Senator Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.

The Senate Finance Committee has rejected an amendment to the health care bill that would strengthen anti-abortion provisions in the legislation, according to a report from Fox News.

The amendment, authored by Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, lost by a vote of 13 to 10. Hatch argued before the panel that the measure was needed to prevent federal funds from being used to pay for abortion.

"I want assurances that taxpayer dollars will not be used to fund abortions," said Hatch. "Let's put specific language from my amendment into the bill."

Under the plan proposed by Hatch, women seeking coverage for abortion services would have needed to purchase unsubsidized supplemental plans.

The 12 Democrats on the panel uniformly opposed the Hatch amendment. They were joined in voting against the measure by Republican Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine.

“The American people do not want, and should not be expected, to foot the bill for abortions,”said Hatch in reaction to the rejection of his proposal. “I am very disappointed that the Senate Finance Committee did not accept my amendment that would ensure this did not happen, especially given the fact that Chairman Baucus has made it clear during this mark-up that he did not want federal taxpayer dollars to pay for abortions. "

For his part, Baucus complained that the amendment was unnecessary, arguing: "This is a health care bill, this is not an abortion bill."

Nonetheless, it is both unfortunate, and no surprise, that the measure was defeated in committee. Had it been attached to the bill, it almost certainly would have meant the end of health care reform legislation in the Senate.

Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell said as much, calling the proposed amendment "a poison for this bill."

As for the whole health care bill, according to Fox, "Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid said … that the full Senate could start voting on health care legislation in less than two weeks -- possibly beginning the week of Oct. 12, after the Columbus Day holiday."

In other words, there is no time like the present to let your Senators know that they should oppose health care reform.

After all the excitement over the crowds confronting Secretary Sebelius and Senator Specter in Philadelphia on Sunday and Rep. Kagen in Green Bay on Monday protesting against President Obama's plan for a "public option," government-run health care system,  the last 24 hours of YouTube videos don’t measure up. However, here are a few interesting ones that I came up with.

HEALTH CARE HECKLING (from Lou Dobbs TV Show)

 

Anti-Nationalized Health Care Rally

Barbara Boxer Objects To Health Care Protesters' "Attire"


 

When Dallas area members of MoveOn.org showed up at a district office of Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) on July 23 for a rally in support of President Obama's health care legislation, they were surprised by even greater numbers of Dallas Tea Party members on hand to demonstrate against Obama's health care plan. According to an account of the rally, MoveOn's organizer estimated they were outnumbered by tea partiers by 100 to 30. The Tea Party organizer estimated they outnumbered MoveOn by 200 to 20.

According to Senator Cornyn's Texas press secretary, Tea Party members also showed up at the Senator's offices in Austin and San Antonio on the same day to demonstrate against Obama's health care reform legislation.

Members of the two organizations intermingled peacefully during the rally; however, discussions were emotional. Here's a video of the rally:

Although demonstrations by two opposing groups can sometimes lead to violence, on this day in Dallas we had a peaceful example of how the newly awakened and energized members in the Tea Party movement could take a play from the Left's playbook and beat them at their own game.

Click here to contact your representative and senators in opposition to Obama's proposal for a greatly enlarged government role in health care.

“I happen to be a proponent of a single payer, universal health care plan.... That’s what I’d like to see, but as all of you know, we may not get there immediately.” Barack Obama, June 2003. (Click on YouTube image to see video.)

As the Wall Street Journal stated the other day in its Op-Ed piece, “The Public Option Two-Step: Why Obama won't acknowledge the 'Trojan Horse' in the room”:

 "Americans unschooled in liberal health-care politics may have trouble deciphering the White House's conflicting proclamations this week about a new government insurance program for the middle class. Allow us to translate: President Obama loves this so-called public option, but he needs to sell it in a shroud of euphemism and the appearance of 'compromise.'" 

The Wall Street Journal is explaining why the “health care overhaul” debate is so confusing. President Obama and the Democratic leaders in Congress really want to enact a “single-payer,” universal health care system, which would amount to total government control and operation of our health care system, but can’t come right out and say so because this would lead most Americans to oppose any such health care legislation.

