December 23, 2009
from the Washington Examiner
The impudent tyranny of Harry Reid
Examiner Editorial
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada is proving once again the maxim that
darkness hates the light.
Buried in his massive amendment to the Senate version of Obamacare is Reid's
anti-democratic poison pill designed to prevent any future Congress from
repealing the central feature of this monstrous legislation.
Beginning on page 1,000 of the measure, Section 3403 reads in part: "... it
shall not be in order in the Senate or the House of Representatives to consider
any bill, resolution, amendment or conference report that would repeal or
otherwise change this subsection."
In other words, if President Obama signs this measure into law, Reid intends
that no future Senate or House will be able to change a single word of Section
3403, regardless whether future Americans or their representatives in Congress
wish otherwise.
Note that the subsection at issue here concerns the regulatory power of the
Independent Medicare Advisory Board to "reduce the per capita rate of growth in
Medicare spending."
That is precisely the kind of open-ended grant of regulatory power that
effectively establishes the IMAB as the ultimate arbiter of the cost, quality
and quantity of health care to be made available to the American people. And
Reid wants the decisions of this group of unelected federal bureaucrats to be
untouchable for all time.
No wonder the majority leader tossed aside assurances that senators and the
public would have at least 72 hours to study the text of the final Senate
version of Obamacare before the critical vote on cloture. And no wonder Reid was
so desperate to rush his amendment through the Senate, even scheduling the key
tally on it at 1 a.m., while America slept.
True to form, Reid wanted to keep his Section 3403 poison pill secret as long as
possible, just as he negotiated his bribes for the votes of Sens. Mary Landrieu,
of Louisiana, Ben Nelson, of Nebraska, and Bernie Sanders, of Vermont, behind
closed doors.
The final Orwellian touch in this subversion of democratic procedure is found in
the ruling of the Reid-controlled Senate parliamentarian that the anti-repeal
provision is not a change in Senate rules, but rather of Senate "procedures."
Why is that significant?
Because for 200 years, changes in the Senate's standing rules have required
approval by two-thirds of those voting, or 67 votes rather than the 60 Reid's
amendment received.
Reid has flouted two centuries of standing Senate rules to pass a measure in the
dead of night that no senator has read, and part of which can never be changed.
If this is not tyranny, then what is?
* * * * *
In case you are not clear on exactly what is the Independent Medicare Advisory Board (IMAB) which Harry Reid has made untouchable, unchangeable, unrepealable by any future congress of the U.S. ever; that is the 'Death Panels' that we were told did not exist. These are the bureaucrats who will decide that you are too old for a life-saving operation or treatment, that your life is not worth the expense of a high-priced medicine, that the government has spent too much keeping you alive and it's time for you to take a special little pill.
LIVE FREE OR DIE
Sorry, you no longer have a choice.