Serious pressure is building and the momentum is on our side. However, without the knowledge of what is actually happening behind the scenes, the grave we are digging for ObamaCare could actually become our own graves. Our collective effort could all be for naught if we allow the construction of any scaffolding for a public option. Liberals are very patient about realizing their agenda. They will build upon any infrastructure that allows for a Trojan Horse to a single payer system. And Republicans are often the unwitting contributors of legislation that is not in our best interests. More damage is done in the name of bi-partisanship and those Republicans with a proclivity to reach across the aisle need to be reigned in. We are so close and now is not the time to go wobbly.

The word from Dr. Hunter: Don’t get all excited about Obama dropping the public option. It is a head fake. Republicans should stop all negotiations with the Democrats, kill any ObamaCare bill and start over. And don’t thing that big pharma and the big insurance are our friends in this battle. The real behind the scenes maneuvering is a hodgepodge of nefarious backroom deals. I have talked with Lawrence Hunter and communicated with him via email for about two weeks now. My understanding of the real inner workings of the beltway have increased an order of magnitude and many of my previous beliefs exposed as nothing less than naivety. Prepare to be educated, entertained, and re-invigorated at the same time. Our energy needs to be directed now towards Congress, where the message must be clear – kill this bill. No co-ops, no bill written by big insurance companies or big pharma, no nothing. Hit reset, start over, and create a bill for the American people that keeps the government out of our business, allows for competition in the private sector, stops the creation of large insurance cartels and allows smaller insurance companies to thrive and compete. In short, a bill for the people, not the government, not big pharma, and not big insurance. Time for the lobbyists to go home, for we are the biggest lobby of all and we are awake. Let us be clear on this. Any Republican who wishes to usurp our will and allow ObamaCare to pass with the public option, a Trojan Horse public option, a large influence by big pharma, or big insurance will face political extinction. As all of the current bills fit this description, the sane choice is to stop and start over.

For an eye-opening view of what is really going on read Obama Jettisons Public Option Right on Cue and Phase Change in Healthcare Negotiations. Dr. Hunter’s bio can also be found on this site. He served as President Ronald Reagan’s policy adviser and has a long and distinguished career.

Dr. Hunter described the current landscape to me very well. To paraphrase Dr. Hunter:

There is a fundamental fissure that divides our camp. On one side stand those who believe some healthcare bill will pass this year. On the other side of the divide stand those who believe it is possible to checkmate the Obama Administration and prevent any bill from passing this year. The outcome of the healthcare-reform struggle will be determined by which view governs our strategy and activities from here on out.

This game is ours to lose, and there is nothing President Obama or his congressional Democrats can do on their own to win it if we don’t make a mistake. Any deviation from the strategy to “Kill Bill” is a mistake. To take a sport’s analogy, the fastest way to lose this game is to start thinking about the next game. If we are thinking and talking policy, we are thinking about the next game because there is no way a sufficient amount of good policy can make its way into a bill this year to make it acceptable. Hence “Kill Bill”, period.

We are now entering the End Game, and no matter how brilliant our Opening Game and Middle Game were – and they were brilliant – we will throw it all away if we fail to make the transition in our play. You can’t win at golf if you can’t putt; you can’t win at basketball if you can’t hit free throws; you can’t win at chess if you can’t play the end game; and you can’t win at politics if you can’t be ruthless in playing the political end game. That is why Democrats repeatedly beat us – we play policy when we should be playing politics while they play politics from beginning to end.

All politics and no policy makes a political party corrupt and degenerate but all policy and no politics makes a political party just plain dense. The little ditty about the Democrats being the evil party and the Republicans being the party of dim bulbs didn’t arise out of thin air.

If we assume some bill will pass, we can pretty well bet that prophecy will become self-fulfilling and some bill will pass.

If we have confidence we can stop all comers, we stand a very good chance of succeeding. But we will only stop all comers if we lay policy aside and do whatever is necessary to defeat the bill, which means all of our energy and resources must be concentrated on preventing a single Republican from defecting.

