Morning Emails from DCExaminer

Byron York - GOP Obamacare strategy: Try repeal, then cut
There's an ongoing debate among Republicans about what it means to repeal Obamacare. Does it mean abolishing the whole thing? Does it mean nullifying just the most troublesome parts? Repealing and simultaneously enacting a new set of reforms? Or repealing and then starting a new debate on what reforms to make?
"House Republicans will not rest until we repeal Obamacare lock, stock and barrel," Rep. Mike Pence, head of the House Republican Conference, told me from Arizona, where he had gone to campaign for GOP candidates. "I believe that's the uniform position of the Republican leadership."

Susan Ferrechio - Obama nuke treaty has a tough path ahead in Senate
It will take 67 senators to ratify the new treaty, a successor to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which means at least eight Republicans must endorse it, assuming it wins the support of all 57 Democrats and two independents.

David Freddoso - McDonnell’s first serious gaffe
Yesterday, McDonnell added a section on slavery, with an apology for the omission. Good for him.

Gallup: Independents worried about economy, deficit
The economy is the No. 1 concern for a majority of voters heading into 2010’s midterm elections, but the deficit comes in close behind, particularly with all-important independent voters, according to a new Gallup poll.
The economy tops a list of concerns, unsurprisingly, for 57 percent of voters, with health care (49%) and unemployment (46%) rounding out the top three. But when you examine the numbers among just independent voters, the federal budget deficit becomes the second-most important issue at 52 percent.

Sign WND's Petition

The petition reads:

"Whereas, the House of Representatives and Senate of the United States of America reached a new low watermark in 2009 and 2010 in approving legislation in direct contravention of the U.S. Constitution, I, an American citizen eligible to vote in my state, do solemnly pledge the following:

• "Refuse to vote for any congressional candidate, House or Senate, who supported the so-called "health-care reform package" approved in Congress;
• "I will only consider voting for congressional candidates who pledge to overturn the unconstitutional health-care legislation;
• "I will only consider voting for congressional candidates who vow to apply the strict test of constitutionality to all future legislation;
• "I will enthusiastically support with my vote and financial support those congressional candidates who offer an aggressive legislative program for taking America back to its constitutional moorings in self-government and the rule of law."

REPEAL!!!!!!

Why Obamacare Can Be Repealed

BY John McCormack

Sean Trende has an important piece at RealClearPolitics, which I won't excerpt because you really should read the whole thing.

Update: Also not to be missed is Jeffrey Anderson's A Three-Year Plan for the Repeal of ObamaCare.

VA-11 News on Healthcare Repeal

Fimian, Herrity sign on to health care repeal pledges
By: William C. Flook

The two Virginia Republicans seeking to challenge 11th District Rep. Gerry Connolly have signed a pledge vowing to repeal the federal health care overhaul, further cementing the nearly $1 trillion initiative as the central issue in the June primary.
Both candidates already had denounced the legislation, which Connolly backed. Pat Herrity, a Fairfax County supervisor, labeled the Democratic incumbent "Gerry Pelosi" and announced he would "work tirelessly to repeal this bill." Keith Fimian, a businessman who ran against Connolly in 2008, charged the changes would "devastate the best health care system in the world."

But putting their names on a repeal pledge represents an irreversible promise to conservatives -- and other opponents of the health care overhaul -- who will decide the GOP nominee. And it signals that both Herrity and Fimian are putting great stock in public unease over remaking the nation's health care system.

"The two biggest problems we have are out-of-control spending and our failure to create jobs and get the economy back on track," Herrity said. "And this bill makes those two problems worse, and adds a whole new one in terms of threatening our quality of health care."

Read more at the Washington Examiner:

REPEAL!!!!!!

Since when has the will of the people ever been a factor in anything the dhimmi/socialists decide?

Survey Says: Solid Majorities Want Health Care Challenged/Repealed

9:06 AM, Mar 25, 2010 ·
BY Mary Katharine Ham

The Gallup poll that suddenly found a 49 percent favorability rating for the heretofore disliked Obamacare plan made a well-timed talking point for Democrats, but today we get two more polls that point in the opposite direction, emphatically.

A CBS poll released Wednesday afternoon showed that 62 percent of Americans want the GOP to keep fighting Obamacare. The number among Republicans is unsurprisingly higher (89%), but a remarkable two thirds of Independents want the GOP to fight the bill (66%), and even 41 percent of Democrats.

In the same poll, approval of the plan and of Congressional Democrats went up, as did approval of Washington.

Today's Rasmussen Poll of likely voters, conducted on the two nights after the passage of the bill, shows 55 percent want the bill repealed.

55% favor repealing the legislation. Forty-two percent (42%) oppose repeal. Those figures include 46% who Strongly Favor repeal and 35% who Strongly Oppose it.
In terms of Election 2010, 52% say they’d vote for a candidate who favors repeal over one who does not.

