The Healthcare Bill has passed the House by the slimmest of margins and the slimiest of strategies leaving many wondering what, if any, honor is left in the body that was meant to be the House of the people. Nancy Pelosi was the driving force behind the wheeling and dealing that eventually gained passage of the Healthcare Bill and while she is revered for her work by fellow Progressives and the leftists in the main stream media, most every one else is repulsed by the stories that are creeping out about bribes, bullying and political brutality she employed to get to a mere 219 votes this past Sunday night.
The overwhelming majority of Americans did not want this bill and have made that known in town hall meetings, protests, phone calls, faxes and e-mails. Americans were angry as Congressional Democrats ignored the people they were elected to represent and opposition to this bill climbed to an overwhelming 68% by the evening of the vote. Despite all of this, those that know what this bill will do to the nation watched the signing ceremony that took place Tuesday morning with an unsettling mixture of fear and outrage.
On March 22, 1765 the British Parliament passed the Stamp Act imposing a slew of unpopular and unfair taxes on colonial America. The Stamp Act would rouse anger in the colonies and predicated the colonial revolt against taxation without representation. Isn’t ironic that 245 years later, almost to the day, the United States Congress passed a bill that will tax nearly every facet of American human activity with total disregard of the people they are ostensibly representing. I guess the question now is whether or not the reaction of unrepresented citizens will be the same as the reaction of unrepresented colonists.
As the charge of taxation without representation echoes across the country with the passage of this bill, the real ramifications are just now becoming clear. For the first time in American history, the Federal government will force people to buy a service that they do not want so that government can give it away to people that they determine cannot afford it. The process used by Pelosi to gain the 216 votes she needed for passage was not only rife with charges of bribery but numerous stories about Congressmen being threatened with the loss of their powerful committee assignments or project funding for their districts is now drifting, or should I say oozing into the public light. One Congressman has even accused House leadership of leaking information about an ethics investigation to the press to force his resignation prior to the vote because he would not change his position and support the bill.
Incredibly, Charlie Rangel, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee (the committee responsible for writing our tax code) is currently under investigation for tax fraud and accepting gifts. Nancy Pelosi has not only protected him from public scrutiny for over a year, but openly resisted asking him to relinquish his leadership of the committee until public outrage forced her to reconsider. Oh by the way….Charlie supported the Healthcare Bill and since he only gave up the chairman position and not his Congressional seat, was allowed to vote for the bill this Sunday. It could just be coincidence but knowing what else was done to secure the votes, I seriously doubt it.
Not only are House Republicans furious with the tactics used by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer but there are reports of disgust and outrage from quite a few Moderate Democrats as well. There are many Democrats that secretly equate the passage of this bill with the mass suicide at Jonestown and are left now with trying to figure out how they are going to try and explain their vote to the folks back home. Let’s not forget what they faced in the town hall meetings last August. Now that they betrayed their constituents, they are not sure what they can do to salvage their careers this November. There are unsubstantiated rumors that many of the Democrats that voted for the Healthcare Bill have already mumbled that they will not vote on another piece of controversial legislation until the elections are over, saying that they have “stuck their necks out too far already”. That does not bode well for an ambitious President or his arrogant Speaker and I suspect, the President’s agenda may well be on hold no matter how much Pelosi says it’s time to move forward.
That may present a problem for Obama. The writing is on the wall for the November elections and while some analysts say the Republicans may not gain control of both houses, the President will certainly not be able to move radial or expensive parts of his agenda through the Senate. With this in mind, the President may attempt to a push to get a few more of his pet projects through such as card check, immigration reform or Cap and Trade before the November election brings his agenda to a screeching halt. The problem he has, even today, is that Pelosi and Reid have so deeply angered Congressional Republicans that after the election of Scott Brown, he may find everything he wants dead on arrival in the Senate.
