The Associated Press wants you to know that Republicans are hypocrites because they voted to expand Medicare back in 2003, at a cost of $500 billion over 10 years, but they voted against Obamacare in 2009.

Democrats are troubled by the inconsistency of Republican lawmakers who approved a major Medicare expansion six years ago that has added tens of billions of dollars to federal deficits, but oppose current health overhaul plans.

All current GOP senators, including the 24 who voted for the 2003 Medicare expansion, oppose the health care bill that's backed by President Barack Obama and most congressional Democrats.

As a conservative, I'd like to believe that Republicans learned important lessons from their electoral defeats in 2006 and 2008, but I know this to be untrue. How do I know? Because Sen. Orrin Hatch told me so...

Six years ago, "it was standard practice not to pay for things," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. "We were concerned about it, because it certainly added to the deficit, no question." His 2003 vote has been vindicated, Hatch said, because the prescription drug benefit "has done a lot of good."

So because the Medicare entitlement "has done a lot of good," it's acceptable to expand the federal budget and increase the debt. Isn't that precisely what the Democrats are claiming -- that Obamacare will do a lot of good despite its crushing regulations and budget busting cost?

It's hypocrisy like this that has damaged the Republican brand to the point where the Tea Party is more popular than the Republican Party. It should also serve as a case study for Republicans the next time they decide to out-Democrat the Democrats.

From a jubilant and merry Associated Press...

Senate OK's health care bill in victory for Obama

WASHINGTON – In an epic struggle settled at dawn, the Democratic-controlled Senate passed health care legislation Thursday, a triumph for President Barack Obama that clears the way for compromise talks with the House on a bill to reduce the ranks of the uninsured and rein in the insurance industry.

The vote was 60-39, strictly along party lines, one day after Democrats succeeded in crushing a filibuster by Republicans eager — yet unable — to inflict a year-end political defeat on the White House.

At the White House, Obama called the vote historic, and said because of it, "we are incredibly close to making health insurance reform a reality in this country. Our challenge now is to finish the job."

Victory. Triumph. Those are words generally reserved for monumental achievements such as winning a war or landing on the moon. In this case, I believe the editors forgot to insert the word "pyrrhic" before "victory"...

1. Barack Obama's poll numbers have declined rapidly since the early summer
2. The "historic" health "insurance" reform has not been signed into law. As of today, Democrats are not sure they can reconcile the House and Senate bills any time soon
3. Moderate Democrats are opting to retire of join the GOP rather than stay and fight along side Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid
4. Respected Democrats like William Daley are warning the president and the Democrat leadership that they're headed for a huge defeat in 2010 and beyond 

Victory and triumph all around. Pass the egg nog.

P.S. Have you noticed that Democrats (and by extension the AP) have begun to refer to this bill as "health insurance reform?" Hmm... when did that happen? Oh, I know... when they couldn't muster the votes for a single payer system or a so-called "public option" or expansion of Medicare, etc.

The Politico is reporting that Barack Obama has decided to focus on jobs and deficit reduction (ha!) rather than the health care reform bill being rammed through the senate.

The White House privately anticipates health care talks to slip into February — past President Barack Obama’s first State of the Union address — and then plans to make a “very hard pivot” to a new jobs bill, according to senior administration officials.

Obama has been told that disputes over abortion and the tight schedule are highly likely to delay a final deal, a blow to the president, who had hoped to trumpet a health care victory in his big speech to the nation. But he has also been told that House Democratic leaders seem inclined, at least for now, to largely accept the compromise worked out in the Senate, virtually ensuring he will eventually get a deal.

Internally, White House aides are plunging into a 2010 plan calling for an early focus on creating jobs, especially in the energy sector, along with starting a conversation about deficit reduction measures, the administration officials said.

This could mean one of two things. Either reconciliation between the house and senate bills will be significantly more difficult than we've been told or the Democrats have finally realized that health care "reform" (at least their version of it) is wildly unpopular among the American public and they've decided to shelve it.

Yeah, that last one was a joke... Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi don't care what you think.

Not even MSNBC is buying the Democrats BS anymore and from the polling I shared with you this morning, neither is the American public.

From today's Wall Street Journal...

Mr. Obama promised a new era of transparent good government, yet on Saturday morning Mr. Reid threw out the 2,100-page bill that the world's greatest deliberative body spent just 17 days debating and replaced it with a new "manager's amendment" that was stapled together in covert partisan negotiations. Democrats are barely even bothering to pretend to care what's in it, not that any Senator had the chance to digest it in the 38 hours before the first cloture vote at 1 a.m. this morning. After procedural motions that allow for no amendments, the final vote could come at 9 p.m. on December 24.

Even in World War I there was a Christmas truce.

The rushed, secretive way that a bill this destructive and unpopular is being forced on the country shows that "reform" has devolved into the raw exercise of political power for the single purpose of permanently expanding the American entitlement state. An increasing roll of leaders in health care and business are looking on aghast at a bill that is so large and convoluted that no one can truly understand it, as Finance Chairman Max Baucus admitted on the floor last week. The only goal is to ram it into law while the political window is still open, and clean up the mess later.

I understand the change part. When does the hope begin?

From Mark Steyn at The Corner...

This line from Representative Cantor caught my eye:

You can't even dignify this squalid racket as bribery: If I try to buy a cop, I have to use my own money. But, when Harry Reid buys a senator, he uses my money, too. It doesn't "border on immoral": It drives straight through the frontier post and heads for the dark heartland of immoral.

They're allocating taxpayer dollars as if those dollars belonged to the senators. It borders on immoral. Just look at the way Senator Landrieu put her vote up for sale. Senator Nelson did the same.

Disgusting. One of my biggest complaints about Democrats is their belief that taxpayer dollars belong to them rather than to us. It's our money and it shouldn't be wasted and it definitely should not be used to bribe elected representatives.

According to President Barack Obama, people should support his health care reform legislation (in part) because private insurers routinely choose profitability over care, often denying claims or dropping coverage when someone gets sick.

His argument sounds persuasive, but is it true? No.

From The Independent Institute....

According to the American Medical Association’s National Health Insurer Report Card for 2008, the government’s health plan, Medicare, denied medical claims at nearly double the average for private insurers: Medicare denied 6.85% of claims. The highest private insurance denier was Aetna @ 6.8%, followed by Anthem Blue Cross @ 3.44, with an average denial rate of medical claims by private insurers of 3.88%

In its 2009 National Health Insurer Report Card, the AMA reports that Medicare denied only 4% of claims—a big improvement, but outpaced better still by the private insurers. The prior year’s high private denier, Aetna, reduced denials to 1.81%—an astounding 75% improvement—with similar declines by all other private insurers, to average only 2.79%.

Maybe there’s something to be said for the need to keep your customers satisfied in order to make that profit after all.

Fear and loathing of private industry and the profit motive is irrational and misguided. The same people who rail against "evil corporations" and "fat cat CEOs" somehow don't feel the same emotions toward government. Only government can limit your choices and take away your freedoms. Corporations and "fat cat CEOs" can't do that. Only government can confiscate your money by force and give it to someone else. Corporations and "fat cat CEOs" can't do that.

Wake up America.

From Kathryn Jean Lopez at National Review Online...

A Republican Senate aide points out that on the same day that Congress announces there will be Comcast-NBC hearings, Comcast's CEO endorses Reidcare.