Democrats Kill Amendment Requiring Bill To Be Fully Written Before a Vote

Anyone wondering about that "transparency" we heard so much about during the campaign?...

__________________
"You get the respect that you give" - cnredd

APPARENTLY THEY DON'T LIKE US BEING SMART ENOUGH TO MAKE UP OUR OWN MINDS WHEN IT COMES TO THE HEALTHCARE BILLS

About Contact Archives RSS Columns Photos

About Contact Archives RSS Columns Photos Michelle Malkin Dems lied, transparency died: Senate Finance Committee nixes Obamacare online disclosure
By Michelle Malkin • September 23, 2009 12:35 PM The Senate majority’s contempt for the American people rears its ugly head again. The Senate Finance Committee just voted down a GOP amendment requiring that Obamacare legislation be available online 72 hours before the panel votes. Instead, the Democrats offered to make “conceptual language” available.

Dems lied, transparency died:

Senate Finance Committee Democrats have rejected a GOP amendment that would have required a health overhaul bill to be available online for 72 hours before the committee votes.

Republicans argued that transparency is an Obama administration goal. They also noted that their constituents are demanding that they read bills before voting.

Democrats said it was a delay tactic that could have postponed a vote for weeks.

The Democrats noted that unlike other committees, the Finance Committee works off conceptual language that describes policies — instead of legislative language that ultimately becomes law, and which the GOP amendment would have required.

Democrats accepted an alternate amendment to make conceptual language available online before a vote.


http://michellemalkin.com/2009/09/23...ne-disclosure/

[Moderator Mode]

Merged the similiar threads...

[/Moderator Mode]

__________________
"You get the respect that you give" - cnredd

It was an unnecessary delay and most don't read legislative language. It was another delay tactic from the do-nothing party.

__________________
214 Days
9 Hours
56 Minutes Days till Christmas

apparently democrats don't want people to know what is in the bill until it is to late to have their voices heard. I wonder why?

__________________
Courtesy of Swissman

A gun in the hands of a free man frightens and angers the autocrat, not because he fears the power of the gun, but, rather, the spirit of the man who holds it.

ANONYMOUS

There's that corn-spear-assey theory at work again.

I dunno...maybe their planning on taking over the world.

__________________
214 Days
9 Hours
56 Minutes Days till Christmas

taking over the world......nah

shredding the Constitution......Yepper!

__________________
Courtesy of Swissman

A gun in the hands of a free man frightens and angers the autocrat, not because he fears the power of the gun, but, rather, the spirit of the man who holds it.

ANONYMOUS

This is amazing, the opposition to reading the contents of a bill on purely partisian reasoning. WTF is the job of these monkeys that we elect if not to "serve the people"? Would anybody buy an item for a few million dollars without reading/understanding the cotents of the contract. If you said yes then you are a dumb arss. We are in the sh!t storm of an economy because people did not read or understand the details of the contracts they were signing, so we should give licence to legislative brach to do the same?

Lets all welcome ABC to the party. It seems as though they found some sort of a backbone to actually report the news


ABC Notices Obama Administration's Effort to Suppress Criticism of ObamaCare
By: Brent Baker
September 23, 2009 08:56 ET


Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's decision to go to the Senate floor on Tuesday to call out the Obama administration for using the full power of a federal regulatory agency to suppress free speech -- specifically, to silence Humana's predictions about the impact of proposed ObamaCare cuts to the Medicare Advantage program -- led ABC, but not CBS or NBC, to air a story on the “gag order.”

ABC's story began with a McConnell soundbite (“'Shut up,' the government says, 'don't communicate with your customers. Be quiet and get in line,'”), before reporter Jonathan Karl explained McConnell was referring to the “Department of Health and Human Services, telling insurance companies who serve Medicare recipients, to stop 'misleading' and 'confusing' mailings, saying, quote: 'We are instructing you to immediately discontinue all such mailings, and remove any related materials from your Web sites.'”

Karl continued: “The extraordinary order comes in response to a mailing the Humana insurance company sent to customers in the Medicare Advantage program. The Humana mailing warned that because of Medicare cuts in the health care reform bills, quote, 'millions of seniors and disabled individuals could lose many important benefits and services.'”

On Monday, HHS offered “guidance” to silence criticism: “MEDICARE ISSUES NEW GUIDANCE TO INSURANCE COMPANIES ON MEDICARE MAILINGS.”

So far, the government's power play has succeeded. “Humana backed down, stopping the mailing and announcing that it would cooperate with the investigation,” James Taranto noted in his Monday “Best of the Web,” lamenting: “Corporations may provide lots of useful goods and services, but never count on them to take a stand for freedom.”

Now the question is, will the media champion free speech and be outraged by the abuse of power to suppress it, or will most journalists not mind the government hushing voices which go against Obama?

The story on the Tuesday, September 22 World News on ABC (transcript provided by the MRC's Brad Wilmouth):


CHARLES GIBSON: In Washington, the Senate Finance Committee today began voting on amendments to the health care reform bill, and the bill that comes out of that committee will become the centerpiece for the health care debate. But even before the amendment process began, a war of words broke out over what one of the nation's largest health insurance companies is saying about the bill. Here's Jonathan Karl.

JONATHAN KARL: It's not often you hear language like this on the Senate floor.

MITCH MCCONNELL, SENATE MINORITY LEADER: "Shut up," the government says, "don't communicate with your customers. Be quiet and get in line."

KARL: He's talking about this order issued last night by the Department of Health and Human Services, telling insurance companies who serve Medicare recipients to stop "misleading" and "confusing" mailings, saying, quote, "We are instructing you to immediately discontinue all such mailings, and remove any related materials from your Web sites." The extraordinary order comes in response to a mailing the Humana insurance company sent to customers in the Medicare Advantage program.


The Humana mailing warned that because of Medicare cuts in the health care reform bills, quote, "millions of seniors and disabled individuals could lose many important benefits and services." But Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus says it is misleading to say his bill cuts Medicare benefits and ordered the HHS to investigate, prompting the gag order. Some legal experts say the order is unconstitutional. Senator McConnell agrees.

MCCONNELL: We cannot allow government officials to target individuals or companies because they do not like what they say.

KARL: And even some Democratic Senators are concerned that the bill now before the Senate Finance Committee reduces spending on Medicare Advantage by $123 billion.

SENATOR BILL NELSON (D-FL): I think it would be intolerable to ask the senior citizens on Medicare who have it to give up substantial health benefits that they're enjoying under Medicare.

KARL: HHS declined a request for an on-camera interview, but told us that they are investigating whether the mailings illegally give the impression that they are official communications from Medicare. While that investigation goes forward, Charlie, the gag order remains in place.


ABC Notices Obama Administration's Effort to Suppress Criticism of ObamaCare

I've been watching the Senate finance committee today. They are Democrats and Republicans working very hard-they don't even know yet if they will get to go home this week end. They're sorting the bill out, making amendments and discussing it. After all that do you want them to wait till the thing is typed up in legalese, post it on the INTERNET for 72 hours and then try a round trip flight home to kiss the kids and get back on a plain to Washington?

Look, you can see all that goes into these bills by going to CSpan's website, and it will take less time and you will understand it more clearly than reading the legalese.
This is only a delay tactic and the reps and senatrs of neither party want to do this. It is a headline to make bloggers yell at each other.

__________________
214 Days
9 Hours
56 Minutes Days till Christmas