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Back in Session — Day Lee Briefing 01/23/2012

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January 23, 2012

Back in Session — Day Lee Briefing 01/23/2012

Today’s Agenda

Today, Senator Lee is flying to Washington. He will hold a Utah tele-press conference at 5:00 PM EST (3:00 MST).

 

From the Senator’s Desk

The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza is out with an extended feature article chronicling key moments of the Obama presidency, based in large part on a review internal White House memoranda not publicly released.  The piece features several enlightening vignettes related to health care, including one regarding a proposal never broached in public:  “In January, 2010,… [OMB Director Peter] Orszag and Ezekiel Emanuel, the chief of staff’s brother and a health-care adviser, recommended that the government pay federal employees to participate in a pilot program to study the most effective treatments for patients.”

Many would argue that, based upon the policy description included in the article, this policy would represent the worst of both worlds – giving already-overpaid federal bureaucrats additional dollars to sign away their right to access treatments that the government might deem too expensive.  But what did President Obama think of it?

Unfortunately I think the political guys are right about how it would be characterized.  Let’s go back at it in future years, when the temperature on health care and the economy has gone down.

Sadly, this desire to restrict access to treatment is consistent with the President’s prior history – along with the positions of the advisors who proposed it.  In a famous 2009 New York Times interview, the President called for a “difficult democratic conversation” about what he perceived as too much spending on end-of-life care.  Orszag was one of the prime architects of Obamacare’s IPAB, which he admitted will have “an enormous amount of potential power” and “the largest yielding of sovereignty from the Congress” in nearly a century.  And Emanuel offered the infamous chart for prioritizing scarce medical resources, in a journal article in which Emanuel admitted that his system “discriminates against older people….[However,] age, like income, is a ‘non-medical criterion’ inappropriate for allocation of medical resources.” 

As indicated by the quotes above, this Administration has shown a proclivity towards reductions in health spending based upon cost-effectiveness – as well as a willingness to grant bureaucrats virtually unlimited power in the process.  The article confirms all those beliefs, while at the same time showing yet another way in which the Administration would use government bureaucrats to restrict access to treatments.  Federal workers – and the American people – should take note.

 

From the Whip

The Senate will convene at 2:00pm today and will be in morning business until 4:00pm. At 4:00pm, the Senate will proceed to executive session for up to 90 minutes of debate on Executive Calendar #438, John M. Gerrard, of Nebraska, to be United States District Judge for the District of Nebraska; 60 minutes of debate will be equally divided and 30 minutes of debate will be under the control of Senator Sessions.

At 5:30pm, the Senate will proceed to a Roll Call Vote on confirmation of the nomination.

Tuesday and Balance of the Week:

The Majority Leader said Friday he will postpone a vote he had scheduled for Tuesday on the motion to proceed to S. 968, the Intellectual Property Rights bill.

It is unclear what the Senate will turn to for the balance of the week.

The Senate will recess from 12:30 -2:15 for the weekly party lunches on Tuesday.

The State of the Union speech is scheduled for 9:00pm Tuesday evening.

The Republican Issues conference is set for Wednesday at Mount Vernon. The Senate could be out of session that day.

On January 12th, the administration formally notified congress that the  total federal debt was within $100billion of the debt limit and requested a $1.2 trillion increase in the statutory debt limit increase. This is the anticipated third and final request of the $2.1 trillion increase provided under the budget control act passed last summer. The House voted on a resolution of disapproval regarding the debt limit increase on January 18th by a vote of 239 – 176 (2 present). It is expected that the Senate will vote on a resolution of disapproval at some point this week (possibly Thursday).

Note – On January 18th, the Obama administration denied the permit to build the Keystone XL pipeline effectively stating it was not in national interest of the U.S.

 

On Twitter

Around the Water Cooler

Sen. Rand Paul stopped by Tenn. airport security

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was stopped by security at the Nashville airport Monday when a scanner set off an alarm and targeted his knee, although the senator said he has no screws or medical hardware around the joint.

The Republican, who frequently uses the airport about an hour from his home in Bowling Green, Ky., told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that he asked for another scan but refused to submit to a pat down by airport security.

Supreme Court Deals Blow To Government Surveillance, Saying Warrant Needed For GPS Tracking

We finally have a victor in one of the most talked-about court cases of 2011. The Supreme Court issued its opinion Monday in U.S. v. Jones, a case that asked whether the government needs a warrant to slap a GPS tracker on a suspect’s car. The Supreme Court was unanimous in its decision: The government lost. Privacy won.

 

Looking Ahead

Tomorrow, Senator Lee will be meeting with representatives of farm credit institutions before attending the State of the Union address. He will also appear on Fox Business Network’s Cavuto at 6:00 PM EST (4:00 PM MST), and he will be doing multiple post-State of the Union interviews.

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