More broken promises as Senate Finance shoots down transparency on healthcare bill

Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of Health and Human Services, says she got a seasonal flu shot. According to Sen. John Kyl (R-Ariz.), Sebelius issued a gag order about healthcare legislation. This effectively bars the public and members of Congress from being able to analyze and research the bill, or to answer constituents' questions.Democrats in Congress are running like a pack of donkeys set loose on a corn field, and the latest consequence of panic over healthcare reform occurred when the Senate Finance Committee rejected on Wednesday, along party lines, a transparency measure introduced by Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) that would give Americans 72 hours to review the text of the Baucus healthcare reform bill before it is voted on by the panel.

NO TIME FOR PUBLIC OR CONGRESS TO READ THE FINAL BILL
U.S. Senate Republican Whip Jon Kyl (Ariz.), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, supported the measure and made the following statement: “For an issue as important as reforming the nation’s health-care system, surely we can wait a matter of three days so the American people can take a look at what we’re doing and if they really want us to approve it…At some point, this bill will be melded, behind closed doors, with another health-care reform bill produced in the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee. I doubt I’ll be part of that process, so my constituents aren’t going to have any representation in that room. That is not transparency, and that’s what gets the American people up in arms!”

If the final product created primarily by Democrats approximates the length of HR3200, an earlier bill put forth by the House, there will be more than 1,000 pages in the healthcare bill.

Kyl summed up the attitude of Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and others who hold the power. Kyl said, regarding the lack of transparency, “This is the argument that supporters of that process make: ‘It would be confusing for the American people to see exactly what this committee is voting on after all this time and to know how much it will cost because some unknown group of people is then going to take this product, go into a back room, and combine it with the HELP bill.’ Then, voila, we’re going to be expected to discuss the new bill immediately. Our constituents are going to ask, what on earth happened?”

Members who vote on the legislation will have little time to read the bill, research its consequences and explain provisions and changes to constituents. Baucus refused to stop interrupting Kyl when the Arizona senator attempted to put forth an argument about what Kyl told Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren was an “important amendment.”

BILL MAY CONTRIBUTE TO RECORD U.S. DEFICIT
As if that isn’t troubling enough, Kyl said Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the Dept. of Health and Human Services, appears to have issued a gag order, effectively barring anyone in Congress from discussing the bill with constituents. Kyl said, “What she has done as the secretary of Health and Human Services and therefore with jurisdiction over something called CMS, which is the entity that controls Medicare and Medicaid, what they have done is to send a letter to all the insurance companies and say we cannot write to your beneficiaries and tell them what is in this legislation pending before Congress and suggest that they might want to contact their representatives in Congress and tell them what they think about it…Now, that's obviously an expression of free speech. These insurance companies don't lose their free speech simply because they are enrolling Medicare beneficiaries, for example.”

MEDICARE AND MEDICAID CUTS LIKELY?
Many analysts anticipate cuts to Medicaid and Medicare, with removal of subsidies for Medicare Advantage likely.

Democrats are frenetically trying to pass healthcare legislation that may or may not lead to real “reform.” Mistakes are being made as a result of the hasty negotiations. Red State reported a $600 million dollar mistake by the Congressional Budget Office after one amendment was scored with the speed of a freight train dropped from the Empire State Building. Erick Erickson said, “It took Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) to point it out. And now he is offering an amendment of his own to make sure this does not happen again. According to Senator Cornyn, his ‘amendment requires that before the Finance Committee votes on any amendment to America‘s Healthy Future Act of 2009, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Joint Tax Committee scoring estimates of such amendment must be publicly available and posted on their respective websites for at least 24 hours before any vote.’

BROKEN PROMISE OR OUTRIGHT LIE?
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), after Democrats took Congress in 2006, said, “Tonight is a great victory for the American people.” She said Democrats intended to take the country in a “new direction.” Few could anticipate the dramatic downhill ride the party initiated as Main Street struggles financially. Democrats gave themselves a pay raise as many Americans lost their jobs and took pay cuts.

Dem-allied media are touting the Stimulus bill as “a success.” The federal government did create 25,000 new jobs, subsidized by taxpayers. But most on Main Street view the Stimulus as a complete failure that has done nothing but increase U.S. debt to foreign countries.

Democrats are spending at a record rate, having won control of Congress by criticizing Republicans for spending when they controlled Congress.

Three years ago, Pelosi also promised civility and bipartisanship. We can conclude she either lied or made a promise she and her colleagues have failed to keep. By refusing to make public a bill that will impact every single person in America, and by refusing to permit members of Congress time to read and analyze the bill before a vote, Pelosi and Senate leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) make a sham of the legislative process set forth in the U.S. Constitution.--by Kay B. Day