15,700,000:  Americans unemployed and looking for work—the highest number ever.  Since the trillion dollar Democrat “stimulus” was passed, the number of unemployed Americans has increased by nearly three million.

190,000:  Individuals whose jobs were eliminated in October.

1,737,000:  People unemployed in October because they have been laid off.

2,804,000:  Jobs lost since Democrats’ “stimulus” was passed in February.

9,284,000: People who are working only part-time because they cannot find full time employment.

2,373,000:  People who want work, but who are not currently looking because of the state of the economy. 

5,594,000:  People unemployed and searching for work for more than 27 weeks—the highest level ever.

1,090,000:  Job seekers that are new entrants to the workforce and have yet to find a job.

26.9:  Average number of weeks job seekers are unemployed after losing their jobs—the highest number since the statistic was first recorded in 1948.

27.6%:  Unemployment rate among job seekers between the ages of 16 and 19—the highest level since the statistic was first measured in 1948.

15.7%:  Unemployment rate among African Americans—the highest level since 1985.

13.1%:  Unemployment rate among Hispanics and Latinos.

17.5%:  Rate of underemployment, accounting for the unemployed and those who are unable to find adequate work.

15.5%:  Unemployment rate among job seekers without a high school degree.

65.1%:  Rate of the U.S. population in the workforce.

Courtesy House Republican Conference

In response to new unemployment figures showing that more than one in ten Americans are out of work, Congressman Jack Kingston (R-GA) called on the Administration to change economic course and abandon it’s failed stimulus program.

“If government spending were the answer, we’d be doing great by now,” Congressman Kingston said.  “It’s not, though, and it’s time to admit that fact.  It’s time for change we believe in.  If we want to truly jumpstart the economy, we’ve got to restore confidence and empower the real economic engine of America – small business and entrepreneurs – with the tools they need.”

Congressman Kingston opposed the $1 trillion spending scheme when Speaker Pelosi rushed it through the House in February.  At the time he cosponsored a bill that would create twice the jobs at half the price when using the same math as President Obama’s economic advisors.  That bill was centered on targeted tax cuts for small businesses and working families as well as economic assistance for the hardest hit areas.

Congressman Kingston also used the numbers to highlight his opposition to Speaker Pelsoi’s planned takeover of health care.  Citing the failed stimulus, he expressed little faith the government would effectively manage the nation’s health care.

“Time and again we’ve seen the government fail when it tries to insert itself in the private sector,” said Congressman Kingston.  “But this time we’re supposed to believe them that it will all be alright?  I don’t buy it and neither do the American people.  We can’t afford the Pelosi Plan – its bad medicine for an already hurting economy.”

After President Obama and Speaker Pelosi got their $787 billion “stimulus,” what happened? Unemployment went up.  Why follow that model for health care?  Republicans have offered a targeted alternative.  To learn more visit http://kingston.house.gov/healthcare

A Discussion on Health Care Reform: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc3nF8XIFlo

Medical Care and the National Debt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IWpnZIKj5s

The Doctor-Patient Relationship: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z87IyxeXlcQ

To read the full text, click below:

• Bad for Businesses
• Bad for Low-Income Households
  
• Bad for Patients and Doctors
• Bad for Rural America
  
• Bad for Seniors
• Bad for States
• Bad for Women and Families
  
• Bad for Young Americans

2. Grant program for wellness programs to small employers (Section 112, p. 62)

3. Grant program for State health access programs (Section 114, p. 72)

4. Program of administrative simplification (Section 115, p. 76)

5. Health Benefits Advisory Committee (Section 223, p. 111)

6. Health Choices Administration (Section 241, p. 131)

7. Qualified Health Benefits Plan Ombudsman (Section 244, p. 138)

8. Health Insurance Exchange (Section 201, p. 155)

9. Program for technical assistance to employees of small businesses buying Exchange coverage (Section 305(h), p. 191)

10. Mechanism for insurance risk pooling to be established by Health Choices Commissioner (Section 306(b), p. 194)

11. Health Insurance Exchange Trust Fund (Section 307, p. 195)

12. State-based Health Insurance Exchanges (Section 308, p. 197)

13. Grant program for health insurance cooperatives (Section 310, p. 206)

14. “Public Health Insurance Option” (Section 321, p. 211)

