It is tiring writing about the complete lack of strategic thinking by the Senate GOP. Why they are unwilling to vote strategically on ObamaCare is a mystery to me. That latest casualty of a bunch of strategical dinosaurs is the rejection of the Dorgan amendment which would have allowed the importation of low cost drugs.

Before proceeding, one of the best primers on Unanimous Consent agreements requiring 60 votes can be found here. If one is confused by the procedural descriptions in the email I quote below from Dr. Larry Hunter, the gist of the matter is this: there is a procedural hurdle that can delay debate in the Senate on healthcare called the removal of Unanimous Consent. Below I link to a post on this site which goes into more detail. This tactic would effectively slow down and ultimately block ObamaCare from passage. The typical Republican excuse of not wanting to be labeled the “party of no” is also addressed.

Per an email I received from Dr. Larry Hunter (some editorial changes were made to translate from email shorthands to a more formal presentation):

Had the Dorgan re-importation amendment been adopted, it would have blown up the deal with Pharmaceuticals. This would have been another huge poison pill on top of the abortion poison pill that remains in the current Senate bill. Add on top the recent “public option/Medicare expansion” problem and ObamaCare would have been getting very heavy and taking on water.

The Republicans made several mistakes. First, they agreed to requiring 60 votes for the amendment to pass. But then, that was part of the original bigger problem in which they agreed to do everything by Unanimous Consent including making all amendments pass the 60-vote hurdle. Instead, they should have not agreed to any Unanimous Consents and filibustered every amendment, forcing Reid to file cloture, burn time and get 60 votes to shut off debate.

On the Dorgan amendment in particular, Republicans should have recognized the perfect opportunity to vote strategically, pass the amendment and put the poison pill in the bill. The amendment failed on a vote of 51 – 48, because it failed to get 60 votes. Here is how the vote broke down: 27 Democrats, 23 Republicans and 1 Independent voted in favor of Dorgan — 30 Democrats, 17 Republicans and 1 Independent voted no. Had but 9 of those 17 Republicans voted in favor of the amendment, it would have passed and the poison pill would have been in the bill and it would have punished Pharmaceuticals big time for selling out to Obama.

Better yet, Republicans should have never agreed to Unanimous Consent to begin with; forced Reid to file for cloture and then all vote no on Cloture. The Democrats would have been stuck between a rock and a hard place: Opponents of the Dorgan amendment would not want to invoke cloture because if they moved to a vote on the amendment itself, it would have passed with 51 votes; but had the opponents prevented cloture from being invoked, the Senate would have remained stuck on the Dorgan amendment and the Reid Bill could not have proceeded forward. You see, had the Republicans had their wits and guts about them, they could have tied the Senate up in knots and made life very, very difficult for Reid et al, and perhaps have weighted the bill down so much that it would have sunk of its own weight.

Once again, the GOP passed up the chance to be the party of no, which is why they poll lower than a generic Tea Party candidate. The American public does not want this bill, so being the party of no when it comes to this legislative boondoggle should make sense – to a sensible person – but then we are talking about the Senate GOP leadership and many of the GOP Senators themselves whose strategy is basically a non-strategy of being hands-off.

As the Tea Parties are the party of no, you would think the Senate GOP would pick up on the obvious and switch strategies. As explained here ObamaCare should be procedurally blocked at every turn, a fact even RNC Michael Steele is picking up on.

Next we have the pro-life movement whose complete lack of understanding of Senate strategy is going to bite them in the end. Make no mistake that their hero right now – Senator Ben Nelson (D-Nebraska) – is acting the part of Judas to the movement. In the end, through manager amendments, make no mistake that Nelson will get the language he needs to provide him coverage, but he language will be so obscure that, with the government running healthcare abortion will be covered, probably sooner rather than later. This is how DC works. By improving the bill you help guarantee its passage. Read The Endgame Strategy To Kill ObamaCare – Lessons From The House Bill and Killing ObamaCare In The Senate – The Need For Strategic Voting. From the later post:

The Republicans knew full well Pelosi’s plan but voted in the name of political expediency to include the Stupak amendment, all but guaranteeing the passage of healthcare legislation in the House. So twisted is the current legislative process that if the general public were truly aware of the posturing and cowardice of our so-called leaders it would sicken them. As Dr. Larry Hunter wrote to me in an email:

If you haven’t already figured it out, most everything that goes on inside Washington is pure posturing and self-serving. Most of these jokers would rather have the issue to raise funds on than win the battle. I knew asking people to engage in strategic voting would be a heavy lift, and it looks like it is going to be beyond them.

