Following last Tuesday’s election, the last thing Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) wanted to do was allow Members of Congress to go home and talk to their constituents about the $2.6 trillion health care bill she was marshaling through Congress. The centerpiece of Pelosi’s trap and pressure campaign was a Saturday address by President Barack Obama in the Cannon Office Building, where Obama warned Democrats: “Does anybody think that the teabag, anti-government people are going to support them if they bring down health care? All it will do is confuse and …
The health care bill passed by the House tonight took another step towards transferring power over personal health care decisions from individuals to bureaucrats in Washington. The Republican alternative was a good strong first step of targeted reforms that are necessary to improve health care financing and delivery. If it were to become law, the House bill would put the government in control of over half of all health care spending and would dramatically shift America’s health care system from one that is largely private to one that is subordinated to …
The heat is happening behind closed doors as the U.S. House prepares for a Saturday showdown vote on health care. Access is everything. By keeping Members of Congress in Washington, D.C., this weekend, Democratic leaders keep them away from angry constituents back in their home states, where the Members normally would depart from Friday to Monday. (Note: The tactics aren’t different from what Republicans sometimes used when they held the majority.) The first step is to keep Congress in town. The second is to keep them monitored and available for …
She tosses it to Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (safe play) and frustrates network anchors across the spectrum. Well, CNN and MsNBC aren’t covering the press conference, so frustrates some of the anchors. Leader Hoyer says he hasn’t seen a more productive five months in Congress in his 30 years on Capitol Hill. If by ‘productive’ he means spending away our future, quadrupling our national debt, ignoring the deficit, and passing so many spending bills that nobody read any of them before passage. Then yes…productive.
