Budos World

Congress is trying to break the law and some members such as Senator Kerry are so arrogant, that he had the balls to say “that there was no reason to post the bill on line since most Americans would not understand it.” Come on, while I admit I am not the smartest guy in the world, we do live in a time that we can Google the big words, or for those of us who still use the dictionary we can look them up that way.
Of course I am talking about the health care bill currently in the senate as well as H.R. 3200. Here is what a Constitutional Law Instructor has written;

Well, I have done it! I have read the entire text of proposed House Bill 3200: The Affordable Health Care Choices Act of 2009. I studied it with particular emphasis from my area of expertise, constitutional law. I was frankly concerned that parts of the proposed law that were being discussed might be unconstitutional. What I found was far worse than what I had heard or expected.

To begin with, much of what has been said about the law and its implications is in fact true, despite what the Democrats and the media are saying. The law does provide for rationing of health care, particularly where senior citizens and other classes of citizens are involved, free health care for illegal immigrants, free abortion services, and probably forced participation in abortions by members of the medical profession.

The Bill will also eventually force private insurance companies out of business and put everyone into a government run system. All decisions about personal health care will ultimately be made by federal bureaucrats and most of them will not be health care professionals. Hospital admissions, payments to physicians, and allocations of necessary medical devices will be strictly controlled.

However, as scary as all of that is, it just scratches the surface. In fact, I have concluded that this legislation really has no intention of providing affordable health care choices. Instead it is a convenient cover for the most massive transfer of power to the Executive Branch of government that has ever occurred, or even been contemplated. If this law or a similar one is adopted, major portions of the Constitution of the United States will effectively have been destroyed.

The first thing to go will be the masterfully crafted balance of power between the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of the U.S. Government. The Congress will be transferring to the Obama Administration authority in a number of different areas over the lives of the American people and the businesses they own. The irony is that the Congress doesn’t have any authority to legislate in most of those areas to begin with. I defy anyone to read the text of the U.S. Constitution and find any authority granted to the members of Congress to regulate health care.

This legislation also provides for access by the appointees of the Obama administration (and all theses that come hereafter) of all of your personal healthcare information, your personal financial information, and the information of your employer, physician, and hospital. All of this is a direct violation of the specific provisions of the 4th Amendment to the Constitution protecting against unreasonable searches and seizures. You can also forget about the right to privacy. That will have been legislated into oblivion regardless of what the 3rd and 4th Amendments may provide.

If you decide not to have healthcare insurance or if you have private insurance that is not deemed “acceptable” to the “Health Choices Administrator” appointed by Obama there will be a tax imposed on you. It is called a “tax” instead of a fine because of the intent to avoid application of the due process clause of the 5th Amendment. However, that doesn’t work because since there is nothing in the law that allows you to contest or appeal the imposition of the tax, it is definitely depriving someone of property without the “due process of law.

So, there are three of those pesky amendments that the far left hate so much out of the original ten in the Bill of Rights that are effectively nullified by this law. It doesn’t stop there though. The 9th Amendment that provides: “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people;” The 10th Amendment states: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are preserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

Under the provisions of this piece of Congressional handiwork neither the people nor the states are going to have any rights or powers at all in many areas that once were theirs to control. I could write many more pages about this legislation, but I think you get the idea.

This is not about health care; it is about seizing power and limiting rights. Article 6 of the Constitution requires the members of both houses of Congress to “be bound by oath or affirmation” to support the Constitution. If I was a member of Congress I would not be able to vote for this legislation or anything like it without feeling I was violating that sacred oath or affirmation. If I voted for it anyway I would hope the American people would hold me accountable. For those who might doubt the nature of this threat I suggest they consult the source. Here is a link to the Constitution: http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_transcript.html And another to the Bill of Rights: http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/bill_of_rights_transcript.html There you can see exactly what we are about to have taken from us. And that we will NEVER get back!!!!
Michael Connelly
Retired attorney,
Constitutional Law Instructor
Carrollton, Texas
mrobertc@hotmail.com
Connelly’s web site

As you can see he sums it up pretty nicely, however he was not done, he makes a great point about Article 1 Section 9 ;

I will make one final point. Supporters of the health care legislation are claiming that Congress has the constitutional right under Article 1, Section 9 to make this massive power grab. That section of the Constitution states that Congress has the power to provide “…for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States…”

This is circular reasoning on the part many liberals. The general welfare language is part of the body of the Constitution and James Madison, among others, considered it dangerously broad. That is one of the reasons for adopting the Bill of Rights. They were to limit what Congress could do under that clause. Now liberals are saying that the welfare clause takes precedence over the very amendments that limit it and it can be used to reduce rights under the amendments like the health care bills would do to the 9th and 10 th Amendments, among others. This means that Congress can do anything it wants by claiming it is for “the general welfare”; they could reinstitute slavery, abolish freedom of speech entirely, or take away a woman’s right to vote.