The debate is entering the stage (the Obama counter-offensive stage) in which any continued discussion of policy (what we should do or what we would accept) is counterproductive to defeating a bill. Look, I know that many of us in this struggle are policy wonks and medical professionals with very strong views about what should be done and about how negligent the Republican Party was for not doing them when they were in power.

But politics has a flow and a rhythm to it—it moves in seasonal cycles. As difficult as it may be for we policy wonks and medical professionals to accept, the season for substance and policy has ended and will not return until after the healthcare reform debate is put on the shelf, which means until after we defeat any and all comers during this Congress. If we try to exploit Obama’s weakness now by trying to craft a bill he will accept that we can live with, we not only will strengthen and empower him, we almost certainly will create a monster that will get out of control in very short order.

Continuing to focus on substance (other than to criticize the substance of the Obama/Dem bills) will divide and divert us, and it will allow Republicans such as Olympia Snowe to avoid her responsibility to ensure good policy for the American people by doing whatever is necessary to defeat a bill.

You can see what I mean coming through clearly in this Washington Post article: The Divisions in the White House Over Health-Care Reform

Snowe is scared to be the sole Republican supporting this bill, not to mention the Republican who ensures the passage of this bill. The reprisals within her caucus could be tremendous. If Snowe drops off the bill, using the budget reconciliation process will probably be a necessity.

As long as we continue talking about alternatives and options, we encourage her to continue negotiating whether that is our intent or not. And, rather than fearing Reconciliation, we should relish forcing the Dems into that corner because if they go down that path we can checkmate them.

We must agree among ourselves that our strategy is to “Kill Bill”, any bill, every bill, a big bill, a little bill, kill them all. If we can’t pledge that to each other, we don’t have the right stuff to win.

Also read the following posts from Dr. Hunter:

Trojan Rhino Smuggles In ObamaCare As “Bipartisan Compromise”

Senator Bob Bennett should stop negotiating. This post contains the two Jim Demint Amendments I have written about extensively after hearing about them from Lewis K. Uhler and Dr. Hunter. In a nutshell, these two amendments would make it impossible to pass ObamaCare under reconciliation, something even Robert Byrd is on the record as opposing. One amendment was voted on unanimously and the other by a wide margin of 79-14. Remarkably, Senate Budget Committee Chairman, Kent Conrad, allowed the DeMint 60-vote requirement to be removed from the Budget Resolution in Conference. Also included are links to the amendments and the roll call for the second amendment that passed by 79-14.

Also of interest is this story from The Hill:

GOP readies wave of objections to stall healthcare bill in Senate

Sen. Judd Gregg has hundreds of procedural objections ready for a healthcare plan Democrats want to speed through the Senate.

Gregg (N.H.), the senior Republican on the Budget Committee, told The Hill in a recent interview that Republicans will wage a vicious fight if Democrats try to circumvent Senate rules and use a budget maneuver to pass a trillion-dollar healthcare plan with a simple majority.

Our strategy is now clear and it becomes increasing apparent to me that not only can we stop reconciliation, but ObamaCare itself. Keep up the pressure on Congress, especially your Senators. Let them know you are aware of the Demint amendments and demand the Senate follow its own rules. As Americans, there are all sorts of rules that we must follow. And as Americans we are sick and tired of a privileged group that lives by the motto “Rules for thee, but not for me”. Enough is enough.

In other news and opinion:

Another Snowe Job

White House Floating “Snowe” Trigger

ObamaCare: Public option + trigger = exit strategy?

“I believe Jesus would vote yes for a public option”

Video: Rep. Pete Stark tells interviewer, “Get the f**k out of here or I’ll throw you out the window”

CNN poll: Majority now oppose ObamaCare

Did Rangel pay off Ethics Committee members?

Video: Van Jones and “revolution”

Obama planning Sister Souljah moment over public option

Another Reason Government-Sponsored Health Care Is Destined to Fail

MoveOn.org Thug Bites Off Protester’s Finger At Obamacare Rally!

Yes We Cannibal

The Holdren & Letterman lovefest

Wrong Turns: How Obama’s Health-Care Push Went Astray.