San Franciscans may find themselves with a deeper problem than the President has. Even though House Progressives are falling over themselves to talk about the leadership of Nancy Pelosi, secretly there are many moderates that despise her abusive use of the Speaker’s power over the past year. It is almost a certainty that she will no longer be Speaker by the time January rolls around but the anger runs far deeper than that. I can envision a scenario where Republicans gain enough seats that combined with moderate Democrats; they will see that Pelosi’s district in San Francisco will never receive another nickel for pet projects, pilot programs or economic stimulus as long as Nancy Pelosi is their elected representative. She has proven over the course of the past year, the depth that she would stoop to get what she wants and like a cannibal, even resorted to eating some of her own to get it. That is something not easily forgotten or forgiven in Congress; especially when the cameras are off and the lights go out.
Pelosi may have acted the way she has in part because she is secure in the idea that her district is one of the more liberal areas of the free world. Except for her first bid for Congress, Pelosi has enjoyed the overwhelming support of her constituents and expects the same in 2010. It was only her confidence that she would not suffer the fallout personally that emboldened her to ask her colleagues to jump off a cliff for healthcare. But is she really as secure as she thinks?
Her approval rating across the country is at an all time low of 11% and her approval rating in her own district has slipped well below the 80% she has enjoyed for the past twenty years. She may represent the most Liberal city in America but those Liberals have always seen her as a champion of the people’s rights and the revelation that she is little more than another dried up, old devious and corrupt politician apparently has shaken some of that faith in her. There are already several campaigns forming for the sole purpose of firing Nancy Pelosi and they intend to drive the message home that she is just one more power hungry politician that let her position and power blind her to her obligation to the people she was elected to represent. In the end, we know that San Francisco will offer us another Liberal Democrat to take he place, but if we don’t have to look at or listen to Nancy “Skeletor” Pelosi anymore, the change will be refreshing.
The people of San Francisco should come to their senses and realize that while they might like a good Progressive, she is poison now and having her in Congress to represent them may well cost San Francisco billions in a new Congress. My advice to the City by the Bay is to drop Pelosi like a bad habit. San Francisco has enough to worry about between earthquakes, wild fires and mudslides…..why would you want to risk your future economic security on someone who won’t be able to sell a winning lottery ticket by this time next year?
Paul
The overwhelming majority of Americans did not want this bill and have made that known in town hall meetings, protests, phone calls, faxes and e-mails. Americans were angry as Congressional Democrats ignored the people they were elected to represent and opposition to this bill climbed to an overwhelming 68% by the evening of the vote. Despite all of this, those that know what this bill will do to the nation watched the signing ceremony that took place Tuesday morning with an unsettling mixture of fear and outrage.
On March 22, 1765 the British Parliament passed the Stamp Act imposing a slew of unpopular and unfair taxes on colonial America. The Stamp Act would rouse anger in the colonies and predicated the colonial revolt against taxation without representation. Isn’t ironic that 245 years later, almost to the day, the United States Congress passed a bill that will tax nearly every facet of American human activity with total disregard of the people they are ostensibly representing. I guess the question now is whether or not the reaction of unrepresented citizens will be the same as the reaction of unrepresented colonists.
As the charge of taxation without representation echoes across the country with the passage of this bill, the real ramifications are just now becoming clear. For the first time in American history, the Federal government will force people to buy a service that they do not want so that government can give it away to people that they determine cannot afford it. The process used by Pelosi to gain the 216 votes she needed for passage was not only rife with charges of bribery but numerous stories about Congressmen being threatened with the loss of their powerful committee assignments or project funding for their districts is now drifting, or should I say oozing into the public light. One Congressman has even accused House leadership of leaking information about an ethics investigation to the press to force his resignation prior to the vote because he would not change his position and support the bill.
