Healthcare, Senator Jim DeMint And The Establishment GOP

Note: The following narrative is going to make you sick to your stomach. It exposes the duplicity of the establishment GOP in a way that will make your blood boil. It will put in perspective the low opinion the old guard GOP has for their constituents. Prepare yourself.

Steamed does not begin to describe my reaction to this piece by Politico:

It is not clear how effective DeMint’s flamboyant brand of politics will be in the long term. For now, however, he is the most vivid example of how, in a new-media age of cable television and the Web, a politician willing to step on toes and play to ideological crowds can jump the line of older colleagues in establishing a national profile.

In an earlier age, a politician like DeMint — a former House member and businessman whose fiery views coexist with a surprisingly mild personality — could have expected to languish for years in relative obscurity.

By becoming for practical purposes the Washington leader of the tea party movement, DeMint also illustrates the degree to which energy on the right is now flowing to the capital and not from it. Congressional GOP leaders like House Minority Leader John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell derive their power from the inside, by virtue of the support of their colleagues. DeMint is the model now for how a rank-and-file member otherwise consigned to the back bench can be relevant without any title. It may not make him popular at the weekly caucus lunches, but it will get him on Sean Hannity’s show…

…On politics, it means offering only a deafening silence toward senators facing primary challenges he views as insufficiently conservative — Arizona’s John McCain and Utah’s Bob Bennett — and backing more ideologically pure candidates than his party’s leadership prefers in the Senate primaries in Florida and California.

Further rankling his colleagues, DeMint is using his political action committee, the Senate Conservatives Fund, to rate senators on just how conservative they are. Several who were given relatively low marks by DeMint — based on their votes in the last Congress — are dismissive of the ratings.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said his 89 percent lifetime ranking from the American Conservative Union is “what counts” — not the 76 percent rating from DeMint, who, not surprisingly, is the only senator to receive a 100 percent rating on his website.

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, vice chairwoman of the GOP Conference, who got a 50 percent score for her votes in 2008, said that DeMint’s ratings were “assuming his standard of conservatism.”

And Bennett, a close ally of McConnell’s who received a 60 percent score from DeMint’s PAC, said he had “no idea [on] what basis people make these kinds of calculations.”

“I can show you surveys that show you I’m one of the most conservative members and another survey that shows me that I’m not,” said Bennett, who is facing multiple GOP candidates running on his right flank. “It all depends on who is picking the votes to come to the conclusion he wants.”

Asked to respond to DeMint’s decision not to endorse him in the race, Bennett said: “I have no comment.”

McCain said he wasn’t bothered by DeMint’s decision not to endorse him in his primary contest with former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, pointing out his support from other conservative figures, such as his 2008 running mate, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, and Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.).

What is clearly bothering others in the caucus, though, is DeMint’s seeming preference for being pure and in the minority than having a squishy majority.

His new stump speech mantra: “I’d rather have 30 Marco Rubios than 60 Arlen Specters.

Read the whole thing and remember the names of establishment GOP whose habitual dismissive behavior of DeMint is disingenuous as the reader will soon see.

Looks like DC needs to break some bad habits, like identifying effectiveness and then attempting to squash it. Not on my watch. A little history is in order.

Why would leaders such as Senator McConnell squirm at the mention of Senator DeMint? That requires a trip down memory lane.

Last year, two events happened during the fight against ObamaCare that, had the Senator from South Carolina not stood on principle for the people of this country and championed fiscal responsibility, we would already have ObamaCare, Scott Brown win or not.

Senator DeMint understood the need to obstruct and use the tools of obstruction to block the passage of the liberty stealing behemoth that is ObamaCare. Erick Erickson picked up on this process in December and wrote an excellent piece titled Fight:

The Senate, unlike the House of Representatives, has parliamentary rules and procedures that give the minority the ability to stall legislation. In fact, unlike the House, the minority have the ability to virtually paralyze the Senate. Doing so is not something we would want or expect for every bad bill that comes through Congress, but the proposed healthcare legislation is probably the worst piece of legislation ever considered by the United States Congress. It is the most intrusive, most damaging, most costly, most dangerous bill to the economic and personal freedom and liberty of individual Americans that Congress has ever considered. If there is any bill that deserves being stopped by shutting down the Senate, it is this one.