POLITICS: When Does School Start? The President Doesn’t Know

Turbo Tax Tim tucks tail

The NHS “death pathway”. Chilling.

A Truther Czar?… Obama’s Green Czar Van Jones Believes Bush Government was Behind 9-11

This Wouldn’t Be Happening If Obama Were President

Hands off my health care. Teeth off my hands.

Is There Any More Point to Talking About Health Care?

Operation “Hall Pass on That”

Memorize and repeat the following like a mantra:

A cooperative is nothing more than a Trojan Horse for single payer healthcare.

Remember these five Senators:

• Chuck Grassley
  United States Senator, Iowa
• Olympia J. Snowe
  United States Senator, Maine
• Susan Collins
  United States Senator, Maine
• Michael Enzi
  United States Senator, Wyoming
• Lindsey Graham
  United States Senator, South Carolina

You can contact them here.

What do they all have in common? All are members of the Senate Finance Committee, the only committee with a chance at a reaching a bi-partisan compromise on health care reform. Many are already touting the end of the public option, which is slated to be replaced by co-operatives. But is this really a victory? The answer is a resounding NO. These five Republicans with an annoying proclivity to reach across the aisle are about to sell out America.

Dan Mitchell of the CATO institute comments on an article by Dr. Lawrence Hunter titled RHINOCare: A U.S. Chamber of Horrors:

People are beginning to catch on to the fact that RHINOCare is the real danger, which will smuggle in ObamaCare as a ‘bipartisan compromise.’ Dan Mitchell discusses health care on FBN. A five minute video well worth the time. Watch Here

. Dr. Hunters post is a lesson in the legislative process and a dire warning:

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives are back home under siege from angry constituents terrified over the House version of ObamaCare…. Meanwhile, a few Republican Senators remain huddled with Democrats on Capitol Hill trying to construct a legislative Trojan RHINO with ObamaCare hiding inside disguised as a bipartisan compromise. Call it RHINOCare—Republican Healthcare In Name Only—and it is nothing but a ploy to deceive people into inviting government-run healthcare into America.

The thought of the federal government taking over healthcare terrifies people. The revelation that the health bill in the U.S. House of Representatives (H.R. 3200) would mandate “end-of-life counseling” every five years for every American age 65 and older has galvanized people’s opposition to a federal takeover. Although nothing in the bill explicitly requires medical care to be withheld from sick seniors, it is clear that the system being established is designed to control healthcare costs by pinching the flow and supply of care to seniors—all under the guise of “cost containment.”

The President is proposing a “cut-Medicare-first” strategy of cost control, and people have caught on. On top of that, the provision in the bill for mandatory “life counseling” (read “death and dying counseling”) is the final straw that convinces seniors that nationalized healthcare will put them out in the cold and into an early grave. The remarks of a senior citizen at a recent Gate City, Virginia town hall meeting perfectly expresses the views of many older people: “The federal government just wants me to feel guilty for going on living.”

Democrat Rick Boucher who represents Virginia’s ninth congressional district is illustrative of the Democrats representing conservative constituents who are feeling the heat on healthcare. Constituents flooded Boucher’s office with calls and letters, and last week he voted against the House health bill when it came to a vote in the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

But that isn’t the end of the story. Boucher also provides a case study of how one can expect the political drama on healthcare to play out as the debate heads into this congressional recess and beyond. Democrats like Boucher, who represent conservative districts and are feeling the heat from constituents, are attempting to tip toe through a political mind field as they try both to satisfy the folks back home while they toe the party line in Washington.

The first thing to realize is that House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi has a number of free passes to hand out to Democrats like Boucher. This phenomenon was evident on Cap-and-Trade when she was able to release 42 Democrats to vote against the measure—it carried the House by a margin of 219 to 212—which makes it crystal clear how out of touch Boucher, who did not use his free pass, has become with his district.

The drill works this way. First, the majority leader determines how many of her flock want to vote against the measure. Then she gets about the business of buying and intimidating as many Republican votes as possible (she got eight Republicans on Cap-and-Trade). Finally, when she knows how many yea votes she can rely on, she distributes free passes to as many of her Democrats in a pinch as she can allowing them to vote against the party line and still leave a safe margin of victory.

