That Senator Voinovich would even consider giving us a going away kick-in-our-conservative-cookies and supporting anything that funds Obama Care is mind-boggling!
How can a pro-life Senator support something that funds tax-payer funded abortions?
How can Senator Voinovich support the funding of a bill that will in effect roll senior citizens into a corner and let them die?
How can Senator Voinovich support the funding of an Unconstitutional health care bill that is more about growing government and mandating liberty-stripping edicts than it is about health care?
Please help "remind" Senator Voinovich that well over half of OH residents and people in this country are AGAINST the funding of Obama Care!
From Americans For Prosperity --
Below is a letter from Phil Kerpen, vice president for policy at Americans for Prosperity, fighting the lame duck threat at http://www.novemberspeaks.com/.A continuing resolution funding ObamaCare passed the U.S. House Wednesday and is being considered in the Senate. We are hearing that Senator Voinovich may join with Democrats and vote for this bill, which is a violation of the clearly expressed will of Ohioans on November 2nd. Please contact Senator Voinovich and ask him to vote against the continuing resolution that funds ObamaCare.Call Senator Voinovich: (202) 224-3353Click here to email Senator Voinovich (editable text is provided)
Key Message Points:
1. It’s wrong to cheat the American people by voting to fund ObamaCare before a new Congress elected to de-fund it can be seated.
2. Do not disrespect the American people by pursuing the same far-left, big-government policies they just decisively rejected.
Will Congress get ObamaCare funding and pork this Christmas?
Last Christmas Eve, the U.S. Senate gave Americans the lump of coal known as ObamaCare. This year, they may take our money to fund it and also force us to buy a pork-barrel full of thousands of earmarks. On a 212-206 vote, House Democrats yesterday pushed through a flawed continuing resolution that funds ObamaCare and extends overall funding for the next year at reckless 2010 levels.
As Sen. Tom Coburn has pointed out, the House-passed bill contains significant ObamaCare funding, which is why Coburn called the bill “Trojan Horse to Fund New Health Law.”
Now the focus shifts to the Senate, where efforts are underway to amend the House-passed version—and not for the better. Senate Democrats will offer an amendment to make it even worse with a full-blown omnibus appropriations bill packed with pork-barrel earmarks, spending increases, and even more funding for every top Obama administration priority. And unfortunately, some Senate Republicans may be poised to help the Democrats pass it.
Rumors are swirling that despite the fact Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell pulled the plug on official Republican support for the omnibus, a small group of rogue Republican appropriators are playing ball, planning to vote for the massive bloated spending bill in exchange for a parting Christmas gift of pork-barrel goodies for their states. The most likely to do so are three appropriators, Kit Bond of Missouri and George Voinovich of Ohio, who are retiring and will never face voters again, and the highest-ranking Republican appropriator, Thad Cochran of Mississippi.
We don’t know which earmarks made it into the omnibus yet but we do know that Kit Bond requested 142 earmarks this year totaling over $600 million. George Voinovich requested 172 earmarks totaling over $460 million, and Thad Cochran requested a whopping 712 earmarks totaling over $2.4 billion.
Other Republican senators worth worrying about identified themselves last week when they voted against the Coburn-McCaskill amendment to ban earmarks: Robert Bennett (R-Utah), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), Dick Lugar (R-Ind.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), and Richard Shelby (R-Ala.).
These nine Republicans must be urged to abide by the wishes of the American people and to learn the same lesson Mitch McConnell, himself an appropriator, made clear I his wonderful Senate floor speech embracing the earmark moratorium:
“Nearly every day that the Senate’s been in session for the past two years, I have come down to this spot and said that Democrats are ignoring the wishes of the American people. When it comes to earmarks, I won’t be guilty of the same thing.”
Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, some Republicans may vote for the Democrats’ pork-packed, ObamaCare-funding omnibus monstrosity.
That’s why pressuring Democrats is critical, starting with the ones who voted in favor of the Coburn-McCaskill earmark ban.
Claire McCaskill herself is the most likely Democrat to oppose the omnibus. Unlike her pork-loving Republican colleague Kit Bond, McCaskill has requested no earmarks this year and has long been a proponent of reform. This vote will test whether, when the rubber hits the road, she is really willing to vote to stop a rolling pork-barrel.
The other Democrats who voted with Coburn include Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) and Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), neither of whom requested any earmarks this year, along with Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), Mark Udall (D-Colo.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.). They will be put to the test of whether their earmark reform was sincere when they have the opportunity to stop the omnibus.
Moreover, all senators need to be forcefully reminded that this will be the first vote on funding ObamaCare, a signature issue that will loom large in the 2012 election.
The bottom line is that this Congress had all year to do its job and pass legislation to fund the government before the election. They failed. They should not now be rewarded with a massive omnibus spending bill on their way out the door. Sen. Coburn gets it exactly right: “It’s time for Congress to extend current tax rates, pass a clean spending bill – a ‘continuing resolution’ - without extraneous and vague health care provisions, and go home.”
Mr. Kerpen is vice president for policy at Americans for Prosperity, fighting the lame duck threat at http://www.novemberspeaks.com/.
