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Could the New CMS Report Kill the Senate Health Care Bill?

First, the CMS report released today:

Bill Makes Health Care More Expensive Than Doing Nothing At All

CMS: “This Bill Would Increase [Health Expenditures] By An Estimated Total Of $234 Billion”



CMS: “…We Estimate That Total National Health Expenditures Under This Bill Would Increase By An Estimated Total Of $234 Billion (0.7 Percent) During Calendar Years 2010-2019…” (“Estimated Financial Effects Of The ‘Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act Of 2009,’ As Proposed By The Senate Majority Leader On November 18, 2009,” Centers For Medicare & Medicaid Services, P.4, 12/10/09)

http://republican.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Blogs.View&Blog_Id=8d052053-5c88-4b60-9070-2c30c0dd7664

Now, the analysis:

Tottering   [Rich Lowry]

The Reid bill is really tottering now. "If this thing falls apart, you can look back to today as the tipping point," says a Republican aide in the Senate, echoing what Lamar Alexander notes in the Costa post below. First, there was last night's CNN poll showing 61 percent opposition. Then, there was the devastating CMS report today. "Nobody went to the floor that I could see to defend it on the Democratic side," says the aide. The back-drop for all this is the non-deal that Reid hyped as a break-through earlier this week, only to have it unravel almost immediately. Even Bill Nelson says the Medicare buy-in is basically a "non-starter." "You're starting to see other Democrats nibbling around the edges," the aide says. He predicts that if one Democrat comes out clearly against the Reid bill, others will follow, in a dynamic like the unexpectedly decisive defeat of the amnesty bill a few years ago.

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OTU3MDZjMTgzZWI3MDI5MzlhYmM0MGVhNjI4N2IxMWY=

Humpty Dumpty Harry Reid   [Robert Costa]

Sen. Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican and GOP conference chair, tells NRO that Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) is “all tied up in a knot.”

“All of the king’s horses and all of the king’s men may not be able to put 60 together again,” says Alexander, in reference to the (barely) 60 votes Reid got last month to bring his bill to the floor. “With two weeks until Christmas, Democrats find themselves in the awkward position of trying to pass a 2,000-page bill — a bill which most of them admit they don’t know much about.”

Alexander cites the new report from the chief actuary for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) as a potential death blow to Reid’s cause. The CMS, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services, says that if Reid’s bill became law, America would spend $234 billion more on health care over the next decade.

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NjhmNTIyMzMyNGEzMDRkMWRkNmU1ZWJkNmY2MjI2Yzc=



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ACORN Wins Court Battle

Judge Rules Effort to Strip ACORN of Federal Funds Unconstitutional

AP

ACORN claimed in its lawsuit that Congress' decision to cut off its funding was unconstitutional because it punitively targeted an organization

NEW YORK -- A federal judge has ruled the U.S. government's move to cut off funding to ACORN is unconstitutional.

U.S. District Judge Nina Gershon issued the preliminary injunction against the government Friday. She ruled that it is in the public's interest for the organization to continue receiving federal funding.

ACORN claimed in its lawsuit that Congress' decision to cut off its funding was unconstitutional because it punitively targeted an organization.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/12/11/judge-rules-effort-strip-acorn-federal-funds-unconstitutional/

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Guantanamo Bay Detainees to be Transferred to Illinois Revealed in a Leaked DOJ Memo

**Exclusive** Leaked Justice Department Memo: Terrorists To Be Moved to Camp Gitmo Illinois

by Publius

The Land of Lincoln may still be licking its wounds–and certain real estate transactions–over Chicago’s losing the Olympics to Rio, but the Obama Administration has delivered up a small consolation prize: the state’s very own federal prison for terrorists. Big Government has received a what is claimed to be a leaked DOJ memo that was allegedly sent yesterday from Eric Holder’s Department of Justice to Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Memo below:

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Not Going to Improve Much, But Instead Make Things Worse

House approves financial overhaul

By Silla Brush - 12/11/09 02:41 PM ET

The House passed financial overhaul legislation intended to boost consumer protection and crack down on Wall Street abuses.

The House on Friday passed a wide-ranging financial overhaul bill intended to boost consumer protection and crack down on abuses on Wall Street.

The House approved the bill on party lines in a 223-202 vote, with no Republicans favoring the measure, a top priority for the Obama administration. Twenty-seven Democrats crossed party lines and voted against the bill.