The reason politicians are able to pull off these shenanigans is the complete ignorance of many, but not all, of the public to the importance of strategic voting and our unwillingness to hold accountable those whose interests are self-serving, thereby aiding the enemy in the full-scale assault on our liberties and ultimately destroying this country. We must be willing to hold them accountable for their cowardice. Even more guilty are the tools of the Democrats, the Family Research Council, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Americans United for Life, and National Right to Life Committee. The reader may be shocked to read these groups are unwitting tools of the Democrats, but a useful idiot is a tool until they decide to quit being useful idiots.

Which is why I am frustrated this morning to read Stop the abortion mandate:

To get the latest breaking news from our nation’s capital, you are invited to participate in a LIVE webcast event on Tuesday, December 15, at 9 PM Eastern (6 PM Pacific, 7 PM Mountain, 8 PM Central.)

The event will be approximately one hour long. If you have access to the Internet — even with a dial-up connection — you can listen to the live webcast audio and ask questions.

During this important nationwide event, you will discover:

* The LATEST UPDATES straight from our nation’s capital…
* The shocking implications of the bill that the abortion industry is trying to ram through the United States Senate RIGHT NOW…
* Why respected leaders, national organizations, and pro-life people are joining together in record numbers to BLOCK this attempted power-grab…
* How YOU can make a difference at this crucial moment…
*… And much more!

We have met the enemy – and he is us.

Erick Erickson of Redstate is reporting the Senate Democrats are on the verge of a healthcare deal – a deal which would expose McConnell’s public strategy of holding 40 Republicans and finding 1 or more Democrats as flawed in the extreme. Add to this equation the behind-the-scenes fact that McConnell’s strategy is to use ObamaCare’s passage as a catalyst to increase GOP gains in the Senate and you have the ingredients for a complete GOP meltdown next year.

Given the fact that a it doesn’t take 40 Republicans to succeed in stopping the Reid Bill; it doesn’t take 20; it only takes one Republican to object each time Harry Reid propounds a unanimous consent agreement to rush another amendment through the process, McConnell has shown himself to intellectually challenged. The GOP strategy will not stop ObamaCare as the Redstate story makes plainly clear. Therefore, only one option remains – throw up every procedural block in the book to slow down ObamaCare, for if it passes McConnell and the rest of the GOP, with the exception of Senator Jim DeMint who stands alone in standing up for this country, will have succeeded in pushing the themselves and the rest of the GOP over a cliff and pulling the country along with them.

RNC Michael Steele gets the message and fiscal conservatives applaud him for recognizing how McConnells’ strategy is bad for the country and a nightmare in the making for the GOP. Last week CBS reported that RNC leader Michael Steele sent a memo to the Senate GOP telling them to pull out all the stops and use every trick in the book to stop ObamaCare. What screw is loose in McConnell’s head? The Senate GOP should do their job and defend this country. This is and always has been warfare and wars are won by engaging the enemy, not running from them of prostrating oneself before them. This is the very definition of impotence. What the GOP leadership needs now is a large canister of mental Viagra.

Today is the day folks – call your Republican Senator and burn up the phone lines, or send them an email. Inundate them with one clear message: “Let ObamaCare pass and we will abandon you – in droves”.

What McConnell fails to realize that we live in an age where information flies at speeds he can’t even begin to comprehend. With blogs, social networks, and events like the National Conservative Symposium and the technology that will be brought to bear by Tea Party Support, it will not be long before his treachery is household knowledge and his dreams of a GOP tidal wave dissipate before his eyes. Watch yourself Senator.

The time for wobbly and treacherous strategies is over. Listen now our join many of us in the unemployment line. To the Senate GOP I say this – do not follow McConnell. Sell us out and we vote you out. Period.

Get this story out on the social networks. Email it to all your friends. Now is the time for action for time is indeed short.

Related:

Democrats Play Hardball with Their Own

If the Tea-Party/Grass-Roots movement is for real it will make its bones right now by pledging to throw out of office any Republican Senator who fails to object, obstruct and fight to kill the Reid Bill by any parliamentary means available to them—with no possibility of a commutation of sentence before they next stand for reelection regardless of how they try to atone for their mortal sin between now and then.

Nobody says it better than Dr. Hunter: YES, WE WANT NO OBAMA – CARE:

Unless Republicans become galvanized to actively obstruct the Reid Bill, our guess is Democrats will get their game together at last and push a skinnied-down version of ObamaCare through the Senate by year’s end. What a shame that will be. And, far from redounding to the electoral benefit of Republicans as the Senate GOP Leadership seems to calculate, it likely will result in conservative activists staying home from the polls in droves next November.

