Major Update 2: There is a meme making its way through the internet the Jim Demint amendments don’t matter. NOT TRUE.

Major Update: ObamaCare coup de grace is nigh. It is time to strike the death blow.

The battle now turns to preventing the Senate from jamming ObamaCare down the throats of the American People under Reconciliation. The end game is underway and the momentum is swinging toward the opponents of ObamaCare. Or to mix metaphors, ObamaCare opponents are on the green, and all they have to do is sink the putt. Can anybody here play this game? After Saturday’s impressive demonstration on the National Mall there is no doubt the grass-roots movement for freedom, privacy and limited government can hit a very long drive and knows how to chip onto the green. The question remains: Can they putt? Let’s hope so.

Can we stop reconciliation? You bet we can. Read Senate Ignores Jim Demint Amendments That Kill Reconciliation And How We Can Use It. The Senate passed these two amendments – one unanimously and the other by a margin of 79-14 – both which kill reconciliation. The Dems choosing to ignore their own amendments is shameful. We must follow the rules, but if you are a Senator, well rules be damned. It is exactly this privileged mentality of “rules for thee, but not for me” that fuels much of the anger directed at the Congress these days.

The grassroots Tea Parties carried a great deal of energy during the Congressional August recess over the break. That energy, which appeared non-coherent and at the local level, showed its national teeth September the 12th, 2009 during the march on DC. It is long past the time when this energy needs to be concentrated like a laser beam in one place – the Senate, or we WILL see bill pass that is contrary to fiscal responsibility and an outright danger to healthcare in this country. Like any form of energy, there is always a portion which is lost to other factors. In a automobile, the engine’s energy is used to power the vehicle, but much of it is lost to friction and heat. There is never a free lunch in nature. The same is true of informational energy. Undirected informational energy is wasted energy. Now, more than ever, we need to direct that energy or it will all be for naught. We will get the healthcare we deserve.

From the Social Security Institute:

The Hill reports that Senate Democratic Leadership remains optimistic they can produce a RHINOCare “bipartisan compromise” on healthcare reform that will get 60 votes. If not, Democratic Leader Harry Reid said they are prepared to jam ObamaCare down the American People’s throats under the special parliamentary maneuver called Reconciliation, which severely restricts the number of amendments that can be offered, stringently limits the time for debate and allows the Senate to pass a measure by a mere simple majority, contrary to the normal rules and long tradition of the U.S. Senate.

Now is the time for the grass-roots movement that put a million people on the National Mall last Saturday to rise up as one and (1) insist that Republicans not cave in to a RHINOCare “compromise” that would impose a mandate on individuals forcing them to purchase health insurance (a so-called “individual mandate”); and (2) demand that the Senate consider healthcare legislation under the REGULAR ORDER — NO RECONCILIATION.

Read more about the Individual Mandate here. . .

Read why RINOCare and the Individual Mandate is contrary to all GOP principles here. . .

Democratic Senator Robert C. Byrd explains why passing healthcare reform under Reconciliation would be an abuse of the budget process and contrary to the time-honored traditions of the U.S. Senate here. . .

And let’s not forget, The Story The Media And Major Blogs Are Not Reporting: Senate Ignores Jim Demint Amendments That Kill Reconciliation And How We Can Use It.

If we don’t win this, the Tea Parties will lose momentum. Once Congress realizes we speak in generalities and our energy is not focused on specifics, that’s it – everyone came to the party, had a good time, and went home. If we lose this, how successful do you think we will be with Cap-and-trade or Card Check or whatever other nightmare Obama has in store for us?

This adds a sense of urgency to our mission: Snowe falls away, leaving Senate Dems without GOP support on healthcare. Marcus comments and drives the point home:

With the Jim Demint amendments going national that increases the probability that enough Dems will not support reconciliation, which these two amendments address.

BLAST this link out to all your friends and have them blast it out. Blast it to the tea parties. Here is a shortened version of the link to this post that you can copy and paste into an email: http://tinyurl.com/ndork4. Use twitter and the social networks, the ShareThis button at the bottom of this post – whatever method works for you. It’s time to drop the hammer on ObamaCare, hit the reset switch and start over.

In other news and opinion:

Video: Mob boss or union boss?

ObamaCare getting even more partisan and more unwieldy

Whatever Happened to the 9/13 March?

Senate Democrat website: With no action, uninsured to reach 101 million by 2019

ObamaCare: Does the media matter?

45% Of Doctors Would Consider Quitting If Congress Passes Health Care Overhaul. Via Instapundit.

Report: Rules of engagement led to soldiers’ deaths

Too Much Obama Can Be Hazardous to the President’s Health

Audio: What would Wilson say to Carter?

ACORN: Hey, maybe we do need to clean house

Snowe bails on “compromise” ObamaCare bill; Update: Baucus plan cuts Medicare

Reason: The center’s paranoia is the most threatening

Your Morning Health Care Roundup: Exeunt Snowe, Republicans

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.