Well the good news is that the Democrats are saying they don’t have the votes. Probably one of the reasons why they don’t have the votes is because people are finding all about what’s in HR 3962.

They’re objecting to:

• Higher taxes on individuals and businesses which will drive up unemployment
• Government dictating what’s in their healthcare plan
• Government unconstitutionally requiring consumers purchase health insurance or face fines and/or jailtime
• The creation of a government run healthcare plan which will eventually take over the entire healthcare system
• The creation of over 110 new bureaucracies
• The outlawing of any health insurance policy not purchased through the government’s new “exchange”
• The new unfunded liabilities for state and local governments which will result in higher taxes on the local and state levels

So lets get out the sharpest stake we can find and drive it through the heart of the vampire known as Obamacare and kill it until 2011 at the earliest. Get on the phone and call your Congressman or e-mail them if you have not done so and tell them to vote NO on HR 3962. If you don’t know who your Congressman is, follow the link and type in your zip code.

Also, please call everyone you know, post on your Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter pages; and post on your personal blogs, Live Journals, whatever and tell your friends and readers to also call their Congressmen and tell them vote NO on HR 3962. The Obama Administration and the Democratic House leadership will be calling your Congressman to vote for their government run health care scheme, will you call and tell your Congressman to stand for freedom?

Let’s do it !

• Action Alert: House To Vote On Health Care Reform Saturday
• Irony Alert: “Public Option” Will Likely Be Administered By Private Insurance Company
• Don’t Like ObamaCare ? How About BaucusCare ?
• Democratic Senator Announces Opposition To “Public Option”
• Ron Paul: Peoples’ Needs, Desires, Wants, Or Demands Are Not Rights

Today, Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee Dave Camp (R-MI) released a letter from the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) confirming that the failure to comply with the individual mandate to buy health insurance contained in the Pelosi health care bill (H.R. 3962, as amended) could land people in jail.  The JCT letter makes clear that Americans who do not maintain “acceptable health insurance coverage” and who choose not to pay the bill’s new individual mandate tax (generally 2.5% of income), are subject to numerous civil and criminal penalties, including criminal fines of up to $250,000 and imprisonment of up to five years.

In response to the JCT letter, Camp said:  “This is the ultimate example of the Democrats’ command-and-control style of governing – buy what we tell you or go to jail.  It is outrageous and it should be stopped immediately.”

Key excerpts from the JCT letter appear below:

“H.R. 3962 provides that an individual (or a husband and wife in the case of a joint return) who does not, at any time during the taxable year, maintain acceptable health insurance coverage for himself or herself and each of his or her qualifying children is subject to an additional tax.” [page 1]

- - - - - - - - - -

“If the government determines that the taxpayer’s unpaid tax liability results from willful behavior, the following penalties could apply…” [page 2]

- - - - - - - - - -

“Criminal penalties

Prosecution is authorized under the Code for a variety of offenses.  Depending on the level of the noncompliance, the following penalties could apply to an individual:

• Section 7203 – misdemeanor willful failure to pay is punishable by a fine of up to $25,000 and/or imprisonment of up to one year.

• Section 7201 – felony willful evasion is punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and/or imprisonment of up to five years.” [page 3]

(…)

According to the Congressional Budget Office the lowest cost family non-group plan under the Speaker’s bill would cost $15,000 in 2016.

Like Stephen Green said, anyone who voted for the fools who came up with this plan deserves whatever they get. The rest of us, though, are just innocent victims.

• If You Don’t Buy Insurance Under ObamaCare, You Could Go To Jail
• Republican Senator Expresses Support For Mandatory Health Insurance
• New Stuff At The Liberty Papers
• Yes, Insurance Companies Are The Enemy
• The Whole Foods Health Care Plan

Like Peter Schiff and John Stossel:

• John Stossel: I Don’t Subscribe To the Lou Dobbs-Kind Of Rants About Immigrants Wrecking America
• Ron Paul And Peter Schiff On Obama’s Economic Plans
• Glenn Beck: “Cash For Clunkers” Is A Secret Plot To Hack Your Computer
• Health Care Reform, The Constitution, And The Limits On Congressional Power
• Glenn Beck Can’t Even Define The “White Culture” He Claims Obama Hates

WASHINGTON — Amid intense lobbying by the Obama administration, House Democratic leaders struggled Friday for the final votes needed to pass sweeping health care legislation, working to ease concerns among Hispanic holdouts and abortion foes.

“We’re very close” to having enough votes to prevail, said Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland, although he added a scheduled Saturday vote could slip by a day or two and sought to pin the blame on possible Republican delaying tactics.

“Nice try, Rep. Hoyer, but you can’t blame Republicans when the fact is you just don’t have the votes,” shot back Antonia Ferrier, spokeswoman for the GOP leader, Rep. John Boehner of Ohio.

Republicans have already announced that all 177 members of the House caucus will vote against the bill, so that means the ball is entirely in the Democrat’s court.

And, apparently, they’re having trouble keeping it in the air:

The Democratic defections are starting to pile up in advance of a vote scheduled for tomorrow on sweeping health reform efforts. (That schedule could slip to Sunday or beyond,  if the votes aren’t there.)

According to the National Republican Congressional Committee — which, of course, has an interest in watching this vote particularly closely — 15 House Democrats and counting are saying publicly that they’ll oppose the measure when it reaches a vote.

