HOW

Even after the House vote hurdle, President Obama continues to spend countless hours focusing on health care - trying to make the cause to the American people that it's a good thing for them and us as a country.

The problem is that he continues the talking points. We've heard them over and over and rejected them. They complain that Republicans have warped the message and used scare tactics to deceive the people.

They could fix that if they'd just say how these promises of goodies would happen. But they can't, b/c it won't.

Also, they can't even honestly say that kids won't be denied b/c of preconditions b/c someone goofed and didn't put that language into the bill as it was passed. Whoops. They assure the public that will be easily fixed in the "fixes" but come on! That was an actual good piece of it. It wasn't one of the dirty details, but a pillar of the hope in it. How many other "unintended" problems are there in this massive bill, if they can't get this pillar of their argument right? Their excuse is that it is such a massive bill that such oversights will pop up! Duh!!!! That's one reason we don't want a 2000 page bill. The missing items or typos will be legislative and enforcing problems later to be taken advantage of in even more lawsuits.

Ugh. This is far from over.

ATTACKS

I have the news on, but I'm not listening to closely. The one word I keep hearing over and over in almost every story is "attack." Cyber attacks, anti-Obamacare attack on Congressmen, attacks on police in Hemmit, CA. There may be more, even, but that's all I can think of right now.

They're all disturbing. I'm particularly annoyed with the anti-Obamacare threats toward Congressmen who voted for healthcare. The hallmark of the Tea Parties is non-violence. This report of threats is very troubling and destructive. There are ways to protest; peaceful gatherings, contacting Congressmen, and the ballot box. Threatening someone's life or lives of their families is reprehensible. I hope that those crazy people don't give the left more fodder to justify their earlier claims of crazy tea partiers. The threats are insane and crazy. The tea party movements and its members are not.

People will blame this on people like Glen Beck and Limbaugh for their fear tactics. Let's keep it a revolution of ideas and words.

I haven't heard every piece of this. It may be (hopefully) being overstated. I think I heard something about threatening to set them on fire. I think the "fire" analogy just might be an analogy. They are going to get fired in November. Resorting to threatening their family in any way, however, is completely over the top and criminal.

The other "attacks" in the news today are troubling also, but that's for another time.

BACKING OFF

After reading some more context for the comments made by Senator Dick Durbin sited in my previous entry, I'm looking at it a little differently.

Durbin's comments made it sound like the GOP was just going to vote "no" on the reconciliation pieces, leaving the bill as is, which is abominable in my mind, given all the special deals in it. It's going to be important for the Senate to get it passed the way Pelosi and gang want it so that there isn't a bigger rift between the democrats themselves.

The article that gave me more context for Durbin's comments regarded the ways Republicans plan on stalling the vote. Their proposals sound good to me, and would improve things. Their proposed amendments will likely make sense to a lot of people, and would like to seize the opportunity to get things a little better before it's imposed on us. Here is the article I read in full. I've put in bold the parts that I thought a majority of Americans could rally for:

WASHINGTON – In a final drive to thwart President Barack Obama's health care remake, Republican senators plan to force Democrats to run a gantlet of politically dicey votes before they can finish a companion bill to the landmark law.

Voting was expected to start late Wednesday on a full list of Republican amendments to a "sidebar" bill making changes Democrats agreed to in the main legislation already signed by Obama. Major components of the "fix" legislation include scaling back a tax on high-cost insurance plans opposed by labor unions, closing the coverage gap in the Medicare prescription benefits, and higher taxes on upper-income earners.

But Republicans have other ideas. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., wants a vote on his amendment to prohibit coverage of Viagra for sex offenders. Sen. Judd Gregg, R-NH, wants savings from Medicare cuts plowed back into the health care program for seniors, instead of being used to expand coverage to the uninsured. Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., wants to gut penalties on employers whose workers wind up getting taxpayer subsidized coverage.

Democrats are vowing to bat down the GOP amendments one-by-one. Should they lose on any major financing component, the bill would have to go back to the House. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has put members on notice they may be needed to vote on any changes that get through the Senate.

Meanwhile, the Senate's second-ranking Democrat accused Republicans of refusing to accept the finality of the health care overhaul.

"This is a political exercise for too many on the other side of the aisle," said Sen. Dick Durbin. "We're going to tell our people back home, 'It's time to govern. It's time to lead.' "

Durbin appeared on NBC's "Today" show Wednesday with GOP Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, who had said last year he believed the health care overhaul would turn out to Obama's "Waterloo."

"America doesn't want a broken presidency," said Durbin, D-Ill.

DeMint did not back down, saying "Americans are very angry," not only with the substance of the sweeping health care bill Obama signed into law Tuesday, but also with the process Democrats used to muscle it through Congress.