There are a whole series of parliamentary maneuvers that could be used by Republican senators to stop this bill. There is a hard backstop to the current process (Christmas). The Republicans’ goal should be to prevent Reid from passing the bill before that time. If he goes past Christmas and is forced to adjourn or recess, the momentum will shift in favor of those opposing the bill.

How could this be done?

To start with, they should stop constantly agreeing to “unanimous consent” requests from the Democrats. Senate Republicans, to date, have allowed Democrats, by unanimous consent, to process 10 amendments. The amendments that have been accepted – Democrat amendments – did not make the over 2000-page atrocity any better. The Republican strategy of trying to pass their own “message” amendments carries no message unless you consider “no strategy to kill the bill” a message.

When DeMint removed unanimous consent, there existed an expectation that other GOP members join the fight. When Democrats threatened to retaliate against the GOP for this obstructive tactic, done on behalf of the American people, the GOP backed down. What ominous threat could possibly cause such a mass defection from standing up for the rights of the American people in fighting an unpopular bill? The GOP was told they would be kept in the Senate until and even beyond Christmas break. God forbid such a horror happen.

This prompted a campaign by a number of organizations to expose the lack of starch in the spine of many GOP members. I was honored to be a part of this campaign and work with the likes of such luminaries as Dr. Larry Hunter, former policy advisor to President Ronald Reagan. This campaign, titled I Object, sent out an email blast, some of which follows:

Just say “I Object” to Stop ObamaCare

Shame on Republican Senators!

They are paving the way for ObamaCare to be enacted into law this year because they want to go on Christmas Vacation.

Yes, that’s right, REPUBLICAN Senators are going to be responsible for the impending government takeover of healthcare. They have the power to prevent the Reid Health Bill from passing the Senate this year but they are not doing what needs to be done to stop the socialization of one-sixth of the American economy before the New Year arrives.

I know it sounds unbelievable that REPUBLICANS are the ones who will be responsible for a government takeover of healthcare but that is the sad and outrageous truth.

Don’t Let Republican Senators Put Their Christmas Break Ahead of Their Country. Tell Republican Senators: “Just Object to Harry Reid’s Fast-Track Rush on ObamaCare”…

…Our Capitol-Hill operatives have learned that the Senate Republican Leadership is working hand-in-glove behind the scenes with the Democratic Leadership to move one amendment after another through the Senate without adequate time for debate and deliberation. In exchange for this collaboration with the enemy, the Democratic Leadership is assuring Republicans they will be allowed to offer their own “message amendments” and that Republicans will not be forced to work long hours through the night during this holiday season.

These “message amendments” are not intended to be adopted in order to improve the bill—this bill is so horrible it cannot be improved by amendments—they are designed simply to put Senators on the record and hoodwink voters into believing Republicans are fighting the good fight against ObamaCare.

Republican Senators, with a few exceptions such as Senator Jim DeMint (SC), ARE NOT fighting the good fight. They are collapsing like cheap suits all over Capitol Hill. If they don’t reverse course immediately and stiffen their spine, it will be the REPUBLICANS who are responsible for enacting ObamaCare into law.

Republican Senator Jon Kyl let the cat out of the bag on Bill Bennett’s radio show last week. When guest host Rick Santorum asked Kyl, “What is your strategy, to the extent you can share it,” Kyl said, “Actually, I think we can be fairly upfront about it. Our strategy is not actually to delay and not take votes.” Kyl went on, “Our strategy is to have a lot of good amendments and highlight the problems in the bill. It is not our strategy to somehow slow things down.”

This complicity by Republican Senators is despicable, and it is illustrative of how your representatives in Washington say one thing and do exactly the opposite.

For example, last week Democratic Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado offered a do-nothing amendment that purported to protect Medicare from cuts. It was a classic congressional fig-leaf amendment for ObamaCare supporters to hide behind.

