By: Chuck Muth
Citizen Outreach

PRICE-LESS FIGHTIN’ WORDS

“Senator Reid has unveiled what the American people have feared for months – a government takeover of health care. While most Americans are enjoying this season of giving, Senate Democrats are robbing patients and their doctors of the ability to make independent health care decisions.

“The Senate bill declares that from this day forth no health care decision can be made without Washington’s say on the matter. From government dictating how care is delivered, to who can keep their health care plans, to raising its costs, I know, as a physician, that this legislation will be a disaster for patients seeking the highest quality of care.

President Obama and Democrats in Congress may be smiling today, but they have just bought themselves a fight they will regret initiating.”

Rep. Tom Price M.D. (R-Ga.), 12/21/09

VOTES FOR SALE

“This process is not legislation, this process is corruption. It’s a shame the only way we can come to a consensus in this country is to buy votes.”

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s efforts to pass the health care reform bill, 12/20/09

LIKE DRAGGING A TWENTY DOLLAR BILL THROUGH A TRAILER PARK

“Obama paid off Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb) the way he and Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev) had paid off Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La) last month. Put enough money on the table and just about any Democratic U.S. Senator will think, gulp, blink, and drag the pot with the rationalization that ‘this is all for the greater good.'”

Rich Galen, Mullings.com, 12/21/09

AID AND COMFORT

“Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran broke ranks with fellow Republicans Sunday to pass a $1.1 trillion omnibus federal spending bill for the 2010 fiscal year. . . . Support from Cochran and two other Republicans, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, gave Democrats the 60 votes they needed to surpass a threatened GOP filibuster.”

Jackson (Mississippi) Free Press, 12/15/9

OOPS!

“When he earmarked $100,000 in taxpayer spending to go to Jamestown’s library, Rep. James E. Clyburn meant for it to go to the library in Jamestown, S.C., which is in his district. But in the bustle to write and pass the $1.1 trillion catchall spending bill, Congress ended up designating the money for Jamestown, Calif. – 2,700 miles away and a town that doesn’t even have a library. ‘That figures for government, doesn’t it,’ said Chris Pipkin, who runs the one-room library in Jamestown, S.C.”

Washington Times, 12/18/09

YOUR AMERICAN TAX DOLLARS HARD AT WORK

“U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsak announced Wednesday the United States would provide $1 billion over the next three years to preserve tropical forests overseas.”

Washington Post, 12/16/09

NOTHING BUT THE BEST FOR OUR PUBLIC SERVANTS

The expenses racked up by U.S. lawmakers traveling here (Edinburg, Scotland) for a conference last month included one for the ‘control room.’ Besides rooms for sleeping, the 12 members of the House of Representatives rented their hotel’s fireplace-equipped presidential suite and two adjacent rooms.

The hotel cleared out the beds and in their place set up a bar, a snack room and office space. The three extra rooms — stocked with liquor, Coors beer, chips and salsa, sandwiches, Mrs. Fields cookies and York Peppermint Patties — cost a total of about $1,500 a night. They were rented for five nights. While in Scotland, the House members toured historic buildings. Some shopped for Scotch whisky and visited the hotel spa.

They capped the trip with a dinner at one of the region’s finest restaurants, paid for by the legislators, who got $118 daily stipends for meals and incidentals. Eleven of the 12 legislators then left the five-day conference two days early.

Wall Street Journal, 12/17/09

BIRDS OF A FELONIOUS FEATHER, FLOCK TO CONGRESS TOGETHER

Ngozi Pole, who spent at least seven years working in (late-Sen. Ted) Kennedy’s office as its administrative/office manager, was indicted by a federal grand jury Tuesday on six counts of wire fraud and theft of government property.

In May, Caroline Valdez, a former aide to Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.), pleaded guilty to forging the congresswoman’s signature on a document to receive an inflated bonus payment and improperly using the congresswoman’s House credit card.

In 2008, a former shared employee – the term for a congressional aide whose salary is paid by more than one lawmaker – of Reps. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) and Jane Harman (D-Calif.) admitted to stealing $200,000 from their offices.

Politico, 12/17/09

MUTH’S TRUTHS

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) – recipient of the now-infamous $300,000 million “Louisiana Purchase” of her vote on ObamaCare – went on Face the Nation on Sunday and said the following about the prospect of a Christmas Eve final vote on the Senate version of the bill:

“There’s only one reason we’re going to be here until Christmas, and that’s Senator Tom Coburn. We don’t have to vote in the middle of the night. But he’s the one making us do it, not Harry Reid, not the Democrats. It is a Republican obstructionist that is making us vote in the middle of the night.”

First, there’s nothing at all wrong with being an obstructionist when there’s something crying out to be obstructed.

Secondly, there is no law or regulation which REQUIRES the health care bill to be voted on before Christmas. That’s an artificial deadline created of, by and for Harry Reid who knows full well that the longer this monstrosity drags on, the less and less the American people like it.

Reid wants this thing voted on before Christmas while the masses are distracted with the holidays..plain and simple.

So while Sen. Coburn may, indeed, be trying to obstruct this abomination from passing, the ONLY reason senators may be forced to cast a final vote on Christmas Eve is because Harry Reid insists on voting for it before Christmas instead of after the first of the year.

And if Mary Landrieu wishes to engage in name-calling, what is it again you call a woman who sells herself for money?

Meanwhile, Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) announced on Sunday that she was not going to support the Senate’s health care bill because it’s being rushed through to meet Harry Reid’s artificial deadline.

And that really pisses me off.

Because Snowe’s opposition now doesn’t mean squat. Reid has already purchased the 60 votes he needs to break any GOP filibuster effort on his Taxpayer Express Card. Snowe’s “no” today is completely worthless.

However..

Back in mid-October Snowe was the ONLY Republican on the Senate Finance Committee to vote to move this bill forward. Had she not caved and given Harry Reid her vote back then, perhaps one Democrat could have been persuaded/pressured to oppose the bill, as well, and we wouldn’t be where we are today.

So, thanks for nothing, Sen. Snowe.

Had you done the right thing back in October when your vote actually meant something – instead of playing political games in an effort to burnish your “bi-partisan” reputation – the nation wouldn’t be getting socialized government health care, complete with taxpayer-funded abortions, for Christmas.

Lousy, clueless, useful idiot RINO.

But I mean that in a good Christian way, of course.

FED-EXCESS

The Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce has issued a position paper declaring that the best way to fix a problem in U.S. labor law is to treat UPS drivers like airline pilots rather than FedEx Express drivers like.well, drivers. Read all about it HERE in “Alice in Albuquerque Turkeyland.”

SURVEY SAYS!

Do you think Harry Reid is a strong leader or a weak leader?

  • Strong
  • Weak
  • He’s no leader at all

To cast your vote in today’s online survey, click here!

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

“Were we directed from Washington when to sow, and when to reap, we should soon want bread.”

Thomas Jefferson