Democratic Senator Gets Big Pay Off to Vote for Health Bill

WASHINGTON - With a self-imposed Christmas deadline at stake, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Saturday he has apparently secured the 60 votes needed to pass a sweeping overhaul of the U.S. health care system.

"It seems that way," Reid said when asked at a news conference if he had all the required votes.

Reid's declaration came after he engineered a last-minute compromise in the health care debate that won the support of the lone Democratic holdout. The Congressional Budget Office said Reid's revisions would reduce the federal deficit by $132 billion over 10 years.

Marathon negotiations among the White House, Senate Democratic leaders and Sen. Ben Nelson, a conservative Democrat from Nebraska, produced fresh concessions that will mean additional abortion restrictions in the legislation and funding to cover poor people for Nelson's state and more.

"I know this is hard for some of my colleagues to accept and I appreciate their right to disagree. But I would not have voted for this bill without these provisions," Nelson said at a news conference in the Capitol.

Democratic leaders offered Nelson a deal similar to the $300 million in Medicaid assistance Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana got for her support, numerous sources told Fox News.

When asked about this, Sen. Kent Conrad, a key Democratic leader involved in the negotiations with Nelson, said, "Oh, it'll be much more." - FOX News Story

I know that this happens all the time in Washington, but it just doesn't seem right. Senators and Congressman holding out or receiving big payouts for their state if they agree to vote one way or another. Shouldn't the bills have to stand and be voted on based on their own merit? Not because there is a bribe in their for you. Why is it illegal for me to pay off a government official to approve something or vote a certain way? It is the same thing that happens in Washington everyday?

Sen. Franken Shuts Down Sen. Lieberman

Senate Health Bill - No One Supports it Except the "Just Pass a Bill Crowd"

Democrats in the Senate still face a filibuster threat from within their own party as they try to push health care legislation to a vote, though the key holdout says he's merely interested in "getting it right."

Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson said Thursday he was unsatisfied by a proposed compromise on the issue of federal abortion funding in the Senate's health care reform bill -- but even if that is resolved, he still might support a filibuster if other issues he has raised aren't addressed.

A spokesman for Nelson told Fox News on Thursday that the Nebraska Democrat also is concerned with controlling costs in the sweeping reform legislation -- indicating that his support is far from secure.

Nelson is the last known holdout among the 60 senators in the Democratic caucus, which includes independent Sens. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid needs 60 votes to overcome a filibuster.

"Unlike some who have decided they won't negotiate .... he has been very critical and wanted to move the bill as far as he could," Nelson's spokesman, Jake Thompson, told Fox News.

Nelson lashed out at the new language on abortion in the Senate bill on Thursday, saying it doesn't satisfy his concerns.

In an interview with the Fox News Radio affiliate KLIN in Nebraska, the senior senator said an attempt at compromise doesn't get to the fundamental issue of barring federal funding for abortions.

"I can't tell you that they couldn't come up with something that would be satisfactory on abortion between now and then and solve all the other issues that I've raised to them, but I don't see how," he said in the interview. "So I'm less interested in a deadline than I am in getting it right."

Catholic and anti-abortion groups have also weighed in against the new language, which attempts to separate public from private funding of abortion. - FOX News Story

This bill is so bad that they are having to resort to arm twisting and threatening to try and get it pass. It is quite apparent that this isn't a bill about true Health Care Reform, but a political bill to try and help the Democrats during an election year.

Democrats Showing Power and Losing Friends

Democratic Sen. Al Franken took the unusual step Thursday of shutting down Sen. Joe Lieberman on the Senate floor.

Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, currently is the target of liberal wrath over his opposition to a government-run insurance plan in the health care bill.

Franken was presiding over the Senate Thursday afternoon as Lieberman spoke about amendments he planned to offer to the bill. Lieberman asked for an additional moment to finish -- a routine request -- but Franken refused to grant the time.

"In my capacity as the senator from Minnesota, I object," Franken said.

"Really?" said Lieberman. "OK."