15. Ombudsman for “Public Health Insurance Option” (Section 321(d), p. 213)

16. Account for receipts and disbursements for “Public Health Insurance Option” (Section 322(b), p. 215)

17. Telehealth Advisory Committee (Section 1191 (b), p. 589)

18. Demonstration program providing reimbursement for “culturally and linguistically appropriate services” (Section 1222, p. 617)

19. Demonstration program for shared decision making using patient decision aids (Section 1236, p. 648)

20. Accountable Care Organization pilot program under Medicare (Section 1301, p. 653)

21. Independent patient-centered medical home pilot program under Medicare (Section 1302, p. 672)

22. Community-based medical home pilot program under Medicare (Section 1302(d), p. 681)

23. Independence at home demonstration program (Section 1312, p. 718)

24. Center for Comparative Effectiveness Research (Section 1401(a), p. 734)

25. Comparative Effectiveness Research Commission (Section 1401(a), p. 738)

26. Patient ombudsman for comparative effectiveness research (Section 1401(a), p. 753)

27. Quality assurance and performance improvement program for skilled nursing facilities (Section 1412(b)(1), p. 784)

28. Quality assurance and performance improvement program for nursing facilities (Section 1412 (b)(2), p. 786)

29. Special focus facility program for skilled nursing facilities (Section 1413(a)(3), p. 796)

30. Special focus facility program for nursing facilities (Section 1413(b)(3), p. 804)

31. National independent monitor pilot program for skilled nursing facilities and nursing facilities (Section 1422, p. 859)

32. Demonstration program for approved teaching health centers with respect to Medicare GME (Section 1502(d), p. 933)

33. Pilot program to develop anti-fraud compliance systems for Medicare providers (Section 1635, p. 978)

34. Special Inspector General for the Health Insurance Exchange (Section 1647, p. 1000)

35. Medical home pilot program under Medicaid (Section 1722, p. 1058)

36. Accountable Care Organization pilot program under Medicaid (Section 1730A, p. 1073)

37. Nursing facility supplemental payment program (Section 1745, p. 1106)

38. Demonstration program for Medicaid coverage to stabilize emergency medical conditions in institutions for mental diseases (Section 1787, p. 1149)

39. Comparative Effectiveness Research Trust Fund (Section 1802, p. 1162)

40. “Identifiable office or program” within CMS to “provide for improved coordination between Medicare and Medicaid in the case of dual eligibles” (Section 1905, p. 1191)

41. Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (Section 1907, p. 1198)

42. Public Health Investment Fund (Section 2002, p. 1214)

43. Scholarships for service in health professional needs areas (Section 2211, p. 1224)

44. Program for training medical residents in community-based settings (Section 2214, p. 1236)

45. Grant program for training in dentistry programs (Section 2215, p. 1240)

46. Public Health Workforce Corps (Section 2231, p. 1253)

47. Public health workforce scholarship program (Section 2231, p. 1254)

48. Public health workforce loan forgiveness program (Section 2231, p. 1258)

49. Grant program for innovations in interdisciplinary care (Section 2252, p. 1272)

50. Advisory Committee on Health Workforce Evaluation and Assessment (Section 2261, p. 1275)

51. Prevention and Wellness Trust (Section 2301, p. 1286)

52. Clinical Prevention Stakeholders Board (Section 2301, p. 1295)

53. Community Prevention Stakeholders Board (Section 2301, p. 1301)

54. Grant program for community prevention and wellness research (Section 2301, p. 1305)

55. Grant program for research and demonstration projects related to wellness incentives (Section 2301, p. 1305)

56. Grant program for community prevention and wellness services (Section 2301, p. 1308)

57. Grant program for public health infrastructure (Section 2301, p. 1313)

58. Center for Quality Improvement (Section 2401, p. 1322)

59. Assistant Secretary for Health Information (Section 2402, p. 1330)

60. Grant program to support the operation of school-based health clinics (Section 2511, p. 1352)

61. Grant program for nurse-managed health centers (Section 2512, p. 1361)

62. Grants for labor-management programs for nursing training (Section 2521, p. 1372)

63. Grant program for interdisciplinary mental and behavioral health training (Section 2522, p. 1382)

64. “No Child Left Unimmunized Against Influenza” demonstration grant program (Section 2524, p. 1391)

