From ALG News’ Capitol Hill Correspondent Derek Baker:

In the Senate, what seemed increasingly improbable has changed in just a few days to inevitable. Yes, as you all know, the government takeover of healthcare – Harry Reid flavor – is scheduled for an 8am vote tomorrow on Christmas Eve.

So, what happened in between?  Not just one or two, but literally dozens of United States senators sold their vote for tens of millions of dollars worth of projects for their home state:  all at taxpayer expense, all adding to the deficit, and none improving the quality of health care in America by one iota.

Bottom Line: Though this writer has temporary moments of sadness, grief, anxiety, frustration, even depression at the thought of what 60 senators are poised to vote on against the express will of the majority of Americans, mostly anger and determination have set in.  Like many of my fellow patriots, I commit to never cease fighting against socialist, statist policies that strip liberty from each of us one page in the federal register at a time.

Remember, this piece of trash hasn’t been conferenced or signed into law yet, and it won’t ever be if we unite and verbally assail all those that voted for it over the Christmas recess!

In the House, the Republican minority got one man stronger, thanks to former Democrat Rep. Parker Griffith.  The truth about his reasons for switching — that Obama and Pelosi are out of control spenders, and the healthcare takeover is bad for America — is very unfortunate.  However, the immediate sniping that began about his departure among Democrat leaders has been rather amusing to watch.

Parker stated he cannot align himself “with a party that continues to pursue legislation that is bad for our country, hurts our economy and drives us further and further into debt.”

Otherwise, nary a creature is stirring in the House, except for the mice (and I’m serious about the mice – I’ve seen them).

At the other end of the Avenue, yesterday Obama claimed his greatest achievement of the year was to rescue the financial system, while he was on the verge of greatness on healthcare and energy.  He stated:

“Overall, if you had a checklist of promises made, a lot of those promises have been kept … we will have achieved a fundamental shift in health care, energy, education and our financial regulatory system that will put this economy on a firmer footing to grow over the long term. … the most important thing we did this year was to ensure that the financial system did not collapse.”  For good measure, he also stated that both the large banks and community banks were not lending enough and needed to step up their efforts.

Bottom Line: The arrogance of Obama does not cease to astound the informed observer, who realizes record numbers of Americans are out of work and the financial services industry now has a greater regulatory burden to contend with than ever. Banks are not lending precisely because of government-mandated lending policies – it’s that simple.