Top House Liberal Suggests He Could Accept Deal On Senate Bill

In a sign that House liberals may be bracing to swallow much of the Senate bill with minimal changes, a key House progressive suggested in an interview with me that he might be able to support a bill without a public component, if the coverage in the bill were to kick in earlier than it currently does in the Senate proposal.

Rep Raul Grijalva, who as co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus is well respected by liberals, acknowledged the potential for supporting the bill under these conditions, making public what House aides have only said privately until now.

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/health-care/top-house-liberal-suggests-he-could-accept-deal-on-health-care-bill/

Rep. Stupak: White House Pressuring Me to Keep Quiet on Abortion Language in Senate Health Bill
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
By Pete Winn, Senior Writer/Editor
(CNSNews.com) - Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) said the White House and the Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives have been pressuring him not to speak out on the "compromise" abortion language in the Senate version of the health care bill.
 
“They think I shouldn’t be expressing my views on this bill until they get a chance to try to sell me the language,” Stupak told CNSNews.com in an interview on Tuesday. “Well, I don’t need anyone to sell me the language. I can read it. I’ve seen it. I’ve worked with it. I know what it says. I don’t need to have a conference with the White House. I have the legislation in front of me here.”

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/58921

EXCLUSIVE: Transvestites, Mao And Obama Ornaments Decorate White House Christmas Tree

by Capitol Confidential

Why let a holiday season come between the White House and making some political statements? The White House pegged controversial designer Simon Doonan to oversee the Christmas decorations for the White House. Mr. Doonan, who is creative director of Barney’s New York has often caused a stir with his design choices. Like his naughty yuletide window display of Margaret Thatcher as a dowdy dominatrix and Dan Quayle as a ventriloquist’s dummy. For this year’s White House, he didn’t disappoint.

Senate Republicans have agreed to end their filibuster of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) health care reform bill a few hours early, allowing for a vote at 8 a.m. on Christmas Eve.

http://www.rollcall.com/news/41844-1.html?ET=rollcall:e6247:80071205a:&st=email

Letter from Senators Graham & DeMint on Medicaid deals

As you probably heard, Senator Lindsey Graham asked his state’s attorney general to look into the sleazy deal that sealed the compromise between Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Majority Leader Harry Reid.

South Carolina Attorney General McMaster has called a press conference for 2:30 PM today in Columbia, SC to discuss the health care bill and the so-called Nebraska Compromise.  At the press conference, he will release this letter for the first time publicly, where they say they have, “serious concerns about the constitutionality of this Nebraska Compromise…”

http://www.mattlewis.org/?p=2055

The Diaz-Balarts withdraw Charlie Crist endorsement

Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart have pulled their endorsement of Gov. Charlie Crist for the U.S. Senate.

Lincoln offered few details as to why, just that Crist had "left us no alternative and he knows why."

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2009/12/the-diazbalarts-withdraw-crist-endorsement.html

 

Ensign, DeMint to Force Vote on Health Care Bill Unconstitutionality

December 22, 2009 - WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senators Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) and John Ensign (R-Nevada), raised a Constitutional Point of Order on the Senate floor against the Democrat health care takeover bill on behalf of the Steering Committee, a caucus of conservative senators. The Senate will vote tomorrow on the bill’s constitutionality. “I am incredibly concerned that the Democrats’ proposed individual mandate provision takes away too much freedom and choice from Americans across the country,” said Senator Ensign. “As an American, I felt the obligation to stand up for the individual freedom of every citizen to make their own decision on this issue. I don’t believe Congress has the legal authority to force this mandate on its citizens.” “Forcing every American to purchase a product is absolutely inconsistent with our Constitution and the freedoms our Founding Fathers hoped to protect,” said Senator DeMint. “This is not at all like car insurance, you can choose not to drive but Americans will have no choice whether to buy government-approved insurance. This is nothing more than a bailout and takeover of insurance companies. We’re forcing Americans to buy insurance under penalty of law and then Washington bureaucrats will then dictate what these companies can sell to Americans. This is not liberty, it is tyranny of good intentions by elites in Washington who think they can plan our lives better than we can.” Americans who fail to buy health insurance, according to the Democrats’ bill, would be subject to financial penalties. The senators believe the bill is unconstitutional because the insurance mandate is not authorized by any of the limited enumerated powers granted to the federal government. The individual mandate also likely violates the “takings” clause of the 5th Amendment.

http://demint.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Detail&PressRelease_id=b79b1356-9b27-749f-d210-39abc312e868

The States Can Check Washington's Power

States should be able to directly propose constitutional amendments.

By DAVID B. RIVKIN JR. AND LEE A. CASEY

For nearly a hundred years, federal power has expanded at the expense of the states—to a point where the even the wages and hours of state employees are subject to federal control. Basic health and safety regulations that were long exercised by states under their "police power" are now dominated by Washington.

The courts have similarly distorted the Constitution by inventing new constitutional rights and failing to limit governmental power as provided for in the document. The aggrandizement of judicial power has been a particularly vexing challenge, since it is inherently incapable of correction through the normal political channels.

There is a way to deter further constitutional mischief from Congress and the federal courts, and restore some semblance of the proper federal-state balance. That is to give to states—and through them the people—a greater role in the constitutional amendment process.

The idea is simple, and is already being mooted in conservative legal circles. Today, only Congress can propose constitutional amendments—and Congress of course has little interest in proposing limits on its own power. Since the mid-19th century, no amendment has actually limited federal authority.

But what if a number of states, acting together, also could propose amendments? That has the potential to reinvigorate the states as a check on federal power. It could also return states to a more central policy-making role.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704304504574610120356499810.html

Congress Can Stop the KSM Trial
If the president will not reverse himself, Congress should.

