Earlier today the House voted 345-75 to block federal funds for ACORN (AKA tax assistance for child pimps and prostitutes). A majority of House Democrats voted in favor of blocking the funds and all but two members of the Colorado delegation voted to stop funding ACORN. Jared Polis and Diana DeGette voted no. Click here for the full roll call vote.

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The U.S. House of Representatives finally released the text of the health care bill called ··America·s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009·· HR 3200 and it can now be read in its 1,018 page entirety. The bill's subtitle is " A Bill to provide affordable, quality health care for all Americans and reduce the growth in health care spending, and for other purposes. All the bill's language was written to further this cause, i.e, to provide healthcare to everyone and to reduce the growth in spending. You can link to a pdf of the health care bill here.

Since the bill's public release, a lot of people have gotten fired up in support and in opposition to it. Each side has called the other liars, and worse. One part of the bill in particular has touched a nerve. That is Section 1233, ADVANCE CARE PLANNING CONSULTATION.

Although the section is only ten pages long, it is still hard to digest. Below is a condensed version of this Section with cites to page number and line number. In Section 1233, the person being consulted is an individual over 65 in the medicare program. The Consultant is called a "practitioner".

p. 428, l. 14-19 - A 'practitioner" is a physician, nurse practitioner or physician's assistant. The practitioner is the one who consults on Advanced Care Planning with the individual. There is nothing in the health care bill that states the consultation is voluntary.

p. 425, l. 17-21 - The practitioner first gives an explanation of and counsels on advance directives, living wills, durable powers of attorney and health care proxies.

p. 426, l. 4-8 - The practitioner then explains and counsels end-of-life services, palliative care where they ease pain without curing the underlying disease, hospice programs for meeting the physical needs of the terminally ill and the benefits for such services. The practitioner does not have to explain any drawbacks of these end-of-life services such as death itself.

P. 426, l. 9-16 - The practitioner finally explains the Order Regarding Life Sustaining Treatment and why it is beneficial to the individual and the individual's family. The practitioner does not have to explain any drawbacks of this Order such as death itself.

After the consultation is over, the individual is not involved with any further parts of the Advance Care Planning Consultation. In no part of the process is the individual required to sign anything or execute any planning documents.

p. 427, l. 10-25 - Having a consultation in and of itself, allows the practitioner to formulate an Order Regarding Life Sustaining Treatment without any further input from the individual. The Order just needs to be signed by a physician, nurse practitioner or physician's assistant to be in full force and effect. The Order is an actionable medical order designed to stay with the individual and to be followed by health care professionals for the remainder of the individual's care.

p. 430, l. 1-4 The only input from the individual for the formulation of the Order is that it communicate the individual's preferences regarding treatment. Since the individual doesn't have to sign anything or affirmatively state anything during the consultation, it is up to the practitioner to presume and interpret the individual's preferences.

p. 430, l. 13-24 The Order has the power to limit medical interventions, limit the use of antibiotics, limit nutrition and limit hydration. The Order can address whether an individual goes to the hospital or remains at a hospice or other nursing home.

So where does the language in the Order come from?

p. 428, l. 5-13 The Order is guided by a coalition of stakeholders including state hospice associations, home health association, etc. This is the section that has been decried as a "Death Panel" by Gov. Palin and others.

Since this house bill is written to reduce the growth of health care spending and people over 65 consume health care dollars at the end-of-life, it is pretty easy to see why Section 1233 was inserted into the health care bill.

Older Americans are not stupid. They can read and they can comprehend this health bill. No wonder so many older Americans are turning out in droves at town hall meetings. You would be angry too if the federal government was trying to kill you off.

If you want to vent, below are the phone numbers for our congress members and senators. Give them a buzz.

