WaEx: "Down in the polls, Dems at war with themselves"

Michael Barone analyzes the current political climate in the Democrat camp in today's Washington Examiner ... and he's finding things aren't so cozy on the left side of the aisle:

... the real civil war this year is going on in the Democratic Party -- and it is going largely unreported.

The intraparty civil war is happening within Democrat circles everywhere with primaries occurring in Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Missoui, Oklahoma, and Hawaii. Democrats, surveying the damage from the big-spending, over-reaching Obama White House, are trying to figure out how to correct the misguidedness of their Party. Mr. Barone says it well in his opinion column.

Federal government responds to Virginia's lawsuit over health care

The federal government has responded to Atty. General Ken Cuccinelli's office regarding the lawsuit filed by Virginia concerning the health care bill.

They made a motion to dismiss it. No surprise there.

AG Cuccinelli reacted to the news:

“We are still looking through the motion and 39-page brief that we received late Monday, but at initial glance, this is pretty close to what we expected."

The federal government's reasons for dismissing the lawsuit included:

- that as of matter of jurisdiction and procedure, Virginia has no right to bring this case now;

- that Congress has the authority under the Constitution’s Commerce Clause to order Americans to buy health insurance;

- that the health insurance mandate is lawful under the taxing power of Congress.

The AG has until June 7 to respond, and the federal government has until June 22 to reply.

From today's news release:

“The federal government is forcing citizens to buy health insurance, claiming it has the authority to do so because of its power to regulate interstate commerce via the Constitution’s Commerce Clause. We contend that if a person decides not to buy health insurance, that person – by definition – is not engaging in commerce, and should not be subject to a federal mandate,” said Cuccinelli.

Cuccinelli argued, “Just being alive is not interstate commerce. If it were, there would be no limit to the Commerce Clause and to Congress’s authority to regulate everything we do. If Congress has the power to force Americans to buy health insurance, then there’s nothing to stop Congress from forcing us to buy any product.”

In March, Virginia enacted the Virginia Health Care Freedom Act, which provides that the government cannot require Virginians to buy health insurance. It was passed by an overwhelming bipartisan majority in the General Assembly (90 to 3 in the House and 25 to 15 in the Senate), and had the support of Governor Bob McDonnell.

The federal health care law, with its insurance mandate, creates a conflict of laws between the federal government and Virginia. Since the attorney general of Virginia has a duty to defend validly enacted Virginia laws from any challenge, he filed suit in federal court seeking a declaration that the Virginia Health Care Freedom Act is constitutional and that Congress exceeded its constitutional authority by imposing the individual mandate.

The U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause usually allows federal law to trump state law. But if a federal law is found unconstitutional while a conflicting state law is found constitutional, the state law will prevail.

The attorney general has offered support in the form of shared research to the other 19 states suing over the health care bill in Florida, but Virginia has not joined that case because of the direct conflict between Virginia’s law and the federal law. Virginia has chosen to defend a Virginia statute in a federal court in Virginia.

The other duties of the attorney general’s office will continue as normal during this case. No attorneys have been taken off any other sections, such as public safety, consumer protection, or Medicaid fraud, to work on this lawsuit.

The case is the Commonwealth of Virginia v. Kathleen Sebelius. It is in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Richmond.

NOTE: AUDIO and VIDEO clips from the attorney general’s announcement will be available online Tuesday at 8:30 am EDT for download at http://www.vaag.com/PRESS_RELEASES/index.html. You can find a copy of the federal government’s response there, as well.

Previous news releases on the case, as well as the text of Virginia’s lawsuit, can be found at http://www.vaag.com/PRESS_RELEASES/index.html

THYME Magazine ... "The bill we had to pass to know what's in it"

What a bitter pill for America ... ObamaCare ... the bill we had to pass to know what's in it.

Americans are outraged and rightly so. Many Democrats now have buyers remorse. Bob looks into it in the latest issue of "THYME Magazine ... Citizen Journalism with a Better Flavor"

If we cannot expect our elected representatives to read the fine print, why have we hired them to do the job? That includes Jim Webb and Mark Warner, U.S. Senators who, in my opinion, sold out the citizens of Virginia. It's time for better representation.

