14 to 9 so it’s out of the Senate Finance Committee.
One Republican, Senator Olympia Snowe (RINO-ME) voted in favor of it, but reserves “the right” to vote against it if significant changes are made. That was obviously a surprise to Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) who voted against it and thought Snowe would as well. What exactly in this current bill Senator Snowe, which still hasn’t seen the light of day for constituents to peruse, is palatable with you?
Because of her vote, President Barack Obama said (on TV) this bill “enjoys the support of people of both parties.” One vote from Republicans suddenly makes this bipartisan? I literally laughed out loud when I heard that. You don’t have bipartisanship when one person from the other party votes for it.
Governor Tim Pawlenty (R-MN) wrote a post at BigGovernment.com points out the problem with this bill (at least what we can see):
Senate Democrats are pushing a vote on the 1,000-page bill now because the Congressional Budget Office recently estimated that the bill cost “only” $829 billion over the next 10 years. In truth, the bill raises taxes immediately, but the benefits do not kick in for another four years, so the 10-year numbers are distorted. This is an expensive experiment that cuts Medicare, and exacerbates state government budget problems by dramatically expanding Medicaid without providing additional funding.
The CBO also pointed out that this bill could change so the numbers are final. They didn’t even see the text of the bill only legislative specs. They didn’t even get to read the bill!!!!!!!!
Also this bill will force people to buy health insurance who may or may not want it. That was a major problem that Senator Grassley had with this bill.
“There’s a penalty for people that don’t have health insurance,” Grassley says. “That fine would be paid to the Internal Revenue Service. It’s like a tax. In fact, I guess you could call it a penalty tax, that a family would have to pay $1,500 and an individual would have to pay $750.”
Critics charge it’s nonsensical to fine people who can’t afford to pay for health insurance, since it’s likely they already dropped health insurance because of the expense. On a philosophical basis, Grassley says he’s against the idea of forcing people to buy health insurance.
“The federal government has never mandated, ever, that you’ve gotta’ purchase such-and-such, anything, in other words, in America, you’re free to buy whatever you want to buy whenever you want to buy it,” Grassley says. “In this particular instance, for the first time, the government is saying you’ve got to have health insurance.”
Rest assured that liberals will try to change this bill to make it even worse. Their special interest groups are crying for it, and they have to listen to the money. We need to call our Senators and they need to remember they work for us. If nothing else, make sure that the read what they vote for, and for that matter, let us read it as well.