With the help of a defector from Republican ranks, the Senate Finance Committee cleared a version of the healthcare reform bill Tuesday that would increase taxes by hundreds of billions. It includes “individual mandates” and would create non-profit “co-operatives,” though not the so-called “public option.”

In a 14 to 9 vote, the committee sent the legislation to the full Senate, where it will now be tweaked in an attempt to secure the 60 votes needed to prevent a filibuster. The Senate Health Committee’s bill contained some key differences, so Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid plans to work with the White House on crafting the final draft. If it passes, it must still be reconciled with proposals in the House of Representatives.

President Barack Obama celebrated the decision, calling it a “critical milestone” and declaring that “we are closer than ever before to passing health reform.” But he warned supporters that it was time to “dig in” and work even harder to ensure approval of the legislation. “Now is not the time to pat ourselves on the back.”

Obama also praised Republican Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, who became the first Republican to vote for any of the reform bills in any congressional committee. Enraging conservatives and Republicans across the country, the self-styled “moderate” gave the bill a veneer of “bipartisanship,” explaining that “when history calls, history calls.”

“Is this bill all that I would want? Far from it. Is it all that it can be? No,” Snowe said. But despite her vote for the bill in committee, she warned that it did not mean she will necessarily support the legislation in the future. “There are many, many miles to go in this legislative journey.”

Some Democrats also expressed reservations about the bill, with West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller vowing to push for the government-run “public option” that was included in the Health Committee’s version. Senator John Kerry promised a fight to force all employers to offer coverage, even though this bill already does essentially that by penalizing almost all employers that do not. 

Senator Max Baucus of Montana, however, was proud of the bill he sponsored and helped create. “It modernizes our health care system,” he claimed in a press release, calling the bill “balanced.” The Senator - who receives massive amounts of funding from the industry he would force Americans to patronize — also indicated that the committee’s approval was a “critical step” towards reform.           

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that over ten years the Finance Committee’s legislation would cost almost a trillion dollars, while covering an extra 20 million people or so. An analysis by accounting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers estimated that the average family would pay almost $5,000 more for insurance per year if the bill was adopted.

Excepting illegal immigrants, people who refuse to purchase government-approved and mandated insurance would be subject to fines of almost $2,000 per family. The bill would also promote more government dependency by providing sliding-scale subsidies to families earning up to about $90,000 per year — four times more than the federal poverty rate.

Other key provisions in the bill include a prohibition on denying coverage for pre-existing conditions, making it cheaper to simply pay the federal fine and wait until becoming sick before purchasing insurance, according to opponents. It also purports to “allow” people who like their coverage to keep it.       

Critics have attacked the unconstitutional bill from all angles. Pro-life activists are upset because amendments to prevent more federal abortion funding failed. Big government foes oppose the notion of expanding unconstitutional powers and claim the numbers are misleading. Even Big Labor ran newspaper advertisements opposing the legislation, saying it amounted to a tax increase on the middle class. 

According to the senior Republican on the committee, Iowa Senator Charles Grassley, the legislation will lead to “more and more government control of health care.” Republican Senator Mike Enzi of Wyoming called the measure “the wrong kind of reform,” noting that it will increase the cost of insurance for Americans. “The Finance bill spends too much and does too little to bring down health care costs.”

Ultimately, all versions of the reform bill would increase the size and scope of government far beyond what is permitted by the supreme law of the land. In fact, the Constitution does not give the federal government any authority over health care at all, and most of the current problems were created by massive government intervention in the first place.

The current reform proposals would also guarantee an increase in the costs of healthcare and government, simultaneously providing the pretext for further government encroachment in the future. Quality and innovation will certainly fall as well. It appears certain that meaningful reform — like getting government out of medicine — will not be an option for the time being. In light of this, Congress should simply dump healthcare reform for the year.

Alex Newman is an American freelance writer and the president of Liberty Sentinel Media, Inc., a small media consulting firm. He is currently living in Sweden and has spent most of his life in Latin America, Europe and Africa. He has a degree in foreign languages and speaks Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Italian and a little Swedish and Afrikaans. In addition, he earned a degree in journalism from the University of Florida, with emphasis on economics and international relations.

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DDW said:

	Weep now for these United State of America And weep now for your lost liberties. I believe that the end is now in full swing.
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October 14, 2009
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Lee Gonzales said:

	Weep,hell! we have only... Just begun to fight!
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October 14, 2009
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Hugh Rossen said:

This is happening exactly as I predicted The public option was the only alternative that could drive down the stratospheric cost of healthcare in the USA. I predicted it would be ditched as it would be inconvenient for the Health Insurers and the Pharmaceuticals. As we all know, most politicians in Washington sold their souls to these entities, receiving humongous donations from their lobyists and other related interest groups ( www.opensecrets.org ) . Where are we headed? Please visit this entry at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...lth_Reform This is exactly what will happen in USA - tax money will go to the private insurance sector and we will look like Puerto Rico in no time. A lot of doctors are into this because that will bring them all the medicaid patients to their office. Notice that just like in PR, health care services will be a lot worse. Note - Triple S = Blue Shield / Blue Cross

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October 14, 2009
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Pat Henry said:

	Not about Health or Care This is one more step in communistic central planning of the US economy. It must be fought, using both spiritual and political means. And, remember, 2010 elections are coming.
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October 14, 2009
Votes: +5

Carie said:

... Many years ago, I read one of the Birch Societies books titled "None Dare Call It Conspiracy." I have warned people for over 30 years, and listened to people say it wasn't so. We have no one to blame but ourselves. We are/were too comfortable and believed that the rights our forefathers + fathers fought/died for were guaranteed. To this day, people still choose to sit on the sidelines and do nothing. I will never give up the fight for freedom-those on the benches had better do something..you can't let up even for a moment.

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October 14, 2009
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R D said:

... I do not understand why there are not daily demonstrations being organized against this bill, we are seriously considering giving the worst run bureacracy on earth control over our bodies and minds - and Obama's people in charge of healthcare are responding by drafting healthcare rationing papers that advocate denying costly treatments to the young and old in the name of utilitarianism, while laying the groundwork for harvesting organs from those defined by the bureacrats as terminally ill, against their will! for God's sake, call, email, text and write your representatives before they go along with the worst possible change to american in the last 100 years

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October 14, 2009
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SCHNORCHEL said:

Communist Strategy The Communist Strategy, aptly abstracted by The John Birch Society, is "Pressure from above and pressure from below. We Middle-class people are being squashed in this pincer strategy in "health care reform," as well as in other measures imposed on us by our subverted government. Another strategy of the advance of World Communism is "Two Steps forward, and one step back." If more people recognized this and applied it to their perceived problems, we americanists would be farther along.

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October 14, 2009
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