Lieberman then said he'd submit the rest of his statement in writing.

Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona came to his friend Lieberman's defense, saying he'd never seen such a thing occur.

"I must say that I don't know what's happening here in this body but I think it's wrong," McCain said on the floor.

Franken's spokeswoman, Jess McIntosh, said that the Minnesota senator wouldn't allow Lieberman to continue because time limits were being enforced by Senate leaders rushing to finish a defense spending bill and get to the health bill. - FOX News

Democratic Senator Al Franken, I would just say that you successfully put Sen. Lieberman solidly back in the Republican camp by being a total Jackass. Thank you for your support.

Wisconsin Democats Play Dirty in Governors Race

The Wisconsin Democratic Party is taking an highly unconventional approach in attacking GOP gubernatorial hopeful Scott Walker by posting graphic images of an unclean courthouse bathroom.

The repulsive state of the bathrooms in the Milwaukee County Courthouse — whose janitorial services Walker privatized recently as part of his role as county executive — first became a campaign issue last Friday when a local television station ran a story demonstrating in detail the bathrooms’ conditions.

As part of Walker’s decision to outsource some government services, 25 members of the courthouse’s janitorial staff were laid off. In protest, only four of the 20 scheduled to work show up on December 11 — their last day of work and the day news cameras recorded video of the restrooms.

Still images taken from the report of clogged toilets, overflowing trash cans and used paper towels are posted on the state Democratic Party’s website and linked to high up on the Wisconsin Democrats homepage (Warning: Graphic images). - Politico Story

Obama Team Holding up Stimulus Spending until 2010 Election Year

Sharpening their attacks on one of President Obama’s early legislative successes, Republican lawmakers have begun charging that the stimulus spending bill is being used not to create jobs and lift the struggling economy, as Obama claimed, but to advance the political fortunes of the Democratic Party.

Republican members of congressional committees that oversee the stimulus are touting a lengthy list of line items from the nearly $800 billion spending bill that have received little to no funding in the measure’s first ten months of existence. And with roughly half of the expenditures slated to occur during fiscal year 2010, which runs from October 1 of this year through next September 30, the Republicans allege the spending is structured and timed to help Democrats in the rough political climate of the 2010 midterm elections.

“We were told in January we had to pass this massive $787 billion stimulus program in a hurry, so that the money could get out of town for shovel-ready job-creating projects,” said Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., a member of the House Appropriations Committee. "And yet with only 12 percent (of the stimulus funds having been spent), we've got to ask ourselves: Is the administration – run by the politicals, David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel – sitting on the money on purpose, so they can trickle it out in 2010, the election year?”

Republicans on the Appropriations Committee have disseminated figures, covering Fiscal Year 2009, to demonstrate the slowness with which stimulus funding is being doled out . An analysis by the committee’s minority staff noted, for example, that of the nearly $6 billion authorized in the stimulus package for energy efficiency measures, only $3 million – less than one percent of the authorization – had been spent. For “smart grid” projects, which employ digital technology to regulate the use of energy-consuming appliances in private homes, none of the $4.5 billion authorized had been spent. And for weatherization initiatives, $174 million of the total $5 billion authorized, or some three percent, had been spent.

“The Pentagon spends money rapidly, FEMA [the Federal Emergency Management Agency] spends money rapidly,” said Kingston. “We have had models where the bureaucracy can actually get the money out of town. And yet on this one – which, again, was passed in this great fervor of urgency – the money is still here in Washington, D.C.

“The bureaucracy is sitting on the money. And I don’t even think they're that incompetent, that it's been slowed because of the bureaucracy. I think it’s going to be drummed out during the election year.” - Fox News Story

Former Democratic Party Chairman Calls for Death of Democratic Health Care Bill

President Obama rejected a call by the former Democratic Party chairman to kill the current Senate health care bill, a White House spokesman said.

Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, a physician who also was Vermont governor and a former presidential candidate, said on national television Wednesday he believed legislation in the Senate would now benefit the insurance industry more than it helps Americans struggling to gain health coverage or pay for it.