65. Healthy Teen Initiative grant program regarding teen pregnancy (Section 2526, p. 1398)

66. Grant program for interdisciplinary training, education, and services for individuals with autism (Section 2527(a), p. 1402)

67. University centers for excellence in developmental disabilities education (Section 2527(b), p. 1410)

68. Grant program to implement medication therapy management services (Section 2528, p. 1412)

69. Grant program to promote positive health behaviors in underserved communities (Section 2530, p. 1422)

70. Grant program for State alternative medical liability laws (Section 2531, p. 1431)

71. Grant program to develop infant mortality programs (Section 2532, p. 1433)

72. Grant program to prepare secondary school students for careers in health professions (Section 2533, p. 1437)

73. Grant program for community-based collaborative care (Section 2534, p. 1440)

74. Grant program for community-based overweight and obesity prevention (Section 2535, p. 1457)

75. Grant program for reducing the student-to-school nurse ratio in primary and secondary schools (Section 2536, p. 1462)

76. Demonstration project of grants to medical-legal partnerships (Section 2537, p. 1464)

77. Center for Emergency Care under the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (Section 2552, p. 1478)

78. Council for Emergency Care (Section 2552, p 1479)

79. Grant program to support demonstration programs that design and implement regionalized emergency care systems (Section 2553, p. 1480)

80. Grant program to assist veterans who wish to become emergency medical technicians upon discharge (Section 2554, p. 1487)

81. Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee (Section 2562, p. 1494)

82. National Medical Device Registry (Section 2571, p. 1501)

83. CLASS Independence Fund (Section 2581, p. 1597)

84. CLASS Independence Fund Board of Trustees (Section 2581, p. 1598)

85. CLASS Independence Advisory Council (Section 2581, p. 1602)

86. Health and Human Services Coordinating Committee on Women’s Health (Section 2588, p. 1610)

87. National Women’s Health Information Center (Section 2588, p. 1611)

88. Centers for Disease Control Office of Women’s Health (Section 2588, p. 1614)

89. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Office of Women’s Health and Gender-Based Research (Section 2588, p. 1617)

90. Health Resources and Services Administration Office of Women’s Health (Section 2588, p. 1618)

91. Food and Drug Administration Office of Women’s Health (Section 2588, p. 1621)

92. Personal Care Attendant Workforce Advisory Panel (Section 2589(a)(2), p. 1624)

93. Grant program for national health workforce online training (Section 2591, p. 1629)

94. Grant program to disseminate best practices on implementing health workforce investment programs (Section 2591, p. 1632)

95. Demonstration program for chronic shortages of health professionals (Section 3101, p. 1717)

96. Demonstration program for substance abuse counselor educational curricula (Section 3101, p. 1719)

97. Program of Indian community education on mental illness (Section 3101, p. 1722)

98. Intergovernmental Task Force on Indian environmental and nuclear hazards (Section 3101, p. 1754)

99. Office of Indian Men’s Health (Section 3101, p. 1765)

100. Indian Health facilities appropriation advisory board (Section 3101, p. 1774)

101. Indian Health facilities needs assessment workgroup (Section 3101, p. 1775)

102. Indian Health Service tribal facilities joint venture demonstration projects (Section 3101, p. 1809)

103. Urban youth treatment center demonstration project (Section 3101, p. 1873)

104. Grants to Urban Indian Organizations for diabetes prevention (Section 3101, p. 1874)

105. Grants to Urban Indian Organizations for health IT adoption (Section 3101, p. 1877)

106. Mental health technician training program (Section 3101, p. 1898)

107. Indian youth telemental health demonstration project (Section 3101, p. 1909)

108. Program for treatment of child sexual abuse victims and perpetrators (Section 3101, p. 1925)

109. Program for treatment of domestic violence and sexual abuse (Section 3101, p. 1927)

110. Native American Health and Wellness Foundation (Section 3103, p. 1966)

111. Committee for the Establishment of the Native American Health and Wellness Foundation (Section 3103, p. 1968)

5.5 million—Number of jobs that could be lost as a result of taxes on businesses that cannot afford to provide health insurance coverage, according to a model developed by Council of Economic Advisors Chair Christina Romer

