“On Saturday, the Senate voted 60-39 to proceed to the so-called ‘public option,’ legislation that will cost more than $2 trillion over ten years when fully implemented, ration health care away from seniors, raise the cost of premiums, drive the American people off of private health options, and bankrupt the Treasury.

“This vote, however, is completely out of step with public sentiment about the legislation. In a Rasmussen Reports poll conducted Saturday and Sunday, a full 56 percent of likely voters say they oppose this legislation. Only 38 percent support it.

“And yet the Senate is moving rapidly to enact this legislation in direct defiance of the American people’s express wishes. They are defying representative government, raising the question: If not the people, who do they represent?”

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“That,” said Wilson, “is the liberal MO: get any big government program in place, and then expand on it later until it costs trillions and dictates every move Americans make. It’s all intentional. Obamacare is their next Trojan Viper.”

“They will make whatever deals they have to make now just to get this in place, and then just ‘build on it later,’ costing taxpayers trillions of dollars,” Wilson explained. “In the Senate, they might offer the so-called ‘trigger’ tied to escalating health costs, only to later simply pull the trigger themselves and implement the government takeover. It’s an example of a ‘compromise’ to win enough votes, along with state “opt-outs,” or restricting abortion funding in the House bill.”

“As bad as the current healthcare legislation already is, it is really intended to be a Trojan Viper. It will open the door a total government healthcare takeover—even if as Waxman says he doesn’t get everything he wants right away,” said Wilson. “Then they’ll just ‘build on it later.’”

Wilson said that, like other government programs, “The costs are radically understated at first, and then they are phased in later with a vengeance.”

In the interview, Waxman told the Washington News Observer broadcast news bureau that he thought it was vital to get the bill passed “by the end of the year.”

“There are going to be so many pressures next year, especially with the elections looming, that this is our opportunity,” said Waxman. “When the Clinton Administration tried to do it, they pushed it off into the second year, and the closer it got to the election, the special interests were able to bring it down.”

Wilson agreed that time was not on Congress’ side. “The more the people learn about the the government health care takeover, the less they like it, and so Waxman wants the bum’s rush,” Wilson said. He called on members of the Senate to delay procedural votes on the bill “for as long as they possibly can. The final text of the Senate bill is still not available, and a complete analysis of its contents should be made publicly available prior to any votes.”

The Senate is expected to vote on proceeding to the bill tomorrow night at 8PM. “This is an opportunity for the Senate kill this bill. If the vote to proceed passes, then at least 41 Senators must filibuster. It’s the only way to stop this madness,” Wilson said.

The Senate version of the “public option” will start operating at massive budget-busting deficits starting in 2015, according to an Americans for Limited Government analysis of Congressional Budget Office data. By 2019, the “public option” will have spent some $361 billion more than it took in via new taxes.

“The ‘public option’ will be losing billions within 5 years,” Wilson said, concluding, “and when it’s fully implemented, this Trojan Viper government takeover will be losing trillions of dollars, ration health care away from seniors, raise the cost of premiums, drive the American people off of private health options, and bankrupt the Treasury.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Alex Rosenwald at (703)383-0880 or at arosenwald@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

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“Since the Obama Administration’s vetting is still yielding tax cheats for top Treasury posts, Lael Brainard needs to be made an example of by the Senate Finance Committee,” said Wilson. “More and more, honest taxpayers are not represented by this Administration.”

According the Associated Press, Brainard “was late in paying real estate taxes in 2005, 2006 and 2007. The report by the Senate Finance Committee staff also challenges the accuracy of a deduction Brainard claimed for running an office from her home. The challenge led Brainard to reduce the deduction on her 2008 return.”

Brainard, reports the AP, was not forthcoming to the committee: “The committee’s top Republican is unhappy that the committee staff had to submit 10 sets of questions to Brainard before getting complete information about the discrepancies.”

“Enough is enough with the tax cheats in the Obama Administration,” said Wilson. “Now is the time for the Finance Committee to send a clear message that ever appointment, especially Treasury officials, need to pay their taxes on time and in full.”

