The End of the Filibuster and the Death of the Senate

Photo credit: Mother Jones

The End of the Filibuster and the Death of the Senate

Say what you like about Newt Gingrich, he is a savvy observer of DC politics. His recent email message is titled, ominously, "The Death of the Senate." It’s difficult to argue with his assessment, despite its pessimism [note: no link, since it arrived in an email]:

No one should be confused about what happened yesterday.

The Obama Democrats killed the United States Senate as a deliberative body 226 years after the Founding Fathers created it.

The use of a simple majority to change the Senate rules and eliminate the filibuster on judicial nominees and other appointments--a device that made getting 60 votes a practical necessity--was a decisive first step toward reducing the Senate to a body that operates by simple majority.

The Democrats have tried to argue that they killed the filibuster only for a handful of presidential nominees. But in fact they’ve killed a tradition that had survived more than two centuries. There will be no principle to stand on to block controversial appointments or legislation in the future.

This is a big deal, and it will change the culture of the Senate profoundly. And the Obama Democrats understood exactly what they were doing.

In 2005 as a senator, Barack Obama himself said that “everyone in this chamber knows that if the majority chooses to end the filibuster, if they choose to change the rules and put an end to democratic debate, then the fighting, the bitterness, and the gridlock will only get worse.”

The same year Senator Joe Biden said, “We should make no mistake. This nuclear option is ultimately an example of the arrogance of power. It is a fundamental power grab by the majority party… We have been through these periods before in American history but never, to the best of my knowledge, has any party been so bold as to fundamentally attempt to change the structure of this body.”

He called it “the single most important vote” he had cast during his three decades in the Senate.

He said “I pray God when the Democrats take back control, we don't make the kind of naked power grab you are doing.”

Senator Harry Reid himself praised the filibuster at the time, lauding it as “far from a procedural gimmick.” It is, he said, “part of the fabric of this institution we call the Senate.”

That is what Senator Reid and the other Obama Democrats destroyed yesterday, fully aware of the permanent damage they were causing in order to achieve fleeting political goals.

That trade of long-term stability for short-term gain is exactly the opposite of the wisdom the framers of the Constitution intended for the Senate (a big part of the reason the body exists in the first place). The Founders were worried that the House, with its frequent election cycles and small Congressional districts, would be shortsighted, easily impassioned, and unaccountable for the ultimate consequences of their decisions.

The Senate was supposed to guard against this danger, as a “temperate and respectable body of citizens...to suspend the blow meditated by the people against themselves, until reason, justice, and truth can regain their authority over the public mind,” as Madison put it in Federalist 63. It would do so by making decisions for the long term, he thought--“well-chosen and well-connected measures, which have a gradual and perhaps unobserved operation.”

Until yesterday, the filibuster was one such device--an important protection which for centuries had been inviolable.

Harry Reid and the Obama Democrats’ reckless decision to kill it will change the Senate forever.

Obamacare and a “systematically deceitful” President

"The Scheme Behind the Obamacare Fraud"

Andrew McCarthy’s legal analysis of the fraud taking place – before our very eyes – is at National Review Online.  Here are a few extracts, but read the whole thing and be ready for family conversations while eating turkey:

