Saturday, November 21, 2009

Reid (Probably) Has His 60   [Robert Costa]

How key Democrats are voting on tonight's cloture vote:

Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D., Ark.) —  Yes

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D., La.) — Yes

Sen. Ben Nelson (D., Neb.) — Yes

So, by 3 p.m., it looks like Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) has reached the 60-vote threshold he needs to approve the procedural motion that will move his health-care bill to the floor for a final debate. Having 60 also enables Reid to prevent a GOP filibuster on the motion to proceed.

Keep watching C-SPAN 2, and stay on The Corner of course, until 8 p.m. tonight. In politics, and especially in the fickle Senate, a lot can happen in a few hours.

11/21 03:09 PMShare

NRO: More Than Just Politics   [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

From a $100 NRO contributor:

If it wasn't for National Review, I would have spent my entire life without seeing Breaking Bad, Veronica Mars or 30 Rock. Nor would I ever have read John Macdonald. That's worth $100 at least.

Contribute to NRO here.

11/21 03:00 PMShare

Market discipline vs. mob discipline   [Nicole Gelinas]

Goldman Sachs has a new risk to manage: mob rage. News that the Wall Street firm has already set aside $16.7 billion for bonuses and other employee pay this year has provoked a visceral reaction.

Goldman has spent the past couple of weeks groping for a proper response to this anger. CEO Lloyd Blankfein has gone from saying that Goldman is “doing God's work” to saying that “we apologize” for an unspecified catch-all category of “things that were clearly wrong and [that we] have reason to regret.”

The firm also announced an initiative through which new politically powerful “partners” – including the National Federation of Independent Business and the National Urban League – will help it to direct $500 million to certain small businesses (at the likely expense of entrepreneurial start-ups without political backers).

And Goldman has once again cancelled its holiday party and even asked employees not to hold their own traditional at-home parties for workers in their divisions.

These efforts have only provoked more — and uglier — anger. “Blood money. A propitiation,” wrote a Wall Street Journal commenter in response to an article about the small-business initiative. A New York Times commenter agreed. Another Times commenter called it “a drop in the bloody bucket of GS profits.”

It would be comforting to dismiss such sentiments as extreme outliers. But the pop-culture verdict that Goldman is “a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money” has stuck. Wall Street itself seems to have uneasily settled for treating this disturbing imagery as a joke.

Many other critics, of course, do justly complain that it's not fair that the government has protected the investment firm from losses while allowing small businesses to fail.

Goldman itself has done nothing wrong, though. All it has done is to master a business that operates within a dysfunctional regulatory system. Washington does not allow for the marketplace credibly or consistently to discipline Wall Street firms, including Goldman. Goldman acts rationally within this irrational regime.

If people don't like it that Washington's 2008 bailout of AIG allowed Goldman to avoid billions of dollars in likely losses on AIG contracts, they should blame Washington, not Goldman. Goldman only got its share of what Washington's bailout menu had on offer.

If people don't like it that an implicit taxpayer “too big to fail” guarantee helps Goldman to pay billions of dollars in bonuses as unemployment rises, they should blame Washington, not Goldman. Goldman is a player, not a referee, and it cannot change the rules.

Should Goldman “give back” more, maybe give the feds back some of the money it got from the AIG rescue, as a sign of goodwill? No — because a market system that depends on goodwill is no system at all.

Washington must create a system in which the markets provide predictable, rules-based discipline of the vital financial industry. Without fair rules, as we see, popular opinion, including its dark side, will try to provide its own rough form of discipline. 

And as the fury at Goldman and Goldman's attempts to address it both show, this method uses a blunt instrument that misses its target and often does collateral damage — not good for the country economically or socially.

Nicole Gelinas, contributing editor at the Manhattan Institute's City Journal, is author of the forthcoming After The Fall, Saving Capitalism From Wall Street – and Washington.

11/21 02:58 PMShare

'One Democrat'   [Robert Costa]

Sen. Mike Johanns (R., Neb.) just led, along with GOP senators Sam Brownback (Kan.) and Orrin Hatch (Utah), the Senate floor debate on the abortion language in Sen. Harry Reid’s health-care bill. He tells NRO that his hope for “one Democrat to stand up for life” and vote against moving Reid’s bill to the floor are dimming this afternoon.

