Health Care Bill Passes House: congress is exempted from it

The real fight is still to come, and we're going to win. I won't sugarcoat it: We lost last week, and it hurts. It was down to the wire, but Nancy Pelosi's outrageous trillion-dollar-plus budget-busting, tax-hiking Washington takeover of health care passed the House Saturday night. But keep it in perspective, because this very narrow defeat gives us great hope for ultimate victory. AFP policy advisory Phil Kerpen put it in perspective: Keeping Tonight’s House Healthcare Perspective

The House Rules Committee ahead of Saturday's vote on the Democrats' health care bill rejected 11 amendments that would have required members of Congress and other government officials to be enrolled in the same federal insurance (“public option”) plan proposed for the American people. See full story.

And how did the Texas delegation members vote on the bill? <a href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_ksux70iLeJ1qzcrgmo1_1280.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=0RYTHV9YYQ4W5Q3HQMG2&Expires=1257973451&Signature=FgbROCHmWbnjKRn8uUqHyvIQrcs%3D >Click here to find out.

The American Medical Association has embraced the House plan, but a former president has said it is bad policy and that he doesn’t support cuts in Medicare, and no real reform or cost cutting can be done without medical malpractice reform.

And as the trial lawyers' national PAC, the American Association for Justice, was the second-biggest source of PAC dollars for Democratic candidates in the 2006 ... and the Democrats appear beholding to them. To appease their supporters, in the new bill, Democrats empower the Secretary of Health and Human Services to make grants to states that reform their medical malpractice systems. There are just two conditions: Those reforms must not "limit attorneys' fees or impose caps on damages." Which is like saying that we're going to encourage you to develop a personal weight loss plan that includes neither exercise nor changes in diet. Read more here.

Texas Cong. Ron Paul, a physician, says the health care reform legislation is economic (as well as legislative and medical) malpractice. http://www.texasinsider.org/?p=18107