Fraud can be so brazen it takes people’s breath away. But for a prosecutor tasked with proving a swindle — or what federal law describes as a “scheme to defraud” — the crucial thing is not so much the fraud. It is the scheme. . . . President Obama repeatedly and emphatically vowed, “If you like your health-insurance plan, you can keep your health-insurance plan, period.” . . .  Obama’s promises were systematically deceitful. The president’s audacity is bracing, and not just because he lies so casually while looking us in the eye. Obama also insults our intelligence. . . . To be so bold is to say, in effect, “The public is too ignorant and disengaged to catch me, and the press is too deep in my pocket to raise alarms.” . . . The point of showing that Obama is carrying out a massive scheme to defraud — one that certainly would be prosecuted if committed in the private sector — is not to agitate for a prosecution that is never going to happen. It is to demonstrate that there is logic to the lies. There is an objective that the fraud aims to achieve. The scheme is the framework within which the myriad deceptions are peddled. Once you understand the scheme, once you can put the lies in a rational context, you understand why fraud was the president’s only option — and why “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan” barely scratches the surface of Obamacare’s deceit. In 2003, when he was an ambitious Illinois state senator from a hyper-statist district, Obama declared: I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer universal health-care program. I see no reason why the United States of America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, spending 14 percent of its gross national product on health care, cannot provide basic health insurance to everybody. . . . Everybody in, nobody out. A single-payer health care plan, a universal health care plan. That’s what I’d like to see. But as all of you know, we may not get there immediately.  That is the Obamacare scheme. It is a Fabian plan to move an unwilling nation, rooted in free enterprise, into Washington-controlled, fully socialized medicine. As its tentacles spread over time, the scheme (a) pushes all Americans into government markets (a metastasizing blend of Medicare, Medicaid, and “exchanges” run by state and federal agencies); (b) dictates the content of the “private” insurance product; (c) sets the price; (d) micromanages the patient access, business practices, and fees of doctors; and (e) rations medical care. Concurrently, the scheme purposely sows a financing crisis into the system, designed to explode after Leviathan has so enveloped health care, and so decimated the private medical sector, that a British- or Canadian-style “free” system — formerly unthinkable for the United States — becomes the inexorable solution. Once you grasp that this is the scheme, the imperative to lull the public with lies makes sense. Like all swindles, Obamacare cannot work if its targeted victims figure out the endgame before it is a fait accompli. . . . You couldn’t keep your plan because Obamacare mandates made it impossible for private insurers to offer it. . . . If your doctor is not part of the network offered on the plans in your exchange, you will lose your doctor. To keep costs down, exchanges will limit their provider networks. Top doctors and hospitals are already being cut out. Moreover, the onerous regulations, reporting requirements, and constant threat of fee-slashing are beginning to drive doctors out of the profession. Then there is the Independent Payment Advisory Board. Stanley Kurtz described the IPAB in all its frightening detail in a 2011 National Review cover story: “An unelected and unaccountable bureaucratic entity with nearly limitless power over federal Medicare spending, [it] will have the power to effectively ration health care through price controls.” . . . That’s the scheme. Or maybe you still believe that if you like your private medical system, you can keep your private medical system, period.

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Common Core "standards" mean indoctrination

Common Core is not about education. It's about indoctrination. It's about fanning the flames of racial tension and class warfare. It's about pushing the progressive agenda. The Illinois Review (via Gateway Pundit) reports:

DUPO, IL - Fourth graders in Dupo Illinois are reading a biography of Barack Obama that's raising eyebrows among St. Clair County parents. . . .

The book - brought to the attention this week of those on the "Moms Against Duncan - MAD" Facebook page, goes on to say white Americans were hesitant to vote for a black president, and that Obama pushed the race issue to bring the nation together. 

"But some people said Americans weren't ready for that much change. Sure Barack was a nice fellow, they said. But white voters would never vote for a black president. Other angry voices were raised. Barack's former pastor called the country a failure. God would damn the United States for mistreating its black citizens, he said."

And here's the image of the book.

You can look at preview pages here. Can you imagine your 9 or 10-year old having to read this in school?

Here's the page for Ohioans Against Common Core, with legislative updates / legislator phone numbers here.

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Common Core hearings report

From Marianne, Co-coordinator for Ohio Tea Party Patriots:

Columbus. Yesterday's hearing for the repeal of Common Core went in to the morning hours.  Although proponent testimony was cut short, and Marianne was not able to provide my testimony regarding the intimidation tactics being used by the state, she was able to have a one-on-one conversation with Rep. John Becker, to address some questions he had during the testimony.

Accompanying her were three other ladies, one of whom was a teacher. She was able to give him first hand accounts of just how terrible Common Core Standards are.