“I still hold out hope, but I must admit that it’s a fading hope,” says Johanns. “I hope that there may be one Democrat, even if they’re quiet now, to stand up tonight. It comes down to someone in their heart being pro-life.”

“If one Democrat were to stand up to Senator Reid, and say ‘I can’t support this,’ then Senator Reid would be forced to put the Stupak language in, since he needs every vote,” says Johanns. “There has never been a greater moment of leverage for pro-life Democrats. We still have a few hours before the vote. If it passes, and heads to the Senate floor, then our chances really don’t look good, since no one can count 60 pro-life senators.”

Keep calling your senators, urges Johanns. “We have to keep our energy up,” he says. But for now, he adds, the debate on the floor is “just terrible.”

“I’m shocked that in this kind of economic atmosphere that they want to push this,” he says.

11/21 02:57 PMShare

Gregg: The Real Costs Of ReidCare   [Robert Costa]

Sen. Judd Gregg (R., N.H.) on the Senate floor earlier today:

My colleagues on the other side of the aisle continue to claim this bill costs about $800 billion. That's the number they say has been reached as the expenditure on this bill. Ladies and gentlemen, that is a totally dishonest number. That is the ultimate shell game. That is Washington cynical politics. You know how they get to that number? Which is a ten-year number, by the way. How they get to this number of $800 billion as the cost of this bill, which, by the way, that's a lot of money, $800 billion. That would run the state of New Hampshire for, I don't know, probably 100 years. Literally almost 100 years.  It would run Missouri, a bigger state, for a while. Probably run Alabama for a little while, too. South Dakota could run for 200 years, for all I know.

It's a lot of money, $800 billion-plus. But that is not the cost of this bill. The way that number was arrived at was that they don't start spending money on this bill until the fourth or the fifth year. They couldn't get the score they wanted from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), so they changed the starting point. They moved back another year in the ten-year cycle. They went from four years to five years as to the starting point of most of the spending in this bill. What they claim to the American people is that a ten-year bill is going to cost about $800-plus billion.

What they don't tell the American people is they're not spending anything in the first four or five years of the bill. No. They do raise your taxes throughout the ten-year period. They do cut Medicare throughout the ten-year period. But they don't spend the money. They don't start the spending programs until the year 2014, when this bill is fully phased in, when all these new programs, these massive expansion of entitlements are created, these brand-new entitlements. When all this new spending occurs, this bill will cost $2.5 trillion over that ten-year period. $2.5 trillion. That's the real cost of this bill. That's how big this government is going to grow in a ten-year window as a result of this spending.

11/21 02:47 PMShare

Lincoln's Logic   [Robert Costa]

Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D., Ark.) on the Senate floor:

Although I don’t agree with everything in this bill, I have concluded that I believe it is more important that we begin this debate to improve our nation’s health care system for all Americans rather than just simply drop the issue and walk away.

11/21 02:46 PMShare

Johanns: Broder Not Some Irrelevant Retiree   [Robert Costa]

Sen. Mike Johanns (R., Neb.), fresh off the Senate floor, just gave NRO a call to defend Washington Post columnist David Broder, who earlier in the day was derided as a “man who has been retired for many years and writes a column once in awhile” by Senate majority leader Harry Reid.

What set off Reid’s comment: Senator minority leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) had cited a Broder column on health care, calling the longtime Post writer “a distinguished senior columnist.” Reid shot back that to focus on a Broder editorial is “not where we should be.”

“Why did [Reid] have to vilify Mr. Broder?” asks Johanns. “I’ve only met [Broder] here and there. We sometimes agree, we sometimes don’t. But I’ve always thought that he was thoughtful and a genuinely nice person.” Johanns adds that he often reads Broder’s twice-week-column and that Reid’s comments simply “drives me nuts.”

11/21 02:38 PMShare

Campaigning Against Lincoln   [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

The National Republican Senatorial Committee has this out now: 

Lincoln To Cast 60^th Vote For Obama’s $2.5 Trillion Government Health Care Takeover

.. 

“Blanche Lincoln’s vote tonight is unequivocally a vote in favor of President Obama’s $2.5 trillion government-run health care plan.