Government health care nightmare

The stories of health care nightmares have come from Great Britain and Canada, and we've all heard of people who have come to the United States for surgery and patient care far superior to that in their own countries.

Tom White exposes an English woman's nightmare fighting cancer within their health care system. Unbelievable and, as he asks, signs of things to come in America?

Pelosi: Pass something ... anything! ... to have government controlled health care

The words have been read by many and, still, it is incredulous to realize the stupidity behind them. As David Freddoso reported in Wednesday's Washington Examiner, Democrats were determined government controlled health care had to be passed no matter what:

"[W]e have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it," said Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., as she rushed headlong toward passing President Obama's health care reform bill.

Now that the bill has been jammed down an unwilling American public's throats, the details are -- surprise! -- coming to light. As Mr. Freddoso wrote:

The predictable result: Weeks after it became law, we're still finding out what's in it, just like the speaker said.

Would you believe that Obamacare contains a tax increase on the sick and the old?

That in their rush to save face and pass a bill, members of Congress might have accidentally left themselves and staffers without a health plan?

That Obamacare does nothing to stop the huge premium increases that Obama pointed at to justify his bill?

It's maddening how predictable the Democrats are. Read the entire article here for full details about the three new surprises in the health care bill.

Support grows for repeal of health care bill

The poll numbers tell the tale:

Three weeks after Congress passed its new national health care plan, support for repeal of the measure has risen four points to 58%. That includes 50% of U.S. voters who strongly favor repeal.

Before its passage, a majority of Americans were against the health care bill. After Democrats ignored voters and jammed it through Congress, Rasmussen's numbers reveal that a majority of Americans now favor repeal:

Eighty-eight percent (88%) of Republicans and 54% of voters not affiliated with either major party favor repeal. Sixty-one percent (61%) of Democrats are opposed. Republican support for repeal is up eight points from a week ago, while Democratic opposition is down seven.

Ninety-four percent (94%) of those who consider themselves part of the Tea Party movement favor repealing the health care bill.

So far Americans appear to be holding firm on their desire to do away with the financial backbreaker that overreaches into their lives. Perhaps their anger at being ignored by Democrats will be seen at the ballot box this November.

Stupak retiring?

Word coming out of Michigan this morning is that Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) will announce at a 12:30 pm news conference that he is not seeking reelection. It would appear that Barack Obama's government health care reform bill has claimed another victim....

Open letter to Sen. Jim Webb

This letter is reprinted with permission of the author. See Senator Webb's comments here.

Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Senator Webb,

I read a news story that indicated that you are having second thoughts about the cost of the Health Care bill after you were the deciding 60th vote that imposed this outrageous and unconstitutional bill on your constituents. Maybe it would have been better to express these doubts before you cast your “yea” vote in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve. I know that you received thousands of calls and e-mails from Virginians who pleaded with you to oppose this bill. Now you expect us to believe that you have doubts about your vote. I can guarantee you that your concerns fall on deaf ears, just as our pleas were ignored by you.

If you believe that we will forget in 2012 what you did in 2009 you are sadly mistaken. We will work tirelessly to do whatever it takes to insure that you never have another opportunity to ignore us again. Nothing you can say or do will put out this fire, millions of Virginians will oppose your re-election and you WILL be defeated. You wanted us to believe that you were a different type of politician but you proved with this vote that you do not represent the people you only represent your party. You should have listened to Virginians; it is too late now. Save your crocodile tears for your memoirs. Maybe a few people who read them will believe you.

You have switched parties twice before and now you want to switch your vote on this bill. Just where do you stand on anything? I have the utmost respect for your military service, but I have absolutely zero respect for you as a Senator. Hopefully after November you will be in the minority and can no longer have the deciding vote on legislation that is this absurd. You have proven with this vote that you are unfit to represent the people of Virginia.

Lawrence Tillett
Waynesboro, Va.

ObamaCare: redistribution of wealth

So was ObamaCare about health care ... or more about redistribution of wealth in America Byron York wrote in the Washington Examiner:

It hasn't attracted much notice, but recently some prominent advocates of Obamacare have spoken more frankly than ever before about why they supported a national health care makeover. It wasn't just about making insurance more affordable. It wasn't just about bending the cost curve. It wasn't just about cutting the federal deficit. It was about redistributing wealth.