By Michele Bachmann & Andrew C. McCarthy

There is no justifying the Obama administration’s decision to grant a civilian trial to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other 9/11 plotters who carried out the deadliest act of war ever committed on U.S. soil. The president must not grant the worst of war criminals the same constitutional rights enjoyed by the nearly 3,000 U.S. citizens they massacred on 9/11. If he won’t reconsider, Congress must act.

Beginning in the Revolutionary War, it has been recognized throughout our history that wartime enemies are not mere criminal defendants. When they commit provable war crimes, they are tried by military commission, a process that permits them fewer rights than a civilian trial while shielding more national-defense information from disclosure to the enemy.

As the Obama administration concedes, we are a nation at war. After the 9/11 atrocities, Congress overwhelmingly authorized the use of military force. In 2006, at the urging of the Supreme Court, Congress put the military-commission system originally ordered by President Bush on firm legislative footing. The Obama administration not only acknowledges the validity of this system, Attorney General Eric Holder has announced that the bombers of the U.S.S. Cole (who murdered 17 members of our Navy in October 2000) will be tried in it, even though this attack is the subject of a pending civilian indictment.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NTMzYmVmNjU1Mjk0ZTExNWVjYWU0N2ViMGEyNDBkYmI=

Human Event's Conservative of the Year is Vice President Cheney

White House blocks testimony by former top aide to First Lady

By: Byron York
Chief Political Correspondent
12/22/09 9:12 AM EST

The White House counsel's office has barred congressional investigators from interviewing Jackie Norris, former chief of staff for First Lady Michelle Obama, about events leading to the firing of AmeriCorps inspector general Gerald Walpin. Republican investigators from the House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform have wanted to question Norris since they learned earlier this month that she met with Alan Solomont, chairman of the Corporation for National and Community Service, the organization that oversees AmeriCorps, on June 9, the day before Walpin was summarily fired. Solomont was heavily involved in the Walpin dismissal.

News of the White House action comes in a letter to Norris from Rep. Darrell Issa, ranking Republican on the House committee. "Our request to meet with you was denied by [Corporation for National and Community Service] general counsel Frank Trinity," Issa wrote to Norris. "Mr. Trinity told my staff that the White House counsel's office has advised him that they were not permitting the Corporation to make you available for an interview." Issa wrote that the counsel's office further said it would "consider" the interview request and let Issa know its decision. But Issa added that, "It has been some time since we made our initial request to Mr. Trinity, and we have not heard from him or the White House counsel's office." Issa made the interview request on December 9.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/White-House-blocks-testimony-by-former-top-aide-to-First-Lady--79891752.html

Louisiana Purchase And Omaha Stakes

Posted 12/21/2009 07:04 PM ET

Politics: Sen. Mary Landrieu was the new "Louisiana Purchase." Sen. Ben Nelson got the federal government to pick up his state's future Medicaid tab. Maybe we should just put Senate votes up on eBay.

Nelson, the 60th vote in the middle-of-the-night Senate party line vote on health care reform, will go down in American political history as the inventor of the permanent earmark.

His seemingly principled stand against including federal funding for abortion evaporated like the morning dew as he decided to take what was behind door No. 1.

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=515933&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3a+EditorialRss+(Editorial+RSS)

Nelson Says More Senators Seeking Special Treatment in Light of Nebraska Deal

FOXNews.com

Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson, who has faced a heap of criticism for appearing to trade his vote on health care for millions in federal Medicaid money, said he's considering asking that the Nebraska deal be stripped from the bill. But he said other senators are looking for special treatment in light of his success.

Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson, after securing a sweetheart deal for his state as part of the health insurance reform bill, said Tuesday that three other senators have told him they want to bargain for the same kind of special treatment. 

"Three senators came up to me just now on the (Senate) floor, and said, 'Now we understand what you did. We'll be seeking this funding too'," Nelson said.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/12/22/nelson-says-senators-seeking-special-treatment-light-nebraska-deal/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foxnews%2Fpolitics+%28FOXNews.com+-+Politics%29

Exclusive: ACORN Qualifies for Funding in Senate Health Care Bill

Senator Roland Burris is claiming credit for a provision in Harry Reid's "manager's amendment," unveiled Saturday morning, that could funnel money to ACORN through the health care bill.

On December 9, Burris, an Illinois Democrat, pledged that he would filibuster a health care bill without a public option. "If we have to get 60 and it comes back and it does not have a public option in it, I will not vote for it," he said. Then early last week he said he could vote for the bill if there were changes made to achieve the goals of the public option: "until this bill addresses cost, competition, and accountability in a meaningful way—it will not win [my vote]."

Asked last night before the Senate voted why he was planning to support a bill without a public option, Burris said: "We have a great bill--the best we could get. And it also covers most of our concerns: competition, cost, and accountability." But had anything specifically changed in the text of the bill that helped him change his mind? Burris told THE WEEKLY STANDARD: "It was the disparity provision that was put in, which we had something to do with, in terms of making sure that diabetes and the other diseases that are affecting minorities are really studied by HHS in all of these pilot programs."

The provision he cites, found on pages 240 through 248 of the manager's amendment, requires that six different agencies each establish an “Office of Minority Health.” The agencies are the “Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Health Resources and Services Administration, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.”

...

According to a Senate legislative aide, the scandal-plagued Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now could qualify for grants under this provision. ACORN would also qualify for funding on page 150 of the underlying Reid bill, which says that "community and consumer-focused nonprofit groups" may receive grants to "conduct public education activities to raise awareness of the availability of qualified health plans."

http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2009/12/exclusive_acorn_qualifies_for_1.asp