The amendment was carefully and narrowly crafted with much hortatory language about not cutting guaranteed Medicare benefits but the amendment actually does NOTHING to change provisions in the bill that WILL cut Medicare by hundreds of billions of dollars. Behind the cover of this Senate fig-leaf amendment—political cover for the Democrats, which all 40 Republicans voted in favor of—the Reid bill will undermine Medicare Advantage plans and squeeze the life out of Medicare by putting doctors, hospitals and other medical providers in a reimbursement vice that fixes prices and leads to Medicare rationing.

Rather than filibustering this amendment to expose the duplicity and deception behind it; rather than insisting on unlimited debate on the amendment and forcing Harry Reid to file a cloture petition to shut off debate, which would have guaranteed two days of debate, deliberation and sunshine on the amendment; rather than voting against the amendment to expose the shenanigans behind it; the Republican Leadership instead agreed to wrap up the amendment with only a few hours debate.

In exchange for this Republican complicity in providing Democrats political cover, the Democratic Leadership graciously allowed Republicans an amendment to be offered by Arizona Senator John McCain that would recommit the Reid Bill to committee and strip out provisions that actually DO cut Medicare. Republicans knew 20 Democrats/Independents would never vote with them to recommit the bill (it would have taken 60 votes to do so). Yet, Republicans traded off two days worth of debate and voted for a fig-leaf amendment to provide ObamaCare supporters political cover in order to be allowed to offer a “message amendment” of their own, which misled the public into believing Republicans are trying to fight the bill when in fact they are facilitating its ultimate passage before the New Year.

The Bennet amendment passed with only hours of debate by a vote of 100 to zero. Then, the McCain amendment to recommit the Reid Bill to Committee in order to actually strip out provisions of the bill that DO cut Medicare—think of it as an amendment to actually implement the do-nothing amendment that just passed by 100 votes—was defeated on a virtual party-line vote. Only two Democrats (Jim Webb-Va. and Ben Nelson-Neb.) were given free passes from the Democratic Leadership to vote in favor of it. Message sent: “Republicans are allowing themselves to be played as the Democrats’ useful idiots.”

All of this was little Medicare drama was precooked by the Republican and Democratic Senate Leadership in what is called a “Unanimous Consent Agreement,” which lays out the terms and conditions under which amendments are offered, debated and voted upon.

What is a Unanimous Consent Agreement?

A Senator may request unanimous consent on the floor to set aside a specified rule of procedure so as to expedite proceedings. If no Senator objects, the Senate permits the action, but if any one Senator objects, the request is rejected.

The Republican Senators have been protesting vehemently in the media about how much they oppose ObamaCare and the Reid Health bill, and despite their constant reassurances to grass-roots activists that they are doing everything humanly possible to defeat the bill, Republicans in fact are quietly stepping aside and allowing the ObamaCare Express loaded down with the Reid Bill and tons of amendments to barrel through the U.S. Senate so they can go home for Christmas Vacation without delay and not have to work long hours in the meantime.

The ONLY exception is Senator Jim DeMint (SC).

He is the lone Senator willing to stand in the gap and do what it takes to defeat socialism, defeat ObamaCare. But he cannot do it alone. He cannot be on the floor 24/7, which is what it takes to stop these unanimous consent agreements. He needs his fellow Republicans assist him by standing sentinel on the Senate Floor against unanimous consent agreements when he cannot be there.

Republicans need to follow Senator DeMint’s brave example and just Object to Harry Reid’s Fast-Track Rush on ObamaCare.

If you have a U.S. Senator who is OPPOSED to the Reid plan for a Washington takeover of healthcare, you have a huge opportunity right now to take action—action that could stop ObamaCare from being rushed into law this year. Let Republican Senators know that if the Reid Bill passes the Senate this year, you will hold them personally responsible for ObamaCare being enacted into law and despite anything else they say or do in the interim, you will vote against them they next time they stand for reelection, yes even if that means voting for a Democrat because it will be clear by their INACTION that they are nothing but tools of the Democrats anyway.

