It looks like the Democrats are going ahead with taking the health care bill to a reconciliation vote. They claimed on Thursday that they couldn’t strike a compromise on rules in terms of abortion (read: the government will pay for abortions) and gambling that they can secure the votes necessary to turn this legislation into law, with the vote taking place presumably some time next week.

Of course, the decidedly left-leaning Democraps (typo intentional) are targeting the centrists (Blue Dog Democrats and moderate Republicans), with the preferred method of convincing being the twisting of arms and rumored offering of jobs and aid to the states of the undecided representatives.

Regardless of the methods, there is a lot at stake here.

Firstly, the president’s call to expand health care to about 30 million uninsured Americans and to prohibit insurance company practices such as denying coverage to individuals who have pre-existing conditions.

And without a doubt, the vast majority of us would be affected by the current piece of legislation, which would change the way we receive and pay for health care, from the most basic checkup to the most expensive, lifesaving medical treatment. And what is probably the most disturbing part of this piece of crap? Americans, should this be signed into law, would be required by law to purchase health coverage.

And that, folks, is in my humble opinion unconstitutional. A power grab by the federal government, namely the Obama administration.

Oh, by the way, there will be taxes that will be hiked in order to finance this scheme. One that is beng proposed is a new excise tax, beginning in 2018, which would levy a tax on employer-provided health care plans worth more than $10,200 for individuals and $27,500 for families.

When the voting day comes around, you can almost rest assured that the Republicans will use every legal tactic available to them to delay the passage of the Democratic package, even if they cannot successfully kill it.

What is certain is this. There are Democrats who are sittin on their hands making this decision as they realize that their political careers ride on the vote that they cast on this health care legislation. How they vote will speak volumes into their character of the representatives who vote as much as it says about Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, co-ringmasters of the health care agenda.

Is government-ran health care around the corner? If you want this legislation to die a certain death both in the House and Senate, do yourself a favor – contact the representatives who represent your district and voice your displeasure.

If you choose not to, they will intrepret that as indifference (hell, the Democrats are doing that already) and voter accordingly.

Washington truly has a different idea about spending. If it were you or me, and we really wanted something, we’d save for it. If we “needed” it now, we might put the purchase on a credit card, and then pay off the balance. But Washington is like those who have gotten into so much credit card debt, that they can’t come up for air.

The spending affected both parties. We’ve seen it over the last ten years. Republicans forgot what they stood for, and Democrats… well… they just did what they always did. That’s a dangerous combination. Fortunately, as Obama and the Democrats continue spending us into bankruptcy, some Republicans are seeing the light. It’s time to get serious about spending, and a Constitutional amendment may be the only option that will work.

Investors.com notes that GOP Reps. Jeb Hensarling of Texas, Mike Pence of Indiana and John Campbell of California “have proposed a Spending Limit Amendment to the Constitution that would restrain the federal government to the average expenditures of the post-World War II era — 20% of the U.S. economy.” The editorial states that this move should be welcomed by those in the Tea Party movement who distrust Washington politicians and abhor the runaway spending.

As noted in the editorial, “the idea comes from no less than Thomas Jefferson. In 1798, the Declaration’s author wrote: ‘I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution. I would be willing to depend on that alone for the reduction of the administration of our government.’”

Here’s what Hensarling and Pence had to say about their proposal:

The amendment would limit “total outlays” to “one-fifth of the economic output” of the U.S. The limit could be overridden by a two-thirds vote in the House and Senate.

In an article first published in the Wall Street Journal and now available on the Hensarling website, Pence and Hensarling note that in five years, “federal spending has skyrocketed to 24.7% from 19.9% of our economy.”

Unfortunately, the long-term fiscal picture is worse. As the Baby Boom generation retires and the cost of health care continues to escalate, entitlement programs will cause federal spending to rise to 40% of our economy, double its post-World War II average. This is assuming that spending does not increase even further, an assumption that the trillion-dollar “stimulus” bill and the 84% increase in nondefense discretionary spending President Obama signed into law argues against.