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/71877-house-approves-financial-overhaul

If you remember, I linked to an article that said that this bill will increase the deficit if passed:

CBO: Financial overhaul would hike deficit by $4.5 billion

By Silla Brush - 12/04/09 07:56 PM ET

A wide-ranging House bill to crack down on Wall Street and revamp the nation's financial markets will increase the nation's deficit by $4.5 billion over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

The nonpartisan CBO said late on Friday that the effort between 2010 and 2019 would increase revenues to the federal government by $4.9 billion and increase spending by $9.4 billion. The package would have its biggest fiscal impact between 2010 and 2014, when budget deficits would increase by $10.7 billion, CBO said.

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/70723-cbo-financial-regulation-bill-would-increase-deficit-by-45-billion

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Still Waiting for Confirmation, But This Would be Great if True

Pakistan Media: Drone Killed Qaeda's No. 3

High-Ranking Official Abu Yahya al-Libi Allegedly Killed by Missile Strike; U.S. Has Yet to Confirm


(CBS)  A U.S. government official says a top al Qaeda operative has been killed in a drone attack in western Pakistan, and local media says that the strike killed al Qaeda's number 3 in command, Abu Yahya al-Libi.

The U.S. is still not confirming the report, CBS News has learned.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/12/11/world/main5967266.shtml
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The Only Effect of the Stimulus is Members of the Bureaucracy Getting a Pay Raise

For feds, more get 6-figure salaries Updated 54m ago |

The number of federal workers earning six-figure salaries has exploded during the recession, according to a USA TODAY analysis of federal salary data.

Federal employees making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% of civil servants during the recession's first 18 months — and that's before overtime pay and bonuses are counted.

Federal workers are enjoying an extraordinary boom time — in pay and hiring — during a recession that has cost 7.3 million jobs in the private sector.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-12-10-federal-pay-salaries_N.htm


Tags: government  
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Baucus Gave His Mistress $14,000 Bonus

Max Baucus gave girlfriend $14K raise



By MANU RAJU & JOHN BRESNAHAN | 12/11/09 4:40 AM EST

Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, gave a nearly $14,000 pay raise to a female staffer in 2008, at the time he was becoming romantically involved with her, and later that year took her on a taxpayer-funded trip to Southeast Asia and the Middle East, though foreign policy was not her specialty.

Late last Friday, Baucus acknowledged his relationship with Melodee Hanes, whom he nominated for the job of U.S. attorney in Montana, after it was first reported on the website MainJustice.com. But he said that Hanes withdrew from consideration for the job when the relationship became more serious. The next day, he dismissed calls for an ethics investigation, saying, “I went out of my way to be up and up.”

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/30478.html



Tags: baucus   ethics  
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Pay Czar Issues Pay Limits for Executives at Bailed Out Companies

Tags: Bailout   czar  
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'An Irrational Act'

An Irrational Act
Trying KSM in NYC will delay the verdict, and reduce the chances it is the right one.

By Andrew C. McCarthy

Here’s the biggest problem with the Obama administration’s decision to transfer Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other 9/11 jihadists to the civilian court system: It makes sense only if it’s being done for the wrong reasons — to provide a forum for the Left to use al-Qaeda as a vehicle to put the Bush administration on trial, to give the Left the “reckoning” that the Obama campaign promised before the 2008 election.

As a matter of law enforcement or national security, it is irrational. To demonstrate this, we need look no farther than the two principal justifications Attorney General Eric Holder has offered: the asserted need to end delay in seeking justice and the claim that a civilian trial provides the best chance for a successful prosecution.

On the matter of delay, let’s put aside for now the fact that, during the Bush years, Holder’s former firm — and many lawyers who’ve since been recruited into his Justice Department after years of volunteering their services to the nation’s enemies — used every arrow in the litigator’s quiver to delay, delegitimize, and derail war-crimes trials by military commission. Let’s also ignore the fact that by subordinating terror prosecutions to terror prevention — i.e., by prioritizing interrogation and the gathering of intelligence over appointing counsel and disclosing intelligence — we thwarted additional terror attacks and saved lives. Let’s just stick with what passes for the attorney general’s reasoning: that it has taken too long for the military courts to complete war-crimes cases and that we must change our approach to avoid unnecessary delay.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NjM2OTZjYWY1NTYyNGY1NGZiOGY3NWUyNTkyMmM0MDk=
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'Martha Coakley: Too Immoral for Teddy Kennedy's Seat'

Martha Coakley: Too Immoral for Teddy Kennedy's Seat
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Is This What the Federal Government Should Really be Doing?

House panel passes college football playoff bill

Dec 9, 2:47 PM (ET)

By FREDERIC J. FROMMER

WASHINGTON (AP) - A House subcommittee approved legislation Wednesday aimed at forcing college football to switch to a playoff system to determine its national champion, over the objections of some lawmakers who said Congress has meatier targets to tackle.