Dean said the bill was an "insurance company's dream."

But White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said if that's the case, "I don't think the insurance companies have gotten the memo" and continue fighting so hard against the measure.

The sharp exchange came as Senate Democratic leaders push for a vote on the health care bill just before Christmas. The president, who is scheduled to take a vacation at that time, has not indicated if he would stay in Washington for that vote.

Dean told ABC's "Good Morning America" that Washington conventional wisdom has become "passing any bill is a victory. Decisions are being made about the long-term future of this country for short-term political reasons. And that's never a good sign."

Dean went on to imply that 27 percent of the money put into the new health care program by individuals won't go to their own health care, and that only a small number of people will get any insurance at all before the year 2014 if the bill works in its current form.

But Gibbs said those claims "quite simply weren't true."

"Nobody will be required to purchase something they can't afford. There are hardship exemptions and subsidies based on income levels that help people afford insurance," Gibbs said. "He went on later in the interview to discuss the notion that legislation no longer contains anything that addresses pre-existing conditions. That's simply flat-out wrong." - FOX News Story

House Vs. Senate - Democrats Vs. Democrats

House Democrats’ long-simmering frustration with the slow pace of the Senate has begun to boil over, with a broad swath of Democratic representatives accusing their Senate colleagues of failing both their party and their country.

The cross-chamber assessment is brutal:

• “There is a growing sense that we’re lifting more than our share,” says California Rep. Xavier Becerra, a member of the Democrats’ leadership team in the House. “Members are hoping the Senate will kick into gear because the public expects a lot more to get done.”

• “Sometimes I get the feeling that some of those guys [in the Senate] just like to see their names in the paper and see their faces on TV,” says Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern.

• “I talk a lot about the psychology of consensus,” says House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.). “Too often, it appears, that the psychology in the Senate is the psychology of one.”

• “When it comes to a jobs bill, the Senate seems more interested in dithering,” says first-year Rep. Tom Perriello, a Virginia Democrat whohas taken heat back home for tough votes on climate change and health care — two issues that remain bottled up in slow-moving Senate deliberations.

• “If you just take a look at the number of bills we’ve sent to the Senate and what they’ve done, I don’t know what they’re doing with their time honestly,” says Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Cal.).

• “I think the majority leader sometimes has to have the leadership to resolve these things,” says Pennsylvania Rep. Joe Sestak, a Democrat challenging Sen. Arlen Specter, in a direct attack on Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.). “I understand it’s politically challenging, but we have the votes — and we should be doing much better than we are. I think this place needs a change, quite frankly.” - Politico Story

Couldn't agree with him more. Hopefully 2010 will bring change. Lots and lots of change. The kind of change that stops the madness of excessive spending and Big Government takeover in America.

Terrorist Heading to Illinois

President Barack Obama seems to have won over enough Congressional Democrats to push forward with his plan to move Guantanamo prisoners to a facility in rural Illinois, but the official announcement Tuesday triggered a firestorm of criticism that could undercut his stated goal of depriving Al Qaeda of a key propaganda point.

“In taking this action, we are removing from terrorist organizations around the world the recruiting tool that Guantanamo has come to symbolize,” National Security Adviser James Jones told reporters.

“Today’s announcement that the federal government will acquire the Thomson Correctional Center in Thomson, Illinois, to house federal inmates and a limited number of detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is an important step forward as we work to achieve our national security objectives,” another top administration official said in a conference call with reporters.

But some critics said they feared that the Illinois facility, like the one in Cuba, could end up being a place where detainees are held indefinitely without trial.

Asked whether the proposed prison might be billed as an “Illinois Gitmo” to rally extremists against the United States, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said, “not in any way, shape, or form nearly to the degree that currently exists.”

....

But Kirk Lippold, commander of the U.S.S. Cole when it was attacked by terrorists in 2000, said Obama was unwisely inviting all the dangers of Guantanamo onto U.S. shores.