The situation is dire, but don’t take our word for it. “U.S. fiscal policy is on an unsustainable path to an extent that cannot be solved by minor tinkering,” Congressional Budget Office Director Doug Elmendorf said recently. Former Comptroller General David Walker called the rising costs of government entitlements a “fiscal cancer” that threaten “catastrophic consequences for our country.”

We MUST cut spending. Period. Hensarling and Pence note that the Democrats could not simply tax their way out of the spending gap, as “taxes would have to double.” In addition, we can’t simply grow our way out of the problem. Since we have built up so much debt and are spending too much, “it would take double-digit economic growth every year for the next 75 years in order to close the fiscal gap.”

Pence and Hensarling use a classic Winston Churchill quote that is one of my favorites: “Americans can always be trusted to do the right thing, once all other possibilities have been exhausted.”

So… it’s time to do the right thing. It’s past time! We’ve let Washington politicians have their way for too long, and the country is paying the price. If they can’t be trusted to be fiscally sound and responsible, then they must be treated like the children they are and given hard and fast rules. That seems to be the only way they will listen.

An arrogant ObamaCare Plan details new taxes, cuts in Medicare and government regulations, crippling and obstructing the “bipartisan healthcare reform summit” on Feb. 25th signaling that the Democrats are not serious about starting over and including Republican ideas in their plans?

Offering nothing new, the scheme defrauds America with a plan that repackages the same approach already taken by the U.S. Senate. A scheme that Americans have already rejected in the latest Rasmussen Poll – as 56% Oppose ObamaCare.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) cannot even score the latest ObamaCare scheme because it lacks enough detail to do so. The White House claims that the scheme will save $100 billion over 10 years and $1 trillion over 20 years is refuted by the Wall Street Journal that estimates the bill will cost $950 billion over 10 years. To balance out Obama’s scheme a tax increase of more that $1,000,000,000 is needed in the next 10 years.

Obama has lied again arrogantly introducing massive healthcare tax increases on every American earning less than $250,000/yr.

Democrats will shove ObamaCare down every Americans throat like it or not, it will happen and Obama is pushing it through and it must be stopped.

White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer said. “We took our best shot at bridging the differences.” He then indicated that the White House is open to the Democrats using a parliamentary tool called “reconciliation” to pass the bill without 60 votes in the Senate, saying that the president’s proposal is designed for “maximum flexibility” so that it could be attached to a budget bill as a way of averting a Republican filibuster.

Every person will be hurt with increased costs of an out of control Government Run Health Care bureaucracy taking over private insurance with Federal regulations. The scheme completely ignores and does not include Republican proposals for a series of modest changes to bring down costs and improve coverage, including tort reform and new freedoms for insurance companies to sell their policies across state lines.

A record number of Americans are out of work and ObamaCare funding is more than $1 Trillion short and cannot be paid for without new taxes.

Obama and the Democrats in Congress are taking money out of our pockets with more than a dozen new taxes created by the bill. These would add up quickly for families:

Pelosi said, “We (Liberal Democrats) will go through the gate,” “If the gate is closed, we will go over the fence. If the fence is too high, we will pole vault in. If that doesn’t work, we will parachute in. But we are going to get health care reform passed for the American people for their own…” (I think the word that Queen Nancy was grasping for was “good”).

But guess what, folks? It doesn’t have to be this way at all.

What needs to be done here is to contact your local representative(s) and President Obama, voicing your displeasure over what they (the Democrats and Obama) have in mind. By the way, here are the numbers:

202-456-1111 (White House switchboard)

202-456-1414 (Congressional switchboard)

The representatives who are involved in this legislation realize that their jobs are on the line here, so a phone call to them will, at the very least, get a response and preferably get some changes in the voting on the Democratic side.

The sooner you contact them, the more effective it will be as time is short as this healthcare bill recently introduced by the President will come up for a vote soon. Consider this a “call to arms.”

The White House has apparently drawn the line in the sand, with this message to the GOP: Filibuster healthcare reform and we’ll (the Democrats) proceed ahead without you and do this on our own through “reconciliation”.

