by Kerry Thomas
March 21, 2010
I spent my Sunday listening to Members of Congress debate passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R. 3590), the 2,409-page version of the health care reform bill that was passed by the U.S. Senate on Christmas Eve of last year by a vote of 60-39 (record vote number 396). Almost no one in Congress had bothered to read this entire bill before voting on it.
After the Democrats lost their filibuster-proof majority in the Senate (when Republican Scott Brown was elected to the Senate from Massachusetts), they lost their ability to ram through their progressive legislation at will. Now, the only way they could get such radical legislation through the Congress was for the House of Representatives to pass the version of the bill that had already passed the Senate.
It’s a bad bill.
Nevertheless, the Progressives who control the Democrats in Congress succeeded in ramming this flawed legislation through the House by a vote of 219-212 (roll call vote number 165). The President will sign it into law within days. It will be the law of the land.
Well, maybe.
Numerous groups and States are planning to file lawsuits in federal court as soon as the bill is signed into law, challenging the legislation’s Constitutionality. The key challenges will focus on the legislation’s mandates that U.S. Citizens purchase health insurance, and on the unfounded mandates to the States, namely that already-financially-burdened States pay a portion of the increased costs of the bill.
There are also Constitutional questions about the federal government’s ability to impose such mandates on the States, based on the Tenth Amendment.
Numerous states have also enacted laws prohibiting the federal government from mandating that their citizens purchase health insurance. The Constitution’s supremacy clause is only applicable if the law is constitutional.
The problem is that the federal government lacks the Constitutional power to require that you and I buy anything, be it health insurance or a car or a house, anything. We simply cannot be forced against our will to engage in commerce.
This legislation gives the Internal Revenue Service the power to force you to buy insurance that is acceptable to the government or pay a tax is you don’t. The Supreme Court has already ruled that the government cannot impose a tax as punishment.
Progressive Democrats are telling us this legislation will be good for our business community. But it requires businesses to buy insurance for their employees or pay a fine for not doing so. Is it any wonder so many businesses are still loathe to hire new employees before they see how this legislation is going to impact their businesses?
Americans who’ve actually read the legislation don’t like it. Yet, Members of Congress who hadn’t read the legislation kept telling us how wonderful it would be for us.
Michigan Congressman Bart Stupak, who had originally voted against the original House version of this legislation because it did not contain explicit language to prohibit federal funding of abortion, voted in favor of the bill, believing a promised Executive Order from the President could trump legislation passed by Congress and signed into law.
That was just one of countless backroom deals that were struck in order to get wayward Democrats to go along with this flawed legislation.
All day long I heard Progressive Democrats talking about the “historic” nature of this legislation as a reason why people should support it. It reminded me of the same reasons why people were supposed to vote for Barack Hussein Obama for President – because it would be “historic.”
That one sure worked out well, didn’t it?
All day long I heard Progressive Democrats telling story after story about someone who was suffering from one ailment or another. These Progressive Democrats made it seem as though all these ailments would miraculously be healed, if only Congress would pass this legislation.
All day long I heard Progressive Democrats talking about how this legislation would bring fiscal strength to the Medicare program. Let’s see. It adds some 30 million more people to the Medicare rolls, and at the same time cuts Medicare funding by about $500 billion.
The legislation also increases taxes by some $500 billion. The President calls this a tax cut.
The new taxes kick in almost immediately. But the majority of new benefits don’t even start until 2014. We pay taxes for four years before we begin to see all these wonderful new entitlements.
Ten years of new taxes to pay for six years of new entitlements. That’s balanced?
All day long I heard Progressive Democrats decrying health insurance companies. Yet more than 80% of Americans say they are satisfied with their health insurance company. The health insurance industry operates on an average rate of return of just 2%. Do you think 2% return on your investments is a good investment?
Now think about what you would do if you ran a health insurance company today. With all the new regulations coming your way, would you plan to stay n business very long? Wouldn’t it just be easier to sell automobile insurance or homeowners insurance instead?
The legislation repeatedly leaves the final language of new regulations to the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Time after time, the legislation says, “The Secretary shall….” So even though this legislation will become law, we’re still not really sure how it will effect each of us, or how. It will be up to the Executive Branch to come up with all the new regulations. And remember, the Secretary is a political appointee.
All day long I heard Progressive Democrats talking about the 1965 Civil Rights Act, as though this legislation was akin to the fight over civil rights for all Americans. They kept talking about how their Progressive heroes, from Teddy Roosevelt and FDR to even Bill Clinton, had dreamed of nationalizing the American health care system. It was part of Barack Hussein Obama’s promise to “fundamentally transform” America.
As the final debate on the legislation was winding down in the House, Republican leader John Boehner, asked Congressman David Obey (who was acting as Speaker) if he (the Speaker) would grant his request for a call of the roll, whereby every Member of Congress would have to stand up and answer Aye or Nay on the vote. Boehner asked the question four times. Obey finally responded: “The Chair will decide at the time the request is made. This is not it.”
Typical gutless Democrat response.
The legislation’s lead sponsor in the House, Democrat Charles Rangel of New York, in an interview on FOX News Channel, even said “Tonight, the American People got what they wanted.”
No, we didn’t.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi kept talking about Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, as though this legislation was somehow part of the Declaration of Independence. She was actually giddy as she delivered the Democrats’ closing arguments in favor of the legislation.
And the legislation was so good that the very next piece of legislation the House of Representatives took up was H.R. 4872, an act to make 2,310 pages worth of changes to this wonderful 2,409 page health care bill they had just passed. Of course, no one had bothered to read this entire bill, either. The House approved this legislation by a vote of 220-211 (roll call vote number 167). It now goes to the Senate.
There’s an old saying, one I first heard delivered by actor John Vernon in the 1976 movie The Outlaw Josey Wales, that I think sums up my thoughts tonight:
Congressman, don’t piss down my back and tell me it’s raining.