Code Red Rally in D.C. today; Update: What will Nelson’s payoff be?; MoveOn to hold counter-protest

ObamaCare: the not-unexpected cave-in on the public option

Breaking: Lieberman wins, Senate drops Medicare buy-in

CBO confirms ObamaCare is a takeover of the health insurance industry

How much is America worth?: Dems Offer Nelson up to $500 million in Earmarks to Vote Yes. So that’s how much the Democrats think America is worth. Going once, going twice….sold! For $500 million dollars. I guess with the Senate GOP doing nothing about it equates to their price for America being, well, nothing.

Update: Conservative Redstate’s talented blogger Erick Erickson is now picking up the story and whipping up the troops. Early last week Tea Party Support and the Social Security Institute ran an email and fax blast campaign called “I Object” sending out over 1.5 million call-to-action emails to activists across the country. The campaign concerned the subject covered below – how to block ObamaCare in the Senate using the procedural tactic of removing unanimous consent on each and every amendment offered to the Reid healthcare bill. The information generated by Tea Party Support and the Social Security Institute is now being picked up across the internet and on the Hill. Even the big guy himself Rush Limbaugh blasted Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for a flawed, treacherous, and wobbly strategy, forcing Senate Minority Whip John Kyl and Senator McConnell to provide a lackluster defense of the strategy. The narrative of the Republican sell-out was so compelling that soon after the TPS and SSI push CBS reported that Michael Steele sent a memo to the Senate GOP telling them to pull out all the stops and use every trick in the book to stop ObamaCare. Tea Party Support followed that story up with a press release Rush Limbaugh & Michael Steele Join Tea Party Support & Social Security Institute-Demand GOP Senate Stop ObamaCare by Any Means Possible.

A wise friend pointed out the obvious to me:

I am tired of hearing the GOP say they don’t want to be the party of no, that the party of no will not get them re-elected. In fact, quite the opposite is true. The Tea Parties are the party of no – no socialized healthcare, no cap-and-trade, no fiscal-irresponsibility, no, no, no, no.

And what did this lead to? As Rasmussen reports: Tea Party Tops GOP on Three-Way Generic Ballot. How much more evidence does the GOP need? How dense is the leadership?

Following is the original post:

Democrats reach agreement that includes the public option. Dick Morris is mad, but for all the wrong reasons.

Please note that this bill cannot be allowed to pass in any form and that it is within the power of the GOP in the Senate to ensure that it does not. This idea of watering down the bill is flawed from the start. Give a liberal a scaffolding for an entitlement program and watch it expand over time and drive this country over the edge.

Sorry folks, but the Republicans sold us out on this one. McConnell thinks that by allowing healthcare to pass he will guarantee GOP gains next year. Nothing could be further from the truth and the man has just put the GOP up a creek and threw away the paddle.

The Republicans just rolled over for the Democrats on ObamaCare and put their own self interests and vacation over country.

Thinking that allowing this bill to pass will lead to GOP victory is so myopic that McConnell needs to lose his leadership position. His credibility as a leader of the Senate GOP is shot and anyone who believes he puts country first needs to have their head examined. I doubt the man could pour water out of a boot if the instructions were written on the heel. This could have been stopped by simply removing unanimous consent on each and every amendment. Thanks for bending over and grabbing your ankles for the Democrats.

No, 2010 will find the GOP in a bare knuckles fight with the grassroots. McConnell just killed the GOP. That’s the real story here. The Democrats just gave him enough rope to hang himself and his party with it.

There is no reason for any of this bill to pass. That should have been the objective all along for even a watered down ObamaCare bill provides the scaffolding for a future monstrosity. What the hell is McConnell and the Senate GOP thinking? If they think that voters are stupid and blind to their treachery, they are in for a very rude awakening. Insulting our intelligence and selling us out is not a strategy that is going to get you re-elected. The GOP just screwed us for the last time and McConnell is going to go down in history as one of the biggest strategical half-wits to ever lead the party in the Senate.

This is the hill we will live or die on. This is it folks. For years we have allowed Republicans to act in the name of political expediency instead of taking off the gloves for a bare knuckle fight. For years we have allowed them to use one excuse after another to hide under a rock. For years we have allowed our so-called representatives to put self-interest over country. No more. As this story states the Tea Party is now more popular than the GOP in a national poll. Can you hear us now?

The time to pony up has arrived. If the Republican Party wishes to continue to exist they will start paying attention to their bosses – us. If they allow ObamaCare to pass – and don’t let them fool you or give sorry excuses for it is well within their power to stop it – then 1/6 of the U.S. economy will be under the control of wealth distributionists and socialists. If that happens, it is a fair question to challenge the usefulness of the Republican Party.