Health reform is "an income shift," Democratic Sen. Max Baucus said on March 25. "It is a shift, a leveling, to help lower income, middle income Americans."

Obama joked after the bill was signed that no cracks showed up in the earth ... no meteors fell from the sky ... giving the impression that those opposed were fear-mongers.

The reality is worse but it will take years for its complete impact to be known. Meanwhile, we continue to morph into an entitlement nation, as shown by the Democratic National Committee:

This week the DNC group Organizing for America offered a commemorative certificate to supporters who helped pass the health care bill. The certificate said, "We achieved the dream of generations -- high-quality, affordable health care is no longer the privilege of a few, but the right of all."

The privilege of a few? It is widely accepted that about 85 percent of all Americans have health care coverage, and the overwhelming majority are happy with it. There's simply no way anyone could plausibly claim that health coverage is the privilege of a few.

I still maintain that health care is a privilege, not a right. Democrats think otherwise.

And Americans, asleep at the wheel for years, have allowed this creeping socialism to invade in little bits and pieces. What has happened to our country is the fault of all. The question is ... is it too late to turn back?

Time will tell.

Jim Gilmore: "Financial catastrophe for the U.S."

Jim Gilmore over at The Patriot has a post, Financial catastrophe for the United States, that discusses the impact of Barack Obama's massive socialized medicine "reform" bill. He begins:

The passage of the Health Care Bill continues to dig the American public deeper into a financial hole. No matter how it is characterized, this is a vast new entitlement program, with no limits on the cost to the taxpayers of the future. Today our economic system is breaking under the weight of Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security, the entitlement society. The national debt and deficits show that we cannot go on with this welfare state. This new health bill “doubles down” on the financial problems that we must solve to restore the future of our nation.

Read it all as he explains that the only way out of this financial abyss is for Americans to once again find their independent streaks and stand on their own two feet. Good read.

Obama, Congress, staff exempted from ObamaCare

My grandmother used to say, "If it's good for the goose, it's good for the gander." Seems that would be true of mandatory health care that was forced on Americans, and the exemption of Barack Obama, Congress, and staffers.

If we have to swallow this bitter pill, so should they.

Meanwhile, Donald Douglas at American Power shows that Barack Obama is excluded from ObamaCare complete with links to other bloggers' thoughts. Talk about hypocrisy....

Do you feel as if you've been had?

Health care: Do not despair ... this is not 1935

Neil Stevens at Red State hit the nail on the head: This time it's different:

Social Security: Passed in 1935. Republicans take House and Senate in 1947, 12 years later.

Medicare and Medicaid: Passed in 1965. Republicans take Senate in 1981, 16 years later.

Obamacare: Passed in 2010. Republicans take House in 2011, one year (9 months, actually) later?

There’s just no comparison. We can fight back before much of it even takes effect, not over a decade later when the benefits are entrenched. No excuses. No pessimism. Fight and win, politically.

As I noted yesterday, this is a different day and age. This is the computer age. Americans are not isolated in rural areas or mountain hollows as they were in the 1930s, away from communication with the outside world. News these days is instantaneous and scrutinized to the nth degree.

And word of fraud spreads quickly. All the back room deals will eventually come out ... the millions (billions?) of dollars spent to buy Democrat votes. Republicans have been left out in the cold. Taxpayers have been mugged.

Americans are on top of this issue which is why it took Congress so long to pass an issue they thought would be finished a year ago.

And while many were blue on Sunday, watching the Democrat steam roller crush Americans, they rebounded on Monday determined to continue the fight which will, as noted by Mr. Stevens, take place a mere nine months from now when a conservative tsunami sweeps over the country, removing Democrats from office.

Will the legacy of Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid be that they passed health care reform ... or will it be that they began the destruction of the Democrat Party?

Time will tell.

"Hope & change" ... had enough?

Great article by Scott at Powerline with links to others:

The repeal of Obamacare is the organizing principle around which we must rally to put us on a path toward the restoration of limited government. David Hogberg usefully itemizes 20 ways Obamacare will take away our freedoms. We seek to rescue limited constitutional government from the maws of national socialism into which Obama and Obama's Democrats have inserted us.

As Professor Paul Rahe asks, "Hope and change: Had enough?"