Thus, Obama and congressional leaders are emphasizing how their plan won’t change anything for those who already have health insurance that they like. In fact, they tell us we’ll have more options under their plan. There’s just this one little thing that must be included in the legislation we’re told -- a “public option,” which would provide “competition” for the private insurance companies. Of course, the “public option” is the camel’s nose in the tent. It would be parlayed into a full-blown single payer health care system by means of a suitable transition. Mysteriously, the private insurance companies would not be able to compete with the government health “insurance” plan.

Where’s the documentation for these claims you might ask. It turns out there is abundant video documentation of Obama, legislators, advisors, and others from the past couple years which makes it pretty clear that a single payer, government-run health care system is the end they’re seeking, but in light of the spectacular failure of Hillarycare (aka the Clinton Health Care Plan of 1993), the means they’ll use will be deception and “compromise.” 

Here's a three-minute video which is packed with examples of how just how stealthy President Obama’s so-called “public option” is:

Although there were some indications that the House and Senate versions of health care overhaul legislation were getting bogged down last week, this week President Obama made it clear that he expects both houses to have passed their health care reform bills before the August break. House and Senate leaders snapped to and have announced that they are on schedule to accomplish this presidential mandate.

So this extremely important health care legislation has been put on the fast track by the President and is expected to be voted on by both houses of Congress by early August. This is excellent strategy on the part of the President and congressional leaders because American voters are starting to have doubts about the President’s health care reform proposal. A Rasmussen Reports poll, which was conducted July 10-11, showed 49% opposed to and 46% in favor of “the health care reform plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats.” This was a reversal from two weeks ago when 50% favored the health care reform plan and 45% opposed it. The “opposed” camp has the edge in intensity by nearly two to one with 38% strongly opposing and 22% strongly favoring the reform plan.

All of which means that you and I have very little time left to mobilize opposition to this deceptive, “transformational” health care reform legislation. If Americans don’t rally quickly and defeat this initiative, then one more major segment of the American economy will be federalized.

Here are some reasons for opposing Obama’s health care reform legislation:

1. The whole process has been deceptive. The real goal of President Obama and the congressional leaders has been to establish over time a single payer, government-run health care system; however, they have portrayed their legislation as primarily to extend health care coverage to the uninsured and provide more health care insurance options to the already-insured.

2. Congress already has a massive case of fiscal irresponsibility. In the face of an estimated $1.85 trillion federal budget deficit for FY2009 and projected trillion dollar annual deficits for the foreseeable future, how can anyone in Congress vote for this health care plan, which will cost at least $1 trillion over the next ten years. And, remember such cost estimates for entitlement programs have always been notoriously lower than reality. Realize too that these deficits have real consequences, such as keeping taxes high on businesses which drives jobs offshore and requiring the Federal Reserve to print more money which causes a decrease in the buying power of our earnings and savings.

3. Congress is facing at least $53 trillion of unfunded liabilities due to its passage of the previous entitlement programs, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the recent addition of prescription drug coverage for Medicare. How can anyone in Congress vote for a new entitlement program for health care when Congress has not even begun to face up to this unfunded liabilities problem. To understand just how big a financial hole Congress has put us in, take a look at the video “I.O.U.S.A.: Byte-Sized - The 30 Minute Version" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_TjBNjc9Bo (Due to an unusual situation, you'll need to copy and paste this URL into your browser to view the video.) :

4. Federal funding of and control over health care is not authorized in the U.S. Constitution. We the People must insist that Congress begin limiting the size of the federal government in accordance with the Constitution. As we can already vividly see, allowing Congress to disregard the Constitution is leading us toward total government control over all aspects of our lives and economy. We must preserve our freedom and prosperity by using this fight over health care to help build the massive grassroots movement required to pressure Congress into voting constitutionally.

What Can You Do?

1. Contact your representative and senators in vigorous opposition to the health care reform legislation proposed by President Obama and Democratic congressional leaders. Click here to take immediate action to send an email to your representative and senators. Be sure to follow up with phone calls and, if possible, personal visits to their offices in DC and in your state. Activate your networks of like-minded friends and organizations and get them involved in stopping this dangerous legislation.

2. Help build the constitutionalist grassroots movement to a size where Congress is forced to begin voting constitutionally and where the political atmosphere becomes conducive to electing a majority of constitutionalists to Congress. A good place to start is by joining the JBS Community at JBS.org.