“Obviously the pressure from the left wing of her party finally got to Blanche Lincoln.  She not only reversed her previous statements that a government-run plan was too costly, but she completely ignored the increasing unemployment rate in her state and the growing national deficit when she announced that she will cast the 60^th vote in favor of President Obama’s costly health care plan tonight.

“There’s no doubt that this vote will be a critical issue for Senator Lincoln as she embarks on her uphill re-election bid, and the people of Arkansas will have an opportunity to hold her accountable when they cast their ballots next November.”

11/21 02:38 PMShare

Saturday Afternoon Live   [Robert Costa]

Sen. Al Franken (D., Minn.) just finished a long and winding speech on the Senate floor. Even Harry Reid had more enthusiasm. It's a shame that Franken has lost that ol' SNL spark, at least in his style. Then again, Stuart Smalley was never really that entertaining.

11/21 02:18 PMShare

How To Pay For All This   [Andrew Stuttaford]

From the Economist:

Americans are stuck with a budgetary conundrum: they seem to be opting for more government, at least in health care, yet they do not seem prepared to pay for it. Their leaders have indulged this fantasy. Mr Obama has foolishly sworn off higher taxes on 95% of households, and Republicans will not countenance them for anybody. This newspaper strongly prefers small government and low taxes, but if Americans are to have bigger government and a sustainable budget, tax revenues will have to rise.

The Economist is correct to suggest that Americans appear for now, despite the best efforts of the tea party crowd, still to be opting for permanently (I wouldn’t include some of today’s crisis arrangements in that calculation) bigger government in their future. As the paper’s writer suggests, that’s a bad mistake. And maybe one day we will have a GOP capable of making a coherent-and believable-case for a smaller, less intrusive, less expensive state. Given that that smaller, less intrusive, less expensive state does not appear to be on the agenda just yet, the Economist is right to ask how Obama’s Leviathan will be paid for.

Raising tax revenue will hurt less if the tax system becomes more supportive of economic growth in the process. Compared with other countries, America taxes consumption too little and income too much. Redressing this imbalance could, with time, help economic growth. First, broaden the income-tax base by eliminating exemptions, and if possible cutting rates. Second, introduce a carbon tax, the least distorting way to slow the growth in emissions. If that is not possible, sell rather than give away carbon-emission permits, or raise the federal fuel tax. A last resort is a broad consumption tax, such as a value-added tax. This is economically efficient, but could too easily become a politically convenient way to vacuum up more money and expand government.

It’s worth adding that those general prescriptions could and should apply no less to the funding of a much smaller government – with a fairly major caveat so far as carbon-emission permits are concerned. While (despite the recent-most entertaining-revelations coming out of the UK) a simple precautionary environmentalism of doubt ought to argue for some pricing mechanism for carbon emissions, the scope that such regimes offer for political manipulation make them too untrustworthy to be tried. Better by far to embark on a series of transparent and gradual increases in the federal fuel tax – something that would have obvious advantages for American security policy as well.

11/21 02:04 PMShare

Science Supports Donating to NRO   [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

From a $50 NRO contributor:

I'm a theoretical physicist, and I very often read NRO surreptitiously during dull string theory seminars or interminable astronomical data discussions. And of course, as an academic, and one living in Canada no less, I *need* you guys to keep me informed about what's really going on back home. Thanks for all you do!

Contribute to NRO here.

11/21 02:00 PMShare

Hearing Blanche Lincoln Will Be on the Floor Soon ....    [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

UPDATE: She's voting with her party.

11/21 02:00 PMShare

'This bill will radically expand abortion. And I can't live with that.'   [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

Nebraska senator Mike Johanns just referred to this procedural vote tonight as one of the most important pro-life votes most senators will cast. He pointed out that based on senatorial history, the vote tonight suggests final passage. "This vote tonight on the life issue is very well determinative," he said. 

He pointed to the reality that after this point, the bill is unlikely to be made better on life in the Senate (well, or anywhere). "It will take sixty votes to amend. I wish I could count sixty pro-life senators .... but ... they're aren't sixty here."

Speaking of the unborn, Johanns said, "these truly are our most vulnerable citizens" and implored "just one Democrat" to be as "courageous" as, he said, the Democrats who insisted on Stupak in the Senate were. 

