The Untold Story of Matheson's Vote for Obamacare

The most important race in Utah two months from now in November won't be Governor Herbert's triumph over Carroon. Instead, it will be the story of how a common man named Morgan Philpot took down a powerful political dynastic incumbent named Jim Matheson.

I'd like to introduce Jim Matheson to you. He is a politician who shrouds his votes carefully, masking his true liberal spend-and-tax philosophies. No better example of this comes to mind than Matheson's vote this spring for Obamacare.

Oh, you counter, Matheson did not vote for Obamacare (HR 3590)! Ahh, I rebut, but in the real vote for Obamacare he did vote to unconstitutionally ram it through! Please, allow me to elaborate and take us back to March of this year.

Back in the third week of March the Senate had already passed Obamacare and Speaker Nancy Pelosi was frantically twisting arms to get votes to get Obamacare passed in the House. Out of desperation, scheming, or both, Louise Slaughter (D-NY28 "gerrymandered earmuffs" and Chair of the House Rules Committee; Jill Rowland is in a good fight to unseat her) came up with an idea which would become to be ignominiously known as the "Slaughter Solution": deem Obamacare to have passed without actually voting on it. The Slaughter Solution provided Pelosi twofold objectives: first, a backup plan to pass Obamacare in case Democrats couldn't force enough of their members to vote for it on a direct vote and second, to provide Pelosi a true test vote on Obamacare to see what kind of margin they could get on Obamacare. Many Democrats were "fence sitters" knowing Obamacare was massively unpopular at home but desired to both partisanly please their leader as well as further the expansion of big government and power. Such was the case with supposed fence sitter Democrat Jim Matheson.

On Thursday, March 18th, the infamous "Slaughter Solution" (H RES 1190) passed the house 222-203 providing Pelosi a good indication about how fence sitters were sitting. Joining all the Republicans in opposing the "Slaughter Solution" were 28 so-called "Blue Dog" Democrats who are considered more moderate than the Nancy Pelosi and Louise Slaughters of the political world. Publicly that week even beyond Thursday, Matheson kept saying how he was undecided about Obamacare while protesters were held daily outside his office. Yet Matheson revealed his desire for government healthcare takeover by voting "aye" on the Obamacare "Slaughter Solution" which is nothing worse than passing unconstitutional Obamacare unconstitutionally (ie Congress has to actually vote on law, they can't deem it to have passed.)

Pelosi kept working the Democrats and prepping them for a Sunday--yes a rare Christian Sabbath Day vote--on Obamacare to be held when Christians across the nation would in their homes and churches praying for deliverance from Sin and Obamacare. The morning of Saturday the 20th broke and I joined a few hundred protestors on the steps of our state capitol for a Code Red Rally. Even after the rally ended Saturday mid-dayish, protestors went over to "undecided" Matheson's empty office to protest. It was after this--less than 24 hours before the vote--that Matheson announced he would be voting no on HR3590 and Pelosi got Bart Stupak to cave in on the anti-abortion measures freeing up some of the Democratic fence sitters like Matheson to vote against the leadership knowing that the vote for HR3590 "Obamacare" would be scrutinized historically far more than H RES 1190 "Slaughter Solution."

Utah needs a better Congressman than Matheson. I have better things to do with my Saturdays than to protest a supposed "fence-sitter" who has already voted for Obamacare in the worse form of the Slaughter Solution.

But let's just say I'm a nutjo who has no idea what I'm talking about. You say Matheson's vote against Obamacare HR3590 proves he is against it. I say the vote was a run for cover and can prove it with one final blow: if Matheson is SO against Obamacare that he didn't vote for it, then why doesn't Matheson sign the pledge to repeal it? Republican Morgan Philpot signed the pledge a long time ago.

The answer to that question reveals the true nature of liberal Democrat Matheson and why we must make every effort to ensure Morgan Philpot defeats him this November.

Kill the Evil Bill Slotted on Christian Sabbath Day (Update)

Sometimes the most urgent fights come at the most inconvenient times. So it was last year, the Democrats rallied around a Christmas-Eve vote to push through the worst bill--a heath-scare scheme with (some samples, there are plenty others):

• a Cornhusker Kickback for citizens of Nebraska, courtesy Democrat Ben Nelson (Obama lied about this being removed in the Baier interview yesterday: it only is out if a second healthcare "reconciliation" bill passes both houses which is unlikely.)
• a Louisiana Purchase for citizens of Louisiana courtesy Democrat Mary Landrieu (Obama said this was for states "affected by a natural catastrophe" like Louisiana and...Hawaii???)
• a Gator Aid for citizens of Florida courtesy Democrat Bill Nelson
• a union bribe to get out of a Cadillac healthcare plan tax increase
• tax increases on medical devices
• an individual mandate to throw non-insurance holders in jail a bill which throws tax increases years before benefits to eek out some sort of 10-year disguise of being fiscally responsible
• a violation from the President that the debates would be held on C-SPAN
• federal funding of elective abortions, overriding the long-standing Hyde amendment

No, weren't not kidding. This is evil and sets up the framework for a socialist America. Americans know this and stand solidly against this bill. Time after time we have shouted from behind our signs, on our blogs, on our phones, emails, and letters for the Congress to start over. The bill is so bad, the House Rules Chair Louise Slaughter is proposing "deeming" the bill to have passed rather than voting on it--a direct violation of Act 1 Sect 7 of the Constitution.

Even after the unlikely election of Scott Brown to the Senate in deep blue state Massachusetts as the 41st vote against healthcare and thus ensuring a GOP filibuster, after several Democrats have announced their retirement, after not a single poll shows the support of the American people on this issue, Obama announced in his State of the Union his continued push for this bill.

So the bill which the Senate passed by 60 votes (and which they don't have the votes for now with the election of Scott Brown) is now being rammed down the throats of every Democrat in Congress.

Take for example Utah's sole Federal Democratic Congressman, Jim Matheson. We're not huge Matheson fans but we did send Matheson a thank you for voting against the two worst bills of 2009: the 2,000-page House version of health-scare (HR3962) and Cap n Tax (HR2454) which have not been passed by the Senate. Yet the Obama administration has attempted to sway Matheson in favor of the Senate version of health-scare (HR3590)--which has its own interesting, corrupt history as a gutted military home ownership bill--by nominating his brother to the Federal bench.

We shouldn't have to be having this debate right now. Kennedy--who couldn't live long enough to forever filibuster the Massachusetts seat from Bay Staters, should not have had a vote as by Massachusetts law and the seat should have been empty during the vote (unless you mess with the law)--yet he got two votes: Kirk's and Byrd's!

The word is out that a vote could come Sunday--Christian Sabbath Day--and a rare day for a Congressional vote. But that's OK because Obama has attacked Christians before. The time is not convenient, but if there is ever a time to protest, to call, to email, to speak up, and to pray, the time is NOW!

+++ Update: We understand intuitively that the bill is fiscally irresponsible, yet tricks allow Obama to declare it will help reduce the deficit. One of the most easy to understand graphs in understanding this trick comes via The Weekly Standard:



One can easily see how the benefits of the bill don't fully kick into place until about 2016 and the price tag then is around $200B/yr. If these benefits were amortized over 10 years, we'd be looking at an economy-breaking $2T+ bill.