Nancy Pelosi Wants to Turn 2009 INTO 1984

 The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from all the oligarchies of the past, in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just round the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. -George Orwell

There is evidence that Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi does not look at 1984 as a novel but as a how-to guide. She did not all allow any vote on oil drilling last year, she prevented the House to take the time to read the stimulus bill before they voted on it, she is constantly looking for ways to disrupt freedom of the press, and now she is looking at using the famous "nuclear" option to ram through her health plan this year:


Pelosi defiant on health care fast-track

By GLENN THRUSH & ALEX ISENSTADT

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she's still committed to using a procedural trick to fast-track health care reforms this year — despite opposition from the powerful Democratic chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

"I believe it's absolutely essential that we come out of this year with a substantial health care reform," Pelosi said during her weekly press conference. "I believe that is best served by having reconciliation in the package."

Reconciliation is a process for approving major tax or budget proposals combined with offsetting spending cuts or revenue increases, but the real power of reconciliation is that anything passed under this process requires only a simple majority in the Senate. Senate Republicans have called this a “nuclear option” because it would essentially kill a GOP filibuster on health reform or other big-ticket items.

When Pelosi was told "some people" opposed the tactic — a reference to Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) who says he opposes reconciliation — Pelosi responded: "I don't know who some people are, but in the House of Representatives… [we want] the strongest possible package."

She also mocked Republican claims that reconciliation is undemocratic. She pointed out the same process was used by GOP majorities to ram through Bush-era tax cuts for upper-income families. And reconciliation was used for budgets and tax cuts throughout the Reagan years.

"Some of the people on the Republican side didn't have a problem, with it… [during votes on] the Bush tax cuts," she added.

Several Senate moderates, including Maine Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), have suggested that Democratic leadership's unwillingness to rule out reconciliation is merely a bargaining tactic.

Pelosi also suggested that Democrats didn't have time to dabble in negotiations, saying, "I believe that it's absolutely essential that we close out the year with health care reform legislation."