Merry Christmas Eve y’all!

Guess what…? Our lovely Congress has just bestowed upon this nation a most wondrous gift of “universal” health care during this joyous season – a gift that will keep giving and taking.

Giving in the sense that never before have we seen such blatant kickbacks and special-interest deals to put another ol’ legislative “victory” on the mantel. Taking in the sense that it’ll be we taxpayers who will reap the long-term consequences of this “reform” through more taxes, loss of medical innovation, and (most importantly) the failure of enacting true, progressive revisions to a restraining, high-cost health care industry – an industry that’s for sure never been subject to an efficiently competitive market ever sense FDR’s wage ceilings, which first led to employer-dominated insurance packages to entice workers during such times of economic hindrances.

Let’s go with an example of giving – the Honorable Harry Reid on his legislative deal making:

I don’t even know if there is a Senator that doesn’t have something in this bill that was important to them. And if they don’t have something in it important to them, then it doesn’t speak well of them.

Well said Harry! Next time all of the senators will “pull a Nelson” and hold out on giving any support to a Democrat-initiative so that they can get their juicy kickback. Apologies to Senator Bayh; at least you got some extra time in front of cameras for your “opposition” through hesitation aka just enough to placate your constituents. I mean Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska got the “air time,” the “honor” of being the make-or-break vote, and the exemption for Nebraska to not have to pay any of the additional costs for Medicaid expansion ($100 million). Oh, wait, I forgot the approximate $6.7 billion in health insurance kickbacks to Nebraska-based Mutual of Omaha. Don’t forget a waiver of the insurance fee for Nebraska Blue Cross/Blue Shield as well. The icing on the cake? Nelson’s blatant admission on the Senate floor of his bought vote:

Three Senators came up to me just now on the floor and said, “Now we understand what you did. We’ll be seeking this funding too.”

Another gift from Harry Reid’s toy bag of political swindling and Tom Foolery: Senator Bill Nelson (I see a pattern here) of Florida, concerned about staying popular with his old-timer constituency in the midst of a bill that takes $400 billion from seniors, got an exemption for Florida seniors currently on medicare benefits from losing them – a $3-$5 billion gift in kind that has a price tag of “priceless” by ensuring those continual votes, while other American seniors are affected.

But, realistically, this whole sham of political theater and backdoor deals for health care “reform” do not wrap up a gift that quite keeps on giving. When costs (health procedure fees, insurance pricing, and taxpayer demands) weigh their due financial onus, most of these deals will have to be cut out like cancer; most of the the deals just serve anyway as short-term benefits (taxpayer detriments) for a long-term failure. And so it’s the taxpayer who will bear much of the fiscal and policy consequences in both the short-term and long-term.

I mean honestly! What the hell is going on?! It’s been 65 or so years since a statist form of health “reform” has been offered and it’s taken this long to perfect a real governmental screw-up. The CBO has written numerous reports on potential negative fallout from this bill. One of them, for example, focused on the passed rebate program, which targets the administrative expenses of particularly small group and individual market insurance companies (kickback to big biz) as these smaller companies have their profits (potential for pricing cuts) gutted by the government. Another case-in-point involves how the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services becomes an unchecked, unaccountable Nurse Mildred Ratched with the ability to decide when Medicare will only pay for a cheaper “alternative” treatment all while being exempted from judicial review as patients have no right to sue the government.

Yet, it’s easy for these details to get all lost in such a large bill all while our courageous, senatorial representatives are championing the cause of health care “reform” based on firm principal and concern for the many disadvantaged. in our country But the list of discrepancies, special-interest deal making, and fiscal fallout became too apparent already to have been ignored. And so we get to the crux of why this bill passed. It was not just the “gifts” Democrats received that brought the troops around for an “aye” vote. As left-leaning economist Robert Kuttner recently (so beautifully and unabashedly) admitted on Bill Moyers’ Journal, the Left and all Democrat senators have an obligation to support this health care bill – though riddled with shortcomings, false promises, and much catering to industry – because of the political necessity to win in 2010. Good thing many of the bill’s provisions don’t go into effect until afterward. I mean who cares? It’s not like this bill affects almost a fifth of our country’s economy, will have devastating fiscal consequences, will still ignore many of the disadvantaged, and will limit the opportunity to expand choice and a more effective manner of lowering health costs. The exigency for political expediency wins the day. Now we know what is really meant by the Democrats when they claim “victory” with this bill.

Though I’d like to say most of the Democrats who voted “yes” had nice intentions, a good number of them should be receiving coal in their stockings every Christmas now. And the American taxpayer, well I guess we’ll just have to hope for change to this current bill as we’ll be receiving a much larger “wish list” from the government sooner or later otherwise every April 15th; except, this wish list has has to be seen through – regardless if government’s been naughty or nice.