In the case of healthcare, the game is going to be a little more complicated since it will involve tacit coordination between the House and the Senate and between the Democratic Leadership and critical Senate Republicans—all designed to give Democrats such as Boucher a safe path around the voters. Again, Congressman Boucher illustrates how it will happen.

Boucher has prepared the ground by drawing a false distinction between a “public option” (i.e., a government insurance plan that would compete against private insurance companies) and so-called “co-op insurance providers,” which he will claim are private, not government, providers. (Read his Jesuitical distinction here.) The fact is, co-ops set up a camouflaged, backdoor takeover. Co ops will be analogous to the other quasi-public companies, so-called “government-sponsored enterprises” (GSEs) such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—a new Frannie Med—where the government-backed, government-subsidized system crowds out the private sector and then eventually goes belly up. Government will then blame the “market” for failing and demand a full public takeover.

This is the kind of political cover Democrats in conservative districts, such as Boucher, require. And here is where the U.S. Senate enters the Hand Jive. With the assistance of a few clueless Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee (Grassley and Snowe) and other squishy Republicans such as Bob Bennett from Utah (see his version of RHINOCare here), Senate Democrats are preparing a bi-partisan “compromise” that provides the cover both for renegade Republicans who are desperate to vote “yea” for something and for Democrats like Boucher who find themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place.

According to recent press reports, the gang of six—three Democrats and the two above Republicans plus Wyoming Republican Mike Enzi—wants to put lipstick on this pig by replacing a public option with co-ops and substituting a mandate that all individuals purchase healthcare for one that requires all employers to provide healthcare for their workers. They will call it a great victory for “market-based” medicine and private industry; they will get the endorsement of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and AARP; they will promote it as “bipartisan; and they will demagogue anyone who opposes the “bipartisan compromise” as an “extremist disinformationist” who will go onto the White House watch list.

It is all a charade, a masquerade, an exercise in mass deception and demagoguery designed to slip a government takeover of healthcare past a skeptical and distrustful public. All it would take to strip away the fig leaf and expose the “compromise” for the indecency it is would be for the Senate Republicans to blow the whistle. Unfortunately, enough Senate Republicans and business interests appear to be in on the construction of this Trojan RHINO and the RHINOcare it is smuggling into America that it may be difficult to stop. Make no mistake, RHINOCare is just ObamaCare in drag, and it will be a U.S. Chamber of Horrors.

Read more from Dr. Hunter on RHINOCare here. One House Republican, Rep. Joseph Cao (La.) is already leaning over the fence to the other side and count on more doing so with Pelosi’s legislative strategy. Representative Cao’s requirement to sell out to the public option – no federal funds for abortion. The rest of the bill apparently presents no problem for Rep. Cao.

Two amendments offered prior to the health care debate in both chamber of Congress by Jim Demint can derail ObamaCare. This last story is a must read to truly understand how to derail the cooperative and public options. We can then start over and do it right. Why jam co-ops down our throats until we understand and can debate the pitfalls? Make no mistake, allowing co-operative(s) opens the door to future legislation turning them into a public option. Co-operatives cannot be allowed – not now, not ever. Read Critics: Co-ops Are Disguised Public Plan

Everyone seems all excited the Blue Dogs will kill ObamaCare. While I don’t disagree, Dr. Lawrence Hunter’s approach to defeating ObamaCare tackles the real problem. It also just makes sense to attack on multiple fronts and not count of a single strategy for victory against the most offensive liberty stealing legislation debated in my lifetime. I believe Mr. Limbaugh should at least take a look at the information written about the subject. If the Republican’s stand shoulder to shoulder, the Democrats would be hard pressed to ignore the two amendments mentioned in the link above for reasons provided in that post. Again, I strongly encourage the reader to carefully read ObamaCare Can Be Stopped Dead In Its Tracks.