Forty-one percent (41%) would cast their vote for someone who opposes repeal.
Polls before the passage of the bill both a Fox News and a WSJ poll suggested that repeal could be a good political position for Republicans, though they showed slightly lower support than the Rasmussen poll.

Intolerable Acts - Round 2

Heritage Foundation Morning Bell-Round 2

Repeal!!!!!!

Fellow Americans,

Late last night, in a narrow and partisan vote, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the most significant piece of social legislation in over seven decades. It did so in the face of overwhelming and principled opposition from the American people. Large majorities of Americans oppose this legislation because it offends the historic American dedication to the principle of self-government. They understand that this new law will accelerate Washington's intrusion into our most personal and private decisions.

This is why opposition to this bill will only grow. Supporters of this bill argue that popular hostility will recede upon its passage. But, rather than cementing our descent into a European-style welfare state, last night’s passage of Obamacare is best seen as a historic turning point, a true catalyst for real change.

I write to reassure our supporters, the conservative movement, and the American people at large that The Heritage Foundation will do all within its power to keep this issue alive in the public square and make the intellectual case for the repeal of this act. We will bring all our resources to bear on behalf of those who believe America is and will always remain the Land of the Free.

This, rest assured, can be done. The American people are never permanently thwarted. President Obama's health care legislation can and will be repealed.

Those who supported this bill are our fellow Americans, and we do not question their good will or patriotism. In public policy, however, good intentions alone do not suffice. And let there be no mistake, our philosophical differences with supporters of this bill are profound. The reason government-run health care has been the holy grail of the left for decades is that liberals realize as much as we do that it is a giant step toward the creation of a European-style welfare state.

This is an evolution Americans have always resisted because it is alien to our national character.If there is one good thing about the past year—one in which we have witnessed unprecedented horse-trading, press stunts, midnight votes and political manipulation in both houses of the U.S. Congress—it is that the American people have come away educated as never before about the differences between these two visions for America. Americans are strongly opposed to this bill not because they have been hoodwinked but because they understand this bill both in its particulars and at an instinctive, gut level.

They understand this health care bill forces individuals and employers to buy insurance policies designed by government bureaucrats. This intrusion is intended to follow us from cradle to grave.Instead of empowering families and individuals to make their own choices, Obamacare empowers the bureaucracy to make those decisions for them. It is this unelected bureaucracy, unanswerable to the electorate, that will determine the content of health benefits packages, including medical treatment and procedures, and how much will be paid for those services. Yesterday’s legislation brings us one step closer to fully government-run medicine, with expanded government power over the financing and delivery of medical services that is sure to ration care in the name of cost control.

You will hear the left say this new entitlement will be popular with the American people. Do not believe them for a second. Yes, 32 million people will gain the theoretical right to health insurance. But over half of that coverage comes from placing at least 16 million more Americans into Medicaid, an unpopular and overextended welfare program that already rations care.

Americans will not stand for it. The American love for liberty prevailed in our founding, and will prevail once again.

In December of 1773, to protest unjust taxation, a group of American colonists dumped tea in Boston Harbor. The punishment for that first Tea Party was a series of intrusive laws passed by Parliament that were so oppressive that they could only be described as the "Intolerable Acts."

Obamacare is today's Intolerable Act. And just as the colonists banded together to enact change after those acts were passed, so should America respond to Obamacare. This law must be repealed.Much of the fight against this bill will be led by the individual states, a process we encourage. All told, 33 states have already taken steps to challenge various aspects of Obamacare, including its unprecedented mandate that every American purchase health insurance or face a steep penalty for noncompliance. Four additional States will have this question on the ballot in November.

On Capitol Hill, the initial battle over Obamacare will occur when Congress considers whether to fund the tens of thousands of new federal bureaucrats necessary to implement the new law. In the tradition of the Hyde amendment, which prevented federal funding for abortions through annual limitations appended to appropriations bills, conservatives should look to the appropriations process as our first line of defense. Straightforward funding limitations would prevent any Administration official or any bureaucrat from implementing the law.

Our health care system requires reform, and we have long advocated measures to improve our system. We can and should strengthen the ability of American families to choose the coverage they want, rather than giving that power to Congress and its agency bureaucrats. We can also spur competition and choice to bring efficiency and lower costs to the health system, in place of the bill’s deadening regulation and damaging price controls. And, above all, we should foster state innovation rather than Washington-based central planning.But such reforms can only be considered once this tragedy of arrogance has been fully and completely repealed.

Fortunately, there are no permanent victories or defeats in Washington. For millions of Americans and for Heritage, Round One of this fight is over. Today, the Heritage Foundation is answering the bell for Round Two. Join our fight; become a part of our mission. Help us educate our lawmakers, as well as those who aspire to become tomorrow’s lawmakers. Together we can make the persuasive case for repeal of this Intolerable Act and thereby return us to our American destiny.

Onward!

Sincerely,

Edwin J. Feulner, Ph.D.

President The Heritage Foundation