Republicans have the power; all it takes is one Senator to object to each Unanimous Consent Agreement every time Reid tries to ram another amendment through the fast-track process. Republicans must take turns following Senator Jim DeMint’s example when he objected to the use of a Unanimous Consent Agreement to ram the very first amendment to the Reid Bill—the Mikulski Amendment—through the Senate on the “Fast Track.” DeMint demanded that Reid get 60 votes on a cloture motion, thus guaranteeing two days of sunshine and scrutiny on the amendment. Republican Senators MUST STAND WITH DEMINT AND DEMAND at least two days debate and public scrutiny of EVERY amendment proposed to the Reid Bill.

The GOP holds only 40 seats in the U.S. Senate but that is enough to stop ObamaCare from passing this year if Republicans man up to the situation and play their cards right—even if that means casting some difficult votes, taking heat for dilatory tactics, staying up late at night and yes perhaps even working Christmas Eve and the week after Christmas. Republicans must not put their Christmas Break ahead of their country. Republicans must not put their personal political careers ahead of the general welfare.

If ObamaCare is enacted into law this year, IT WILL BE THE FAULT OF REPUBLICAN SENATORS because they refused to suffer a little bit of personal inconvenience and political risk to defend their country against another government takeover. Make no mistake, all Republican Senators must do to stop ObamaCare this year is object to the Democrats fast-track scheme to jam one amendment after another through the Senate with limited debate and restricted public scrutiny.

It doesn’t take 40 Republicans to succeed in stopping the Reid Bill; it doesn’t take 20; it only takes ONE Republican to object each time Harry Reid propounds a unanimous consent agreement to rush another amendment through the process.

Let me say that again: It takes ONLY ONE Republican to object each time Harry Reid tries to jam another amendment through the process with limited debate and little public scrutiny. With 40 Republicans in the Senate, that means even if Harry Reid kept the Senate in session 24 hours a day (as the Democratic Whip has threatened), each Republican Senator would have to spend no more than 36 minutes a day doing floor duty as a sentinel against the Majority Leader jamming another amendment through the Senate process under a rigged unanimous consent agreement.

All year we’ve been trying to convince senators who support government health care to change their minds and senators on the fence to come out against it. That’s still vitally important. But given the way the Senate works, it is more important right now to make sure Republican Senators who claim to oppose the Reid Bill have the courage and perspicacity to use the enormous leverage they possess to prevent the bill from passing this year. Remember, there is no way the Reid Bill can pass the Senate as it is currently written. Therefore, it must be amended to pass. But those amendments will be highly controversial, even among Democrats. That is why it is vitally important that each and every amendment be given close public scrutiny and at least two days’ debate.

If the Democrats want to play brinksmanship by holding the Senate in session long hours, seven days a week until Christmas Day, so be it. If the Democrats drag Senators back to Washington between Christmas and New Years for marathon sessions, so be it. Giving up Christmas Vacation is the least Republican Senators can do to stop a socialist government takeover of healthcare this year.

Our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq don’t get to take time off from combat to celebrate Christmas, and they are putting their lives on the line every hour of every day. No U.S. Senator fit to serve in that august body would even think about shirking his or her duty to defend America against a government takeover of healthcare just so he or she can work bankers’ hours and enjoy college-student vacation time.

Millions of Americans across America don’t even have a job this Holiday Season and they are demanding that Senators do their jobs to protect and defend America against another government takeover.

If one or both of your Senators are opposed to the Reid Bill, contact them and make a very simple request: “Do not help Harry Reid rush any aspect of this outrageous legislation through the Senate by giving him your consent to proceed along the fast track. Use your power to object to any unanimous consent agreement limiting debate and restricting time for deliberation; demand that every amendment be given at least two-days’ debate and public scrutiny so that everyone has time to understand and comment on each one of them. ”

Right now, the Senate Democratic Leadership with the complicity of the Republican Leadership is preparing to propound one unanimous consent agreement after another to circumvent regular Senate procedure. Tell your Senator to JUST OBJECT.

Not only could these amendments pave the way for the bill to be enacted into law but the amendments themselves contain huge policy changes that directly effect our health care and our economic future. They need to be analyzed carefully and thoroughly—Two Days Minimum.

Fortunately, under Senate rules the Democratic leadership can rush these amendments through ONLY if they get what’s called “unanimous consent.” That means all 100 senators have to agree to rush the amendments through by consenting to a unanimous consent agreement, which severely limits debate and restricts the time available for experts to analyze the amendments. It’s the old bum’s rush.