Democrats can afford only 40 such defections to squeak the bill through. They’d prefer to win with room to spare.

The Democrats who’ve said — either in interviews or press releases — that they’re opposing the bill include: Rep. Travis Childers (Miss.); Rep. John Adler (N.J.); Rep. Walt Minnick (Idaho); Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (S.Dak.); Rep. Suzanne Kosmas (Fla.); Rep. Frank Kratovil (Md.); Rep. Larry Kissell (N.C.); Rep. Bart Gordon (Tenn.); Rep. Dan Boren (Okla.); Rep. Jim Matheson (Utah); Rep. Michael McMahon (N.Y.); Rep. John Tanner (Tenn.); Rep. Brian Baird (Wash.); Rep. Harry Teague (N.M.); and Rep. Collin Peterson (Minn.).

(…)

[K}eeping in mind that many members of Congress prefer to announce their intentions with their votes, not press releases — the defections suggest that reaching 218 remains a serious challenge for Democrats on the eve of the vote.

“If this bill is the political winner Nancy Pelosi claims it is, then why are Democrats fighting over who gets to vote against it?” NRCC spokesman Ken Spain said in a statement.

Heh, good question.

• Good News On Health Care Reform: They Don’t Have The Votes Yet
• ObamaCare Clears Committee Hurdle
• Report: Democrats Lack The Votes To Pass ObamaCare
• Blue Dog: “Public Option” Still Won’t Pass If Democrats Go It Alone
• The Crap Sandwich Bailout Faces Round Two In The House

• Ron Paul To Skip Sunday’s Tea Party
• Why Ron Paul Matters To The Future Of The Republican Party
• Ron & Rand Paul On Neil Cavuto 9/23/09
• Ron Paul And The Future Of The Republican Party
• Boston Tea Party 2007: The Next Ron Paul Moneybomb

According to the poll, 45 percent support President Barack Obama’s proposals to reform health care, with 53 percent opposed to his plans. This is the first time since the president’s early September prime time address a joint session of Congress on health care that a majority of people questioned in a CNN survey oppose Obama’s proposals.

“Six in ten independents say they oppose Obama’s health care proposals,” says Holland. “That’s a nine point increase since October.”

Perhaps you guys on Capitol Hill need to pay attention to that, eh ?

• Two New Polls Show Voters Oppose ObamaCare
• Inherently Unreliable CNN Poll Claims The Obama Got Boost From Health Care Speech
• Majority Disapproves Of Obama’s Handling Of Health Care
• A Post-Speech Bump For ObamaCare ? Maybe, Maybe Not
• NBC/WSJ Poll: Public Remains Divided On Health Care Reform

For all the pain caused by the Great Recession, the job market still was not in as bad shape as it had been during the depths of the early 1980s recession — until now.

With the release of the jobs report on Friday, the broadest measure of unemployment and underemployment tracked by the Labor Department has reached its highest level in decades. If statistics went back so far, the measure would almost certainly be at its highest level since the Great Depression.

In all, more than one out of every six workers — 17.5 percent — were unemployed or underemployed in October. The previous recorded high was 17.1 percent, in December 1982.

This includes the officially unemployed, who have looked for work in the last four weeks. It also includes discouraged workers, who have looked in the past year, as well as millions of part-time workers who want to be working full time.

(…)

Officially, the Labor Department’s broad measure of unemployment goes back only to 1994. But early this year, with the help of economists at the department, The New York Times created a version that estimates it going back to 1970. If such a measure were available for the Depression, it probably would have exceeded 30 percent.

Yikes.

• Unemployment Hits 9.8%, 216,000 Jobs Lost In September
• Unemployment Rate Rises To 9.7%, Highest Rate Since March 1983
• Fed Official: The “Real Unemployment Rate” Is 16%
• Unemployment Rate Reaches 10.2%, Highest Level Since April 1983
• Unemployment Rate Hits 8.1%, Worst Since December 1983

Below The Beltway has been nominated in the  ‘Best Political Blog’ category in the 2009 Weblog Awards. You can vote for the nomination here.

While you’re there, be sure to check out the other categories, there plenty of great blogs, and great bloggers, nominated.

• It’s Time To Vote
• Its That Time Again
• Below The Beltway: The Blogasm Interview
• Carnival Monday
• The 2007 Weblog Awards

The tale of the tape:

598,000 jobs lost in January
651,000 jobs lost in February
663,000 jobs lost in March
563,000 jobs lost in April
345,000 jobs lost in May
443,000 jobs lost in June.
247,000 jobs lost in July.
216,000 jobs lost in August.
219,000 jobs lost in September
190,000 jobs lost in October

4,135,000 jobs lost in 2009 to date

H/T: Club For Growth

• Why Can’t John McCain Follow The Tradition Where Guys Who Lose Elections Just Go Away ?
• Obama And Unemployment
• Barack Obama’s Phantom Jobs
• Carnival of Liberty Schedule
• Economic Chickens Coming Home To Roost

H/T: Matthew Yglesias

• So Are We Headed For Another Great Depression ?
• John McCain’s Really Weird Ad
• Another Crazy Pastor On John McCain’s Bandwagon
• This Is Why I’d Never Attend A Party Hosted By Michelle Bachmann
• John McCain Was For Progressive Taxation Before He Was Against It