What’s Not Up, Doc?

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Share with Friends | October 22, 2009

What’s Not Up, Doc?

It was a nice try, but the U.S. Senate wasn’t fooled by the Majority Leader’s "doc fix." Yesterday, a surprising number of Senators from both sides of the aisle sank one of Sen. Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) keys for moving ObamaCare forward. By a vote of 47-53, all Republicans, 12 Democrats, and one Independent downed the pricey $250 billion adjustment on Medicare reimbursement rates, which would have given the reform bill a much-needed boost from American doctors. Instead, Sen. Reid and company suffered an embarrassing loss on a proposal that didn’t even approach a simple majority–let alone the 60 votes it needed to pass. Until yesterday, the largest number of Democrats voting against any of the 27 efforts to limit the debate had been three.

Of course, the leadership had hoped that passing the "doc fix" separately would give the impression that reform was less costly than it is. But even moderate Democrats saw the ruse for what it was. In the end, having a plan with no strategy for paying for it made the "doc fix" a political risk that most Senators refuse to take.

While the leadership retreats after a stinging loss, this should signal that the Democrats’ plans are in complete disarray. As they scurry to make up lost ground, FRC is seizing the opportunity to chime in again on the debate with a new television ad that will start airing today in the nation’s capital. After we roll out the ads in D.C., the campaign will expand to state near you. You can help us take these ads to the next level by clicking over to www.frc.org and joining values voters who want to spread the truth about the President’s costly health care reform.

One man who’s doing a fine job of that is Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). Yesterday, the Senate Minority Leader took to the floor for the 50^th time to denounce the effort to takeover health care. "For most Democrats, reform seems to come in a single form: a vast expansion of government detailed in complicated, thousand-page bills costing trillions." We congratulate the Minority Leader on being a consistent voice for our values. Let’s hope he keeps talking until the Senate starts listening!

Exhibiting Poor (or is it Porn?) Judgment

If this is "America’s Safe Schools Week," then Kevin Jennings has a unique way of celebrating it. In conjunction with the event, the President’s safe schools "czar" is nowhere to be found. Could it be that he’s too busy sponsoring a pornographic AIDS exhibit at Harvard University? The people over at MassResistance have made an appalling new discovery about Jennings that may finally be his undoing. After learning that he sponsored the "Act Up" exhibit in Massachusetts, the group did a little digging to see what the display entailed. The images from the exhibit are so vile and disgusting that we can’t even link to them.

Believe it or not, the man in charge of protecting our schools has endorsed a celebration of perversion that includes video pornography, religious defamation, photos of genitalia, and stories of child pornography, cross-dressing, and sadomasochism. Unlike the incident of covering up child sexual abuse, this is not something that happened 20 years ago! Jennings donated to support the exhibit this year! The photos are so disturbing that any donation would have been too much–yet his name is there, listed as a proud patron.

While it’s important to keep your children away from these images, it’s even more important to keep your kids away from Kevin Jennings! Contact your congressmen today and urge them to join Rep. Steve King’s (R-Iowa) fight to remove this man from the Department of Education!

Supremes: Democracy Isn’t a Contact Sport

What’s in a name? An awful lot, if you’re a donor to conservative causes. In Washington State, a battle had been brewing over whether or not the state could release the contact information for people who supported a pro-marriage initiative. The radical Left, hoping to harass and boycott the opposition a la California, had requested the names to help chill democracy in the region and frighten people away from exercising their constitutional rights. Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court intervened and ordered (by an 8-1 vote) that Washington’s Secretary of State maintain the names’ confidentiality.

While this is a tremendous victory for privacy rights, it isn’t a permanent one. The U.S. Supreme Court will still need to accept the case and decide to hear it before issuing a final decision. That said, it is important that the Court got involved in Washington’s dispute. Clearly the Justices were disturbed by what was happening, including new Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who voted with the majority. Only Justice Stevens dissented.

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