Incredibly, Charlie Rangel, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee (the committee responsible for writing our tax code) is currently under investigation for tax fraud and accepting gifts. Nancy Pelosi has not only protected him from public scrutiny for over a year, but openly resisted asking him to relinquish his leadership of the committee until public outrage forced her to reconsider. Oh by the way….Charlie supported the Healthcare Bill and since he only gave up the chairman position and not his Congressional seat, was allowed to vote for the bill this Sunday. It could just be coincidence but knowing what else was done to secure the votes, I seriously doubt it.
Not only are House Republicans furious with the tactics used by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer but there are reports of disgust and outrage from quite a few Moderate Democrats as well. There are many Democrats that secretly equate the passage of this bill with the mass suicide at Jonestown and are left now with trying to figure out how they are going to try and explain their vote to the folks back home. Let’s not forget what they faced in the town hall meetings last August. Now that they betrayed their constituents, they are not sure what they can do to salvage their careers this November. There are unsubstantiated rumors that many of the Democrats that voted for the Healthcare Bill have already mumbled that they will not vote on another piece of controversial legislation until the elections are over, saying that they have “stuck their necks out too far already”. That does not bode well for an ambitious President or his arrogant Speaker and I suspect, the President’s agenda may well be on hold no matter how much Pelosi says it’s time to move forward.
That may present a problem for Obama. The writing is on the wall for the November elections and while some analysts say the Republicans may not gain control of both houses, the President will certainly not be able to move radial or expensive parts of his agenda through the Senate. With this in mind, the President may attempt to a push to get a few more of his pet projects through such as card check, immigration reform or Cap and Trade before the November election brings his agenda to a screeching halt. The problem he has, even today, is that Pelosi and Reid have so deeply angered Congressional Republicans that after the election of Scott Brown, he may find everything he wants dead on arrival in the Senate.
San Franciscans may find themselves with a deeper problem than the President has. Even though House Progressives are falling over themselves to talk about the leadership of Nancy Pelosi, secretly there are many moderates that despise her abusive use of the Speaker’s power over the past year. It is almost a certainty that she will no longer be Speaker by the time January rolls around but the anger runs far deeper than that. I can envision a scenario where Republicans gain enough seats that combined with moderate Democrats; they will see that Pelosi’s district in San Francisco will never receive another nickel for pet projects, pilot programs or economic stimulus as long as Nancy Pelosi is their elected representative. She has proven over the course of the past year, the depth that she would stoop to get what she wants and like a cannibal, even resorted to eating some of her own to get it. That is something not easily forgotten or forgiven in Congress; especially when the cameras are off and the lights go out.
Pelosi may have acted the way she has in part because she is secure in the idea that her district is one of the more liberal areas of the free world. Except for her first bid for Congress, Pelosi has enjoyed the overwhelming support of her constituents and expects the same in 2010. It was only her confidence that she would not suffer the fallout personally that emboldened her to ask her colleagues to jump off a cliff for healthcare. But is she really as secure as she thinks?
Her approval rating across the country is at an all time low of 11% and her approval rating in her own district has slipped well below the 80% she has enjoyed for the past twenty years. She may represent the most Liberal city in America but those Liberals have always seen her as a champion of the people’s rights and the revelation that she is little more than another dried up, old devious and corrupt politician apparently has shaken some of that faith in her. There are already several campaigns forming for the sole purpose of firing Nancy Pelosi and they intend to drive the message home that she is just one more power hungry politician that let her position and power blind her to her obligation to the people she was elected to represent. In the end, we know that San Francisco will offer us another Liberal Democrat to take he place, but if we don’t have to look at or listen to Nancy “Skeletor” Pelosi anymore, the change will be refreshing.
The people of San Francisco should come to their senses and realize that while they might like a good Progressive, she is poison now and having her in Congress to represent them may well cost San Francisco billions in a new Congress. My advice to the City by the Bay is to drop Pelosi like a bad habit. San Francisco has enough to worry about between earthquakes, wild fires and mudslides…..why would you want to risk your future economic security on someone who won’t be able to sell a winning lottery ticket by this time next year?
Paul
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