Repubs summoned to Stomach Summit: Published by E. Tyler Tucker, Media Director of First Coast Tea Party

[FCTP]

Whew! Finally, I can wake up this morning knowing I can again afford healthcare.

The greatest brains of our time are gathering in the country's heralded Eastern seaboard tidal swamp to make this possible.

At long last, my fellow Americans and I should be able to survive health problems in the future (unless it is something serious like acid reflux or a hangnail).

It is comforting to know that our elected, annointed leaders, our brain trust gathering in Washington are fully protected by guaranteed pensions, paid health care for life and access to Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Surely Social Security and Medicare are safe. After all, we paid into those "trust funds" with our hard-earned American greenbacks. Whew!

But, Democratic leaders Wednesday voiced they might not be able to pass a "comprehensive health care overhaul" sought by President "Summit" Obama, Fox News reported.

Republican leaders stood ready to resist Obama's courtship overtures - including chocolates and flowers.

Some in Washington have coined this the "ShamWow Summit."

On Greta Van Susteren's show "On the Record," Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, R-Mich said" Well, we keep hearing that this is going to be a stage production. It's going to be an infomercial for one side or the other. And the public knows it. So to try to bring attention to the fact that this isn't a real summit, it's not a real negotiation going on, generally, an unfortunate misuse of congressional time and energy, the phrase "ShamWow" came to mind because it's a wildly popular product that is sold on an infomercial."

After all, Obama is so good at "summits." After 13 months in office, he has organized the Summit of the Americas, G-8 Summit, G-20 Summit, Jobs Summit, Economic Summit, Health Summit ... and don't forget ... the Beer Summit.

(In truth, these are .meetings - NOT summits as the national media declare. Now, Yalta, Malta and Camp David - those were summits - involving major world leaders, solving major world problems.)

House Republican Whip Eric Cantor, R-Va., declared in a memo that if the Senate goes ahead with plans to use a controversial legislative tactic known as reconciliation to pass a healthcare bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., "will not be able to muster the votes" to pass it in the House, Fox News reported.

Speaking ahead of Obama's 10 a.m. televised (C-Span) health "summit," House Minority Leader John Boehner told fellow Republicans in a closed-door event Tuesday: "We need to show up and crash the party," an aide told Reuters.

"We shouldn't let the White House have a six-hour taxpayer-funded infomercial on ObamaCare," Boehner said, suggesting today's meeting was no more than a White House publicity stunt.

Both parties saw the president's revised, far-reaching proposal, released Monday, as a chance for Democrats to try to pass the legislation on their own under Senate rules that would bar Republican delays.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the Obama administration appears determined "to try to jam it through" under the seldom-used "budget reconciliation" process.

"It would allow Democrats in the Senate to pass part of the bill with a simple, 51-vote majority, McConnell said.

But Cantor, in his memo, ran through the numbers in the House and estimated that Pelosi would only be able to hold together 203 votes at best -- far fewer than she needs. The bill originally passed the House last year by a narrow 220-215 vote.

Cantor argued that while Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid could afford to lose several Democratic senators over objections to the reconciliation process, Pelosi might not enjoy the same luxury.

Reid, though, tried to ease concerns about the tactic. He said reconciliation rules have been used 21 times since 1981, usually by Republicans.

"They should stop crying about reconciliation," Reid told reporters at the Capitol. "It's done almost every Congress, and they're the ones that used it more than anyone else."

(Republicans occupied the White House for 20 of those years.)

McConnell invited some of Obama's sharpest critics, including the 2008 GOP presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, to join him. None of the GOP moderates who have raised the prospect of bipartisanship on health care, such as New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg or Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe, were included.

"We're happy to be there, but I'm not quite sure what the purpose is," McConnell said of the daylong summit. "It seems to me the president's already made up his mind."

Democrats were dismissive of GOP "We the People" demands that they start from scratch.

"This idea that we have to start with a blank sheet of paper is ridiculous," said Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa.

Members of Congress who face re-election this fall are worried that public opposition to a full-scale overhaul of healthcare could doom them, according to Politico.com.

Failing to pass a bill would be even worse, party leaders say.

