A Change Of Heart? Not Really.

When I heard Nancy Pelosi this weekend say that Washington liberals share many values with the Tea Party movement, I nearly fell out of my chair. On ABC’s “This Week,” Pelosi said, “We [Washington Democrats] share some of the views of the tea partiers in terms of the role of special interest in Washington, D.C. …And that’s why I’ve fought the special interest, whether it’s on energy, whether it’s on health insurance, whether it’s on pharmaceuticals and the rest.” She went on to suggest that conservatives were “hijacking the good intentions” of Tea Party patriots “who share some of our concerns we have.”

Are there no limits to Pelosi’s duplicity? The Left today is nothing but a loosely cobbled collection of special interest groups and grievance mongers. The only thread that binds them is their disdain for the common sense traditional values that animate the Tea Party movement, pro-family voters and pro-defense conservatives!

But what makes Pelosi’s comments even more laughable is that this is the same Nancy Pelosi who called the town hall protestors “un-American.” This is the same Nancy Pelosi who accused the Tea Party marchers of being Nazi sympathizers because some were carrying signs comparing ObamaCare to fascism. This is the same Nancy Pelosi who said the Tea Parties and town hall protests reminded her of the atmosphere in California during the 1970s that led to riots and violence. This is the same Nancy Pelosi who mocked the Tea Parties as “Astroturf,” suggesting that it was not a real grassroots movement.

But today talking about the Tea Parties makes Nancy all warm and fuzzy inside. The Speaker from San Francisco wants them to believe that she truly understands their values and shares the concerns of the Tea Party Patriots. You know liberals are nervous when they start saying nice things about conservatives. So what’s going on here?

The fact is, Pelosi is trying to co-opt the Tea Party movement. Some liberals hope that they can refocus the populist outrage against Big Government by turning it against Big Business. Watch for the assault on free enterprise to intensify in the days ahead. Radicals will escalate their class warfare rhetoric, hoping to convince good folks that the party of Government Motors, socialized medicine, record deficits and sky-high unemployment is really looking out for the little guy. Don’t let your friends and family members fall for it. Take every opportunity to point out the Left’s socialist instincts. Make sure your friends and family members are registered to vote and fully informed.

Voter Registration Sundays

It is difficult to overemphasize just how critical the upcoming elections are. So much is at stake – out-of-control spending, looming tax hikes, socialized medicine, massive energy taxes, unemployment, etc. While our budget deficit dominates the headlines, America is confronting another growing deficit that threatens our prosperity – our virtue deficit.

President Obama wants to use taxpayer dollars to fund abortions in his so-called “healthcare reform” plan. The meaning of marriage is under attack in the courts. The assault on Judeo-Christian values is real.

I know there are a lot of pastors who receive this daily report. You are in a unique position to influence the debate over our values, and I’m proud to encourage your participation in “Voter Registration Sundays.” Under the direction of Father Frank Pavone, a national coalition of leading pro-life, pro-family organizations is calling on religious leaders to designate four weekends this year – March 14th, May 23rd, July 4th and September 12th – as “Voter Registration Sundays.”

Voter registration has never been easier, yet even among men and women of faith voter participation is not what it should be. And that’s why your leadership is essential. In talking with members of your congregation, ask if they are registered to vote. Use your influence – in person and in the pulpit – to promote good citizenship and active participation in our public policy process. Each state has its own regulations and deadlines. You can learn more at our website or at www.politicalresponsbility.com.

Fighting Back!

A few weeks ago, Congress passed so-called “pay-as-you-go” rules mandating that new spending be paid for either with spending cuts in other programs or tax hikes. It was a pathetic attempt by this administration and Congress to appear fiscally responsible in the wake of record deficits and the failed stimulus bill. Last week, liberal politicians tried to sneak through another $10 billion in “emergency” spending on a variety of programs – from unemployment compensation and rural TV, Medicare payments to transportation projects. The House passed the bill on a voice vote and the Senate was supposed to do the same.

But Kentucky Sen. Jim Bunning, a staunch conservative, called the liberals’ bluff, objected to the additional spending and stopped the bill dead in its tracks, turning what was supposed to be an uneventful weekend into a nightmare for many bureaucrats. Thousands of federal workers may be furloughed because of Bunning’s action.

Media and liberal elites are mocking the senator as an “embarrassment to Washington,” but the real embarrassment is Washington’s “business as usual” mentality. Senator Bunning and other fiscal conservatives have suggested that the administration cancel the TARP program or use unspent stimulus funds to pay for these sorts of projects, rather than adding on more debt. Thankfully, Bunning isn’t backing down, saying, “If we can’t find $10 billion somewhere for a bill that everybody in this body supports, we will never pay for anything.” He added, “There are going to be other bills brought to this floor that are not going to be paid for, and I’m going to object every time they do it.” Good for him.

Ending Welfare (Reform) As We Know It

Barack Obama came to the presidency promising to be America’s first post-partisan president. It is, therefore, ironic that one of his signature achievements has been to roll back one of the great bipartisan triumphs of the last two decades, welfare reform. In a Washington Times op-ed today, I examine all of the ways in which Obama’s overspending returns the poor to dependency. You can read my piece here.