The fixes under consideration by the Senate were demanded by House Democrats as their price for passing the mammoth overhaul legislation that will extend coverage to 32 million uninsured Americans over the next decade.

"They're hoping that Americans don't notice this is another power grab," DeMint said of Democrats. "So we're going to bring these issues up." He accused Democrats of breaking "a lot of protocols" in the Senate and said he couldn't imagine Republicans working very hard to cooperate with Obama and Democrats on other issues.

As he put his signature on the bill at a celebrative White House ceremony, Obama declared "a new season in America" and hailed an accomplishment that had been denied to a line of presidents stretching back more than half a century.
Approval of the fix-it bill at the end of this week is virtually assured, since it's being debated under fast-track budget rules that allow passage with a simple majority instead of the 60 votes usually required for action in the 100-seat Senate. Democrats control 59 Senate seats.

That didn't stop Republicans, who are unanimously opposed, from using the floor debate that began Tuesday afternoon as an opportunity to repeat the accusations they've lobbed at Obama's health legislation for the past year: that it raises taxes, slashes Medicare and includes a burdensome and constitutionally questionable requirement for nearly all Americans to carry health insurance.

The main suspense surrounding this week's debate is whether the fix-it bill can emerge from the Senate unchanged. If it does, it can go straight to the president for his signature, since it's already passed the House. If the Senate changes it even in a minor way, the legislation would have to go back to the House to be passed again, a prospect House leaders are prepared for but say they don't expect.

Although the battle may soon be over on Capitol Hill, opponents already have launched a campaign from the outside, with 13 state attorneys general suing Tuesday to overturn the legislation on grounds it is unconstitutional.

And Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., served notice Tuesday of the GOP's continued campaign against the legislation going into the fall election season. "The slogan will be 'repeal and replace,' 'repeal and replace,'" McConnell said.
Obama planned to sign an executive order Wednesday affirming existing law against federal funding of abortions, except in cases of rape, incest or danger to the woman's life. A critical bloc of anti-abortion Democrats in the House had pledged to vote against the health care package unless given greater assurances that it would not amend current law.

In a last-minute deal, Obama agreed to issue the order to get their votes.

As demonstrated by my own switch in attitude, the key is that the "fixes" the GOP are looking are getting wide publicity vs. simply the stalling part. And the publicity would be needed just as much for people who will access such news, such as people who pay attention to places such as Instapundit and Fox News as those who will never change their minds.

In the meantime, the details of the bill could be published (since it never was before it was passed). It may be that even some democrats will be shocked at some of the pesky details that make it slimy.

TEND TO AGREE

The headline on Yahoo News! today was

Senate on health bill's final chapter, maybe

It begins,

WASHINGTON – The No. 2 Senate Democrat accused Republicans Wednesday of refusing to accept the finality of health care changes, a day after President Barack Obama signed the most sweeping medical system remake since Medicare. "This is a political exercise for too many on the other side of the aisle," said Sen. Dick Durbin. "We're going to tell our people back home, 'It's time to govern. It's time to lead.' "

While I'm not happy with the health care bill right now, either, I'd rather see them quickly pass the reforms so that we're not left with a bill that leaves in the special deals. The deal is cr*@, but will be law if it's not improved and would include those special deals which would be irresponsible of the Republicans.

The key is to get the dems out and new common sense folks in for the 2010 election, repeal it, and start over.

Time to move on, in terms of this bill. Now fight Cap & Tax and other craziness.

UH HUH

Here's one revelation. What will be the next one?

Exempted From Obamacare: Senior Staff Who Wrote the Bill

SOURCE OF GOOD POV

If my posts resonate with you, today is a good day to take a look at instapundit.com. There are several articles that stir something in me, but there are too many to comment on. The perspectives from the writers at many of the links are interesting and informative and some are even hopeful. You'll be able to tell by the lead in the links what's interesting. You might even get hooked like I am to perusing it every day - many times a day.

The fight and the hope isn't over. It's just begun.

GOOD MORNING

Is that the title for this post that you'd expect from me, given the news of yesterday? It's not what I would have expected from me. I've read a couple of links from instapundit.com this morning that have really resonated. I'm sure they will be the basis for more blog entries today. But the first is this (the first paragraph),

And so now we have it.

I thought I might need to try my small part to cheer people up and calm them down, but for once I have underestimated the American people. People, by and large, seem not only calm but absolutely determined. Everywhere I have looked this morning the reaction seems to be more or less the same: a nation of steely-eyed missile men. These Marxist bastards have no idea what is coming for them. No idea.

Laugh while you can, Monkey Boys.