“The Administration is now adding economic manipulation to its bag of tricks to convince the American people that somehow they will be better off if terrorists are held and tried in our towns and communities, instead of a state-of-the-art detention facility built for that purpose,” Lippold said. “Gitmo North is not the answer.”

Said Cheney: “Americans did not elect President Obama to usher terrorists onto the homeland and call it a jobs program.” - Politico Story

Democrat Howard Dean - Kill Senate Health Care Reform

For all the renewed optimism around health care’s prospects emanating from the White House, a reality check this afternoon courtesy of Howard Dean.

Dean, the former Democratic National Committee chairman and medical doctor, said in an interview set to air this afternoon on Vermont Public Radio that the removal of the Medicare buy-in means the Senate health care bill is no longer worth supporting, according to Greg Sargent of The Plum Line blog.

“This is essentially the collapse of health care reform in the United States Senate,” Dean said, per Sargent. “Honestly the best thing to do right now is kill the Senate bill, go back to the House, start the reconciliation process, where you only need 51 votes and it would be a much simpler bill.” - ABC News Story

More Polls Showing Obama Approval Free Fall

A double punch of persistent economic discontent and growing skepticism on health care reform has knocked Barack Obama's key approval ratings to new lows, clouding his administration's prospects at least until the jobless rate eases.

Fifty percent of Americans in this ABC News/Washington Post poll approve of the president's work overall, down 6 points in the last month; nearly as many, 46 percent, now disapprove. On the economy, 52 percent disapprove, a majority for the first time. On the deficit, his worst score, 56 percent disapprove. - ABC News Story

Democratic Health Reform Bill Continues to Change

More than anything else in Barack Obama’s presidency so far, health reform has exposed a get-a-deal-at-any-cost side of Obama that infuriates his party’s progressives.

And as Democrats tried to salvage health reform Tuesday, some liberals could barely hide their sense of betrayal that the White House and congressional Democrats have been willing to cut deals and water down what they consider the ideal vision of reform.

“The Senate version is not worth passing,” former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean told POLITICO, referring to plans to strip the latest compromise from the bill, a Medicare buy-in. “I think in this particular iteration, this is the end of the road for reform.”

Dean said there are some good elements in the bill, but lawmakers should pull the plug and revisit the issue in Obama’s second term, unless Democrats are willing to shortcut a GOP filibuster. “No one will think this is health care reform. This is not even insurance reform,” he said.

The White House pushed back hard at liberals’ complaints Tuesday, with Obama talking up what’s in the plan but not saying a word about what’s been left out:

A single-payer plan, a public option, a state “opt-out” of the public option, a trigger and a Medicare buy-in — all ideas pushed by Democrats and blessed by Obama at various times but now gone from the bill. - Politico Story

Democrat Immigration Reform - Pay $500 and You are now Legal

Lawmakers pushing for immigration reform say job losses and a sluggish economy should not deter legislation legalizing illegal immigrants.

A coalition of Democrats say fixing the immigration system can help American workers as well.

Black, Hispanic, Asian, progressive and other Democrats unveiled the kind of immigration reform they want at a Capitol Hill news conference Tuesday.

They are proposing that illegal immigrants register with the government, pay a $500 fine for each adult, learn English, pass background checks and meet other requirements. They then are eligible for a six-year visa and when that is done a green card. - FOX News Story

Obama Bringing Terrorist to USA

President Barack Obama has ordered the federal government to acquire an underused state prison in rural Illinois to be the new home for a limited number of terror suspects now held at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The federal government will acquire Thomson Correctional Center in Thomson, Ill., transforming the prison in a sleepy town near the Mississippi River into a prison that exceeds "supermax standards," according to a letter to Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Attorney General Eric Holder and Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair.

Those departments "will work closely with state and local law enforcement authorities to identify and mitigate any risks" at the prison, the letter said.

The decision is an important step toward closing Guantanamo Bay. Thomson, about 150 miles from Chicago, is expected to house both federal inmates and no more than 100 detainees from Guantanamo Bay.