A great deal of articles are covering the Blue Dog angle (for an example see here), but more often than not, Blue Dog’s in the House growl but don’t bite. To rely on this strategy alone is not only dangerous, it is negligent. Who knows what pitfalls await us when the competing bills from the House and Senate make it to conference to reconcile and negotiate a single bill? The time to kill ObamaCare is now.

The current approach has created too much distrust of Congress and for good reason – the bill itself was not even read by most members and would create a hodgepodge of bureaucracies that a chaos theory expert would find impossible to follow. The time for healthcare reform will be when serious legislatures control both Chambers of Congress and the White House. I’d say somewhere around 2012. We need adults, not ego driven, maniacal robots beholden to special interests.

Obama’s true colors, now apparent to all, are not pretty. Socialist, political thug, tacit or direct approval of a citizen spy program and strong polling evidence of many voters experiencing buyers remorse. If Obama teaches us anything it is caveat emptor. Don’t look for Americans to be voting with their emotions at the expense of thinking anytime soon.

The time for games is over and it is time for this approach described to go viral. I know the National Tax-Limitation Committee is working hard to get the word out. However, unless the reader wants to see ObamaCare brought in through the backdoor with the help of five Senate Republican’s, it is time the nation woke up to the fact there are backroom deals in progress to sell out America. The final result will be ObamaCare, unless you take action.

Go viral with this. If you are concerned, contact your Senator and insist that all Senators adhere to Senator Demint amendments. After all, one was voted on unanimously and the other by a large margin of 79-14. In particular, put some serious hard pressure on the five Senators above. Let them know we are not buying what they are peddling. It is time to kill ObamaCare and start over, with the goal of real health care reform with an open process, no backroom deals, and complete transparency to the public. Send this link in an email to all your friends and have them forward it. Use the social networks. Call and email every conservative talk radio show and get the word out. Use the “Share This” button at the bottom of this post. The recess is almost over. If we don’t take action now, healthcare as we have come to know it will also be over.

The time for games is over. This “compromise” is another way of spitting in our collective faces. I, for one, have no intention of putting up with it. You?

In other news and opinion:

Co-ops: A ‘Public Option’ By Another Name

Glenn Reynolds with some excellent observation and links to add to the arsenal. We need all the weapons we can get. I hope he starts to take a serious look at co-ops. I would be interested in hearing his opinion.

Hot Air: Dem Senator: Public option is dead; Update: Sebelius video added. Not so fast Senator.

Also from Hot Air: Quotes of the day. Always a pleasure to read.

White House public option ploy: A trial balloon, not a white flag. Dirty tricks.

Time to ration health care for illegal aliens

The Public Option – Individual Mandate Two-step

Why you shouldn’t believe the “public option may be off the table” spin

Obama White Flag on Health Care is a Red Herring

Public Option: It Ain’t Over Til It’s Over

Do you trust Obama’s slum lords?

Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey in his post White flag or trial balloon? believes the fake out is immaterial. I strongly disagree. We are well on our way to a single payer system should the Senate Finance Committee convince the public that cooperatives are anything other than a pathway to a single payer system.

Is ObamaCare Constitutional?


]]> http://www.thesubstratum.com/general-politics/rhinocare-the-senate-finance-committee-puts-lipstick-on-a-pig-quit-counting-on-the-blue-dogs-and-ignoring-the-elephant-in-the-room/feed/ 7 http://www.thesubstratum.com/general-politics/obamacare-can-be-stopped-dead-in-its-tracks/ http://www.thesubstratum.com/general-politics/obamacare-can-be-stopped-dead-in-its-tracks/#comments Fri, 14 Aug 2009 20:48:07 +0000 G.J. Merits http://www.thesubstratum.com/?p=260 Update: The Nightmare That Is The Senate Finance Committee Healthcare Proposal – RINOCare Gone Wild. Are you ready for governement controlled health insurance cartels? Socialized healthcare vs. fascist healthcare, the dangerous bi-partisan compromise.

