It emerged today (h.t. Memeorandum) that "Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she is confident she will be able to get the votes needed to pass sweeping health care legislation in the House, even if it threatens the political careers of some members of her party."She even seems willing to sacrifice Democratic House seats in the mid-term election this Fall in order to get the Democrats' national price-fixing scheme passed. In an interview Sunday (h.t. Memeorandum), "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged her colleagues to back a major overhaul of U.S. health care even if it threatens their political careers, a call to arms that underscores the issue's massive role in this election year."
Nancy Pelosi's Fatal Conceit...
Speaker Pelosi went on to argue that "Lawmakers sometimes must enact policies that, even if unpopular at the moment, will help the public." Seriously Madame Speaker? So what you're saying is that even if the public doesn't want more forcible intrusion into their health care, Congress should do it anyway because you and the rest of the Democrats know what's best for us better than We The People do?
Democrats Commit Political Suicide
Senator Lamar Alexander is calling the reconciliation debacle a political kamikaze mission (h.t. Memeorandum): "It would be a political kamikaze mission for the Democratic Party if they jam this through after the American people have been saying."
I absolutely love the analogy because if you'll remember, the end goal of a kamikaze strike is to destroy. The Democrats' health care "reform" will be overwhelmingly destructive to the interests of consumers, workers, patients, and doctors. Mark my words, it will smash the well-being of working class Americans into a million pieces.
Barack Obama Wants Reconciliation
The big word Democrats aren't saying, is reconciliation, but they are planning to use it. An Obama adviser revealed (h.t. Memeorandum) that the administration is leading the charge for the Democrats' "kamikaze mission," it's preferred method being reconciliation, a parliamentary procedure that would allow the Senate to pass health insurance price-fixing with only 51, rather than the usual 60 votes.
The Left Coast Rebel has the right idea, when he says that the American public is suspicious of sneaky parliamentary procedures to enact policies that most Americans oppose, and that the Democrats are using their classic propaganda techniques to soften the blow to their image. Instead of calling it by the name Americans have come to know and hate it by, the Democrats are calling reconciliation "a simple majority."
Thus, Congress will pass PelosiCare by "a simple majority," which sounds nicer than reconciliation, a desperate parliamentary trick that many Democrats are on record criticizing as undemocratic back when the Republicans controlled both houses of Congress.
Rep. Paul Ryan (R) at Healthcare Summit
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) has the right idea in the video below, showing his opening remarks at Obama's health care summit last week. He cuts straight to the problem with the Democrats' legislation when he says "This bill does not control costs. This bill does not reduce deficits. Instead this bill adds a new health entitlement at a time when we have no idea to pay for the entitlements we already have."
He explains furthermore, that it's full of fiscal tricks that mask the increased spending, including ten years of tax increases on the order of half a trillion dollars and ten years of Medicare cuts on the order of half a trillion dollars (and yes you read that right- ten years of Medicare cuts amounting to roughly half a trillion dollars). Watch the whole video below:
