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Michael Connelly
The ObamaCare Juggernaut Continues
November 23, 2009
As the Congress continues to rewrite and introduce new
versions of so called health care reform legislation in both houses of
Congress the citizens of the United States are treated to longer and
longer bills that are more and more confusing. The House has passed its
version and now the Senate has voted to bring its version to the floor
for debate. That tells us what we need to know about the so-called
moderate Democrats in the Senate. If the people in Louisiana and other
states don’t rise up against Mary Landrieu and the other Senators who
are selling out their constituents then this will truly be just the
beginning. They will continue to violate their oaths of office and vote
for every bill Obama and Harry Reid tell them to vote for, regardless of
the Constitutional implications.
As for the health care bills themselves, the bottom line
remains the same. These bills are not really about health care at all.
They are an all out assault on the Constitution of the United States and
are designed to transfer power to the Executive Branch of government
that will impact and in some cases virtually destroy the Constitutional
rights of Americans to make their own choices when it comes to health
care and even to protect their own privacy.
In previous articles I have dealt with some of these
concerns and now I will summarize them for you so you can decide for
yourselves if this is really the direction you want our country to take.
This is what both the House and Senate versions of the bill will do:
First and foremost, both bills will allow federal
bureaucrats to decide what health care you can receive. This will be
true whether you keep your private health care insurance or go with the
"public options”. Both bills are also carefully crafted to eliminate
private insurance over a period of time and force everyone into
federally mandated and controlled health care. In either case, you and
your doctor will no longer be able to make your health care decisions in
private. There will always be a committee of Presidential appointees
ultimately making your health care decisions for you. This is clearly
rationing of health care.
Decisions will be made on the basis of "cost
effectiveness". If your doctor or a hospital decides you need treatment
the government can reverse that decision and deny you the treatments.
The Senate bill allegedly allows States to opt out of the Health Care
Exchange that offers the public option but the costs to the citizens of
the states that do would be such that states will not be able to make
that choice.
Senior citizens will receive the initial and most
devastating impact. The fact that seniors have been paying taxes for
years to provide Medicare coverage when they retire is ignored. Massive
cuts in Medicare will take place including the elimination of such
programs as Medicare Advantage that many of seniors have to have in
order to make ends meet. This is a direct strike against the contractual
obligations that the Federal government has with citizens of the United
States.
Both bills also contain massive tax increases on the
citizens of our country. Employers will be taxed on private coverage
they provide for employees that will force them to either drop the
coverage or pass the costs on to their employees. Good private insurance
plans will be taxed as "so-called Cadillac plans”. These taxes will be
passed on to individuals and that means that many families will find
that their premiums will actually be much higher under the legislation.
There are two reasons for this; the first is to force more people into
the public option and the second is to pay for the government plans for
the uninsured, including illegal aliens.
The fact is that while the bills claim to contain
provisions denying coverage to illegals these are false. There are no
enforcement provisions in place for these provisions and all amendments
introduced in both houses of Congress to specifically prohibit coverage
for illegals have been defeated in committees.
In addition, if you want to keep your private coverage,
it must be approved by the Federal government. If it is not, or if any
changes are made to your coverage, or if you decide to change employment
you will be forced to accept the public option. If you refuse to do so
you will be taxed by the government. This is not really a tax, it is a
fine, but it is called a tax so that you can be denied the provisions of
the due process clause of the 5th Amendment under the Constitution. In
other words, you will not be able to appeal the penalty and by the way,
all of this will be under the control of the Internal Revenue Service.
If you refuse to get insurance and fail to pay the "taxes” for this
refusal, you can be put in federal prison.
In order to make sure that you and your doctor are under
complete control of the government you will have a health care card with
a bar code that will allow federal bureaucrats instant access to all of
your medical information and your financial information, including your
bank accounts. Forget about privacy and your rights to be free of
illegal searches under the 4th Amendment to the Constitution. These will
be eliminated under these new laws.
Does the Congress of the United States have the power to
do this under the provisions of our Constitution? The answer is
absolutely not. Does the Congress or the Obama administration seem to
care? The answer is a no, they don’t, despite the fact that the 9th and
10th Amendments to the Constitution clearly limit the powers of the
Federal Government and protect the rights of the people and their
elected state governments to make such decisions.
If this legislation passes it will ultimately end up in the Supreme
Court of the United States to decide if it is Constitutional. However,
even the Court’s decision will not be final. The final decision of
whether or not Americans will give up their sacred rights under the
Constitution will rest with us. Will we enforce our right to live under
a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people” or will
we surrender to tyranny. The choice is up to us. I know which choice I
will make. |