While the White House and leftwing activists may be in denial about the results of last week’s special election in Massachusetts, a number of politicians appear to be getting the message. In the immediate aftermath of Scott Brown’s stunning upset victory, the White House was defiant and determined to pass ObamaCare. Having lost their 60-vote supermajority in the Senate, Barack Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi quickly began discussing the available options for muscling their socialized medicine scheme through Congress.

Two plans emerged. One, called the “ping pong” option, would have the House pass the Senate’s bill with no amendments. But two days after Brown’s win, Pelosi said she didn’t have the votes to pass the Senate bill because of major differences. That left Democrats with reconciliation as their last option.

It’s a tricky legislative procedure, but it requires only 51 votes to pass the Senate. Major leftwing groups like SIEU, AARP and MoveOn.org were demanding Democrats move quickly to ram Obamacare through using the reconciliation process. For the past few days, it seemed likely that the Reid and Pelosi would try it.

Conservative groups were quick to sound the alarm, and our efforts are making a difference. Late yesterday evening, Politico reported that at least eight Senate Democrats (including Connecticut Independent Joe Lieberman) had expressed outright opposition or strong reservations to using this trick to pass a bill that nearly 60% of the public opposes. Suddenly, Harry Reid is saying “There is no rush” to pass ObamaCare.

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?

At 11:16 PM Saturday night, the House of Representatives passed Nancy Pelosi’s 2,000-page, $1.2 trillion socialized medicine scheme by just two votes. Republicans were virtually unanimous in their opposition (only one Republican – Anh Cao, who represents a liberal majority-black district in New Orleans – voted for the bill), while 219 Democrats voted for it. More than three dozen Democrats voted against it, proving yet again that on major liberal initiatives the most bi-partisan aspect of these bills is the opposition to them.

The House version of the healthcare bill has been declared “dead on arrival” in the Senate, and Democrats remain divided over some big issues, including taxpayer-subsidies for abortion. During the House debate, 64 Democrats broke ranks to back the Stupak (D-MI)/Pitts (R-PA) amendment preventing taxpayer funding of abortion. After that vote, Planned Parenthood issued a statement noting, “Planned Parenthood Federation of America has no choice but to oppose HR 3962 [the entire healthcare ‘reform’ bill].” That’s the good news.

Here’s the bad news. Today House liberals are demanding that the Stupak/Pitts amendment be stripped from the bill in the House/Senate conference committee. The Hill quotes Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) as saying, “I am confident that when it comes back from the conference committee that that language won’t be there.”

This battle will continue, and there is a chance the Senate won’t be able to act at all until next year. We will keep on defending our values, and you need to do so also.

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.

Obama’s Energy Tax

Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced yesterday that the House of Representatives will be voting on “cap and trade” legislation this week. A recent Rasmussen poll found that only 24% of likely voters correctly understand the term, and I’d be willing to bet that an even smaller share of Congress has read the 1,200 page bill. Representative John Dingell, a Democrat from Michigan, summarized it best when he said, “Nobody in this country realizes that cap and trade is a tax, and it’s a great big one!”

Writing in the Washington Post several weeks ago, Robert Samuelson put it this way: “The centerpiece of Obama’s agenda is a ‘cap and trade’ program. This would be, in effect, a tax on fossil fuels (oil, coal, natural gas). The idea is to raise their prices so that households and businesses would use less or switch to costlier ‘alternative’ energy sources, such as solar. In general, we would spend more on energy and get less of it.”

Spend more and get less. That sounds like Obama’s rationed healthcare proposal too! That concept is antithetical to economic progress and rising standards of living. But it’s generally the outcome of socialism and leftwing thinking.

According to an analysis by the Heritage Foundation, the “cap and trade” bill before the House will result in a “58 percent increase in gas prices, 90 percent for electricity, and 55 percent for natural gas. Cumulative higher energy costs for a household of four from 2012-2035 would reach nearly $20,000.” The Heritage Foundation also predicts more than one million job losses as a direct result of higher energy costs.

Just think about that for a moment. Here we are in the middle of a deep recession, with the president predicting double-digit unemployment, and this White House and the liberal politicians on Capitol Hill are scheming to impose one of the biggest tax increases in history. It will affect every American who turns on a light switch, drives to work or consumes products, since just about every economic activity involves the use of fossil fuels.

Despite Obama’s silence, the House passed a bi-partisan resolution today supporting the Iranian dissidents who share our values. My good friend Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) and Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA) introduced the following legislation on the House floor:

“Expressing support for all Iranian citizens who embrace the values of freedom, human rights, civil liberties, and rule of law, and for other purposes. Resolved, That the House of Representatives-

(1) expresses its support for all Iranian citizens who embrace the values of freedom, human rights, civil liberties, and rule of law;
(2) condemns the ongoing violence against demonstrators by the Government of Iran and pro-government militias, as well as the ongoing government suppression of independent electronic communication through interference with the Internet and cell phones; and
(3) affirms the university of individual rights and the importance of democratic and fair elections.”

The resolution passed by an overwhelming margin of 405-to-1. Who was the single representative who voted against the resolution? Nancy Pelosi? Barney Frank? No, it was none other than Republican isolationist Ron Paul of Texas. At least one of our branches of government has offered its support for the courageous Iranian citizens risking their lives in the name of freedom and democracy.

- Excerpt from Gary Bauer’s Daily Report
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