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A False Sense
By Donna Garner – Skip down to |
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Undoubtedly Obama and
the liberal Democrats in Congress are trying to make the
American patriots think they have won. The headlines
yesterday screamed, “The public option is dead.” Not
so.First, we must
remember that co-ops are just a backdoor approach to the
public option. Co-ops would be controlled by the Obama
administration. They would set up the co-ops with our
federal dollars, would establish pricing mandates for
doctors/hospitals, would create a priority list for care
(a.k.a., rationed care), would bail out the co-ops
with our federal dollars if they run into financial
trouble, and would allow them to remake themselves into
for-profit entities at will. In truth, co-ops
would drive public healthcare companies out of
business.As Republican Sen.
Charles Grassley said yesterday, “The government is not
a fair competitor. It’s a predator.”Second, even though
Sen. Baucus’ Senate Finance Committee is getting most of
the attention right now, we need to remember that H. R.
3200 is still very much in the mix and so is the
Kennedy Senate Bill (America’s Affordable Health Choices
Act of 2009 — HELP) passed by the Senate Health,
Education, Labor, Pensions Committee (Sen. Chris Dodd,
Chair) on July 15, 2009.Senators Rockefeller
and Schumer say they will continue to press for the
public option. Sen. Harry Reid is to take both of the
Senate committee bills, meld them into one final Senate
bill, and send it to the conference committee where the
House version, H. R. 3200, awaits. H. R. 3200 contains
the public option.
Tracking the Healthcare LegislationTracking major legislation
through Congress is very confusing, and healthcare
reform is particularly complex because it involves
many different Senate and House committees. The
House bill (H. R. 3200) pushed through Congress
largely by the Democrats deals with over one-seventh
(18% of GDP) of our nation’s economy and is meant to
socialize our entire healthcare system.H. R. 3200 creates 53 new
government agencies, mentions shall 1,683 times,
taxes 172 times, and penalties 156 times. If H.
R. 3200 were to pass, this socialized healthcare
system would be almost impossible to sustain
financially; the non-partisan Congressional Budget
Office (CBO) has estimated the cost would be $1.04
Trillion over ten years. Unfortunately, a huge
entitlement program such as this would be almost
impossible to reverse for decades to come.Frequently bills pass through
Congress that have little direct impact on us
individually, but healthcare is different; it
touches each one of us directly and personally. H.
R. 3200 would put Big Government between us and our
doctors with bureaucrats making most of our
healthcare decisions.To simplify this confusing maze
of numerous bills and “cast of characters,” I have
written a brief explanation of the process. Because
I am not a legislative scholar nor a lawyer, you
will need to verify the following information for
yourselves. I have included the links for this
purpose.HEALTHCARE LEGISLATION:
HOUSE
http://edlabor.house.gov/ blog/2009/ 07/americas- affordable- health-choices- act.shtml The Chairmen of the three House
Committees with jurisdiction over health policy
introduced their comprehensive healthcare reform
legislation on July 14, 2009. The name of the
legislation isAmerica s
Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 and was
sponsored by Rep. John Dingell, Democrat;
co-sponsors were Reps. Andrews, Kildee, Maloney,
Miller, Pallone, Rangel, Stark, Waxman — all
Democrats. The July 14, 2009, version (1,018 pages)
can be viewed at:
http://edlabor.house.gov/ documents/ 111/pdf/publicat ions/AAHCA- BillText- 071409.pdf That bill was then referred to
five House committees. The three most
important committees are:(1) House Committee on Education and Labor: Rep.
George Miller, Democrat, Chairman(2) House Committee on Ways and Means: Rep. Charles
B. Rangel, Democrat, Chairman(3) House Committee on Energy and Commerce: Rep.
Henry A. Waxman, Democrat, ChairmanThe two others are (4) House
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform (Chair,
Rep. Edolphus Towns, Democrat) and (5) House
Committee on the Budget (Rep. John Spratt,
Democrat).The three main House committees
(Education and Labor, Ways and Means, and Energy and
Commerce) worked together to develop their
healthcare proposals.(1) House Committee on
Education and LaborThe House Committee on
Education and Labor passed H. R. 3200 on July 17,
2009: http://edlabor.house.gov/ anddocuments/ 111/pdf/publicat ions/AAHCA- Reported- 080309.PDF
the amendments at: http://edlabor.house.gov/ markups/2009/ 07/hr-3200- americas- affordable- he.shtml (2) House Committee on
Ways and MeansThe House Committee on Ways and
Means passed H. R. 3200 on July 17, 2009:http://waysandmeans
.house.gov/ withlegis.asp? formmode= item&number=687
amendments at: http://waysandmeans.house.gov/ media/pdf/ 111/catext3200. (3) House Committee on
Energy and Commerce
The House Committee on Energy
and Commerce is still working on amendments (a.k.a.,
“marking up”) to H. R. 3200 and plans to finalize
their bill and vote on it after the recess. [This is
Rep. Waxman’s committee, and he is supposedly
negotiating with the Blue Dog Democrats.]Next Step: The House
Rules CommitteeNext, the House Rules Committee
will work with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Democrat)
and Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (Democrat Majority Leader)
to meld the three committee versions into one bill.
The Rules Committee will work on the principles of
adding amendments, will test each amendment for
germaneness, and will consider committee rules and
the rules/precedents of the House.Final Vote in the House
Then the full House will vote
on its final healthcare bill.============
========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ==== HEALTHCARE LEGISLATON:
SENATESenate Health, Education,
Labor, Pensions CommitteeSenate Health, Education,
Labor, Pensions Committee [a.k.a., HELP]: Sen.
Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat, Chairman; ranking
Republican, Michael B. EnziOn July 15, 2009, the
HELP committee voted on
America s Affordable Health
Choices Act of 2009 (a.k.a., Kennedy Bill:http://help.
senate.gov/ BAI09A84_ xml.pdf Senate Finance Committee
Senate Finance Committee: Sen.
Max Baucus, Democrat, Chairman; ranking Republican
Charles E. GrassleyThe Senate Finance Committee is
in the process of finalizing its work in the next
few days. This committee is charged with figuring
out the taxes involved and the Medicare provisions
needed to pay for the healthcare legislation. This
is the committee that voted yesterday against Sen.
John D. Rockefeller’s public-option
amendment (15 to 8) and Sen. Charles Schumer’s
public option amendment (13 to 10). Many other
amendments are still in the offing.Senate Democrat Leaders
Democrat leaders in the Senate
(Sen. Harry Reid and Sen. Richard J. Durbin) will
try to merge the bills from the two Senate
committees.Final Vote in the Senate
The full Senate will vote on
its final bill.============
========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ==== FINAL STEPS
A House-Senate conference
committee will attempt to work out a compromise
version as they consult with the White House. If
the bill is then approved in identical form by both
the House and the Senate, the bill would be sent to
the President for his signature.
Donna Garner –
wgarner1@hot.rr.com
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