Senator Franken, being an upstanding member of Congress, is spending the recess meeting with constituents and discussing the hot topic of health care. That’s commendable. Except, I noticed something quite peculiar about an email I came across this morning from Franken.

MINNESOTA – U.S. Senator Al Franken (D-Minn) has spent his August recess traveling to over 22 towns and health care is on Minnesota’s mind. Wednesday, Franken will host two roundtable discussion on health care reform in the Twin Cities area.

“This issue will be front and center when the Senate reconvenes next month,” said Franken. “I will bring the concerns, suggestions, and personal stories of Minnesotans I have met back to Washington with me to ensure they are heard in the reform debate.”

The first roundtable will feature leaders from faith councils, nonprofit health and human services organizations, and patient, employee, and consumer advocates who want to make sure that health care reform directly improves the lives of Minnesota families and Minnesota workers…

…WHO: U.S. Sen. Al Franken; representatives from Portico Healthnet; the Children’s’ Defense Fund; the Joint Religious Legislative Council; ISAIAH; Take Action Minnesota; AFSCME; SEIU; Health Care for America Now; and Minnesota Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities
WHEN: 10:00am – 11:30am, Wednesday, August 26, 2009
WHERE: Wright Building
Suite 422
2233 University Ave W
St. Paul

Now Franken could say he’s taking the high ground by actually meeting with the “Brown Shirts” (I mean) his constituents unlike Reid, who’s opting out of town halls or “roundtables” for basically a mass conference call -  Reid’s in trouble come election time.

If you caught it earlier in the post, I mentioned that the email came this morning – around 9:00 in fact.

That’s right. If you’re a concerned citizen desiring to voice your opposition to – or even support for – the health care “reform” currently being debated, you had about one hour to change your plans and get off from work.

I thought, “wow, nobody’s going to show up.” Then I noted the various organizations co-sponsoring the roundtable with Franken. Surely, these groups probably got the word out to their members beforehand. Certainly SEIU, the infamous “purple shirts” known for their history of physical harassment and intimidation,will be in force as their members have been bussed to many of the town halls.

Yet, looking over the lists of organizations/special interests involved with the roundtable, it doesn’t look like there will be that much discourse occurring between those in attendance. That’ll make things easier for the “engaging” debate to influence the unemployed in attendance, since they’ll probably be the only ones who could make it to the town hall. Guess Franken figured those dependent on government are his main constituents and so respectfully didn’t host the forum in the evening when all those pesky people who work and pay taxes might interfere.

And thankfully, with the late notice to the general public and the presence of an “impartial” roundtable, the SEIU won’t have to worry about spending their time attacking patriotic citizens (“I beat him because, well, ‘he attacked America’ first by passing out “Don’t Tread on Me” flags?).

But it shouldn’t surprise us that a  Democrat Senator would offer an exclusive roundtable with groups like Health Care for America Now (ran by a former SEIU organizing director) as so much of their campaign contributions come from these special interests – thank you again, Michelle Malkin.

Now, Franken has been known to let his temper get to him at times; he most recently berated alternative energy advocate T. Boone Pickens at a Senate Democratic Policy Luncheon for having donated to “Swift Boaters for Truth” during the 2004 election…and “they” say conservatives seemed to always be stuck in the past. Maybe Franken was just worried about attempted battery charges on his part if someone like this showed up at his roundtable “discussion”.

It is quite contemptible that Senator Franken doesn’t have the respect for the citizens of the Twin Cities to host an actual town hall that is openly and considerately advertised to the public. There is an exigency for concerned citizens to let their admonitions and exhortations be heard by their elected representatives…the stakes from not implementing true, prudent reform are too high not to.

Otherwise, the importunate needs burdening the millions of uninsured, the choking costs and market limitations strangling the livelihood of the already insured, and the risk of even more generational theft oppressing our children by our government will be ignored.

Mr. Franken, if you dare call yourself the representative of all Minnesotans, then have the decent regard to listen to all Minnesotans instead of having your pockets lined with SEIU and similar organizations while returning to Washington with their special-interest agenda spewing from your mouth. Sir, as much as you are, this isn’t a joke.

Addendum: as Mirianne points out in her comment, the roundtable was not open to the public, which makes the whole situation even worse for those who may have wanted to voice their opinion to Franken. I just talked to some friends in Minnesota who confirmed that,when individuals made the effort to get off work and attend the roundtable, they were turned away; the Twin Cities forum on health care was by “invitation” only. Basically, it was a special interest pat-on-the-back for Franken. Pathetic…