Many House Democrats attended a closed meeting Tuesday at which pollster Celinda Lake said many elderly Americans fear the Obama plans could harm Medicare, Politico.com reported.

Vice President Joe Biden will head a discussion on deficit reduction. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will lead talks on insurance reform.

Speaker Pelosi invited four colleagues Tuesday to attend in addition to previously announced committee chairmen: Reps. Rob Andrews of New Jersey, Xavier Becerra of California, Jim Cooper of Tennessee and Louise Slaughter of New York.

McConnell tapped GOP Sens. John McCain of Arizona, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, John Barrasso of Wyoming and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, in addition to key committee leaders.

What will they have for lunch? Probably what many Americans are being fed - more baloney.

ACTION STEPS

This meeting is scheduled for SIX hours so get comfortable, make a big pot of hot tea and some baloney sandwichs. Stay glued to your tv and watch the "Summit." We know that at least 10% of We the People can watch since they are unemployed. C-SPAN will carry complete coverage live from Blair House. It starts at 10:00 a.m.

Blog your thoughts at www.firstcoastteaparty.ning.com and let us know what you heard on the latest "Summit from Fantasyland aka Washington, DC."

[Kay Ragan Durden]

Tyler Tucker hit the nail on the head. And to think we pay these guys!! Oh Boy!!

[Susan Pitman]

So...Pelosi says no abortion? Please see the TRUTH in the bill:

To sway Nelson, a hard-won compromise on abortion issue

By Paul Kane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 20, 2009; A06



The Democrats wouldn't even sit in the same room.

At one end of the majority leader's office, Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), the antiabortion senator whose support was crucial to health-care legislation, huddled with White House staff in a conference room. At the other end, Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the chamber's leading advocates of abortion rights, hunkered as far from Nelson as possible, in the office of Reid's chief of staff.

Shuttling between the two parties Friday afternoon and evening were Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.). Desperately trying to find a compromise, Schumer put his head in his hands early Friday afternoon. "What are we going to do?" he asked Reid.

But by 10:30 p.m. Friday, a handshake deal sealed a hard-won compromise over abortion. Within minutes senators were on the phone with Obama, who was flying aboard Air Force One, having just forged his compromise with world leaders on global warming, according to senators and aides who participated in the negotiations. "We did it, Mr. President," Reid told Obama.

The deal faced an immediate assault from both ends of the abortion spectrum Saturday morning. The National Organization of Women dubbed it "cruelly over-compromised legislation" and the antiabortion Family Research Council dismissed it as a "phony compromise."

Under the new abortion provisions, states can opt out of allowing plans to cover abortion in the insurance exchanges the bill would set up. The exchanges are designed to serve individuals who lack coverage through their jobs, with most receiving federal subsidies to buy insurance. Enrollees in plans that cover abortion procedures would pay with separate checks -- one for abortion, one for any other health-care services.

This was an effort to comport with the 32-year prohibition against federal funding for abortions, but the Nelson compromise is a softening of the House language, which was written by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.). The Stupak amendment forbid any insurer in the exchange "to pay for any abortion or to cover any part of the costs of any health plan that includes coverage of abortion" -- a position that abortion rights advocates suggested would have led to many insurance providers dropping abortion coverage.

"I know this is hard for some of my colleagues to accept. And I appreciate their right to disagree. But I would not have voted for this bill without these provisions," Nelson said Saturday. With 59 members

[Susan Pitman]

Oh, Charlie is so right. Congress should vote in the worst bill in history because it is the last year in Congress for some of his friends. That makes a lot of sense. Any wonder why they are not returning?

[Susan Pitman]

Who could ever take Charlie Rangle seriously? I mean, really?

[Susan Pitman]

Absurd. The President's word on health care is a TRAVESTY. To say that the proposal forwarded by the House and Senate Dems would not radically change our current system is simply an untruth. I hope the members of both sides can just open their eyes and realize how implmenting this healthcare plan (what little bit of the 2800 pages they may have actually read & understand) will alter far more than just the delivery of medicine in America. WE NEED STATESMAN. Are there any out there???