| -- But Obama does not yet have the 60 votes he needs
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Well, there’s good news and bad news.
If you’ve been listening to the media, you know the bad news. Senators voted the Baucus version of the ObamaCare bill out the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday, and the legislation now moves to the Senate floor.
So what’s the good news? President Obama still doesn’t have the 60 votes he needs to overcome a filibuster of his nationalized health care bill.
In brief, the Baucus bill which passed out of committee will hurt you in several ways:
* You will have less money for buying firearms and ammunition. Hopefully, you have $25,900 that you don’t know what to do with -- every year. Because that’s how much the Baucus bill is going to cost an average family of four to pay for a government-mandated ObamaCare policy every year.
That’s right... $25,900 every year! That will be your cost, according to a Price Waterhouse study of the Baucus legislation. You will be required to purchase this ObamaCare policy and pay this amount under penalty of law under Baucus’ bill. (Go to http://www.politico.com/static/PPM116_pwc2.html to read the Price Waterhouse study.)
* Anti-gun medical database that can be used to deny your right to purchase firearms. As GOA has warned for several months, the ObamaCare legislation will pump your medical information into the medical database that was created under the stimulus bill earlier this year.
The federal government has already used medical diagnoses (such as PTSD) to deny more than 150,000 military veterans the right to own guns -- without their being convicted of a crime or receiving any due process of law. So don’t be surprised if socialized ObamaCare results in your medical information being used to infringe upon your Second Amendment rights.
* Discrimination against gun owners. ObamaCare legislation in Congress will very likely empower anti-gun bureaucrats to deny medical reimbursements to individuals who engage in supposedly “dangerous” activities, like hunting or keeping loaded weapons for self-defense. As GOA pointed out in an earlier alert, this type of discrimination against gun owners has already occurred in the homeowner insurance industry. (See documented examples of this at http://gunowners.org/op0231.htm.)
Bottom line: Don’t be surprised if an Obama-prescribed policy precludes reimbursement of any kind in a household which keeps a loaded firearm for self-defense.
Sleazy politics: it’s worse than watching sausage-making
In order to get a somewhat positive financial analysis from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) kept the details of his health care rationing scheme secret. He did this by providing the CBO an outline of the legislation, rather than providing real legislative language.
In fact, at the hour that the Senate Finance Committee was being forced to vote on the Baucus bill, the legislative language was still not available! So the Senate Finance Committee voted on a bill that will take over one-sixth of the American economy without even seeing specific legislative language.
Otto von Bismarck, the first Chancellor of the German Empire, used to say that, “Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made.”
That’s still true today. In order to get this sleazy effort to the Senate floor without anyone knowing what is in the legislative language, the Senate leadership has developed a really contemptible scheme:
* They will take a totally unrelated piece of legislation -- perhaps a bill that deals with AIG bonus legislation -- and then amend it with a thousand-page health bill that no one, to this date, has been able to read.
* The Republicans will filibuster this attempt to vote on “secret legislation” -- requiring the Democrats to muster 60 votes. If Democrats are successful in doing so, many of them will be free to vote against the health care bill on final passage, since only 51 votes will be needed for the final passage vote. These switch-hitting Democrats would then be free to tell their constituents that they “opposed” the anti-gun socialized medicine bill because they voted against it on “final passage” -- a nearly irrelevant vote that only requires the assent of 51 senators.
But make no mistake: The REALLY IMPORTANT VOTE is the one that requires 60 votes. That’s the vote to end the filibuster (or “invoke cloture”) on the motion to proceed to the secret bill.
At this point, it is not clear that Obama has the 60 votes necessary to overcome a filibuster. Already, one Democrat, Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, has announced he is opposed to the Baucus plan.
And Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa indicated recently that there may be one more Democrat who is leaning against the bill.
That’s why it’s IMPERATIVE that you contact both of your senators. Don’t think: “Oh, my Senator is a Democrat and he’s going to support the President.” We can’t afford to think that way. All we need to do is pick off one more Democrat Senator and this bill is dead!
At the same time, we need to make sure all the Republicans vote against this anti-gun monstrosity. Even with liberal Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine defecting, it is still possible to win the war over this legislation.
ACTION: Contact your two U.S. Senators. Let them know of your disgust for the Baucus bill, and urge them to vote against cloture on the motion to proceed to a “secret” composite bill crafted behind closed doors.
You can use the Gun Owners Legislative Action Center to send your senators the pre-written e-mail message below.
----- Pre-written letter -----
Dear Senator:
This may come as a surprise to you. But most Americans can’t afford $25,900 a year to pay for health insurance under the sleazy bill passed out of the Senate Finance Committee.
According to a Price Waterhouse study, by 2019, the cost of the average family’s government-mandated Obama-drafted health insurance policy -- which I would be required to purchase under penalty of law -- would be $25,900 A YEAR. This is a much bigger increase in premiums than if Congress did nothing.
Furthermore, the Congressional Budget Office agrees that premiums would climb faster under the Baucus bill than if Congress did nothing.
Incidentally, please do not try to tell me that the “fines” for not purchasing an ObamaPolicy have been reduced and that I can’t be sent to prison. This is largely a lie.
An ordinary family would pay $1,500 in fines when the bill fully kicks in. And, while an amendment added by Senator Charles Schumer says you can’t be sent to prison if you can’t afford the policy, it does NOT say you can’t be sent to prison if you can’t afford the fine.
The next step will be a motion to proceed to a bill which would implement a government takeover of a sixth of the American economy -- and put the government in charge of making decisions over whether my family and me live or die.
That motion to proceed will be made at a point when there is no CBO score based on legislation -- and possibly no legislative language at all.
I would urge you, in the strongest terms, to vote against that motion to proceed -- particularly if there is not a final CBO score BASED ON LEGISLATIVE LANGUAGE.
Please do not vote wrong on this crucial cloture vote -- and then expect that you can trick me by voting “no” on a meaningless final passage vote which only requires 50 senators.
Sincerely,
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