H/T to Dick

Video: Congressman Eric Cantor on House floor

The Republican Whip for the House of Representatives, Congressman Eric Cantor (R-VA 7th CD), spoke passionately against mandatory government health care on the House floor Sunday evening.

H/T to Virginia Right!

ObamaCare thoughts from the conservative blogosphere ... Dems will pay on Nov. 2

Where to begin on the day after Democrats crushed the Constitution to jam mandatory government-run health care down the throats of every man, woman, and child in America? After the Boston Tea Party, England didn't listen. What came next?

Norm at Tertium Quids reminds us that today is the anniversary of the Stamp Act, something we Virginia school children learned in our Virginia history classes, when the British Parliament passed a law on tax stamps. Most colonists thought they would have to buy the tax stamps even though they were unhappy with it ... until that Virginia patriot Patrick Henry came out with the Tax Act Resolves saying no taxes would be paid unless passed by the House of Burgesses. "Virginia Governor Fauquier did not approve of the resolutions, and he dissolved the House of Burgesses in response to their passage." Sound familiar? Attention, Democrats: Ignore the majority of the people at your own peril....

Tom White's News Hound over at Virginia Right! is following the health care fallout and adds his own post, "Time to reform health care reform."

The American Spectator says, "Rush Was Right" when he advised Republicans not to attend the health care summit with Barack Obama.

Brian at Snapped Shot says, "The tempest cometh" and adds, "November 2nd will be The Reckoning."

Fishersville Mike notes the Cuccinelli promise to sue the federal government and says, "Just being alive is not interstate commerce."

The Liberty Voice picked up on my post, "So this is how democracy dies" and includes that portion of the Star Wars video.

Cato at DelMarVa Dealings posts, "Cuccinelli to file suit against ObamaCare."

Yankee Phil wisely notes, "A Scout is trustworthy, Stupak is not."

Brian Kirwin at Bearing Drift writes, "Health care driven by liberal democrat ego."

Fishersville Mike writes, "For those who think Glenn Beck is paranoid."

Bob at The Journey has the latest issue of THYME Magazine ... Citizen Journalism with a Better Flavor.


Pat from And so it goes in Shreveport has a good roundup and writes, "And now we fight."

Do not despair. Yesterday the Democrats won a battle ... we are still fighting the war.

Pelosi, Democrats taunt anti-health care bill crowd

Talk about a fake photo op and hoping to create drama: Nancy Pelosi and lawmakers walked through the crowd of anti-health care protesters outside the Capitol Sunday instead of walking through the tunnels they normally use underground from office buildings to the Capitol.

Yesterday's complaints from Democrat lawmakers ring hollow also because they, too, did not have to be in the midst of protesters.

A compliant mainstream media plays right along with the Democrats in the final hours leading up to the possible passage of mandatory socialized government health care.

Protesters are outside the Capitol again today shouting "Kill the Bill," and one reporter said he had not seen one single pro-health care protester this weekend.

See the tanking poll numbers for Obama, Reid, and Congress.

More photos from DC ... thousands of Americans protested massive government overreaching on health care

The sleeping giant is awake. Thousands of Americans converged on Capital Hill Saturday to protest the Democrat socialized health care bill.

These photographs just in from Washington, D.C. where tens of thousands of people turned out en masse to protest Congress's efforts to pass this government-run healthcare monstrosity - and protestors surrounding Capitol Hill shouting "Kill The Bill!"

See the photographs - CLICK HERE!

We're going to watch and see what Congress does now. They've heard from the American people. The polls show the public opposes this attempt to have the government take over our nation's healthcare system. The phones have been tied up with people calling in to oppose the bill. Emails and letters and FAXes opposing the bill number well into the millions.

And we have gathered in front of the Capitol - the People's Capitol - several times now to make our message heard.

If they defy the American people, defy our Constitution, and push this bill through, then we will make sure they lose their seats in Congress. That is exactly what the "Tea Party Express III: Just Vote Them Out" national tour and the "Showdown in Searchlight" are all about.

Members of Congress: Should you choose to defy your boss - which is "We The People" - then expect that as a consequence you will be fired.

--From Tea Party Express

Photo by Tea Party Express

Saturday in DC: 30,000 protested socialized health care

Today, over 30,000 grassroots Americans - folks just like you - descended on the Capitol for one final rally before the expected House vote tomorrow (Sunday). You would have been proud.

