Spending In Washington Never Ceases

As you no doubt are well aware, the national debt continues to skyrocket. Today, the national debt is just over 12 TRILLION dollars. That comes out to nearly $40,000 per citizen! Every day, the debt increases by almost $4 billion. That is absolutely amazing, considering Barack Obama campaigned on fiscal responsibility, cutting the deficit, and lowering the national debt. That's a rather ambitious goal, considering what he's done so far. After promising America that he would "cut the deficit in half" by the end of his first term, he quadrupled the deficit with his stimulus package. It might be safe to say our President is not so good at mathematics. To review, after claiming he would cut it in half, he's already multiplied it by 4 (and that doesn't even factor inflation).

So, it's clear that Obama is spending ridiculous amounts of money. What does Congress plan to do? Well, back in April, the House of Representatives approved a bill to increase the national debt ceiling by another $1.8 trillion. Democrats are attempting to finish passing this through Congress before the New Year, likely out of fear for the 2010 elections to come next November. Essentially, they know it's a bad idea, so they want to pass it now instead of right before the election, because they don't want to be voted out of office next November.

Obama has made it almost one full year with his democrat-run Congress. We can only hope that we only have one more year of this. November 2010, the entire House of Representatives will be up for re-election. We can only hope the people of this country begin to realize that the Democrats, led by Obama, are not very good at keeping their promises. Hopefully, for the 112th Congress, starting in 2011, there will be a more conservative/republican House of Representatives.

Health Care: What about Illegal Aliens?

Although no one really knows for sure, most reasonable estimates believe there are well over 15 million people living in the United States illegally. One can only imagine that it would be quite expensive for tax-payers to insure these 15+ million people.

So what does the House-approved bill (H.R. 3962) plan to prevent illegal immigrants from gaining federal funds for health insurance? As we know, President Obama and other democrats have said on numerous occasions that their reform would not insure those who are in this country illegally. What, specifically, does H.R. 3962 do to prevent illegals from gaining health insurance? Nothing.

OK, let's be fair to Nancy Pelosi... Section 342 does specifically say that the affordability credits are for legal citizens and immigrants only. That's good news... right? Wrong.

Section 302 of the bill, when talking about eligibility for the exchange programs and the public option, the bill text clearly says "all individuals are eligible to obtain coverage" through the exchange programs and/or public option. So, the first thing that needs to be re-worded is Section 302. It should say something more along the lines of "all legal citizens are eligible to obtain coverage." That's a simple change, right? Would that be enough? Of course not. In a bill that's over 2,000 pages long, one simple change is never enough to "fix it."

Later on in the bill, when the public option is created (Title III, Subtitle B), it clearly states that all individuals eligible for the exchange are also eligible for the public option. If everyone is eligible for the exchange (like Sec. 302 says), then everybody is eligible for the public option.

Now, you're probably scratching your head, and wondering about this, because as many have said, "Illegals will not be covered, because Sec. 342 clearly outlaws affordability credits being given to illegal aliens." You're right, but if Congress passes a bill that says the minimum age to consume alcohol is 25, and leaves it at that, there's no enforcement or regulation. That's essentially what Sec. 342 of the House-approved bill does: it clearly outlaws covering illegal immigrants, but how does it enforce this law?

The verification process is essentially absent from this 2,000 page bill. 2,000 pages, and there's no clear way to verify a person is who they say they are. The most anyone has talked about for verification processes is matching a social security with a name. But, there are lots of loopholes to that method. What if the individual produces a SSN and matching name, but they are not that person? That will open the door to massive identity theft.

The bill also allows people to "correct their mistake," should they submit a SSN and name that do not match. They are first given the chance to check for a "misprint." The bill even goes as far to allow a change to the SSN database to match your records, should the database be in error! Even further, the bill will give you up to 4 months to "correct the discrepancy" with the Social Security Administration. During this whole process, the individual will be eligible for affordability credits.

Even further, if a person is caught using an invalid SSN/name combination, there's no punishment for them -- they are simply denied coverage, and turned away empty handed. That's it. Now, think about this for a second... If you're an illegal alien, and you make up a random name and SSN, you'll get up to 4 months of affordability credits that easily. During those 4 months, you'll have the chance to create a false entry (or change an existing entry) in the Social Security database. If, for whatever reason, that fails in the 4-month "free trial period," you'll be turned away, and sent home. Then, it's as easy to go back the following day with a newly created name and SSN, and (provided the guy doesn't recognize you), you start over again, and get another 4 months (at least) free.

Under the current language of the House-Approved H.R. 3962, there are major, major problems with potentially covering illegal aliens.

The final bill needs to do more than make it illegal to cover illegal aliens -- there has to actually be a way to enforce that.

So, what can you do? Same thing I always say... contact your Senators and Representative, identify yourself as one of their constituents, and as someone who will not vote for them if they don't support strengthening the bill's language against illegal aliens. If you don't know how to contact your Rep and Senators, go to http://opencongress.org for links to email them. It's that simple!

Abortion funding as part of health care reform?

One of the most controversial parts of health care reform is the issue of abortion. Because of the Hyde Amendment in 1976, federal funds have never been used to fund abortion. This was one of the most controversial issues in the health care debate.

The House bill (H.R. 3962) initially did not address the issue of abortion at all, but it was implied that individuals on the proposed public option would be able to exercise "reproductive care" which would have included abortions.

