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The Senate Cloakroom: Oct. 19 – 23

Posted By Dan Holler On October 20, 2009 @ 9:06 am In Ongoing Priorities | 2 Comments

Senate Analysis:

Late last week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) announced the next week would be devoted to S.1776, the Medicare Physician Fairness Act. The $247 billion so-called “doc fix” was originally included in the massive health care overhaul being crafted behind closed doors. By moving the measure separately, the Obamacare will appear to less. It’s a classic Washington bait-and-switch [1] designed yet again to hide the true cost of liberal programs.

Major Senate Floor Action:

The Senate will spend most, if not all, of next week on a 10-year “doc fix” which will not be offset by spending reductions. Instead, liberals led by the White House appear intent on borrowing yet another $247 billion from our children.

Major Senate Committee Action:

The Energy and Natural Resources Committee [2] will hold another global warming hearing, this one focused on allocation of billions of dollars of carbon credits [3].
The Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee [4] will hold a hearing on executive branch czars [5].
The Senate Judiciary Committee [6] will hold an important hearing on health care fraud [7]. Perhaps that hearing should have taken place before the committees considered their health reform bills.

Article printed from The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation: http://blog.heritage.org

URL to article: http://blog.heritage.org/2009/10/20/the-senate-cloakroom-oct-19-%e2%80%93-23/

URLs in this post:

[1] a classic Washington bait-and-switch: http://www.foundry.org/2009/10/15/the-senates-health-care-shell-game/

[2] Energy and Natural Resources Committee: http://energy.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.Hearing&Hearing_ID=3abdbd7b-0682-273e-80a3-dfa9550c8384

[3] billions of dollars of carbon credits: http://www.foundry.org/2009/08/11/cap-and-trade-giving-more-than-100-percent/

[4] Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee: http://hsgac.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.Hearing&Hearing_ID=5b22e173-5b74-46a0-b2ab-d300b6381de4

[5] executive branch czars: http://www.heritage.org/Research/Thought/tst100809a.cfm

[6] Senate Judiciary Committee: http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearings/hearing.cfm?id=4129

[7] health care fraud: http://www.foundry.org/2009/08/12/guest-bloggers-james-frogue-elizabeth-noelcke-on-healthcare-fraud-is-worse-than-you-think/

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