It doesn’t take 40 Republicans to succeed in stopping the Reid Bill; it doesn’t take 20; it only takes one Republican to object each time Harry Reid propounds a unanimous consent agreement to rush another amendment through the process.

Fortunately, under Senate rules the Democratic leadership can rush these amendments through only if they get what’s called “unanimous consent.” That means all 100 senators have to agree to rush the amendments through by consenting to a unanimous consent agreement, which severely limits debate and restricts the time available for experts to analyze the amendments. It’s the old bum’s rush.

Even ONE senator objecting would be enough to slow the rush of amendments down and give the American people at least two days of debate on each amendment. Two days is the minimum we should have to analyze amendments and to allow Senators an opportunity to comment on and debate them.

Let me say that again: It takes only one Republican to object each time Harry Reid tries to jam another amendment through the process with limited debate and little public scrutiny. With 40 Republicans in the Senate, that means even if Harry Reid kept the Senate in session 24 hours a day (as Senator Durbin threatened), each Republican Senator would have to spend no more than 36 minutes a day doing floor duty as a sentinel against the Majority Leader jamming another amendment through the Senate process under a rigged unanimous consent agreement. Last week Senator Jim DeMint did just that and waited for Republicans to back him up. When Dick Durbin threatened to keep the Senate in session 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, our so-called leaders in the Republican Party slithered away whimpering like a bunch of cry-babies and left Senator DeMint dangling over a cliff.

Christmas first, country second – a fitting label for a weak and morally corruptible party. Ask your Republican Senator, “Why are you allowing this to be done to our country?”. If ObamaCare passes the Republican Party will face an all out war from within their own ranks the likes of which they have never seen. Tea Parties will turn to state legislatures and nullification movements to take back this country and Republicans will face a wave of primary challenges beyond imagination.

The Republican Senators have been protesting vehemently in the media about how much they oppose ObamaCare and the Reid Health bill, and despite their constant reassurances to grassroots activists that they are doing everything humanly possible to defeat the bill, Republicans in fact are quietly stepping aside and allowing the ObamaCare Express loaded down with the Reid Bill and tons of amendments to barrel through the U.S. Senate so they can go home for Christmas Vacation without delay and not have to work long hours in the meantime. Cowards and swine.

All year we’ve been trying to convince Senators who support government health care to change their minds and Senators on the fence to come out against it. That’s still vitally important. But given the way the Senate works, it is more important right now to make sure Republican Senators who claim to oppose the Reid Bill have the courage and character to use the enormous leverage they possess to prevent the bill from passing this year. Remember, there is no way the Reid Bill can pass the Senate as it is currently written. Therefore, it must be amended to pass. But those amendments will be highly controversial, even among Democrats. That is why it is vitally important that each and every amendment be given close public scrutiny and at least two days debate.

If the Democrats want to play brinksmanship by holding the Senate in session long hours, seven days a week until Christmas Day, so be it. If the Democrats drag Senators back to Washington between Christmas and New Years for marathon sessions, so be it. Giving up Christmas Vacation is the least Republican Senators can do to stop a socialist government takeover of healthcare this year. Our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq don’t get to take time off from combat to celebrate Christmas, and they are putting their lives on the line every hour of every day. No U.S. Senator fit to serve in that august body would even think about shirking his or her duty to defend America against a government takeover of healthcare just so he or she can work bankers’ hours and enjoy college-student vacation time.

Millions of Americans across America don’t even have a job this Holiday Season and they are demanding that Senators do their jobs to protect and defend America against another government takeover.

If one or both of your Senators are opposed to the Reid Bill, contact them and make a very simple request: “Do not help Harry Reid rush any aspect of this outrageous legislation through the Senate by giving him your consent to proceed along the fast track. Use your power to object to any unanimous consent agreement limiting debate and restricting time for deliberation; demand that every amendment be given at least two days debate and public scrutiny so that everyone has time to understand and comment on each one of them.

If ObamaCare is enacted into law this year or next year, it will be the fault of the Republican Senators because they refused to suffer a little bit of personal inconvenience and political risk to defend their country against another government takeover. Make no mistake, all Republican Senators must do to stop ObamaCare this year is object to the Democrats fast-track scheme to jam one amendment after another through the Senate with limited debate and restricted public scrutiny.

Email and call your Republican Senators now. Let them know we are on to their game, that cowardice, self-interest, and treachery will NOT get them re-elected and that following Mitch McConnell off a cliff is the single most insane act of political suicide they could possibly commit. It is free and easy to do.

There is an organization out there ready to pull the plug on backroom deals through the use of a virtual cloakroom and expose the treason of the GOP to the country. It is Tea Party Support. In January, Tea Party Support will be hosting the National Conservative Symposium with Sarah Palin and other soon to be release VIPs. For more information about Tea Party Support, see here.