$729.5 billion—Total new taxes on small businesses, individuals who cannot afford health coverage, and employers who cannot afford to provide coverage that meet federal bureaucrats’ standards

$1.055 trillion—New federal spending on expanded health insurance coverage over the next ten years, according to a Congressional Budget Office preliminary score of the bill

.7%—Percentage of all that new spending occurring in the bill’s first three years—representing a debt and tax “time bomb” in the program’s later years set to explode on future generations

$88,200—Definition of “low-income” family of four for purposes of health insurance subsidies

114 million—Number of individuals who could lose their current coverage under the bill’s government-run health plan, according to non-partisan actuaries at the Lewin Group

43—Entitlement programs the bill creates, expands, or extends—an increase from H.R. 3200

111—Additional offices, bureaus, commissions, programs, and bureaucracies the bill creates over and above the entitlement expansions—more than double the number in H.R. 3200

3,425—Uses of the word “shall,” representing new duties for bureaucrats and mandates on individuals, businesses, and States—also more than double the number in H.R. 3200

$10 billion—Minimum loss sustained by taxpayers every year due to Medicare fraud; the government-run health plan does not reform the ineffective anti-fraud statutes and procedures that have kept Medicare on the Government Accountability Office’s list of high-risk programs for two decades

Zero—Prohibitions on government programs like Medicare and Medicaid from using cost-effectiveness research to impose delays to or denials for access to life-saving treatments

$634 Billion—Amount that could be saved by denying individuals access to treatments that are not “cost-effective,” according to a report by the liberal Commonwealth Fund; Section 1160 of the bill gives bureaucrats in the Obama Administration virtual free rein to develop a new “high-value” reimbursement system for Medicare by May 2012

2017—Year Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund will be exhausted—an entitlement crisis exacerbated by the bill, which according to the Congressional Budget Office will increase the federal budgetary commitment to health care by $598 billion in its first ten years alone

$2,500—Promised savings for each American family from health reform, according to then-Senator Obama’s campaign pledge—savings which the Administration’s own actuaries have confirmed will not materialize, as the Pelosi health care bill would increase the growth of health care costs

• The Democrats’ Affordable Health Care for America Act (H.R. 3962) is the antithesis of patient-centered reform that empowers Americans to truly own and control their health coverage and provides more choices, more competition, more innovation, higher quality and lower costs.
• In deciphering the ins and outs of the new health care system, Americans will have to get familiar with a host of new czars and bureaucrats, including the Health Benefits Advisory Committee (Sec. 223), the Health Choices Administration and the Health Choices Commissioner (Sec. 241).
• Americans can say goodbye to personal, private insurance as individual health insurance coverage is grandfathered out of existence (Sec. 202) and more limitations are added to health savings accounts (Sec. 531 & Sec. 533).
• Fears of government-run health care are alive and well with experts saying the government health insurance plan (Sec. 321) will force tens of millions out of their existing coverage.
• The U.S. Constitution and the principle of limited government are tested as never before by forcing Americans to purchase “acceptable” health care coverage or face a tax of 2.5% of modified adjusted gross income (Sec. 501).
• Trial lawyers get off scot-free as Democrats pay lip service to real medical malpractice reform, opting to hand over money for lawyer-friendly “alternatives” (Sec. 2531) instead of limiting attorneys’ fees or capping damages.
• Washington goes after employers, by mandating they provide health care coverage or pay a tax equal to 8 percent of wages (Sec. 512), and S Corp filers, by instituting a 5.4 percent surtax on taxpayers (Sec. 551).
• More low-income individuals (now up to 150% of the federal poverty level) will be pushed onto the rolls of Medicaid (Sec. 1701) leaving already over-stretched State Governments to pick up the tab.
• Future costs will be borne by your children and grandchildren.  A preliminary analysis by the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the true cost of the bill is $1.055 trillion.
• It permits federal funds to be spent on abortion services (Sec. 222).
• Community organizations like ACORN may assist the Health Choices Commissioner in enrolling individuals in the Health Insurance Exchange (Sec. 305).
• Members of Congress are not subject to the same health care system Americans will have to live by under the public health insurance option (Sec. 330).