CLICK HERE TO SEE PHOTOS

One lady told me she boarded one of our AFP buses at 2:00 a.m. today in Asheville, N.C. in order to get to the rally and then go inside to see her blue-dog Democrat Congressman, Heath Shuler. We later found out that after personally meeting with our members, Shuler would be voting no!

I stood on the stage with a Waco, Texas tea party activist, Toby Marie Walker, who had given up yet another day of her life away from family and work to "send these politicians one final message." And, I talked with Stella Lohmann from Atlanta, GA who told me that "there's no quit in us." She's right.

As members of Congress went into the Capitol for votes, they were confronted by our thousands of activists telling them to "kill this bill" and "keep your hands off my health care."

To give you a feel for the arrogance going on inside the Capitol, Democratic Congressman Alcee Hastings (Fla.) actually said the following in a committee meeting which was debating just how the final health care takeover bill will look and how it will come to the floor of the House: "There ain't no rules here, we're trying to accomplish something...All this talk about rules...When the deal goes down...we make 'em up as we go along."

That's the kind of crass political wheeling-and-dealing you and I face as we try to fight and defeat this bill. But, fighting we are. Remember that NovemberIsComing.com petition I told you about? Well, in just over 2 days over 274,000 Americans have signed the petition telling their member of Congress that if you vote YES on the health care takeover now, then I'm voting NO on you in November.

The phone lines inside the House offices were ringing non-stop with your calls today. I know literally hundreds of thousands of emails are pouring into their offices. Click here to call or click here to email your member of Congress today.

As I spoke to the crowd today I could not help noticing in the sea of people a family just to the left of the stage. The grandfather, I assume, was wearing a baseball cap that read "Korean War Vet" and he was holding the hand of a young girl, 7 or 8, who held a small American flag in her other hand. The mom was waving a handmade sign that read "Health care takeover? Not on my watch." Two teenage boys were slapping high fives with each other right behind her with what had to be their dad standing beside them. He was waving a sign that read "From San Diego with love ... unless you pass this bill." Three generations of one family - all the way across the country for one reason: to take a stand at a time when we face a huge challenge.

Trust me, win or lose tomorrow - and I still think we're going to win - with folks like I saw today, we're going to win in the long run if we keep up the fight.

Tim Phillips, President
Americans for Prosperity

Photo by AFP

2 bus loads from Shenandoah Valley go to DC to protest socialized health care

Early Saturday morning buses left Staunton, headed up the Valley to Harrisonburg, and then had one last stop in Strausburg before continuing on to Washington, DC, carrying Americans who object to socialized health care.

Over 100 Valley residents spent the day outside and inside the Capitol, making a final plea with Democrats who are determined to wreck America's economy and force mandatory health care on every man, woman, and child in what is supposed to be a free country. Those who traveled to DC included Republicans, Tea Party Patriots, Independents, Democrats, Constitution Party, Ron Paul supporters, and others.

The pleas are falling on deaf ears as Democrats and Barack Obama arrogantly refuse to listen to the majority of Americans who are against forced health care.

This is not about health care. It's about power ... and Barack Obama is determined to make his legacy. A man who was revered during his campaign ... is turning out to be despised by many in America. Some legacy.

Fox News has continuing coverage Saturday and Sunday.

"Read the Bill" marathon finished after 54 hours & 28 minutes

The "Read the Bill" marathon, an around-the-clock reading out loud of the 2,407-page health care bill, was completed Friday afternoon.

A statistical breakdown of the marathon:

• Pages: 2,407
• Time: 2 days, 6 hours, 28 minutes, 32 seconds
• Readers: 110 volunteers, 5 staffers
• Longest shift: 1 hour, 15 min
• Longest pause: 2 minutes, for a computer crash
• Volunteer computers crashed by size of the bill: 6
• Unique IP addresses connected: 5,000+

Volunteer readers called in from every area code in Virginia. Congratulations to the staff of the Republican Party of Virginia for lining up volunteers, staying in the office 24 hours a day since Wednesday, sleeping on air mattresses, and pitching in as needed.

Now ... did all members of Congress also read the bill? If so, how long did it take them to do so?