Tea Party Support is seeking donations from concerned citizens and activists. From the cost of servers, communications technology such as primary rate interfaces (PRIs) and high speed DS3’s, voter-rolls for every state at the precinct level, database programming, the design and staffing of the cloakroom – everything needed to assist TPS in allowing existing grassroots organizations access to the type of value-added services needed to turn the entire grassroots movement into what it is meant to be – the largest lobby and special interest group in the entire country with the largest clientele; the American people. Consider a donation if you are so inclined.

For all the talk around the blogosphere of this or that breaking news I don’t think any of it (the news) matters and, in the end, something will pass unless we all begin to understand how to fight this:

Senate insiders are saying that McConnell is using healthcare as his ace to ensure greater gains for the GOP next year. That is his strategy and it is plain to those who are aware of it. The obfuscation these guys are throwing up to give the appearance of fighting is treacherous. It is going to kill the GOP and lead to less gains next year, not more. McConnell is myopic in his strategical thinking because he is not aware the fig leaf he is used to hiding behind is gone and, as time passes, it will becomes obvious to everyone. If we don’t lean on him now to do the right thing and get the GOP to become the party of no when it comes to healthcare, we will all be jumping off the cliff right behind him, along with 1/6 of our economy.

Related:

Demcare crunch time: Kill the bill and start over

Lieberman Throws Monkey Wrench Into Reid’s Health Care Plans

Did Reid Kill ObamaCare?

Reid Panics

Reid’s Obamcare Compromise Runs Into Stumbling Block

Lieberman: No cloture on Reid package

Update: Conservative Redstate’s talented blogger Erick Erickson is now picking up the story and whipping up the troops. Early last week Tea Party Support and the Social Security Institute ran an email and fax blast campaign called “I Object” sending out over 1.5 million call-to-action emails to activists across the country. The campaign concerned the subject covered below – how to block ObamaCare in the Senate using the procedural tactic of removing unanimous consent on each and every amendment offered to the Reid healthcare bill. The information generated by Tea Party Support and the Social Security Institute is now being picked up across the internet and on the Hill. Even the big guy himself Rush Limbaugh blasted Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for a flawed, treacherous, and wobbly strategy, forcing Senate Minority Whip John Kyl and Senator McConnell to provide a lackluster defense of the strategy. The narrative of the Republican sell-out was so compelling that soon after the TPS and SSI push CBS reported that Michael Steele sent a memo to the Senate GOP telling them to pull out all the stops and use every trick in the book to stop ObamaCare. Tea Party Support followed that story up with a press release Rush Limbaugh & Michael Steele Join Tea Party Support & Social Security Institute-Demand GOP Senate Stop ObamaCare by Any Means Possible.

Below is the original post:

Stand with Jim DeMint and Just Say “I Object” (fax blast and email). Please note that faxes are a better way to impact your Senator.

This is the hill we will live or die on. This is it folks. For years we have allowed Republicans to act in the name of political expediency instead of taking off the gloves for a bare knuckle fight. For years we have allowed them to use one excuse after another to hide under a rock. For years we have allowed our so-called representatives to put self-interest over country. No more. As this story states the Tea Party is now more popular than the GOP in a national poll. Can you hear us now?

The time to pony up has arrived. If the Republican Party wishes to continue to exist they will start paying attention to their bosses – us. If they allow ObamaCare to pass – and don’t let them fool you or give sorry excuses for it is well within their power to stop it – then 1/6 of the U.S. economy will be under the control of wealth distributionists and socialists. If that happens, it is a fair question to challenge the usefulness of the Republican Party.

It doesn’t take 40 Republicans to succeed in stopping the Reid Bill; it doesn’t take 20; it only takes one Republican to object each time Harry Reid propounds a unanimous consent agreement to rush another amendment through the process.

Fortunately, under Senate rules the Democratic leadership can rush these amendments through only if they get what’s called “unanimous consent.” That means all 100 senators have to agree to rush the amendments through by consenting to a unanimous consent agreement, which severely limits debate and restricts the time available for experts to analyze the amendments. It’s the old bum’s rush.

Even ONE senator objecting would be enough to slow the rush of amendments down and give the American people at least two days of debate on each amendment. Two days is the minimum we should have to analyze amendments and to allow Senators an opportunity to comment on and debate them.