“This is the fifth Obama nomination to have tax troubles,” Wilson noted. “Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s nomination was nearly derailed because of it. Trade Representative Ron Kirk failed to pay $10,000 in taxes and only filed an amended return after the Finance Committee noted the discrepancies.”

Wilson continued, noting, “Tom Daschle’s nomination to be Department of Health and Human Services Secretary was withdrawn over these issues. Nancy Killefer withdrew her nomination for not paying employment taxes for household help.”

“While the Obama Administration is imposing the largest budgetary burden ever on American taxpayers in history, it is nominating individuals who have not paid their fair share in that burden, and that needs to stop,” Wilson said, concluding, “Senators making a stand against Lael Brainard will be making a stand for all honest taxpayers.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Alex Rosenwald at (703)383-0880 or at arosenwald@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

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“These 10 Republican Senators have cleared the way for the confirmation of David Hamilton, who has used his seat as District Court Judge to suppress religious freedom, protect child predators, and rule leniently against career criminals,” said Wilson.

“These 10 Senators are out of step with the American people, who believe in the rule of law and do not want laws ignored by ACLU factotums who legislate from the bench,” Wilson added. “America is a society of laws, and David Hamilton, who represents the judicial oligarchy in America that rules by fiat, will help bring an end to the rule of law.”

Yesterday, the Senate voted 70-29 to invoke cloture on Hamilton, making a confirmation vote all but certain. Voting with Senate Democrats were Senators Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, John Cornyn of Texas, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, Orrin Hatch of Utah, Richard Lugar of Indiana, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and John Thune of South Dakota.

A coalition letter from 24 conservative leaders that Wilson signed to the Senate urged all members to filibuster Hamilton. The letter stated that “Judge Hamilton fails to meet the qualifications for the high office to which he has been nominated, and his record demonstrates that he would decide cases on the basis of his politics and personal agenda instead of the Constitution.”

According to the letter, Judge Hamilton has ruled “that prayers to Jesus Christ offered at the beginning of legislative sessions violate the Constitution, but that prayers to Allah do not”, chose to follow mandatory sentencing guidelines, overturned a sex offender registry law, and had “urged the President to grant clemency for a police officer who had pled guilty to producing child pornography”.

The coalition letter said Hamilton’s record working for the American Civil Liberties Union and as a fundraiser for ACORN “was not enough to qualify him for the lower court and nothing in his record on that court suggests he is qualified for a promotion.” When originally nominated to the U.S. District Court by President Clinton, Hamilton was rated “not qualified” by the American Bar Association.

In a recent speech to the Federalist Society, Senator Jeff Sessions, who led the filibuster effort against Hamilton in the Senate, quoted Hamilton as saying a judge’s job is to “write footnotes to the Constitution” and has argued that judges “need to empathize” with the parties of cases.

“Every election cycle,” Wilson said, “Republican candidates for Senate state their commitment to bringing judges to the federal bench who will help restore the role of constitutionally limited government in American jurisprudence. Instead, Republican and conservative constituents have been betrayed by their own Senators.”

“Why should anyone care if there is ever a Republican majority again if this is the type of vote Republican Senators cast?” Wilson asked, citing a recent Rasmussen Reports poll that stated, “74% of Republicans say their party’s representatives in Congress have lost touch with GOP voters nationwide over the past several years.”

“Actions have consequences,” Wilson added, concluding, “And one result of this action will be to further separate the GOP from its own base—74 percent of whom already say their leadership in Congress is out of touch.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Alex Rosenwald at (703)383-0880 or at arosenwald@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

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“According to CBO’s own numbers, the so-called ‘public option’ will begin operating at a loss in 2017,” said Wilson. “Every year after that, the program will spend more than it takes in by tens of billions, ultimately resulting in the federal government borrowing and printing money to pay for subsidizing health coverage.”

Wilson urged Senators on the fence to reconsider their support for the “public option.” “Senators need to consider the long-term costs of this program. It will have lost $109 billion by 2019, and by 2030, will lose more than $1 trillion.”

“Not even the Medicare spending cuts and confiscatory taxes will be able to keep up with the spending increases proposed. CBO has not properly measured this bill and its rating of ‘deficit-neutral’ through 2019 is nothing more than a head fake,” Wilson added.

According to Americans for Limited Government’s analysis of Congressional Budget Office data, the “public option” program loses $32 billion through 2017, $69 billion through 2018, and $109 billion through 2019:

 

“Senators have not been given the complete picture by CBO. The deficits inherent in the ‘public option’ will only grow by widening figures after 2019, almost doubling every year thereafter,” Wilson said, concluding, “This will result in an unsustainable burden for taxpayers that Senators would do well to consider before voting to essentially bankrupt the country.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Alex Rosenwald at (703)383-0880 or at arosenwald@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

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Majority Leader Harry Reid has indicated that he will put the bill on the legislative calendar after its second reading next week. After the reading, which occurs on Tuesday, it could be immediately brought to the floor.

“This bum’s rush — this stampede to take over the health care system by Congress — must be stopped for the sake of all Americans who strongly object to swapping the best quality of health care in the world for yet another over-priced, highly regulated Big Government welfare program,” Wilson declared.

According to the most recent Rasmussen polling, a full 52 percent of voters oppose the legislation, including 58 percent of Independents. A majority of voters have consistently opposed the plan since mid-September.

“Senators must listen to their constituents. They know this ill-conceived health care takeover opens the door for a single payer system, rations care away from seniors, increases health premiums, puts bureaucrats between doctors and patients, breaks the public treasury, and will leave taxpayers with a bill that can never be paid back,” Wilson said.

“Soon, by design, the so-called ‘public option’ will be the only option, and that is completely unacceptable to the American people, a majority of whom oppose this legislation and want to keep their private health options. Bankrupting the nation is not a price worth paying to provide free care to a tiny minority of the uninsured,” Wilson added.

The “public option” socialized medicine bill has already passed the House on Saturday by a vote of 220 to 215. And Wilson says that is all the more reason for the Senate to see to its defeat.

“The Senate was designed to cool the passions of the House—to prevent radical changes to the organization of American society,” said Wilson, adding, “This is one of those times. The ‘public option’ proposal now before Congress is the most radical piece of legislation in history of the Republic that will destroy the fabric of our social order, redistribute wealth, and put the government in essence in charge of who lives and who dies.”

According to the Congressional Budget Office cost estimate of H.R. 3962, the bill would raise taxes by more than $780 billion and cut Medicare by more than $450 billion.

In addition, the House-passed bill would force millions of uninsured Americans to obtain insurance or else pay a fine or imprisonment, includes employer mandates, and creates a national, government-run “public option.”

Americans for Limited Government estimates more than 45 million Americans would ultimately be required to enroll in government care at an average cost of $4,700 per individual to taxpayers, or a total of $2.1 trillion over ten years once fully implemented.

“It is up to Senators in the several States to decide who it is they serve: their party, or the people,” Wilson concluded.

Interview Availability: Please contact Alex Rosenwald at (703)383-0880 or at arosenwald@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

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Americans for Limited Government estimates the legislation will cost $2.1 trillion over ten years once fully implemented, and “will drive millions Americans off of private, employer-based health care, on to substandard, below-average government-run care, and open the door for a single payer system,” said Wilson.

The final vote was 220 to 215.

“This Congress is rotten to its core,” said Wilson, adding, “Members no longer represent their constituents, they serve the Washington political elite. They have succumbed to the insider deals, handouts, and kickbacks Nancy Pelosi needed to secure the votes for the federal government to claim an iron grip of one-sixth of the nation’s economy.”

Citing the Congressional Budget Office cost estimate of H.R. 3962, Wilson said, “This bill will raise taxes by more than $780 billion and cut Medicare by more than $450 billion. In the process, they are enraging political independents and seniors, both critical voting blocs for whom dozens of vulnerable members in the majority must answer to.”

“Members that voted for this abomination have signed a political suicide pact for which they will be held accountable,” Wilson declared. “They have gone against the express will of their constituents who opposed this legislation.”

The bill would force millions of uninsured Americans to obtain insurance or else pay a fine, includes employer mandates, and creates a national, government-run “public option.” Americans for Limited Government estimates more than 45 million Americans would ultimately be required to enroll in government care at an average cost of $4,700 per individual to taxpayers.