Dianna Degette - CD1 - 202-225-4431

Jared Polis - CD2 - 202-225-2161

John Salazar - CD3 - 202-225-4761

Betsy Markey - CD4 - 202-225-4676

Doug Lamborn - CD5- 202-225-4422

Mike Coffman - CD6 - 202-226-4623

Ed Perlmutter - CD7 - 202-225-2645

Mark Udall - Senate - 202-224-5941

Mike Bennett - Senate - 202-224-5852

Mike Robinson is Senior Partner at Robinson & Henry P.C., a Castle Rock, CO law firm.

You can get PPP to do polling in Colorado at by voting Colorado at http://publicpolicypolling.blogspot.com/

We are only a few votes down from Arizona, let's get some match-up info for 2010. We need to update from Bill Owens and John Elway

Ryan Frazier and Cleve Tidwell, both candidates for US Senate, are trying real hard to pull a victory in this straw poll. Tidwell had been leading for days when at the last minute Frazier got out the word on facebook and as taken a lead. Over 1150 people have voted. Ken Buck has little support and Bob Beauprez has virtually none.

Update: Tidwell wins with 47% to Frazier's 45%. Ken Buck recieved 6% and Beauprez managed to win 1%.

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Ever stood in line at Target next to that mom who threatens and threatens her bratty little 2-year-old while the kid screams and screams?

Congress has apparently taken the same stance in dealing with the Wall Street mess - only this time it's taxpayers who will be forced to foot the bill or listen to the screaming. Republicans have a chance to demonstrate some tough love with their Wall Street counterparts and tell them to "suck it up."

I, for one, am tired of paying for other people's mistakes and bad gambling habbits. This isn't rocket science - either you have the money and can afford a home or you don't. If a lender decides to take a chance on bad debt, why are taxpayers left making the banking industry whole? You take your loss, 'cause that's how we do it in the NBA.

Most Americans couldn't tell you what is going on in Congress let alone Wall Street - all they know is that things cost more now than they did a year ago.

Most national business groups have thrown their lot in with the Democrats.  Don't believe me? If Republicans are smart, they'll simply thumb their nose at Wall Street and stand up against this sort of government takeover. But I'm guessing that most of them haven't the fortitude it will take to let a few bad companies (and investors) die to preserve the rest of the herd.

History has shown us that 'inevitable' and 'emergency'  legislation like the Patriot Act or Sarbanes-Oxley is never more popular than on the day it is passed -- and this issue isn't all that popular to begin with.

The Longmont Times-Call reports:

Lafayette Republican Scott Starin, an electronics systems engineer and project manager with Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp., has declared his candidacy for Congress from Colorado’s 2nd District.

“I, like many Americans, am frustrated with the partisan bickering in Congress,” Starin says on his campaign Web site.

Starin, who filed his candidacy statement with the Federal Election Commission on April 14 and e-mailed a number of fellow Republicans last Thursday about his intention to seek the seat, could not be reached for comment Monday evening.

He is believed to be the first GOP candidate to formally announce a bid in this year’s contest for the post being vacated by U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, D-Eldorado Springs.

Read more about Scott Starin at his campaign site.

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If you ever need a break from the rhetoric from the Republican primaries in CD-5 and CD-6, just take a look at the latest letter from Democrat Will Shaforth's campaign in CD-2 and be thankful there are no Republican primaries this heated:

It has come to our attention that you may be receiving unsolicited emails from the Jared Polis campaign. We believe their campaign may have illegally obtained our donor email list. While we continue to investigate we urge you to call the Polis campaign at (303) 381-0121 and ask to be removed from their list and also ask how they obtained your email address in the first place. You can also follow this link to file a complaint with the FTC if you would like to do so https://rn.ftc.gov/pls/dod

At the Shafroth campaign we have a policy of not selling or giving away your personal information and we are taking this breach very seriously. Please feel free to call me on my cell phone with any questions (303)579-8794.

Sincerely,
Lynea Hansen

Between things like this, the Clinton/Obama primary, and the numerous legislative primaries it's hard to believe that Republicans are made out as the divided party.