11/21 01:55 PMShare

The Senate Mood   [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

A senior aide told me this morning: "Time and truth travel together. The longer we can spend on this bill, the more time we allow for the truth to catch up to it. Here's hoping we get the time we need."

11/21 01:39 PMShare

Louisiana Purchase   [Robert Costa]

“No other member of the Senate could have accomplished what he will accomplish today.” — Sen. Mary Landrieu (D., La.) on Harry Reid.

11/21 01:27 PMShare

I Confess   [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

listening to Orrin Hatch explain that a woman has the right to pay for an elective abortion in the United States does give me the chills.

11/21 01:20 PMShare

Serving the World's Poor   [John Derbyshire]

Good grief! — the New York Times has used the phrase "illegal immigrants"!  In a headline!  On the front page!!

The story itself bears reading. Illegal immigrants facing kidney failure need regular dialysis treatments costing $50,000 a year.

And so they turned to Grady [Memorial Hospital in Atlanta], a taxpayer-supported safety-net hospital that would provide dialysis to anyone in need, even illegal immigrants with no insurance or ability to pay …

On Oct. 4 … the strapped public hospital closed its outpatient dialysis clinic, leaving 51 patients — almost all illegal immigrants — in a life-or-death limbo.

For Grady, which has served Atlanta's poor for 117 years, it was an excruciating choice, a stark reflection of what happens when the country's inadequate health care system confronts its defective immigration policy.

It doesn't seem fair to use "taxpayer-supported" Grady's inability to service all the world's poor as reflecting "inadequacies" in our health-care system. And while one naturally has sympathy for these unfortunate patients, it also seems unfair to privilege them over the hundreds of millions of other people around the world who can't afford U.S.-quality health care.

If you take the point of view — a reasonable one, I think — that: "Yes, but they're here and we must do something for them," here's a humane suggestion. Ship them back to their home countries along with some dialysis machines. Without all the high overhead costs of U.S. health care, the home countries could probably treat these people much more cheaply.

11/21 01:17 PMShare

Congressional Candidate Announces for New Hampshire's 'Fightin' Double Zero'    [Jack Fowler]

Today, Grant Bosse announced his candidacy for Congress in New Hampshire phantom 00 Congressional District.  Here are his remarks as prepared for delivery:

Earlier this week, we reported that Recovery.gov, the federal government’s $84 million website set up to monitor the $787 billion stimulus package, was so riddled with errors that it showed that New Hampshire had four new Congressional Districts.

One of the districts, the Double-Zero…The Fightin’ Double-Zero…actually had 2,800 jobs credited to it under the stimulus.

And despite this massive job creation in the Double-Zero, despite the tremendous amount of tax dollars going to this previously unknown district, the people of the Double-Zero are without a voice in Congress. Well, that’s unacceptable.

Today, I am announcing the start of my campaign for Congress in New Hampshire Double-Zero District!

The Double-Zero is a magical land. A mythical land. And place that only exists in the buggy databases of DC bureaucrats. In fact, just a few days after finding out that the Double-Zero had created all those stimulus jobs, the bureaucrats at Recovery.gov took them away.

Well, I’m outraged. If we can’t trust the job numbers from a website designed to make Congressional spending look good, what can we trust?

11/21 01:15 PMShare

Is Pride A Virtue?   [Robert Costa]

“Proud to have asked for it, proud to have fought for it . . . It’s not the reason I’m moving toward debate.” — Sen. Mary Landrieu (D., La.) speaking on the Senate floor about asking Harry Reid for millions of Medicaid dollars. She also called out "right-wing bloggers." Hmm.

Remember, it was ABC News that first called Landrieu's vote the "$100 million vote," not us.

11/21 01:05 PMShare

re: The Broder Strategy   [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

Amazingly, Mitch McConnell can quote NPR to make his case, too!

11/21 01:04 PMShare

Exceptional as a Rule   [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

From a $500 NRO contributor:

National Review and NRO are invaluable. Thank you for defending (and demonstrating!) American Exceptionalism. Keep fighting the good fight.

Contribute to NRO here.