That obviously raises the stakes as the Dems are basically daring the Republicans to try and block any healthcare reform.

White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer said that no decision has been made on how to proceed, pending the outcome of the summit, but he did add that President Obama’s proposal is “designed to offer maximum flexibility to ensure that we can get an up or down vote if the opposition decides  to take the extraordinary step of filibustering health reform.”

That folks is codespeak for the Democraps moving on their own.

Speaking of the proposal, here’s some of the details, courtesy of The Plum Line:

• As expected, the plan has no public option — but this does not preclude a reconciliation vote on the public option later.
• The proposal boosts the threshold for the “Cadillac” tax on the most expensive health plans from $23,000 for a family plan to $27,500. That’s actually a better deal than some labor officials were expecting, though some House Dems will still be angry that the tax is being included at all.
• The proposal also preserves the Senate bill’s state-based exchanges, and does not have a national exchange, as the House bill did.
• However, House Dems will be cheered by the fact that Obama’s compromise closes the Medicare prescription drug “donut hole” coverage gap.
• Also, the bill nixes Ben Nelson’s Nebraska deal and boosts Federal financing for Medicaid expansion in all states.
• And finally, as expected, Obama’s proposal creates a Federal panel to monitor and block exorbitant rate hikes and other unfair practices by the insurance industry.

Pfeiffer further stated that the proposal in question was not an agreement between the House and Senate, but is “the President’s bill”.

So if I understand this correctly, the Democrats, including Obama, are telling the Republicans to either accept this proposal or else, with the else being reconciliation.

Assuming this is the case, then this is yet another “dog-and-pony” show, but with a twist. This is supposed to be on television, so I am betting that the Dems are betting that the GOP will not say no to this proposal in front of a potentially large TV viewing audience.

But what the Republicans have been doing and has been noted on the Internet and in news bits on cable TV can easily be done on television, as well.

In essence, this is that “trap” meeting that had been rumored for this summit. The Dems have the condescending mindset that the GOP and the American public doesn’t have a clue in terms of healthcare reform and that they know more.

I am of the hope that when this summit is televised on Thursday, the GOP puts their foot down and expose this proposal for what it really is: a derivative of old healthcare reform that the Democrats have tried to cram down our throats.

Thursday will be an interesting day indeed, and I hope that those of you who read the Republican Temple can find some time in your day to watch the summit. This will be your chance to watch the Dems in action.

This is the ultimate game of “Chicken”; someone will blink inevitably.

By the way, if you want to see the White House proposal, click here.

I think that we all knew that the Democrats were and are capable of doing anything in terms of the health care bill. The American public has voiced their displeasure about the current health care legislation, yet the Democrats have this disregard about what we, the citizens of the United States of America, want.

But that has never stopped the lefties before and it isn’t stopping them right now, either.

Apparently, the Democratic Party, and especially President Obama, have a trick up their sleeves. Specifically, Obama is working on health care legislation that is intended to reconcile differences between House and Senate Democrats that could possibly be attached to a budget bill, and most importantly to the Democrats, attempt to avoid a Republican filibuster. Administration officials say that the president’s proposal will be on the Internet by Monday morning.

Piggybacking the legislation is the Democrats’ way of not allowing Republican input in terms of this potential legislation; all that is needed is a mere 51 votes, a simple majority.

Obama’s plan would expand coverage to 30 million people, require Americans to carry health insurance or face steep financial penalties and stop insurers from denying coverage due to pre-existing health conditions. However, the abortion issue is unclear as of this post.

What’s interesting about all of this is that Obama, in the past, has said that he is open to Republicans’ ideas for changing the health care system. Yet, the GOP has been basically shut out of providing input in closed-door meetings.  A dog-and-pony show, if you will.

Depending on the meeting that is scheduled to take place nest week some time, the Democrats have three options available to them:

• Pass a greatly diluted version of the health care bill
• Pass nothing at all.
• Use “reconciliation”.

Passing the highly-diluted bill and/or nothing at all would bring negative consequences to the Democrats, as polls have indicated that the American public is unhappy with health care in its current state.

