1947 925-833-0643
John Salazar 202-225-4761 970-245-7107
Jim Hines (202) 225-5541 (866) 453-0028
Alan Grayson (202) 225-2176 (407) 841-1757
Bill Foster (202) 225-2976 630-406-1145
Baron Hill 202 225 5315 812 288 3999
Mark Schauer (202) 225-6276 (517) 780-9075
Gary Peters (202) 225-5802 (248) 273-4227
Dina Titus (202) 225-3252 702-256-DINA (3462)
Carol Shea-Porter (202) 225-5456 (603) 743-4813
Tim Bishop (202) 225-3826 (631) 696-6500
John Hall (202) 225-5441 (845) 225-3641 x49371
Bill Owens (202) 225-4611 (315) 782-3150
Mike Arcuri (202)225-3665 (315)793-8146
Dan Maffei (202) 225-3701 (315) 423-5657
Earl Pomneroy (202) 225-2611 (701) 224-0355
Steven Driehaus (202) 225-2216 (513) 684-2723
Mary Jo Kilroy (202) 225-2015 (614) 294-2196
Zach Space (202) 225-6265 (330) 364-4300
Kathy Dahlkemper (202) 225-5406 (814) 456-2038
Patrick Murphy (202) 225-4276 (215) 826-1963
Christopher Carney (202) 225-3731 (570) 585-9988
Paul Kanjorski (202) 225-6511 (570) 825-2200
John Spratt (202) 225-5501 (803)327-1114
Tom Perriello (202) 225-4711 (276) 656-2291
Alan Mollohan (202) 225-4172 (304) 623-4422
Nick Rahall (202) 225-3452 (304) 252-5000
Steve Kagen (202) 225-5665 (920) 437-1954
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