Speaking to approximately 10,000 activists, bloggers and other citizens tonight on an Americans For Prosperity Tele-Townhall, 3rd ranking House Republican Mike Pence said the Democrat majority continues to do everything they can to muster the votes to pass the Senate bill, previously passed by the Senate on Christmas Eve. Pence added that it's doubtful most, if any fixes would be forthcoming from the Senate due to Senate rules and procedures.
Echoing Obama, but without the emphasis or yelling, Pence stated, "Now is the time, this is the moment" to do whatever you can to defeat this bill if you oppose it. His key suggestion was to continue to pressure wavering Democrats.
If the Senate bill passes the House, Pence expects Obama to sign it as a last resort in being able to claim passage of universal health care coverage for America. That despite the bills many problems, including higher costs, lost jobs, and a cash stream for health care plans that cover elective abortion for the first time in America's history. That reality buried in the bill is contrary to the widely popular view that taxpayer dollars should not be used to support elective abortions.
In case you've forgotten, here is what is claimed by some to be the ten worst elements of the Senate bill, along with the now infamous backroom deals Harry Reid used to secure votes in the Senate. Americans will be forced to purchase insurance, or be subject to a fine, taxes will go up, as will the size of government, small businesses will see heavy burdens many can't meet, along with it being only the first-step in a government takeover of the entire health care industry.
If the Senate bill isn't stopped in the House over the next two weeks, there's every reason to believe these stipulations and more will become the law of the land.
1) Spends Way Too Much: $2.5 trillion over the first ten years that the plan is fully implemented
2) Raises Taxes During a Recession: Hikes taxes $493 billion with new levies on so-called “Cadillac” plans, a new Medicare payroll tax on higher-income earners, and taxes on health insurance and drug manufacturing companies, which are sure to be passed on consumers in the form of higher premiums
3) Individual Mandate: Requires individuals to carry health insurance or exacts a fine up to $750
4) Business Burdens: taxes employers with more than 50 full-time workers if they are not offered insurance. CBO estimates employers would opt to drop as many as 5 million workers from private insurance, and pay the fine instead of maintaining current coverage
5) Huge Medicaid Expansion: an estimated 40 percent expansion of the entitlement program would greatly increase costs for government and taxpayers. States would be forced to manage the increased load. However, the federal government would pick up a large share of the new cost
6) Insurance Companies can still Limit Benefits: Although one of the prime reasons for this entire effort was to force insurance companies to live up to their commitments, the Senate bill would only ban lifetime-benefit caps. Insurance companies can still invoke yearly limits that will have essentially the same effect
7) Bad for Seniors: Cuts $120 billion from Medicare Advantage, which CBO says will result in fewer seniors with access to vision, dental and flu shots. Ultimately, up to 2.6 million seniors could lose their Medicare Advantage coverage
More Bureaucracy: Creates comparative effectiveness panels, a Medicare Advisory Board and a Health Care Commissioner, all of whom would be responsible for oversight of the greatly-expanded government role in health care and invoking rationing in attempts to contain cost
9) Doesn’t Tackle Tort Reform: Despite the president’s commitment to lower medical liability costs, the bill only contains a “Sense of Senate” provision, with no real reforms that could save up to $54 billion over ten years
10) Auto-Enrollment: Businesses with more than 200 workers will be required to automatically enroll employees in health coverage
#7 just reminded me of something. In the face of all those billions in cuts to seniors' Medicare Advantage plus all the surreptitious mechanisms built into this bill for rationing medical treatment to seniors in the future in favor of granting full access to health care to all illegal aliens, it's awfully interesting that we haven't heard from the folks at AARP lately. In fact we've hardly heard a peep from them since the public discovered that AARP's unelected 'leadership' had a massive vested financial interest in sending their own allegedly valued members to their early graves though the passage of ObamaCon.
I'm thinking AARP must have lost a lot more business than they've admitted to so far and their bottom line (& their personal bonuses) must have sustained a substantial hit for them to be so conspicuously quiet now. Could it be that AARP's become an advocacy group with no one left to advocate for except the people collecting a paycheck at their headquarters?
Posted by: leilani | Wednesday, March 10, 2010 at 11:25 PM