Courtesy Republican Study Committee

Many may find the release of House Democrats’ health “reform” legislation the week of Halloween particularly apt, as the legislation includes several “monstrous” provisions likely to wreak havoc on the American people, their jobs, and their health care:

• Werewolf of Government-Run Insurance
• Count Taxula
• Weird Scientists
• Frankenstein
• A Ghoulish Czar

While Halloween may come and go, many may be concerned that the monsters created in the bill will stay—causing permanent fright for all Americans forced to live under Democrats’ government takeover of health care.

Read about these “monstrous” provisions click here.

Republican Whip Eric Cantor aptly points out that conventional wisdom would  say that the “public” unveiling of the public option on the steps of public property would involve public access.  Not so in Washington.

TOTAL TAX INCREASES: $729.5 BILLION

*Violates President Obama’s pledge to avoid tax increases on Americans earning less than $250,000
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However, the earlier version (HR 3200) included annual inflation adjustments designed to make sure that the tax’s reach did not grow as nominal incomes rose each year. The lack of such adjustments in the alternative minimum tax (AMT), which was originally designed to affect only the wealthiest Americans, forces Congress to routinely pass “patches” to prevent the tax from hitting tens of millions with more moderate income. 

From CQ’s Richard Rubin:
The House’s main revenue source for its health care bill is not indexed for inflation, meaning that more and more people each year would face a tax that is being sold as a levy on millionaires.

It’s a significant change in approach that will help align revenues and costs in the latest version of the bill, but it will invite criticism and comparisons to the alternative minimum tax, which has affected far more people than it was supposed to.

Starting in 2011, the House bill (HR 3962) would impose a 5.4 percent surtax on adjusted gross income above $500,000 for individuals and $1 million for married couples. Because some Democrats expressed concern about the potential effect on small businesses that pay through the individual side of the tax code, the party’s leadership scrapped an earlier plan that would have imposed a smaller surtax on individuals making more than $280,000 and married couples earning above $350,000.

For the full story, click here (NOTE: This is a subscription-based magazine).

MYTH

Today, Speaker Pelosi stated that the House Democrats’ 1,990 page bill, “meets President Obama’s call to keep the costs under $900 billion over 10 years and it insures 36 million more Americans.” 1

FACT

1. The non-partisan, independent Congressional Budget Office (CBO) states that the cost of H.R. 3962, the House Democrats’ health care bill, is “a gross total of $1.055 billion.” 
2. The total cost of the Democrats’ bill will skyrocket, exceeding $1.3 trillion, once they properly account for the Medicare physician payment reform provision.   

SOURCE: 1.President Obama, in his remarks to a joint session of Congress, specifically stated that once you “add it all up” the cost will be “around $900 billion over 10 years,”  Here is the President’s full quote: “Now, add it all up, and the plan I’m proposing will cost around $900 billion over 10 years — less than we have spent on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and less than the tax cuts for the wealthiest few Americans that Congress passed at the beginning of the previous administration.”  (Emphasis added, Source: President Obama, Transcript of Remarks by the President to a Joint Session of Congress on Health Care)