The bill, which faces steep odds, would ban the promotion of a postseason NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision game as a national championship unless it results from a playoff. The measure passed by voice vote in a House Energy and Commerce Committee subcommittee, with one audible "no," from Rep. John Barrow, D-Ga.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20091209/D9CFVTR01.html


Tags: government  
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Deal Behind Closed Doors Holding Up Bipartisan Amendment

Pharmaceutical deal holding up bipartisan health amendment

By Jeffrey Young - 12/10/09 08:25 PM ET
A deal between the White House and the pharmaceutical industry is holding up a bipartisan amendment to allow the importation of cheaper prescription drugs from abroad, according to a member of the Senate Democratic leadership.

The Senate has been debating the amendment, sponsored by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), since Tuesday but has not held a vote, which is contributing to a stall in the floor action on healthcare reform.

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/71767-pharmaceutical-deal-holding-up-bipartisan-health-amendment
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'The New Socialism'

The New Socialism
by Charles Krauthammer

WASHINGTON -- In the 1970s and early '80s, having seized control of the U.N. apparatus (by power of numbers), Third World countries decided to cash in. OPEC was pulling off the greatest wealth transfer from rich to poor in history. Why not them? So in grand U.N. declarations and conferences, they began calling for a "New International Economic Order." The NIEO's essential demand was simple: to transfer fantastic chunks of wealth from the industrialized West to the Third World.

On what grounds? In the name of equality -- wealth redistribution via global socialism -- with a dose of post-colonial reparations thrown in.

The idea of essentially taxing hard-working citizens of the democracies in order to fill the treasuries of Third World kleptocracies went nowhere, thanks mainly to Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher (and the debt crisis of the early '80s). They put a stake through the enterprise.

But such dreams never die. The raid on the Western treasuries is on again, but today with a new rationale to fit current ideological fashion. With socialism dead, the gigantic heist is now proposed as a sacred service of the newest religion: environmentalism.

http://townhall.com/columnists/CharlesKrauthammer/2009/12/11/the_new_socialism

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Indoctrinating Our Kids

Hollywood and Howard Zinn's Marxist Education Project
by Michelle Malkin

The two most important questions for society, according to the Greek philosopher Plato, are these: What will we teach our children? And who will teach them? Left-wing celebrities have teamed up with one of America's most radical historians to take control of the classroom in the name of "social justice." Parents, beware: This Hollywood-backed Marxist education project may be coming to a school near you.

On Sunday, Dec. 13, the History Channel will air "The People Speak" -- a documentary based on Marxist academic Howard Zinn's capitalism-bashing, America-dissing, grievance-mongering history textbook, "A People's History of the United States." The film was co-produced and bankrolled by Zinn's Boston neighbor and mentee Matt Damon. An all-star cast of Bush-bashing liberals, including Danny Glover, Josh Brolin, Bruce Springsteen, Marisa Tomei and Eddie Vedder, will appear. Zinn's work is a self-proclaimed "biased account" of American history that rails against white oppressors, the free market and the military.

Zinn's objective is not to impart knowledge, but to instigate "change" and nurture a political "counterforce" (an echo of fellow radical academic and Hugo Chavez admirer Bill Ayers' proclamation of education as the "motor-force of revolution"). Teachers are not supposed to teach facts in the school of Zinn. "There is no such thing as pure fact," Zinn asserts. Educators are not supposed to emphasize individual academic achievement. They are supposed to "empower" student collectivism by emphasizing "the role of working people, women, people of color and organized social movements." School officials are not facilitators of intellectual inquiry, but leaders of "social struggle."

http://townhall.com/columnists/MichelleMalkin/2009/12/11/hollywood_and_howard_zinns_marxist_education_project

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'Global Warming as a Political Tool'

Global Warming as a Political Tool
by Jonah Goldberg

On Monday, Lisa Jackson, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, formally announced that her agency now considers carbon dioxide to be a dangerous pollutant, subject to government regulation. The "finding" comes two years after the Supreme Court ruled that CO2 falls under the EPA's jurisdiction.

A day later, an unnamed White House official told Fox's Major Garrett that the message for Congress is clear: "If you don't pass this (cap-and-trade) legislation ... the EPA is going to have to regulate in this area. ... And it is not going to be able to regulate on a market-based way, so it's going to have to regulate in a command-and-control way, which will probably generate even more uncertainty."

And such "uncertainty" is a huge "deterrent to investment," which will hurt the economy even more.

Translation: We don't want the EPA to kick the economy in the groin, but if Congress doesn't act, well, a-groin-kickin' we shall go.

This is grotesquely dishonest.

http://townhall.com/columnists/JonahGoldberg/2009/12/11/global_warming_as_a_political_tool

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