11/21 01:00 PMShare

The $100 Million Vote   [Robert Costa]

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D., La.) will vote ‘yes’ to move the health-care bill forward tonight, but still says she has many concerns to address before agreeing to vote ‘yes’ on the final vote, should the debate on the bill move to the floor as expected.

$100 million only gets you so much, Senator Reid. "Much work still to be done," says Landrieu. Read Brian Blase's great take on this backroom maneuver here.

Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) told me on Thursday that Landrieu's deal with Reid to vote 'yes' on cloture raises a lot of red flags. Read more about his concerns here.

11/21 01:00 PMShare

re: Surprise, Surprise   [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

NRO readers get results! A $20 contributor to our Fund Drive wrote a little earlier:  

Keep up the good work.  NRO & NRODT are my islands of sanity.  I wish I could give more.  One day I will.  

I've sent emails today to Senators Landrieu and Lincoln asking nicely that they vote against bringing Mr. Reid's bill to the floor for debate.  I urge all other NRO readers to do the same.

I read the Corner daily and look forward to Krauthammer's Take...

11/21 12:54 PMShare

She's On A Book Tour, But   [Robert Costa]

Sarah Palin is still tweeting about the health-care debate:

@SarahPalinUSA: Senate healthcare takeover debate begins in an hour. Pls call senators if u care about another 1/6th of our economy swallowed up by Big Govt

@SarahPalinUSA: Thot I'd stick w tour news on Twitter but can't help digress: Call senators! Tell 'em KILL THE BILL tonite;horrible govt healthcare takeover

11/21 12:52 PMShare

Surprise, Surprise: Landrieu A 'Yes'   [Robert Costa]

From Senate Democrats (@DemWarRoom) on Twitter:

Sen Landrieu will vote yes to allow debate on the #hcr bill

11/21 12:45 PMShare

Weekend At Bernie's   [Robert Costa]

Earlier today: "Move over Bernie Madoff," said Sen. Christopher Bond (R., Mo.). "Tip your hat to a trillion-dollar scam."

11/21 12:36 PMShare

Holy War   [Robert Costa]

To put ReidCare in perspective, here's what Sen. David Vitter said on the Senate floor about the CBO's score of $848 billion over ten years: “If someone started spending a million dollars a day since the day Jesus Christ was born it still wouldn’t be as much as this figure.”

11/21 12:32 PMShare

Senator Muggle   [Robert Costa]

Sen. Sheldon Whithouse (D., R.I.) just said on the Senate floor that Reid's bill, when you look at its substance, is about the size of "a Harry Potter novel." If his daughter can read those books, says Whitehouse, then the Senate GOP should be able to thumb though Reid's bill.

Hey, if the Democrats want to compare their bill to popular fiction, fine by me. If I were J.K. Rowling, however, I'd be offended.

11/21 12:26 PMShare

Crapo: Read The Bill   [NRO Staff]

From The Hill:

On the day of the Senate’s first vote on healthcare reform legislation, Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) used the GOP’s weekly address to urge people to read the 2,074-page bill before forming an opinion.

“Read the bill” has become a Republican rallying cry throughout the healthcare debate. Several GOP lawmakers have picked through previous versions of the bill, finding passages and provisions to which they object. House Republicans even set up a healthcare reading room before the lower chamber voted on its bill two weeks ago.

“You’re going to hear a lot about this bill. That’s why I encourage you to read the bill yourself and form your own opinion,” Crapo said. “Take a close look at how the bill is funded and who and what it covers and doesn’t cover and how it may impact you and your family. It’s a real eye-opener!”

Crapo also reiterated plenty of Republican objections to the healthcare bill before encouraging Americans to read it. He said that the bill will increase federal spending, drive up healthcare costs, cut Medicare benefits and engender an intrusive government intervention into people’s healthcare plans.

11/21 12:17 PMShare

Watch The Senate Debate Live   [Robert Costa]

Via C-SPAN 2, here.

11/21 12:14 PMShare

Afternoon Delight   [Robert Costa]

Sen. John Thune (R., S.D.), chair of the Republican Policy Committee, just gave a solid speech on the Senate floor. The best way to increase health-care coverage, he says, is to focus on jobs. Sen. David Vitter (R., La.) followed, with much of the same — adding that the bill would lead to billions in new taxes.