“As health care costs skyrocket because of the elimination of the private sector health options contained in this bill, so too will the costs owed by taxpayers, resulting in hundreds of billions of deficit-spending,” said Wilson. “Because insurance under the plan is mandatory, the more private insurers that are driven out of business by diminishing insurance pools, the more Americans who will be forced onto government-run and subsidized care.”

“This bill will ration care away from seniors, water down and reduce the quality of everyone’s care , increase health premiums, put bureaucrats between doctors and patients, break the public treasury, and leave taxpayers with a bill that cannot possibly be paid back,” Wilson added.

According to Rasmussen Reports, 54 percent of voters oppose the “public option” proposed, which only 42 percent support. In addition, James Carville’s Democracy Corps polls found a full 54 percent of seniors oppose the nationalized health care plan. According to the poll conducted in June, 41 percent of seniors strongly oppose the Obama plan and only 14 percent strongly favor it.

“To pass this monstrosity on the heels of Tuesday’s overwhelming election results against her party, Nancy Pelosi has clearly lost her mind and needs to check her meds. She doesn’t care if vulnerable members in her caucus are wiped out in 2010 or not,” Wilson said.

“Democrats are throwing away seniors as a political constituency,” Wilson added, stating in conclusion, “They are enraging independents, who see their children and children’s children being burdened with an unsustainable debt that will rise to $20 trillion in 2020 and top the Gross Domestic Product in 2011. And taking over health care against the express wishes of tens of millions of Americans who like their private health options and want to keep them.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Alex Rosenwald at (703)383-0880 or at arosenwald@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

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“Last night’s overwhelming election results leave vulnerable members in the majority in a tight spot,” said Wilson. “Do they want to be wiped out politically to help Barack Obama foist his unwanted agenda on the American people? Or will they abandon ship?”

Already, on Capitol Hill, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is indicating he may delay final votes on Democrats’ $2.1 trillion “public option” until 2010. But, Wilson argues, “That will make gathering the votes among vulnerable members all the more difficult as voter concerns increasingly shift to unemployment, the national debt, and the sinking dollar.”

Wilson asked of Congressional leadership, “Why, if exit polls show voter anxiety over the state of the economy, jobs, excessive government spending and taxes, is Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid focused on taking over health care and expanding government?”

“Congress is out of step with the American people,” Wilson said.

According to ABC News, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid remain committed to holding votes on the “public option” before Christmas. On October 27th, Pelosi said, “I am absolutely confident that we are going to get health care done by the end of this year, and Nancy Pelosi is just as confident.”

Said Reid spokesman Jim Manley, “Our goals remain unchanged. We want to get health insurance reform done this year, and we have unprecedented momentum to achieve that.”

Today, according to Congressional Quarterly, Congresswoman Louise Slaughter, Chair of the House Rules committee said a House vote would occur on Saturday, November 7th, with floor debate beginning on Friday.

But, reports ABC, Congressional Democrats may be reconsidering their strategy. A senior Democrat aide said “Getting this done by the by the end of the year is a no-go,” which was confirmed to ABC by two other key Congressional Democrats, indicating disagreement about how to proceed.

“Pelosi and Reid still don’t have the votes,” Wilson explained. “Every time they put off the floor votes, they show their hand—and right now they are saying that they need more time to twist arms and make deals.”

“But for vulnerable members of the Democrat caucus, Pelosi and Reid cannot protect them from an overwhelming public wave of dissatisfaction with government, which never favors the incumbent party,” said Wilson.

“ObamaCare could be the biggest casualty of public outrage with big government,” Wilson said.

According to Rasmussen Reports, 54 percent of voters oppose the “public option” proposed, which only 42 percent support.

“It’s time for moderate and conservative Democrats in Congress to abandon ship if they want to keep their jobs. The American people do not want more government; they are trying desperately to get government off their backs and out of their pockets,” Wilson concluded.

Interview Availability: Please contact Alex Rosenwald at (703)383-0880 or at arosenwald@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

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