Let me say that again: It takes only one Republican to object each time Harry Reid tries to jam another amendment through the process with limited debate and little public scrutiny. With 40 Republicans in the Senate, that means even if Harry Reid kept the Senate in session 24 hours a day (as Senator Durbin threatened), each Republican Senator would have to spend no more than 36 minutes a day doing floor duty as a sentinel against the Majority Leader jamming another amendment through the Senate process under a rigged unanimous consent agreement. Last week Senator Jim DeMint did just that and waited for Republicans to back him up. When Dick Durbin threatened to keep the Senate in session 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, our so-called leaders in the Republican Party slithered away whimpering like a bunch of cry-babies and left Senator DeMint dangling over a cliff.

Christmas first, country second – a fitting label for a weak and morally corruptible party. Ask your Republican Senator, “Why are you allowing this to be done to our country?”. If ObamaCare passes the Republican Party will face an all out war from within their own ranks the likes of which they have never seen. Tea Parties will turn to state legislatures and nullification movements to take back this country and Republicans will face a wave of primary challenges beyond imagination.

The Republican Senators have been protesting vehemently in the media about how much they oppose ObamaCare and the Reid Health bill, and despite their constant reassurances to grassroots activists that they are doing everything humanly possible to defeat the bill, Republicans in fact are quietly stepping aside and allowing the ObamaCare Express loaded down with the Reid Bill and tons of amendments to barrel through the U.S. Senate so they can go home for Christmas Vacation without delay and not have to work long hours in the meantime. Cowards and swine.

All year we’ve been trying to convince Senators who support government health care to change their minds and Senators on the fence to come out against it. That’s still vitally important. But given the way the Senate works, it is more important right now to make sure Republican Senators who claim to oppose the Reid Bill have the courage and character to use the enormous leverage they possess to prevent the bill from passing this year. Remember, there is no way the Reid Bill can pass the Senate as it is currently written. Therefore, it must be amended to pass. But those amendments will be highly controversial, even among Democrats. That is why it is vitally important that each and every amendment be given close public scrutiny and at least two days debate.

If the Democrats want to play brinksmanship by holding the Senate in session long hours, seven days a week until Christmas Day, so be it. If the Democrats drag Senators back to Washington between Christmas and New Years for marathon sessions, so be it. Giving up Christmas Vacation is the least Republican Senators can do to stop a socialist government takeover of healthcare this year. Our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq don’t get to take time off from combat to celebrate Christmas, and they are putting their lives on the line every hour of every day. No U.S. Senator fit to serve in that august body would even think about shirking his or her duty to defend America against a government takeover of healthcare just so he or she can work bankers’ hours and enjoy college-student vacation time.

Millions of Americans across America don’t even have a job this Holiday Season and they are demanding that Senators do their jobs to protect and defend America against another government takeover.

If one or both of your Senators are opposed to the Reid Bill, contact them and make a very simple request: “Do not help Harry Reid rush any aspect of this outrageous legislation through the Senate by giving him your consent to proceed along the fast track. Use your power to object to any unanimous consent agreement limiting debate and restricting time for deliberation; demand that every amendment be given at least two days debate and public scrutiny so that everyone has time to understand and comment on each one of them.

If ObamaCare is enacted into law this year, it will be the fault of the Republican Senators because they refused to suffer a little bit of personal inconvenience and political risk to defend their country against another government takeover. Make no mistake, all Republican Senators must do to stop ObamaCare this year is object to the Democrats fast-track scheme to jam one amendment after another through the Senate with limited debate and restricted public scrutiny.

You can do something about this and take action now. Stand with Jim DeMint and Just Say “I Object” (fax blast and email). Tea Party Support is an organization I have posted about here. If the fax campaign is out of your budget, please consider using the donate button and provide a one time donation or recurring donation for as low as $1 a month. I like to look at it this way – donate a few bucks to Tea Party Support now or allow Washington to raid your coffers for the rest of your life and the life of your children and grandchildren. I vote for the former case.

What else can you do to help? Use the ShareThis button at the bottom of this post to blast this information to the social networks or email it to a friend, or just email the following TinyUrl link to all you friends and family: http://tinyurl.com/ylblvuf. Take the time to do this and take back your country. It is not much to ask. Get the word out or get ready for ObamaCare.

Enough is enough.

In other news and opinion:

ObamaCare: Is the GOP helping pass it?

Dude, Where’s My Strategy?

EPA declares air a danger to human health

ObamaCare: Nelson is Stupak all over again, but possibly worse

Major Update: The Senator Jim DeMint Healthcare Amendments – Why They Matter. A Strategy To Kill Reconciliation. This is a must read post that outlines a strategy only the grassroots could execute – a strategy that decreases the likelihood the votes exist in the Senate even for Reconciliation.

So this is compromise. From government run socialist healthcare to a government run fascist healthcare. And it looks like a number of Republican Senators are practically wetting their pants over this copout as opposed to opting out altogether and standing up for their constituents.