1. RAISES TAXES ON MIDDLE CLASS FAMILIES.  Speaker Pelosi’s health care bill imposes a range of tax increases on families with income below $250,000, breaking a promise made by President Obama.  Tax increases on middle class families include: an individual mandate tax of up to 2.5 percent of income for taxpayers earning as little as $9,350; repeal of a tax break on medicine purchased with funds from an HSA (health savings account); limits to tax relief through FSAs (flexible spending accounts); taxes on medical devices that will inevitably be passed on to consumers; and a new tax on all insurance policies.
2. MASSIVE CUTS TO MEDICARE BENEFITS FOR SENIORS.  Despite grave warnings from CBO, FactCheck.org, and the independent Lewin Group that cuts to Medicare of the magnitude included in Speaker Pelosi’s bill would have a negative impact on seniors’ benefits and choices, Speaker Pelosi’s health care bill stays the course and cuts Medicare by hundreds of billions of dollars.
3. NO PROTECTIONS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES.  Speaker Pelosi’s health care bill claims to exempt small businesses from the steep eight percent ‘pay or play’ employer mandate.  The facts tell a different story.  Using Census data compiled by the Small Business Administration, this so-called ‘exemption’ hammers small employers with only, on average, 17 or more employees to new taxes and mandates.  The outfits affected employ 70 percent of all small business employees, or 42.3 million workers.  Adding to the assault on small businesses, the bill does not index the small business “exemption” amounts, meaning more and more small businesses will be ensnared by this job-killing employer mandate each year.
4. INCREASES THE COST OF HEALTH INSURANCE.  Imposing a new $2 billion tax on insurance policies will be passed on to patients in the form of higher premiums.  Changes to the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit will, according to estimates by CBO, will raise Medicare Part B premiums by $25 billion and Part D premiums by 20 percent.  And imposing an unfunded mandate on the states to pay for the bill’s Medicaid expansion will shift the burden of this expansion on state taxpayers who may experience tax increases to cover the cost.
5. USES GIMMICKS TO HIDE BUDGET-BUSTING COST, PILES UP DEBT ON FUTURE GENERATIONS.  Speaker Pelosi’s health care bill claims to be deficit neutral, but uses budget gimmickry to hide its massive total cost.  Working families across America know they cannot simply decide that a bill they get in the mail doesn’t exist, but that’s exactly what congressional Democrats are doing.  In order to meet the President’s ‘target’ spending total of $900 billion, Democrats have simply swept costly provisions under the rug, including the $245 billion ‘doc fix.’
6. IMPOSES JOB-KILLING EMPLOYER MANDATES.  Additional taxes on employers and new government mandates that dictate acceptable insurance will place new and crushing burdens on employers.  These are burdens that will ultimately fall squarely on the backs of workers in the form of reduced wages, fewer hours or lost employment. CBO agrees that “[e]mployees largely bear the cost of… play-or-pay fees in the form of lower wages.”  According to the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), the nation’s largest small business association, an employer mandate of this magnitude will disproportionately impact small businesses, triggering up to 1.6 million lost jobs.  Two-thirds of those jobs would be shed by small businesses.
7. TILTS THE PLAYING FIELD IN FAVOR OF THE GOVERNMENT-RUN INSURANCE COMPANY.  Speaker Pelosi’s health care bill promises not to give the government-run plan advantages over private insurers in the market, but the opposite is true.  The bill provides billions in start-up funding for the government-run plan, and while it requires the plan to repay the money over time it does not require the plan to pay interest on this “loan.”  This interest-free, taxpayer-subsidized loan is potentially worth millions of dollars and tilts the playing field in favor of the government-run plan.
8. THREATENS CASH-STRAPPED STATES WITH UNFUNDED MANDATES.  Speaker Pelosi’s health care bill swells the number of Americans on the government rolls by expanding Medicaid eligibility.  Medicaid is financed through a federal-state partnership, but the bill dumps nearly ten percent of the mandated expansion included in the bill onto the states.  States, already struggling with fiscal constraints, would be left on the hook for billions of dollars due to this unfunded mandate.
9. CREATES A NEW MONSTROSITY IN THE TAX CODE.  Starting in 2011, Speaker Pelosi’s health care bill imposes a 5.4 percent tax on adjusted gross income above $500,000 for individuals and $1 million for married couples.  Yet, the dollar amounts for which the tax kicks in are not indexed for inflation.  We’ve seen this horror film before: the Alternative Minimum Tax, another Frankenstein’s monster of the tax code, also wasn’t indexed for inflation and now affects millions of middle class families with incomes below the Democrat’s surtax.
10. MISSES AN OPPORTUNITY TO CURTAIL JUNK LAWSUITS.  Speaker Pelosi’s health care bill misses a critical opportunity to rein in junk lawsuits and costly defensive medicine.  The bill includes only a voluntary grant program to deal with the medical liability crisis instead of including real reform, which would produce tens of billions of dollars in savings, improve efficiency in our health care system and reduce costs for patients and providers.