So what can we do? Call, write and email your elected officials you can find there information for contacting them at http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

Or we can sit back and wait for the first case to go to the Supreme Court. Personally I would rather not wait, since Congress, not just the Democrats but the Republicans as well seem to have forgotten all about the Oath they took when being sworn in. Do we need health care reform? Sure we do, no sane person thinks we don’t. Except those who are making a killing from the industry. However the bills in Congress right now are not the way we need to achieve it.

For once why not try the K.I.S.S. method? Start slow 1 or 2 reforms at a time, that can be monitored so we can gauge how they are working, and modify or remove them till they are working. After that add a few more if needed…. This problem did not happen over night, nor should we expect to fix it all with one Bill.

On Tuesday during Committee markup, Senator Baucus told the Finance Committee staff to just read the HIGHLIGHTS of the bill being proposed when he realized consideration of all of them would take longer than his Friday deadline to vote his proposal out of committee. So forget about legislators reading the entire bill, Senator Baucus has determined that we don’t have time for committee STAFF to even read the bill!

Who really knows? Since Senator Baucus along with another 11 democrats voted no on the amendment to post the bill on line for 72 hours before voting on it. Why will he not allow it to be publish for all to read? What are the hiding? What is so bad about this bill that they don’t want us The American People to read?

I strongly urge you to oppose all existing bills, slow down, start over and focus on the solutions below that will not increase costs both direct and indirect to the American Taxpayer.

The current plan being discussed does not realistically address how the trillions of dollars to fund your plan will be paid for nor does it realistically address the indisputable fact that rationing will need to take place due to a shortage of Doctors and Nurses. Is there a reason you and our President have not guaranteed the American public that you will subject yourself to the same plan you wish to make all other tax paying Americans use? Congress’s plans do not keep employers from dumping staff into the government/co-op plan in order to save money. In fact, your plan does not guarantee many things other than Americans who do not carry insurance will be fined a minimum of $3800 per year. This is completely unacceptable.

Please focus on the following solutions to reduce health care cost for those currently insured and our fellow Americans that currently do not have health care insurance.

SOLUTIONS:

MEDICAL LAWSUITE REFORM – The practice of defensive medicine costs an estimated $100 billion-plus each year, according to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, which used a study by economists Daniel P. Kessler and Mark B. McClellan. No health reform is serious about reducing costs unless it reduces the costs of frivolous lawsuits.

REFUNDABLE TAX CREDITS – Low-income working Americans without health insurance should get help in buying private coverage through a refundable tax credit. Premiums paid by the self employed/insured should earn a tax credit at the same rate as they would get as if they were paying for it before taxes through an employer. This is preferable to building a separate, government-run/Co-op health-care plan.

INSURANCE REFORM – Congress should establish simple guidelines to make policies more portable, with more coverage for pre-existing conditions. Reinsurance, high-risk pools, and other mechanisms can reduce the dangers of adverse risk selection and the incentive to avoid covering the sick. Individuals should also be able to keep insurance as they change jobs or states.

POOLING FOR SMALL BUSINESSES, SELF EMPLOYED, AND OTHERS – All consumers should have equal opportunity to buy the lowest-cost, highest-quality insurance available. Individuals should benefit from the economies of scale currently available to those working for large employers. They should be free to purchase their health coverage without tax penalty through their employer, church, union, etc.

MODIFY THE ANNUAL “USE IT OR LOOSE IT” OF THE FLEXIBLE SPENDING ACCOUNT SO THAT IT ROLLS OVER AND IS REPORTING FRIENDLY.

EXPAND THE AVAILABILITY OF HEALTH SAVING ACCOUNTS.