For these Republicans, the danger of believing this agreement finally closes the door on a painful August with expectations we will all fall in line like mindless robots is these politicians seem to forget how quickly we now pick up on the details. Gone are the days when many Republicans could count on an apathetic electorate. The lesson of August? Ignore us at your peril.

Any Republican that votes for this blatant destruction of personal liberties may as well save themselves the time and start packing their bags now. Complicity by any Republican will exile them to the political wilderness, and don’t be afraid to let them know that. This bipartisan RINOCare compromise takes us from big government to a big government, big business collusion. Republican politicians call it a “public-private partnership” between big insurance and the federal government. But what is the reality? It is a nefarious entity best described as a government maintained insurance cartel. For details, read Obama’s Health-Insurance Cartel (emphasis mine).

For all his talk about choice and competition, what Obama proposes is more of what we already labor under: corporate-state bureaucratic decision-making. The status quo is not the free market. It is a system of government-business collusion that, among other things, welds workers to their employers. Obama’s scheme would simply be more of the same. The reason Big Pharma and Big Insurance favor the scheme is that everyone would be forced to buy their products or coverage for their products, with the taxpayers picking up most of the tab.

Note the words corporate-state bureaucratic decision-making. If you think the Senate Finance Committee rids us of rationing and death panels (that’s right, I used that phrase), then your in for a surprise. Instead of a government bureaucracy making your decisions for you, you know have the monstrous child of the union of government and big insurance. Either way, the decision about your healthcare is taken from you and your doctor and handed off to the uncaring hands of self-serving companies and bloated government.

While I disagree with Obama and Gibbs on pretty much everything and loath Obama’s overt attempt to socialize this country, this is very telling:

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs criticized the Senate Finance Committee 24 hours before President Barack Obama is set to address Congress, questioning why lobbyists have a copy of the committee bill before the administration.

Gibbs said it is “not surprising” that K Street lobbyists have the proposal, which does not include the controversial public-option plan, before the president does.

Anyone who thinks this Orwellian piece of legislation trash is good for America is now forewarned (emphasis mine):

Well Ladies and Gentlemen of the grass roots looky here: Now emerges from the shadows the hand holding the smoking gun spotted earlier of the Big-Business/Big-Government bipartisan conspiracy to conscript the entire population into a government-run healthcare system. Today, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) released details of his healthcare plan that would impose fines of up to $3,800 on a family that refuses to purchase health insurance.

Although this plan is being introduced by a top-ranking Democrat, the framework of the program is shaping up to be very similar to the Republican-designed blue print the GOP already foisted on the nation under the Medicare Part D prescription drugs program, which I described some time ago about three fourths of the way through this radio interview.

There is, consequently, good reason for the White House to remain optimistic about achieving a “bipartisan compromise.” The President’s Senate operatives are embracing Republican thinking and going over to the Red Side to entice GOP Senators to join in the healthcare takeover:

“The plan from Democratic Sen. Max Baucus of Montana would make health insurance mandatory, just like auto coverage. . .It would provide tax credits to help cover the cost for people making up to three times the federal poverty level. . .Those who still don’t sign up would face hefty fines, starting at $750 a year for individuals and $1,500 for families.

For those who earn more than three times the poverty level and refuse to purchase insurance, the penalty on individuals would jump to $950 and the penalty on families would jump to $3,800.

Senator Baucus says he is hoping his plan can win bipartisan support. And, why not? Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) is known to be secretly negotiating with the White House to impose just such a mandate. Senator Chuck Grassley already stated publicly that he, and many in his party, support imposing a mandate on individuals to purchase healthcare. To wit: Four other Republicans (Bennett, Alexander, Crapo and Graham) already (co)sponsor a bill (S. 391, Wyden-Bennett) the central organizing principle of which is an individual mandate.

And, as one liberal wag put it, the insurance companies are not the problem holding up healthcare reform, “Since they desperately want an individual mandate passed and will accept anything short of having their CEOs pushed out of an airplane door to get it.” It looks like six Republican Senators are just dying to jump out of an airplane to give it to them.

All that is required now to seal the deal is to put a Potemkin front on the public option and paint the words “Insurance Cooperatives” over the door. Presto magico, a “bipartisan compromise,” a.k.a. RHINOCare…

…The momentum is building toward a negotiated RHINOCare compromise on healthcare reform. If it happens, it will be just the latest in a long string of lurches toward a government takeover of everything engineered by Republicans in the name of freedom, security, privacy and free markets.

It is positively Orwellian.

In a match made in hell, powerful Republicans are brokering a RINOCare deal between the White House and big business to replace an employer mandate with an individual mandate (see here) and pave the way toward cartelization a health insurance market cartel (see here).