The Democrats will now have the floor for the next hour. Come 1 p.m., the Senate GOP will be back, and plans to shift from focusing on the fiscal impact of Reid's bill to a discussion on its abortion language.

11/21 12:10 PMShare

NRO LOL   [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

From a $50 NRO contributor:

I love you guys. You make me talk to the screen so as to worry onlookers and passersby. Occasionally laugh too, maniacally. Keep it coming.

PS: I am holding Jonah to his campaign promises.

Contribute to NRO here.

11/21 12:00 PMShare

How Do You Solve A Problem Like ReidCare?   [Robert Costa]

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.) just quoted “Something Good,“ a little-known song from “The Sound of Music,” in his floor speech. “Nothing comes from nothing,” said Sessions, with a bit of whimsy.

To put the line in its proper political context, we must quote at least part of the song's lyrics:

Nothing comes from nothing
Nothing ever could
So somewhere in my youth or childhood
I must have done something good

A bit corny? Perhaps. Still, his point is spot-on: The Democrats want to create a new entitlement from money we don’t have.

11/21 11:35 AMShare

Re: Get This Woman To The Senate   [Mark Steyn]

Kathryn, one of the funniest (in a mordant - ie, death-panel - kinda way) glimpses of socialized health care is Denys Arquand's Oscar-winner from a couple of years back, Barbarian Invasions (Les Invasions Barbares). If you're looking for popcorn and a movie to go with your Harry Reid this weekend, you'll love the opening: An old socialist professor (il s'appelle  Remy, but in the course of the movie no doctor ever calls him the right name) is being "treated" for cancer in a Montreal hospital, and the camera weaves its way to his bed through an endless maze of corridors clogged with patients lying on gurneys hooked up to tubes snaking their way back down the hallways to wherever the overflow started. It looks like a Victorian workhouse in the middle of a war zone, but it's not: It's business as usual.

Remy's son contacts an old friend, now a doctor. Like many (most?) Québécois doctors, he’s now working in America, at a hospital in Baltimore that could help with the diagnosis if the chaps in Montreal were able to e-mail them a scan. No can do. The only machine in the province that can perform the scan is 90 minutes away in Sherbrooke and there’s a six-to-twelve month waiting list, by which time they’ll have to dig Remy up to do it. That's the wait time for the scan, not the diagnosis, never mind the treatment.

His son decides to get it done down south, and the moment when the ailing socialist glimpses the Vermont border post and croaks in an ironic accent "God bless America" is like something out of a medical version of The Great Escape.

Full disclosure: One of my dearest friends, as we say in showbusiness, is in the movie. But M Arquand is a Québécois leftie of impeccable credentials, and the movie even has a cheap Bush joke, so your liberal pals won't be able to dismiss it as redneck scaremongering. (The film is a sequel to Le déclin de l'empire américain, another title that seems oddly apt this particular weekend.)

For non-Oscar-winning entertainment from Canadian health care, go here and click on the "Two Women" video.

11/21 11:29 AMShare

Centennial   [Robert Costa]

Sen. Judd Gregg's opening point, to offer his own big-picture take: $800 billion could run his home state of New Hampshire for 100 years.

11/21 11:24 AMShare

Bond, Kit Bond   [Robert Costa]

Sen. Kit Bond (R., Mo.) on the floor:

“It’s the economy, stupid . . . the majority doesn’t seem to be paying attention . . .  The bill before us is the crowning achievement of the drive to destroy our economy and our future . . . Instead of debating how to create jobs, we’re debating a bill that will takeover one-sixth of our economy and probably kill jobs.”

Plus this gem:

“We’re like a mosquito in a nudist colony — so many targets, we don’t know who to hit.”

11/21 11:13 AMShare

Cynicism   [Robert Costa]

Sen. Judd Gregg (R., Vt.) just gave a barnburner of a speech to lead off the GOP debate. He calls Reid’s bill a “shell game” and focused on what he says is the real cost of Obamacare: $2.5 trillion, a number he calls “unsustainable.” The numbers presented by the Democrats are “uniquely cynical,” he adds.

