Democrats Seek to End Filibuster, Cede Power to Executive Branch – UPDATED

I missed Susan Anne Hiller’s article at Big Governmentposted last month, but it certainly warrants attention. Ray Griggs brought this up yesterday when I spoke to him, but a quick google search didn’t turn anything up (surprise, surprise). Thanks to Maggie’s Notebook I don’t have to search any further.

Health care in America will be in the hands of a bunch of unelected bureaucrats appointed by Dear Leader.

Hiller: To achieve the goal of a universal, single-payer health system, the White House must secure the power it needs by amending the Social Security Act to transfer pivotal controls from Congress to the executive branch.  This transfer of power would ultimately give the President and the majority party, in this case the radical left Obama White House and Pelosi-Reid led progressive Democrats, the authority to frame and manipulate new policy, coverage options, and reimbursements, ultimately reshaping the future US health care system into a something unrecognizable in this country.

The deliberate setup for the White House power grab is built into the each of the health care bills and, if they fail, little-known twin bills called “MedPAC Reform of 2009” are waiting in the wings.  The bills, S.B. 1110 and H.R. 2718, craftily amend the Social Security Act and transfer the Medicare guideline and rule setting processes, from the legislative branch to the executive branch.  These bills offer cover to one another in case one doesn’t pass the House or Senate, respectively.  Remember, Democrats need to gain executive branch authority by amending the Social Security Act over Medicare regulations and physician fee schedules to transform the health care system in a single-payer, socialized system.

More importantly, Medicare’s regulations and physician fee schedules are the keystone to developing payer systems and reimbursement models across the entire health care industry.  And where Medicare goes, insurers follow.

To underscore the far-reaching power, a bulk of the states already reference or utilize the Medicare guidelines and fee schedules in determining policy, coverage, and payment, which impacts certain state-specific plans, including, but not limited to, self-funded plans, automobile insurance payers, and state workers’ compensation funds and plans – affecting even Big Labor.   For the executive branch to have such authority over Medicare regulations with little oversight is alarming.  This raises further issues of the powerful impact these federal mandates could potentially have on the states in stripping them of their own management of their respective insurance industries.

Specifically, the language in the Reid bill intentionally places unlimited power directly in the hands of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, including the ability to designate covered services, or rationing.  The Pelosi bill creates a Health Choices Commission and its “commissioner” is empowered to make the same decisions.  More alarming, both will have to take direction from the White House–and its unconfirmed czars–due to their executive branch affiliation.

In retrospect, Obama’s pick of Sebelius as HHS Secretary is obvious.  Aside from being a governor, Sebelius is the former Kansas insurance commissioner and has the ability to identify the strongest and weakest links–navigating her way quite expeditiously throughout the health care system.  And she’ll never disavow one of her first career choices — executive director and chief lobbyist for the Kansas Trial Lawyers Association.  That explains the blatant omission of tort reform, in addition to the fact that the trial lawyers are the biggest Democrat donors. ….

Read the whole thing.  The Democrats are ceding Congressional power to the Executive branch, so in the event they lose the majority, the president can still do whatever he darn well pleases.

In addition, the Democrats are now trying to end the filibuster. In the event they retain the majority in the Senate, but not a 60-vote filibuster proof majority, they can still continue to trample our rights and the Constitution. The LA Times reported:

The Senate filibuster has emerged as the bane of President Obama’s legislative agenda, igniting anger among liberals over a tactic that is now hogtying Congress even on noncontroversial bills.

The threat of filibusters has become so common that congressional leaders take it for granted that any bill of consequence will not pass the 100-member Senate with a simple majority of 51. Instead, 60 votes — the number needed to cut off the interminable speeches of a filibuster — has become the minimum required.

Frustration has intensified since Senate Republicans’ no-holds-barred effort to block the healthcare bill. GOP use of the tactic forced Democrats to scrounge for 60 votes at every legislative turn to prevent filibusters.

Now, facing the prospect of losing seats in this fall’s midterm elections, some Democrats are seeking to change the rules.

This is what tyrants do – they change the rules to suit their agenda.

The most blatant bit of hypocrisy:

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chairman of the Senate health committee, argues that current rules have made it too hard for Democrats to exercise the mandate they received from the voters in 2008.

“Elections should have consequences,” Harkin said in a recent letter to his colleagues urging a change in filibuster rules. “Even when a party loses, it too easily can prevent the majority elected to govern from legislating.”

They have no mandate to do what they’re doing. The majority of Americans are against the proposed health care legislation. What a bunch of statist BS.

What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. If they’re going to end the filibuster, in a few years (assuming their plans to rig elections fail) they will be out of power and Republicans can start repealing all of this disastrous legislation.

Update: Reader Lew sent me a link to a must-read article by John F. Gaski, PhD explaining in clear terms how the democrats are planning to turn our republic into a one-party dictatorship. Anyone who thinks it can’t happen here needs to wake up. Now. It’s happening before our very eyes.

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