In short, the Presidents and Congresses current plan and or any “triggered” Government Run Plan will make a bad situation worse, at great costs to the nation in jobs, taxes, and freedom.

I strongly urge you to kill all current bills and start over.

Sincerely,

Sent VIA Patriots for Responsible Government

For example, if you are a large employer unable to provide health insurance for your employees, then the bill imposes a ten percent tax, up to $500,000, hardly an expropriation that will drive job creation.

For small employers who fail to provide health care, H.R. 3200 imposes a $100 a-day penalty “for each day in the period beginning on the date such failure first occurs and ending on that date such failure is corrected.” If an employer failed to cover two employers for three months, the total cost would be $18,200. So much for only soaking the rich in our era of hope, change and new politics.

Congress does not stop with employers alone; the bill also provides mandates for employees and individuals. If you fail to get government-approved health care, then you are taxed. If you fail to get health care at all due to any reason, then the government imposes a penalty. This will specifically hit many young, healthy individuals who have heretofore chosen to postpone insurance in favor of other personal budget priorities.

The bill imposes a tax equal to 2.5 percent of a taxpayer’s modified adjusted gross income. A middle-class taxpayer with a modified adjusted gross income of $60,000 would pay Uncle Sam $1,500. This amount is not enough to purchase private health insurance, but it is enough to break a family budget.

New taxes on employers, employees and individuals who fail to find government-approved health care should be more than enough to put a grin on the faces of even the most ardent liberal. But the worst part of the bill, if passed, will raise top marginal tax rates well above 50 percent.

While H.R. 3200 contains many “revenue enhancers” (tax hikes), Congress had to at least pretend it could conjure the money necessary to pay for the bill’s $1 trillion price tag. So, Congress chose the “soak the rich” approach to health care reform.

The bill imposes surcharges (new taxes) on high-tax-bracket individuals, who, more often than not, are actually small businesses. For those making $350,000 or more, the bill imposes a 1 percent tax on adjusted gross income. If your income exceeds $500,000, the bill tacks on 1.5 percent to your tax bill, and for those who make more than $1 million, the bill imposes a surtax of 5.4 percent.

And now Congress is currently debating a budgetary circuit breaker that would double those surtaxes if cost-savings are not realized. Since neither the Congressional Budget Office nor Congress’ Joint Economic Committee expects costs savings to be realized, then some earners could see a 10.8 percent surtax. The total tab for some taxpayers: an income tax bill over 60 percent, the highest in the world.

Taxpayers rich and poor can expect to take a hit to the quality of their care, in addition to their paychecks. As Representative Tom Price (R-GA) noted, “[A] government-run plan would result in 119 million Americans being crowded out of their current personal plans and enrolled in a bureaucratic, government-run program. After all, when the government enters the ring as both competitor and referee, the other guy gets knocked out.”

If H.R. 3200 passes, look for taxpayers to receive both a shock to quality health care and a shot to their wallets.

In sum, for taxpayers hoping that the new administration would leave their tax bill alone and only go after high-earners, the health care bill is a sober reminder that Washington is an equal opportunity wealth-destroyer.

CFIF

With all of that listed above, President Obama and the Democratic party still wish to act like We the People are being set up by the right at the town hall meetings. The arrogance of our Elected Officials is scary. Having mailed, called and emailed my Representatives, and after reading their response I am ashamed of them. They seem to think that We the People will bend over and take whatever they wish to impose on us.

No one deny’s that we need to fix our Health Care system, there are things that we can do better on. There maybe things that we don’t need. However allowing Congress to rush a bill through because of a deadline set by the Speaker Or the Majority leader in the Senate is insane. We all saw what happened with the stimulus bill, how few in Congress even read the entire bill. The results it has produced so far have been slight. Some say that it hurt us more then it has helped us. Do we really want to rush Health Care reform ? Health care accounts for one-sixth of our nation’s economy, yet they are trying to rush this bill. If done wrong, it could further sink our economy.

I am not a fan of the Federal Government getting involved in health care, however I do see some of the waste we have in our current system. Lets allow those who know the system time to offer up solutions to the problems, instead of rushing a bill through, just so they can say they did something.

I urge you all to write, call, email and fax your elected Members of Congress and tell them to slow down, and get this bill right. If you need the information to contact them You can click here