PARTISAN INFIGHTING: Senate Health Care Bill in Epic Struggle to get 60 Votes (BURKE BALCH IN EASTERN TIME)
A Health care Bill narrowly passed in the House. As the Senate version approaches passage or defeat, the contentiousness of the debate has a partisan feel within the Democrat caucus.
On the House side, one of the biggest hurdles was an amendment prohibiting tax payer dollars from funding abortions. Although that is still an issue in the Senate, the most recent roadblock for those seeking the 60 votes necessary to end debate involved Medicare expansion. Longtime Senate Democrat and current Independent Joe Lieberman appears to have dug in his heels on that issue.
Burke Balch is Director of the Powell Center for Medical Ethics, a division of the National Right to Life Committee, and he’s armed with scores of data, gathered and examined inside his industry-leading institution, that enable him to cast an entirely new nuts-and-bolts light on the Democrats’ contentious socialized medicine concept.
Even the staunchest of Medicare supporters have to admit that it is a system that is both broke and broken. Yet, with the latest proposal, the minimum age required to qualify for Medicare would drop from 65 to 55. The word, “unsustainable” has been getting a lot of play these days and opponents to this Medicare provision see another occasion to use it.
One way to get Joe Lieberman back on board might be to remove the public option entirely from the bill. The problem with that is that by appeasing one senator, others will then seize the mantle of dissention. The Public Option, which many say is a trojan horse for a single-payer (government run) system is considered a non-negotiable for many Democrats. Removal of this option could just derail the entire bill. It at least has the potential to take Senate Democrats further away from the necessary 60 votes.
From a do-the-math look at exactly why the federal government cannot match the private sector’s budget flexibility for handling healthcare cost increases, to an inarguable reasoning why a public option will virtually guarantee care rationing and quality degradation, Balch lays it all out on the table for you and your audience to plainly see.
While Democrats and Republicans in the Senate go on debating the latest bill they likely never read, nitpicking through articles and phrases to debunk each others’ assessments and criticisms, your audience will be a step ahead and chomping at the bit to contact their representatives with informed opposition to a public plan.
Call Special Guests today. Burke Balch is an incredibly enlightening and refreshing source.
NOTE TO HOSTS: Please give out the web address www.clean.tv and point your audience to click on “healthcare” in the navigation for a FREE 4-minute preview of the television special Healthcare From a Pro-Life Perspective, featuring Burke Balch. If they like what they see and want to download the entire special as a Video-On-Demand 3-day rental, they may do so for 99 cents.
THE FOLLOWING ARTICLES MAY BE HELPFUL DURING SHOW PREP:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091214/ap_on_go_co/us_health_care_overhaul
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/12/14/democrats-butt-heads-health-care-plan-huddle-obama/
ABOUT BURKE BALCH:
Burke J. Balch, J.D. currently serves as the Director of the Robert Powell Center for Medical Ethics, associated with the National Right to Life Committee, specializing in euthanasia-related issues.
Prior to this Burke worked for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights as Attorney-Advisor, helping to create a report on the topic of denial of life-saving medical treatment to children with disabilities (“Baby Doe” cases).
Mr. Balch has also served as Chief Staff Counsel for the National Legal Center for the Medically Dependent and Disabled, and worked as an attorney the Life Legal Defense Fund for Americans United for Life.