What Are They Hiding?

While Barack Obama is talking terrorism today, Democrat congressional leaders are huddling in secluded suites on Capitol Hill. Why? They are hammering out their differences on a socialized medicine scheme in secret, rather than in the usual conference committee process, which is held in public. Reports broke late yesterday that the liberals would try to bypass the normal legislative process and shut down further debate. Democrats said they didn’t want to give Republicans any more opportunities to slow down or stop the process.

Here’s the truth: Republicans voted unanimously in opposition to this bill, but Democrats control 60 votes – enough to shut down GOP filibusters, which is exactly what the Democrats did. This is entirely their bill. Every significant Republican amendment was defeated. Every GOP attempt to block the bill was shut down. The problem is not conservative opposition, but division within the Left.

So they are once again going behind closed doors as they attempt to socialize nearly 20% of our economy, pass massive new tax hikes, dramatically expand the government (including the IRS) and take away more of our freedom. It is disgusting and outrageous.

It’s also a blatant violation of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s 2006 pledge that her party would “lead the most honest, most open and most ethical congress in history.” And it also breaks candidate Obama’s promise that the legislation would not be negotiated behind closed doors but broadcast on C-SPAN. To its credit, C-SPAN is demanding that President Obama and congressional Democrats keep their word and “allow the public full access, through television, to legislation that will affect the lives of every single American.”

It does make one wonder: If passing this bill would be such a success, why all the secrecy? What are they hiding?

Yesterday, on the steps of the Capitol, Nancy Pelosi and her liberal colleagues unveiled their healthcare plan, H.R. 3962. Here are my thoughts on what transpired at the press conference, and the content of the bill.

• Pelosi’s press conference was an hour long, and only people on her personal “RSVP list” were allowed to attend. Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) said, “The striking thing that occurred today is when the Speaker had her announcement and unveiled their public option, she did so on public grounds in the West Front of the Capitol and frankly denied access to the public.”
• The thirty Democratic members with Pelosi at the press conference did not answer a single question from the press.
• The bill has had an extra thousand pages of statist policy added, making it nearly 2,000 pages long. Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), chairman of the House Republican Study Committee, said, “So how much takeover can you cram into 2,000 pages? By comparison, the legislation that created Medicare and Medicaid in 1965, which costs us $800 billion annually was less than 300 pages long.” What is hidden in the Pelosi bill?
• Members of Congress are not required to enroll in the government plan. The bill says that members can enroll in the public option if they want. Don’t expect any of them to do this, however.
• A 2.5 percent tax on medical devices will also be passed on to Americans. Taxes on hearing aids, heart valves and wheelchairs will all increase and will hurt Americans regardless of income.
• Under this version, working-class families will face higher health care premiums. Millions of Americans will also lose their current plans and senior citizens will see Medicare cut by $500 billion.

The House will be voting on this bill soon, so I strongly encourage you to contact your representatives at 202-224-3121. Call even if you have already done so, and share your thoughts with your elected representatives. The liberals in Washington are trying to transform the United States in their Big Government image. Now is the time to make your voice heard.

Remember just a few weeks ago when, according to Big Media, the country was in the middle of a civility crisis? The crisis, according to Nancy Pelosi and many talking heads on TV, was created by the Right. Tea Party protestors were racists. Town hall critics were un-American. Rep. Joe Wilson insulted the president. Conservative talk radio was spreading anger and hatred. Nancy Pelosi suggested that rhetoric on the Right would lead to violence and assassinations.

Fast forward to today. Several Big Media analysts are now writing that the Left must go mean and negative if it wants to prevent a conservative resurgence. In New Jersey, the Democrat governor has sunk to mocking his GOP opponent’s weight. In Virginia, the Democrat gubernatorial candidate accused the Republican nominee of being a liar in last night’s debate. A few weeks ago, a Democrat congressman went to the floor of the House of Representatives and said the GOP healthcare plan was, “If you get sick, you die.”

This morning, liberal heart-throb Chris Matthews compared Rush Limbaugh to a villain in a James Bond movie and then fantasized about someone jamming “a CO2 pellet into his head” killing him by causing Limbaugh “to explode like a giant blimp.” Did you hear the outrage at these uncivil comments? Of course you didn’t.

The civility crisis a few weeks ago was not about civility. It was about desperate liberals trying to shut up conservatives. The political Left in America abandoned civility a long time ago. Just ask Robert Bork or Clarence Thomas.

ABC’s one hour infomercial with President Obama promoting his socialized healthcare plan was a ratings bomb for the network. Despite airing in primetime at 10 p.m. on Wednesday, the president attracted fewer than 5 million viewers. The show had the lowest ratings of all the major networks for that hour. It wasn’t as if the other networks aired their most popular shows either. NBC debuted a new show titled “The Philanthropist” and CBS aired a repeat episode of “CSI: NY.”

It appears the American people are getting sick of seeing Barack Obama everywhere. The argument the major news networks use when they receive complaints for giving Obama too much air time is that he is a ratings booster. That argument has lost credibility after Wednesday’s bomb. It is getting harder and harder for Big Media to disguise its true intentions, which is to promote a radical leftwing agenda to the American people. But evidently the American people aren’t that interested in the new ABC — the “All Barack Channel.”

In a primetime special on June 24th, ABC News will be broadcasting out of the Obama White House in an effort to promote President Obama’s government-run health care plan. When the Republican National Committee learned of this planned primetime promo, it asked for the opportunity to include a spokesman for its views. (It’s worth noting that nearly 70% of doctors serving in Congress are Republicans, such as Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma.) However, ABC News denied the request. Instead, a pre-selected audience will ask the president questions in a town-hall-style format. (I suspect the questions will be pre-selected too!)

The reports of ABC’s “infomercial” for Obama’s socialized healthcare scheme have sparked a tremendous outcry against this blatant example of media bias. A major media news outlet teaming up with the White House to sell its healthcare plan sounds like something that would take place in Russia or China, not the United States. Many conservative commentators are now referring to ABC as the “All Barack Channel.”

The reaction from ABC was an arrogant statement from Senior Vice President Kerry Smith, who said, “Like any programs we broadcast, ABC News will have complete editorial control. To suggest otherwise is quite unfair to both our journalists and our audience.” Really? I wonder how many people know that the Director of Communications at the White House Office of Health Reform is Linda Douglass, a former ABC news reporter who worked at the network for nearly ten years. I’m sure that’s just a remarkable coincidence and that Douglass had absolutely nothing to do with arranging this broadcast.

TAKE ACTION: Click here to share your thoughts with ABC News about its biased coverage.

- Excerpt from Gary Bauer’s Daily Report
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