Pro-Life Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich) threatened Nancy Pelosi saying that he and 40 other democrats would derail the bill before ever reaching the House Floor if she did not allow a vote on his amendment, known as the "Stupak Amendment." His proposed amendment explicitly prohibits all federal funds from being used in abortions.

Specifically, his amendment prohibits the proposed public option from covering abortion services of any kind. It also prevents individuals who receive "affordability credits" from purchasing a private plan that covers elective abortions.

Pelosi, fearing that the bill would never reach a full vote, was forced to allow a vote on Stupak's amendment. On November 7, the House passed Stupak's amendment, with a vote of 240-194. This represents a victory in the House for conservatives. There were 64 democrat representatives who voted in favor of the amendment, and at least 40 of the 64 claimed they would vote against the bill if the amendment failed.

Ironically, the notably more conservative Senate is ignoring the House's decision. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is caught in yet another lie. On November 10, Reid told LifeNews.Com that he is confident the Senate "will ensure that no federal funds are used for abortion." Contrary to Reid's statement, Douglas Johnson, Director for National Right to Life said there's no reason to believe Reid when he says there will be no federally-funded abortion.

A little over a week later, Reid was revealed as a liar, and Douglas Johnson was correct. On November 19, the Senate's health care bill as revealed by Harry Reid himself showed massive spending for abortion funding.

Pages 116-124 give explicit outlines requiring at least one insurance plan in every market exchange to contain abortion coverage, allow abortion coverage in the public option, and create new tax-funded subsidies to purchase private health plans that will cover abortion.

Ironically, the Senate has had little discussion over the wording in Reid's bill. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) originally planned to propose an amendment that would read much like Stupak's amendment in the House bill. However, it is unlikely that he will receive 60 votes in the Senate to override the likely pro-abortion filibuster that would result from his amendment proposition.

Although conservatives see it as a danger that the Senate may pass a bill that allows tax-funded abortions, it actually may be what it takes to shoot down health care reform all together... at least for now.

If the bill does pass the Senate, allowing federally funded abortions, it's likely that those 40 democrat representatives in the House would vote against the bill. As you may know, the Senate and the House must both agree to exactly the same bill, and there are 40 House democrats who have previously threatened to vote against any legislation that will allow for tax-funded abortions.

There is still light at the end of the tunnel for conservatives. If, after reading this, you're asking "What can I do to help?" I have an answer for you. Write your Representative and Senators and urge them to oppose tax-funded abortions of any kind. We already convinced at least 40 democrats in the House to vote against any tax-funded abortions, but the Senate may have a hard time. Go to http://opencongress.org to find links to email your representative and senators. Contact is key. Share your thoughts, and tell them you will not vote for them in the next election if they support tax-funded abortions.

What's happening with health care reform?

America is going down the path to socialism, and fast. The far left, led by Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and of course, Barack Obama, are continuing to advance their liberal, dangerous agenda through Congress.

As you probably know, the U.S. House of Representatives recently passed their version of the bill, "Affordable Health Care for America Act" (H.R. 3962), but, they can't stop there. From there, the United States Senate is working to pass their version of health care reform as soon as possible. The dems hoped to have a health bill on Obama's desk by August, here it is November, and they still don't have it. The good news for conservatives is simply that it will not pass this year. I'll say it again... It will NOT be on the President's desk before 2010.

When the Senate finally finishes debate on the bill, and the bill is amended on the Senate floor, voted on, and likely passed, there still is work to be done. The Senate version, "America's Healthy Future Act of 2009" (S. 1796) is quite a bit different from the House's H.R. 3962. As you may know, both the House and the Senate must pass identical bills without amendment before ever being sent to the Oval Office for Obama's signature. Because S. 1796 and H.R. 3962 are so different, when the Senate version eventually passes, there still needs to be what is called a Conference Committee.

The Conference Committee will be a group of Representatives (probably chosen by Pelosi) and Senators (probably chosen by Reid) who will get together and try to mesh the two bills into one. As of now, there's NO TELLING what will come from the Conference Committee. There are so many differences between the two bills, there's no way to know what will be left alone, changed, removed, etc.

After a successful Conference Committee, the bill must come before the whole Senate and whole House, and both chambers must pass it on majority vote. If either of the two chambers fail to pass (or if both fail), the process eventually starts over. That's why we can say with confidence that there's no way a final bill, approved by both chambers, will find Obama's desk by the end of 2009.

But, the real question is... why does this need to be forced through Congress so quickly?? After all, nothing in the result will take effect until at least 2011. So why now? Because Congress is running scared. We, the conservative people of this great nation, are not intimidated by this BS, and we are not afraid to speak out against such drastic changes to our current health care system. Nobody... NOBODY wants to pay more taxes. Not the rich, not the middle class.

Who is in favor of the proposed legislation? Three types of people...

1) Representatives and Senators of the far left (Reid, Pelosi)

2) Members of Congress who are so damn concerned with party loyalty that they won't vote against anything that the Democratic Party stands for, regardless of their own views, or the "valued views of their constituents."

3) The sheepish public who hear "lower costs AND higher quality" (that's not possible, by the way) and get orgasmic over the concept. Never do they consider reading the bill, or looking into things themselves... Just listen to the idiots you elected, hear them talk about things that don't exist (lower costs = higher quality), and avoid using your own intellect at all costs.

Do not fall into any of the three categories above.