Posted by
Billy on Friday, January 01, 2010 2:51:05 PM
There were two snow jobs in Washington over the weekend. One came from the sky
as a record December snowfall blanketed the city. The other came from Capitol
Hill where the Senate labored to cover up the real effects of its massive
"health care reform" bill.
All you need to know about this monstrosity is contained in a paragraph from
page four of the Congressional Budget Office's 21-page letter to Senator
Majority Leader Harry Reid: "According to CBO and (the Joint Committee on
Taxation's) assessment, enacting the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
with the manager's amendment would result in a net reduction in federal budget
deficits of $132 billion over the 2010-2019 period. In the subsequent decade,
the collective effect of its provisions would probably be continued reductions
in federal budget deficits if all of the provisions continued to be fully
implemented. Those estimates are subject to substantial uncertainty.
Senator Ben Nelson, Nebraska Democrat and a supposedly staunch pro-lifer,
agreed to vote for the bill after, as The Washington Post put it, he got
"abortion language" he wanted and "also secured other favors for his home
state." That's what it's ultimately about: getting favors for your home state so
you can be re-elected. Re-election trumps the Constitution and the will of the
people, most of whom oppose the Senate and House health care "reform" bills.
(The above is part of a column Cal Thomas wrote a few weeks ago. You can read more of the words of Cal, below.)
Even one's stand on a moral issue like abortion can be compromised for the right
deal. Inserting language that supposedly restricts federal funding of abortion
in order to provide political cover to Sen. Nelson turns out to be a sham.
According to House Minority Leader John Boehner, whose office wrote a critique
of Reid's 383-page Manager's Amendment, "Everyone enrolled in these (health)
plans must pay a monthly abortion premium and these funds will be used to pay
for the elective abortion services. The Reid amendment directs insurance
companies to assess the cost of elective abortion coverage and charge a minimum
of $1 per enrollee every month."
Some defenders of this deal argue that federal money will be magically
segregated when it comes to abortion and that money going to abortion providers
will be for other "services." Even if this were true -- and there is little
truth coming out of Washington these days -- that is like saying the government
won't pay for the actual procedure, but it will subsidize other costs, such as
the electric bill and the rent on the clinic's office space.
(Amen Cal. I have posted before that Sen. Nelson from my home state of Nebraska can no longer call himself pro life. He sold out unborn babies in the name of being loyal to his party who is now run by the radical left. Cal also writes in the column that Republicans in the next election should run on a promise be to repeal the measure
and to offer real insurance and health care reform that won't include an
abortion provision. If they do that my bet is they will win big. Read the whole column by Cal Thomas Snow Jobs.)