And reconciliation will send the message to all of us that the Democrats have no qualms about passage of a health care bill that will not benefot the vast majority of Americans. Also factor in that Obama wanting to mandate that all Americans have health insurance or else is at best, ill-advised, or at worst un-Constitutional. In other words, it isn’t the Congress or Obama’s place to dictate to us whether we should purchase health insurance or not. The Democrats have to realize that there’s a thing called “freedom of choice” available to all of us, whether the Democrats like it or not.

Another important thing about Obama’s legislation: the cost. It is estimated to cost around $1 trillion over ten years. My question is this: how will it be paid for? Short answer from the Democrats – out of our pockets, in the form of tax increases to the middle-class and Medicare cuts.

I implore the Republicans to attend this meeting, if for anything else, to find out that the Democrats, especially Obama, have no intention of cobbling together a bipartisan health care bill that is palatable to everyone concerned. And expect the Demcorats to use the “reconciliation” card. A scare tactic, so to speak.

Folks, as usual, our work is nowhere near complete. I implore the readers of The Republican Temple to either email, write or call theior representatives in their districts – or do all three. The flood of correspondence will most definitely get their attention; if it doesn’t, then they can very easily be voted out of office in November. It’s that simple.

And that’s your “call to arms.”

One would think that the Democrats, ever since President Obama stumped unsuccessfully for certain gubernatorial and senatorial candidates, would have taken a lesson from those losses and rethink their strategy. And that’s not counting the retirement announcement by Indiana senator Even Bayh yesterday.

What they are doing instead brings the possibility of the GOP making some inroads as the mid-term elections are 8 1/2 months away.

Obama, once again, is putting his teleprompter skills and popularity – or lack thereof – on the line as he’s going to make a Western road trip, with one of his stops being Nevada. His stop there is big, since that’s where Harry Reid calls home. Obama is also going to Colorado on Thursday to try and revive the flagging fortunes of Senator Michael Bennet, who’s trailing both Republicans vying for his seat.

Thursday also will find Obama in Las Vegas at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser, with Friday finding him at events in the city with Reid.

The Obama road trip looms large for both parties, as the Dems are vulnerable in a few states (North Dakota, Delaware, Nevada, Arkansas and Pennsylvania) while five others are up for grabs (Colorado, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana and New York).

It is speculative as of right now to predict how the Obama road trip will pan out, but I suspect that the people who attend these events in both Nevada and Colorado will be none too pleased when the President arrives. And can you blame them? Even Obama’s gift of gab can’t save the senators who are up for re-election in November.

Look at Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts. That should tell you everything you need to know about the candidates and more importantly, Obama.

As if the Democrats needed their Senate majority to shrink even further, apparently, that is the case as Evan Bayh, senator from Indiana, has decided to not seek re-election this November.

What that does obviously is a blow the Republicans a golden opportunity to take a Senate seat in a year when Democrats are already defending several open Senate seats.

It also changes things due to Dan Coats being the favorite to challenge Bayh in November, not to mention that a Democratic source has said that Bayh, in recent polling, was way ahead of Coats. But keep in mind that with “Democratic sources”, this polling may not be as accurate as the sources say.

The Indianapolis Star published prepared remarks by Bayh, in which he said that he was confident in his chances to get re-elected, but discouraged that his work in the Senate by excessive partisanship.

The Democrats have their hands full since the impending retirements of Chris Dodd and Byron Dorgan, which were announced in January, along with open seats in Delaware and Illinois.

At the same time, the GOP has some seats to try and fill as incumbents in Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, New Hampshire and Ohio are retiring. But the Democrats seem to be the more vulnerable party with these developments.

Depending on who the Republicans slate as the candidates in the aforementioned states, it is their chance to retake not only seats where incumbents are retiring, but can take over the seats that will be vacated by Dodd and Dorgan, along with the other states.

The GOP cannot under any circumstances take this opportunity for granted. They need to slate candidates who are Constitutionalist in theory, and have the people’s best interest at heart.

They have 8 months to get it right, otherwise, the Democrats will find a way to reclaim these seats.