Watch this video in a new window Key House Democrat: “There Are No Rules Here … We Make Them Up As We Go Along”

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A Way Out of Soviet-Style Health Care

Solzhenitsyn’s prophetic warning about the depersonalization of medicine.

Editor’s note: The following is excerpted from an article with the same headline by Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman that was published in the Wall Street Journal on April 17, 1996. Friedman died in 2006. A related editorial appears nearby:

Dr. Oreschenkov: “Is it such a great achievement? What do you mean by ‘free’? The doctors don’t work without pay. It’s just that the patient doesn’t pay them, they’re paid out of the public budget. The public budget comes from these same patients. Treatment isn’t free, it’s just depersonalized. If the cost of it were left with the patient, he’d turn the ten rubles over and over in his hands. But when he really needed help he’d come to the doctor five times over. . . . Read more at online.wsj.com

The Health Vote and the Constitution—II

The House can’t approve the Senate bill in the same legislation by which it approves changes to the Senate bill.

In just a few days the House of Representatives is expected to act on two different pieces of legislation: the Senate version of the health-care bill (the one that contains the special deals, “Cadillac” insurance plan taxes, and abortion coverage) and an amendatory bill making changes in the Senate bill. The House will likely adopt a “self-executing” rule that “deems” passage of the amendatory bill as enactment of the Senate bill, without an actual vote on the latter.

This enables the House to enact the Senate bill while appearing only to approve changes to it. The underlying Senate bill would then go to the president for signature, and the amendatory bill would go to the Senate for consideration under reconciliation procedures (meaning no filibuster).

This approach appears unconstitutional.Read more at online.wsj.com

Hearing Opens on Health-Care Bill

WASHINGTON—A house panel began a crucial hearing Saturday morning as Democratic advocates and Republican opponents to health-care legislation prepared the bill for a scheduled vote Sunday.

Lawmakers gathered at the House Rules Committee, a body that establishes the ground rules for legislation that comes to the floor for a vote.

Rep. Joe Barton (R., Tex.), the ranking Republican on the Energy & Commerce Committee, called the debate over health care “the most important domestic policy issue” he’s faced since he was first elected to the House in 1984.

Despite the imminent vote, Democratic leaders didn’t close the door on making changes to the bill. The final text of the bill won’t be publicly available until after the Rules Committee hearing is concluded. Read more at online.wsj.com

Scenes from a devolution as Democrats writhe toward 216 votes.

Has there ever been a political spectacle like the final throes of ObamaCare? We can’t recall one outside of a banana republic, or, more accurately, Woody Allen’s 1971 classic “Bananas.” Capitol Hill resembles nothing so much as that movie’s farcical coup d’etat in San Marcos as Democrats try to assemble the partisan minimum of 216 House votes—if only for an hour or so at some point on Sunday—and no bribe is too costly, no deal too cynical, no last-minute rewrite too blatant.

Yesterday, Democrats defeated 222 to 203 a GOP resolution that would have required them to vote up-or-down on the text of the Senate’s Christmas Eve bill. Read more at online.wsj.com

Now for the Slaughter

On the road to Demon Pass, our leader encounters a Baier.

Excuse me, but it is embarrassing—really, embarrassing to our country—that the president of the United States has again put off a state visit to Australia and Indonesia because he’s having trouble passing a piece of domestic legislation he’s been promising for a year will be passed next week. What an air of chaos this signals to the world. And to do this to Australia of all countries, a nation that has always had America’s back and been America’s friend.

How bush league, how undisciplined, how kid’s stuff.

See more at online.wsj.com

BIDEN: Well, I   yes.  Some of them I say   they say, well, Joe, look, man, I mean, you know, you guys haven’t massaged this very well.  And, you know, this thing has gone on so long, I don’t know.  And my response is, hey, man, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. I’m telling you, you know, pre-existing, they’re going to be covered.  You know we’re going to control the insurance companies.  You know people aren’t going to lose their health care with their employer like is being advertised.  So you’ve got to   if you really want to make sure that you get the benefit of what you’ve already done, vote for the bill. And I look, Jake, I really, truly believe that the worst place to be, as a legislator, is being in the position where your side is being pummeled for an idea and there’s misrepresentations about all the bad things the idea is going to generate.  And then the idea fails and then they go, see, I told you Jake was for it.  And had I not stopped, Jake, there would have been death panels. Read more at blogs.abcnews.com

White House Won’t Rule Out That Obama Will Sign Other Bills Such As Immigration Reform That Are Not Put to Yea or Nay Votes in Both Houses

Washington (CNSNews.com) – The White House declined on Thursday to rule out that President Barack Obama might sign future legislation, such as an immigration reform measure, that has not been put to a recorded yea-or-nay vote in both houses of Congress.Read more at cnsnews.com

Phones Calls Continue to Batter Congress

Members continued to be inundated with phone calls from constituents and interest groups Friday thanks to an impending vote on health care reform this weekend.

Calls to the House numbered close to 100,000 an hour, creating a bottleneck in a phone system only meant to handle 50,000 calls an hour. The chamber has been similarly overloaded for four consecutive days, beginning on Tuesday when radio host Rush Limbaugh told viewers to call the Capitol switchboard phone number.

“Our capacity rate is about 50,000 calls an hour, and once we hit the 40,000 mark, we start to get these signals,” he said. “We’re beyond that. There’s no other way to say it other than the system is at capacity.” Read more at www.rollcall.com