Even ONE senator objecting would be enough to slow the rush of amendments down and give the American people at least two days of debate on each amendment. Two days is the minimum we should have to analyze amendments and to allow Senators an opportunity to comment on and debate them.

Please contact your senators TODAY and demand that they NOT CONSENT to rushing amendments through.

The American people deserve the right to know what the Congress is preparing to do to our healthcare. The American people deserve to be represented by Senators who have the courage and the dedication to put the good of the country ahead of their own convenience and political expediency.

Just say “I OBJECT.”

This should have caused a GOP about-face. It did not. Instead, the Sunday news shows, talk radio, and press releases were filled with GOP leadership and other Senate GOP members defending their position. The only exception was Michael Steele, who shot a memo over to the Senate GOP telling them to obstruct. The memo was ignored until another, more egregious incident caused a seismic shift in the GOP strategy. This piece was also cross-posted at Politico and was written by Dr. Larry Hunter, CEO of the Social Security Institute and Lewis Uhler, CEO of the National Tax Limitation Committee:

After weeks of refusing to embrace the “obstructionist” label as a virtue, Senate Republicans finally saw the light and late last week began to use the parliamentary tools at their disposal to delay a final vote on health care.

Until then, with the exception of South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, Republican lawmakers had refused to use Senate rules and procedures to obstruct the passage of the health care bill being pushed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and run out the clock on Obamacare. Some prominent Republican senators and members of their staffs had even let it be known they actually believed passage of the Reid health care bill and enactment of Obamacare would benefit GOP candidates in the November midterm elections.

This GOP strategy of expedient complicity enraged the conservative base, roused talk radio show hosts and bloggers and even provoked a backlash from the chairman of the Republican National Committee. The Social Security Institute and the National Tax Limitation Committee joined with Tea Party Support and Gun Owners of America to convey this outrage to the Senate Republican leadership through letters, e-mails and telephone calls from the grass roots to GOP senators’ offices.

Paraphrasing Barry Goldwater, we argued, “Obstructionism in defense of liberty is no vice; cooperation in pursuit of tyranny is no virtue.”

Rush Limbaugh waded in to the fray: “I’m not a parliamentary expert. But I know a disaster when I see it. And I know that [Obamacare has to] be stopped, and whatever parliamentary steps are available to people who do know … should be taken — every blocking tactic.”

Even RNC Chairman Michael Steele opposed Senate Republicans’ “messaging strategy,” which was designed not to kill the bill but simply to use message amendments to put senators on record in a manner that could be used to good political effect in campaigns next November. Steele urged Republican senators to rise above politics and do whatever is necessary to “delay, stall, slow down and stop the Reid bill.”

Thomas Jefferson is quoted as saying, “All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.” Senator DeMint of South Carolina is not a silent man. To the establishment GOP, this is a character flaw. If not for the Senator and a few other patriots like Dr. Larry Hunter, Lewis Uhler, and many others who worked with them, ObamaCare would be law – right now. Instead we are able to live on to fight another day.

Jim DeMint is a friend of liberty, an ally of Tea Parties everywhere, and a man of real character who stuck his neck out only to be abandoned and embarrassed by his own party. The fact he is still willing to pick up the gauntlet is a testament to his qualities. What almost happened last year could be characterized with a small change to Jefferson’s quote: “All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to want to go on Christmas vacation.”

To its credit, the establishment GOP is now on board with the will of the American people. I leave it to the reader to guess their motivations. It is telling that while one man lead the way, others were hauled, kicking and screaming, to stand up for this country and reject political expediency and the self-serving strategies of those who do not have a grip on power but rather find themselves in power’s grip.

Who truly represents the views of fiscal conservatives? The leftovers from the George Bush era of Republican big government spending that lead to Obama’s victory, or a single Senator from South Carolina who stood up when nobody else would follow him?

It would do the establishment GOP a great deal of good to pay attention. We ordinary folk out here have long memories. I would consider a strong alliance with Jim DeMint to be in the best interests of a party badly in need of a spine transplant.