11/21 11:04 AMShare

The Next Hour   [Robert Costa]

From 11:00 a.m. till noon, the Senate GOP will have the floor. Staffers tell us that their speeches will focus on the debt and the consequences of the government taking over health care. The GOP speakers: Sen. Judd Gregg, Sen. John Thune, Sen. Kit Bond, Sen. Jeff Sessions, and Sen. David Vitter.

11/21 11:00 AMShare

NR: It Runs in the Family   [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

From a $50 NRO contributor:

You got me . . . a long time subscriber to NRODT thanks to my grandmother who bought my older brother a subscription and he in turn bought one for me. I decided that as a principled conservative I can no longer feed at the NRO trough while others pay for the services I gain benefit from . . . wonder if our country will come around to that as well? Thanks for all you do...

Contribute to NRO here.

11/21 11:00 AMShare

Fight!   [Jay Nordlinger]

In an Off the Page spot, Will Cain and I discuss the term “teabagger”: what to do about it. In other words, should conservatives fight this term, adopt it and wear it proudly, sort of ignore it, or what? I don’t claim that my mailbag is a scientific survey of conservative opinion. I am not some Rasmussen sittin’ here in his PJs. But I will report to you: Conservatives, if my mail is any indication, are in a mood to fight, big-time. Teabagger-schmeabagger.

I’ll report more later . . .

11/21 10:49 AMShare

Chatter   [Robert Costa]

Arguments offered from Democrats on the Senate floor this morning:

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D., Vt.) — Cites the late Teddy Kennedy, speaks about his legacy, calls this a "moral" issue
Sen. Michael Bennet (D., Col.) — Says this cloture vote is about finishing the dream of the Baby Boom generation
Sen. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.) — Calls our private health system “inhumane,” says we need a “different system”

11/21 10:49 AMShare

. . . and an All-You-Can-Eat Salad Bar   [Jay Nordlinger]

I was reading Mark Steyn, always one of the happiest things in life to do, and I thought of something when reading this line: “[Khalid Sheikh Mohammed had] been brought before a military commission, and last December indicated he was ready to plead guilty, and itching for the express lane to the 72 virgins.”

This reminded me of something a public official once told me, something that has tickled my funnybone — in a perverse way — since: Islamofascist suicide-bombers believe “you get a free ticket to the big whorehouse in the sky: 72 virgins and an all-you-can-eat salad bar.”

Something about that “all-you-can-eat salad bar” just tickles me. I also think of the line, “and a player to be named later.”

11/21 10:41 AMShare

Get This Woman to the Senate   [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

I'm sitting on an Amtrak train listening to a woman explaining why her sister in Canada comes the the U.S. for all her medical procedures. "So it's not just Europe with the long lines?" The man across from her asked. No, this is what happens when the government tries to run health care. "Like other things in life, there is really no quick fix."

11/21 10:37 AMShare

Why Orwell Matters   [Robert Costa]

“Orwellian!” — that’s how Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) is describing McConnell’s speech. The GOP leader, he says, “is living in a different world than everyone else. For him to lecture the Senate on debt is really beyond the pale.”

Why, Senator Reid, why?

Bush and Iraq, of course. “It’s not only that war, but other actions of the Bush administration,” says Reid. Plus, he adds, the Broder column cited by McConnell is irrelevant. “That’s not where we should be,” says Reid, listening to some writer who’s “retired or writes once in awhile.”

So Reid doesn’t read Broder? Surely he reads Steyn then, right?

11/21 10:16 AMShare

The GOP Line   [Robert Costa]

"Higher taxes, higher premiums, and cuts in Medicare." That's what will happen if you vote for Reid's cloture vote tonight, says Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.). If you support moving the bill to the floor, it's a vote that simply "can't be explained to constituents," he adds.

McConnell is continuing to explain why a cloture 'yea' is just as bad as a 'yea' on the final vote, should it ever get there. With Democratic moderates prepared to give Reid his 60 votes tonight, McConnell knows that he has to make this procedural vote matter — if you light the match, you're responsible for the fire.

11/21 10:05 AMShare

Maybe There's an Eighth Person Who Would Want One. . .   [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

From a $100 NRO contributor:

Geez, fellas, I gave seven gift subs already, and you're still guilt trippin me. You guys are good.

Contribute to NRO here.