So President Obama has jettisoned the public option right on cue. The pivot is being portrayed in the press as an effort to salvage ObamaCare from ferocious opposition to the public option from the right, which is true but it is not the whole explanation of what Obama is doing and why he is doing it.

This move is not occurring in a panic, as some pundits would have people believe. This political pivot has long been contemplated within the White House as part of the Administration’s strategy to devise a healthcare package acceptable to the insurance industry, which in turn the President hopes will provide a “compromise” conservatives can live with. The trick is to do so without so alienating the left wing of his own party that he gets mouse trapped in the middle.

Now the following makes a bit more sense: Tide turns against public option on eve of President Obama’s address. Obama may pay lip service to the public option in his address to Congress tonight, but as to losing sleep over the loss of the public option – don’t count on it. The takeover of your healthcare is right on schedule and the dealing is positively Machiavellian.

There is no need for a massive overhaul of the healthcare industry to address the problems we are facing today. Simple free-market solutions exist which can drive down costs without liberty destroying legislation that favors big government and/or big business and without the budget busting pricetag attached to all these proposals. I live in Texas and the benefits of tort reform are quantifiable and beneficial to both patients and doctors.

Contact your Senator now and demand they hit the reset button and start over with real reform. If you Senator is Republican, demand they either stop or do not enter into any negotiations on any of the existing bills. It’s time to start over, keep big government out of our lives, and kick the special interests to the curb. This is about you and me – not them.

If your Senator is one of the following I recommend getting a few friends to get a few friends to get a few friends to contact them: (Gregg, Grassley, Snowe, Collins, Bennett, Murkowski, Voinovich, Corker, Alexander, Enzi, Graham, McCain, McConnell).

If you think its time to panic, it just might be. Educating the grass roots about this is probably one of the most important tasks at hand right now, and it must be done fast. I humbly hope this post meets with some success in providing the background necessary to fight this tooth-and-nail.

Update: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) looks like he is all over this “compromise” business and is ready to sell us out. Send letters, faxes, emails, and phone the sellout Senator (now there’s a nickname). His contact information is: Phone: 202-224-2541 FAX: 202-224-2499. Tell him no compromise on ObamaCare. It’s time to hit the reset switch.

Update: Right on cue: Reid endorses healthcare co-ops as Speaker Pelosi signals flexibility.

Baucus noted that the policies Obama outlined closely match the proposal Baucus presented to his bipartisan group last weekend, which will be the basis of a bill he will introduce next week and mark up in the committee the following week.

In other news and opinion:

Senate Republican Leader Sticks His Foot In GOP’s Mouth:

In today’s Washington Post (“Senate Finance Committee Chair Holds Out Hope That Bipartisan Accord Can Be Reached”), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) stuck his foot in the Republican Party’s mouth:

“Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) signaled Tuesday his party may retreat from the ‘just say no’ approach [on healthcare reform] that was effective this summer. Doing nothing, he said, is not an option. ‘At this point, there really should be no doubt where the American people stand. The status quo is not acceptable, but neither are any of the proposals we’ve seen from the White House or Democrats in Congress,’ he said. What people want, McConnell said, is a less costly effort with a less ambitious scope. ‘They want reforms, but they want the right reforms,’ he said.”

Is this the sound of professional Republican politicians beginning to cave in on a government takeover of healthcare? Was the Republican Leader signaling their willingness to cut a deal with the “right reforms,” such as an individual mandate and healthcare cooperatives, which Senate Democrats are now promoting and numerous Republican Senators are on record supporting? Or is it the sound of a tactical misstep by the Senate Republican Leader putting his foot too close to the edge and finding his footing collapsing beneath him?

The minute the Senate Republican Leader accepted the President’s patently false premise that “doing nothing is not an option,” he stepped out onto a slippery slope. Unless his colleagues pull himself back off it immediately, he could pull the entire Republican Party down to ruin along with him…

The K Street tax cheat who’s lobbying to save Obamacare

Czar backlash builds: Democrat calls for removal

Blue Dog: Town halls convinced me to oppose public option

ObamaCare Will Result in Lower Future Living Standards

Paul Krugman Vs Sarah Palin On Health Care

Government rejects Card Check as “unreliable”

Video: Democratic disarray

Boustany rebuttal: start with what we ‘agree upon’

Jim DeMint to Obama: Let’s go over ObamaCare line by line

Will the Speech Tonight Plug the Dike?

Behind closed doors: Baucus wooing Grassley and Enzi. Putting lipstick on a pig.

If you want to go fast – go alone. If you want to go far – go together.