Are We Stupid?

Just how stupid do politicians think the American People are?  Do you think that they honestly believe that they will get away with the political shenanigans that have been going on?  I think they are about to get a rude awakening.  There have been all kinds of shady deals made, lots of pressure applied and a few outright threats made.  Harry Reid needed all 60 Senate Democrats votes to move the Healthcare Bill to debate on the Senate floor.  The vote to move the bill forward is, in effect, a guarantee that the bill will pass the Senate.  Oh, I know, a couple of sellout Senators are claiming that their votes do not mean the bill will pass.  They say that they just want to bill to be debated.  But there is something else that they are not telling us.  While Prince Harry had to have all 60 Democrat votes to move the bill forward, he will not need all 60 of them to pass the bill.  That’s right, the 60-vote supermajority needed for cloture is not necessary for the bill to pass.  That takes only a simple majority, 51 votes.  So Harry Reid can give up to 9 Senators a free pass to vote against the bill and still get it passed.  Why, you may ask, is this important?

Elementary my dear reader, Blanche Lincoln can vote against the bill on the Senate floor and it will still pass.  You can bet that Senator Lincoln will be trumpeting the fact that she voted against this bill next year in her bid for re-election.  She can make all sorts of claims about how she listened to her constituents and did what she did for the people of Arkansas.  And like Democrats all over the country, she’ll be lying through her teeth.  Senator Lincoln is Chairman of U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry.  There were rumors that her chairmanship of that committee was in danger if she didn’t vote for cloture.  Some more liberal Democrats here in Arkansas have also threatened to run a well-financed campaign to elect a liberal Democrat in the May primary election.  Senator Lincoln describes herself as a centrist Democrat.

Recent polls indicate that over 60% of Arkansans are against this health care bill.  Senator Lincoln has said that she is against some of the provisions in the bill.  One would think that those two facts would be enough to dissuade the Senator from voting for this bill to go forward.  Senator Lincoln had in her hand the power to stop this awful bill once and for all.  But Senator Lincoln chose her political career over the people of Arkansas.  Even if she does vote against the healthcare bill, it will now pass by a narrow margin.  She can shout from the rooftops that she was opposed to this bill and voted against it all she wants to, we are going to remember what she did to us the voters of Arkansas and the whole country.  Count on it, I’m not going to forget and I’ll keep reminding all of you.  The campaign starts now.  Do not re-elect Lincoln.