Urgent Calls Needed to Senate

Now that the House has – albeit narrowly – passed the Pelosi version of ObamaCare, the battle shifts to the Senate, where Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is now vowing to press forward despite having yet to produce legislative language.

Sen. Reid is reportedly planning to bring up, any time between Veterans Day and Thanksgiving, a motion to proceed on the scheme. This motion requires 60 votes; that is, only 41 Senate “no” votes are required to block ObamaCare from being taken up in the Senate, at least for now.

The GOP numbers 40 in the Senate, and not all Democrats are comfortable with busting the federal budget (and boosting the federal deficit) or with taxing Americans to provide medical care to illegal aliens or with putting bureaucrats in charge of whether any particular American – as an individual or by classification – will be allowed treatment.

But despite overwhelming unity among House Republicans, Senate Republicans have a visible and fairly consistent problem with a handful of their own, specifically Maine’s Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins and Ohio Sen. George Voinovich. And the President and his henchmen will be working over every Democrat suspected of going wobbly. [Think Senators Blanche Lincoln (AR), Ben Nelson (NE), Joe Lieberman (CT), Bill Nelson (FL), Robert Byrd (WV).]

Hence the critical need for citizens to contact Senators (such as those enumerated above) and urge “a ‘no’ vote on the motion to proceed on ‘healthcare.”

Calls may be placed via the Capitol switchboard at 1-202/224-3121. Electronic mail may be sent via the Senate’s website at www.senate.gov, which is also a source of telephone numbers for Senators’ in-state offices.

If the motion passes and ObamaCare gets set on the rails for action, there’s no guarantee that the Senate will exclude abortion, protect medical workers’ conscience rights, protect Americans from rationing or rein in bureaucratic power.

The only safe path for Americans is to block the Senate from taking up the proposal. And no Senator’s promise to vote right on subsequent roll calls will suffice.