BONUS: Republicans have offered better solutions to lower health care costs and expand access to quality, affordable coverage at a price our nation can afford.  Learn more by visiting healthcare.gop.gov.

Courtesy House Republican Leader John Boehner

House Democrats blocked the public from attending the unveiling ceremony of their health-care bill Thursday morning, allowing only pre-approved visitors whose names appeared on lists to enter the event at the West side of the Capitol.

Republican Whip Eric Cantor’s office even got footage of someone being turned away with a Capitol Police officer informing him that he hadn’t been, “authorized by the Speaker’s office.”  To watch the video, click here.

To read more on this subject, click here.

Members Beat Police in Overtime at Longest Yard

Oct. 27, 2009, 10:57 p.m.
By John McArdle
Roll Call Staff

Included in those cuts to Medicare are an estimated 6 million seniors who will be forced off their Medicare Advantage plan, cuts to rural nursing homes and hospitals which will be forced to shut their doors and a 20% increase in Medicare Part D premiums.

To view the clip, click below:

Despite these promises, Democrats have time and again rammed through costly bills with devastating consequences for America’s families that no member of Congress has read.  For example, the 1,073-page, trillion-dollar stimulus bill was posted online at 10 p.m. the night before it came up for a vote.  A 300-page amendment was tacked on to the 1,200-page national energy tax bill at 3 a.m. the morning it came up for a vote.

It’s just common sense: the American people should be given time to read major bills before they come to a vote.  Previous Congresses, including Republican ones, have failed to live up to this standard.  Now is the time for Congress to change, and House Republicans are committed to leading this unprecedented effort to bring sunlight and transparency to the entire legislative process:

• READ THE BILL. Put all bills online for at least 72 hours before they come to a vote. (H. Res. 554, Reps. John Culberson, R-TX & Brian Baird, D-WA; Discharge Petition by Rep. Greg Walden, R-OR)
• BAN “PHANTOM AMENDMENTS.”  Require committees to post bill text online within 24 hours of adoption. (H. Res. 835, Rep. Lynn Jenkins, R-KS)
• SHOW THE VOTES.  Post Members’ committee votes online within 48 hours. (Rep. Dave Reichert, R-WA)
• OPEN HEALTH CARE NEGOTIATIONS TO THE PUBLIC . Prevent secret deals behind closed doors and ensure a full and open debate.  (H. Res. 847, Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-FL)
• BRING SUNLIGHT TO THE RULES COMMITTEE. Allow cameras in the secretive Rules Committee, which decides which bills come to a vote.  (Rep. Charlie Dent, R-PA)

Speaker Pelosi should allow these proposals to be brought to the House floor for an up-or-down vote. Only House Democrats stand between the American people and these common-sense reforms to protect their hard-earned tax dollars.
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To read the full report, click here.

 To read more about this, click here.

The banking system today may be in a more precarious position than it was a year ago, the man charged with overseeing a $700 billion bailout program said Wednesday.

Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general managing the Troubled Asset Relief Program, told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Wednesday that the government’s decision to support bank mergers over the past year may have put the U.S. economy more at risk.

“These banks that were too big to fail are now bigger,” Barofsky said. “Government has sponsored and supported several mergers that made them larger and that guarantee, that implicit guarantee of moral hazard, the idea that the government is not going to let these banks fail, which was implicit a year ago, is now explicit, we’ve said it. So if anything, not only have there not been any meaningful regulatory reform to make it less likely, in a lot of ways, the government has made such problems more likely.

“Potentially we could be in more danger now than we were a year ago,” he added.

Earlier in the day, Barofsky issued a scathing report criticizing the Treasury Department for not being transparent enough about how bailout money was being spent. He warned that this could have lasting effects.

“I think this cynicism, this anger, this distrust of government that’s born in part from a lack of transparency could have far-reaching ramifications, whether there’s a next crisis or when anytime the government is going to call on the American people, the taxpayer, to support necessary programs,” Barofsky said.

Other key findings from Rasmussen:

• 54% favor middle class tax cuts over new government spending
• 66% say free market competition will do more than new government regulations

The full report is available by clicking here.