Illinois Sen. Richard Durbin and Quinn were receiving briefings Tuesday on the plan at the White House.

Administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they could not yet lay out a timeframe for when a transfer of detainees from the Navy-run detention facility to Thomson. They said the administration would have to work with Congress to amend laws and secure funding before any prisoners are brought to U.S. soil.

The officials said military tribunals for potential detainees would be held at Thomson. They also said that the facility could house detainees whom the president determines must be held indefinitely but can't be tried. - CBS News Story

Health Care Bill Struggling as Obama Pushes

In a provocative argument designed to rescue his foundering health-care plan, President Barack Obama will warn Senate Democrats in a White House meeting Tuesday that this is the "last chance" to pass comprehensive reform.

Obama will contend that if it fails now, no other president will attempt it, aides said.

White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer told POLITICO: "If President Obama doesn't pass health reform, it’s hard to imagine another president ever taking on this Herculean task. For those whose life's work is reforming health care, this may be the last train leaving the station."

Previewing the message, Vice President Joe Biden said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe": "If health care does not pass in this Congress ... it's going to be kicked back for a generation."

The new argument comes as the Senate races to pass the measure by Christmas, in the face of a costly setback this week. Senate Democrats say they are prepared to drop a plan to expand Medicare coverage after Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said he could not support it.

That could keep the bill alive but would infuriate the party's liberals, who feel the moderate Lieberman has thwarted them once again.

Biden said on MSNBC: ""Say it ain't so. ... Joe is a great guy. ... I think Joe's judgment is wrong on this."

Senate strategists say the current impasse will have to resolved in the next couple days in order to allow passage by year's end.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) declined to say whether the Medicare expansion would be dropped and was waiting for congressional scorekeepers to put a price tag on the plan before making a final decision. - Politico Story

Obama's Democrats Continue Deficit Spending Binge

A $446.8 billion omnibus spending bill, covering the heart of the domestic budget, cleared Congress Sunday, capping a year that has seen double-digit growth for many agencies on top of the giant economic recovery package approved just 10 months ago.

The 57-35 Senate roll call came as negotiators neared agreement on a $626 billion defense bill, the final piece of the 2010 budget and a powerful locomotive to pull a pre-Christmas legislative train of year-end items.

Chief among these could be a much-needed adjustment to the Treasury’s borrowing authority to manage the growing national debt which will soon top $12.1 trillion.

Democrats project that $1.8 trillion in new authority will be needed to carry the government through the coming year and past the 2010 elections. No more than half of this increase can be directly attributed to President Barack Obama’s spending appetites, but it’s his burden to carry now and a major challenge in leading his party. - Politico Story

Obama Continues Free Falling in Approval Polls

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 23% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-two percent (42%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -19.

Today is the second straight day that Obama’s Approval Index rating has fallen to a new low. Prior to the past two days, the Approval Index had never fallen below -15 during Obama’s time in office (see trends).

The 23% who Strongly Approve matches the lowest level of enthusiasm yet recorded. Just 41% of Democrats Strongly Approve while 69% of Republicans Strongly Disapprove. Among voters not affiliated with either major party, 21% Strongly Approve and 49% Strongly Disapprove. - Rasmussen Reports Poll

Obama Approval Continues to Slip

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Saturday shows that 25% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-one percent (41%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -16. That’s the lowest Approval Index rating yet recorded for this President (see trends).

The 25% who Strongly Approve matches the lowest level of enthusiasm yet recorded. That’s partly the result of declining enthusiasm among Democrats. While Democrats continue to offer their approval, just 43% Strongly Approve.

Among all voters, 36% now believe that the president is doing a good or an excellent job handling the economy while 45% rate his performance in this area as poor. Seventy-one percent (71%) of Democrats say he’s doing a good or excellent job on the economy while 74% of Republicans say poor. Among those not affiliated with either major party, 52% give the President poor marks when it comes to the economy. - Rasmussen Reports Poll