11/21 10:00 AMShare

The Broder Strategy   [Robert Costa]

The cloture debate on ReidCare just began in the U.S. Senate. Minority leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) is speaking. His speech is interesting — instead of just listing his complaints, he's using a new David S. Broder column from the Washington Post as his guide. Broder, McConnell notes, is no conservative.

Here's part of the column cited by McConnell:

The day after the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) gave its qualified blessing to the version of health reform produced by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Quinnipiac University poll of a national cross section of voters reported its latest results.

This poll may not be as famous as some others, but I know the care and professionalism of the people who run it, and one question was particularly interesting to me.

It read: "President Obama has pledged that health insurance reform will not add to our federal budget deficit over the next decade. Do you think that President Obama will be able to keep his promise or do you think that any health care plan that Congress passes and President Obama signs will add to the federal budget deficit?"

The answer: Less than one-fifth of the voters — 19 percent of the sample — think he will keep his word. Nine of 10 Republicans and eight of 10 independents said that whatever passes will add to the torrent of red ink. By a margin of four to three, even Democrats agreed this is likely.

11/21 09:57 AMShare

Palin on Reid 'In the Midnight Hour'   [Jack Fowler]

The Senate is set to vote Saturday night, right before the holiday, on a motion to proceed on its latest health care government take-over bill. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is pushing for yet another weekend vote (commonplace now for the party of “transparency”) because he knows that the American people will be none too happy about the Democrats’ proposal the longer they have to look it over. 

A vote against the Democrats’ motion will help stop Obamacare before it gets any closer to becoming a reality. While this Saturday night vote might seem like a procedural matter, at the end of the day a vote against Senator Reid’s motion is a vote against massive new government spending and a take-over of 1/6th of the U.S. economy; it’s a vote against billions in tax increases and penalties; it’s a vote against federal funding of abortion; and it’s a vote against ignoring responsible tort reform.

And in case you hadn’t heard – just a reminder that you’ll start paying higher taxes to fund this scheme in 2010 even though it doesn’t start up until 2014. Only in Washington does that make any sense. Among the provisions in this bill will be a $2500 cap on Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs). The IRS allows families with special needs children to use FSAs to cover educational expenses. This new $2500 cap will hit these families especially hard and cost them hundreds of dollars in new taxes every year.

 

Contact your senators and tell them to vote against the motion to proceed tomorrow night. The American people don’t support this – we support the commonsense solutions that have been proposed, but totally ignored by (at this point) some out-of-control Washington politicians. Let’s put a stop to Obamacare before it goes any further.

11/21 09:48 AMShare

From the Belly of the Beast   [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

From a $100 NRO contributor:

I'm in the belly of the beast, two blocks away from the president's home in Hyde Park. Thanks, NRO, for making a University of Chicago student's life a little more sane, even as Mr. Obama and Congress seem hell-bent on destroying everything that Milton Friedman and the Chicago School once stood for.

Contribute to NRO here.

11/21 09:00 AMShare

Open a Bible, Learn Stuff   [Mike Potemra]

Last week, I poked some innocent fun at the idea of The American Patriot’s Bible: The Word of God and the Shaping of America. I have been looking at a copy of it, and am pleased to discover it’s not as bad as I had feared. I did, however, catch a typo in the actual Bible text (Daniel 5:27); I’ve had my hands on countless Bibles over the years, and you’d be surprised how rare typos in the Biblical text have become. (Gone for good are the days of the “Wicked Bible” of 1631, which inadvertently left out the word “not” in “Thou shalt not commit adultery.”)

And I learned something from this Patriot’s Bible that I was amazed that I had never heard before. A note in the text of Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians reads: “Bill Clinton placed his hand on Galatians 6:8 as he took the presidential oath of office in 1993.” Galatians 6:8 reads: “For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.” Now, I’m no Clinton hater, and I’m not going for a cheap putdown of the 42nd president here, but come on: a warning about “flesh” and “corruption” in Minute One of his presidency? A comic novelist would be faulted for making that up. (Was it perhaps intentional — i.e., that Clinton recognized the specific weaknesses to which he was prone and that could get his presidency in serious trouble, and was therefore wise enough to ask God’s help against them?)

11/21 03:02 AMShare