The first testimony of the evening was given by Jane Robbins, Senior Fellow at the American Principles Project.  Her testimony was regarding the data collection involved with the implementation of Common Core, which is very scary.  Click Here to Watch

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Updates from Columbus: Health Care Compact and Common Core

Updates from Marianne, Co-coordinator for Ohio Tea Party Patriots:

Updates from Marianne, Co-Coordinator for Ohio TPP:

Ohio Health Care Compact Testimony

Given on Tuesday!

No Need for Medicaid Expansion

While Governor Kasich continues to try to justify his obsession with Medicaid Expansion, there are some in the Ohio House who believe there is a better way.

Representative Wes Retherford and Terry Boose provided sponsor testimony on the Ohio Health Care Compact today.  They did a great job explaining how the Health Care Compact will give Ohioans the authority to determine what health care solution best suits them, vs. the one-size-fits-all solutions of our federal government.

Please call your representative and ask them to support the Ohio Health Care Compact HB 227

Click here for more information on the Ohio Health Care Compact 

Repeal Common Core Testimony

2nd Hearing

Wednesday, the 20th, will be the second hearing for  HB 237.

Originally promised to be proponent testimony only, Rep Stebleton has changed the proceedings to better benefit his agenda by including proponent and opponent testimony, thereby potentially limiting the time allowed for proponent testimony.

Rep Stebleton obviously believes that the more the public learns about Common Core, the more opposition there will be.

Marianne G, as well as others, have been asked to testify against Common Core, now let's see how many can actually get on the schedule.

WHEN:     November 20th, 5:00 p.m.

WHERE:  Statehouse  /       Hearing Room #313

Updates from Marianne, Co-Coordinator for Ohio TPP:

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Common Core: rotten details

If you are planning to go to Columbus on Wednesday for the second hearing on Common Core "standards", be sure to read Michelle Malkin’s column today to assess the testimony you hear. From Malkin's column:

While the GOP tries to solve its ills with better software and communications consultants, the conservative movement — and America — face much larger problems. It doesn’t start with the “low-information voter.” It starts with the no-knowledge student. . . . “Common Core” [is] the stealthy federal takeover of school curriculum and standards across the country. . . .

The good news is that grass-roots education and parental groups, brave teachers, and professors are fighting back.

And they’re winning. Big time. Over the last 10 months, Common Core has imploded under withering scrutiny from the tax-paying public, informed parents and educators, and more national media. States under both Republican and Democrat governors have adopted moratoria on the untested standards, withdrawn from the costly testing consortia, and retreated from partnerships with Common Core-promoting educational software data-miners like inBloom.

. . .

 the nationwide revolt against Common Core’s constitutionality, costs, dubious quality, threat to local control, and privacy invasions has proponents in a panic. 

. . .

Principals [in New York] reported problems with the assessments, including:

• Difficult and confusing questions (some on unrelated topics).
• Unnecessarily long testing sessions—“two weeks of three consecutive days of 90-minute periods”—that require more “stamina for a 10-year-old special education student than of a high school student taking an SAT exam.”
• Field-test questions that do not factor into a child’s score but take up time.
• Confusing directions for the English language arts sessions.
• Math problems that repeatedly assess the same skill.
• Multiple choice questions that ask the student to choose from the right answer and the “next best right answer.” The fact that teachers report disagreeing about which multiple-choice answer is correct in several places on the English language arts exams indicates that this format is unfair to students.

. . .

Stop Common Core moms of all colors have done their homework, brought their arguments and evidence to their school boards and state legislatures, and acted responsibly to protect their children’s best interests.

Read the rest here. 

Health Care Compact testimony TIME CHANGE to 2pm

Ohio Tea Party Patriots received word from Representative Wes Retherford that the sponsor testimony for the Health Care Compact this Tuesday, Nov, 19th, has been moved back to 2:00 p.m., room number 121. Patriot drivers: Google map of the Ohio Statehouse is here.

Previous information about this hearing, on this blog, is here. 

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