Today Is The Day

We are at a tipping point. I think today we will know if this boondoggle of a healthcare bill will pass or not. We Republicans have never been a part of this. The Democrats like to pretend that Republicans were holding things up, but it was always the reasonable people in their own party.

Yesterday they gave in to Sen. Joe Lieberman's demand to take out the buy in to medicare starting at age 55. The public option is dead, thank God (I do imagine it as a zombie, coming back to eat us later though). I imagine they will give in to Sen. Nelson's demand to take out any funding of abortion. All they care about now is passing something, anything. What's important now is to be able to say they did it. They can say they finally passed "comprehensive healthcare reform," which will cost nearly $1 trillion over a decade. We still have the tax hikes and Medicare cuts in the bill, but no matter. They will jaw for weeks about how historic and important it is. Never mind that the majority of the American people are against it. That doesn't matter to the Democrats, because they have always believed that they know best. They believe they know what the American people need more than the American people know themselves. At the very core of the Democrats's belief system is their certainty that the American people are ignorant. They will never say it of course, but they feel it is their duty to provide for the masses, who can't be trusted to make decisions for themselves. In an astounding display of denial yesterday, Majority Leader Harry Reid declared, "Democrats aren't going to let the American people down." Ummm...Harry? If you pass this you will let 61% of us down. You just don't get that, do you?

We all know that once a government program begins, it never ever ends. Ever. So, if this passes, it will just be the beginning. It will forever be tweaked, added to, enlarged, and petted until it grows into the blob that is most government programs. Ezra Klein at the WaPO says it plainly enough here:

"With $900 billion in subsidies already in place, it's easier to add another hundred billion later, if we need it, than it would be to pass $1 trillion in subsidies in 2011. With the exchanges built and private insurers unable to hold down costs, it's easier to argue for adding a strong public option to the market than it was before..."


Don't think we are taking this laying down. As Michelle Malkin reports, the Tea Party activists are turning up the heat today in Washington for the Code Red Rally on Capitol Hill. Laur Ingraham is hosting. Speakers include Sen. Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-Okla.) and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.). The Tea Party activists here in Houston sent us a special deal to fly to D.C. today and return tonight. I have never seen anything like it before. So if you are in the area, PLEASE join them at 1:30 pm, Upper Senate Park, on Constitution Ave. between New Jersey and Delaware St. NE. More info here and here.

In all probability we will know which way it goes after the Senate Democrats meet at 5:30 p.m. If Reid comes out saying he's going to file cloture, we are done. If it falls apart, it falls apart there.