The endgame is here and the most important aspect that could kill the above linked post concerning the Senate Finance Committee healthcare bill and any other form of ObamaCare is being ignored by not only the media, but major bloggers everywhere. The only other reference I can find other than on the Social Security Institute website (see link below) is from FreedomWorks. Given that these two amendments kill any chance of reconciliation, I am at a loss to explain the complete lack of interest in this topic.

There were two amendments offered by Senator DeMint prior to the health bill conferences and debate in the Senate – a point-of-order amendment and instruction to conferees. The following is taken directly from an email Mr. Uhler received from Dr. Lawrence Hunter of the Social Security Institute that was forwarded to me and placed in the first link above. Dr. Hunter also has a very long and distinguished career and served as policy advisor to President Ronald Reagan during Reagan’s second term. He also served as a Member of the Board of Advisors for the NTLC:

During deliberations on the Senate Budget Resolution earlier this year, Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) introduced a point-of-order amendment that would require a 60-vote majority to pass “any bill, joint resolution, amendment, motion, or conference report that eliminates the ability of Americans to keep their health plan or their choice of doctor (as determined by the Congressional Budget Office).” The Senate approved the DeMint Amendment unanimously.

Subsequently, before the Senate Budget Resolution went to a Conference Committee where differences with the House Budget Resolution were to be worked out, DeMint offered a motion to instruct the Conferees not only to insist on retaining the 60-vote provision in the final Conference Report but also to widen the scope of the provision to cover any provision and so forth that decreases the number of Americans enrolled in private health insurance while increasing the number enrolled in government-managed, rationed health care. The Demint motion to instruct passed the Senate by an overwhelming vote of 79 to 14.

As a matter of congressional comity, the House ordinarily would have been expected to accede to the Senate provision since it affected Senate rules that applied only to the Senate. Remarkably, Senate Budget Committee Chairman, Kent Conrad, allowed the Demint 60-vote requirement to be removed from the Budget Resolution in Conference.

Prior to the above statements by Dr. Hunter is information of great importance:

However, with a united Republican front in the Senate, Democrats would be hard pressed to jam a bill as comprehensive and detested as ObamaCare down Americans’ throats. Current polls indicate that more people oppose ObamaCare than support it. Moreover, Senate Republicans stand on very strong procedural grounds for resisting a bum’s rush on government-run healthcare through the Reconciliation process. It would take an act of extraordinary arrogance and recklessness for the Democratic Leadership to use Reconciliation this way.

If agreed upon to be enforced, the Demint amendments would in effect kill the reconciliation process and force 60 votes to pass ObamaCare in its present form – even with the co-operative option, which is nothing more than a Trojan horse for what ultimately will become a single-payer system. Mr. Uhler has identified five Republican Senators that need to align themselves with the party and forgo their proclivity to reach across the aisle. If this story goes national and pressure is brought to bear on these five Republican’s to stand firm with their party, then it is reasonable to assume the above conclusion from Dr. Hunter to be correct. Under these circumstances I do not believe the Democrats in the Senate would have the votes to commit “an act of extraordinary arrogance and recklessness”. However, wide public knowledge of the amendments and the subsequent pressure on Senators to follow their own rules requires national exposure. The average American is completely unaware of the procedural hurdles that Senator Jim Demint placed to block the ramming of a very unpopular plan onto the American people.

One could reasonably ask themselves why the public must follow rules, where the Senate can choose to ignore them. It will focus attention on the contempt that some Senate elitists have for the public. However, to date no major conservative talk show, media outlet, or think tank has covered this tactic. Everyone is talking about Blue Dogs killing the legislation. While certainly one strategy to pursue, I personally believe Blue Dogs have a habit of growling but, at the end of the day, many of them will roll over. I prefer a multi-pronged strategy that would include the above approach outlined by Dr. Hunter. On the legislative front, what is called for is combining public pressure on the Blue Dogs in the House and placing pressure on five Senate Republican’s to stand firm with their party and not negotiate ObamaCare Lite with the cooperative option replacing nationalized health care. Instead the public should insist the Demint rules be followed. This could very well kill the bill as it exists today. We could then press the reset button and start talking about real reform.

Using Reconciliation to force feed ObamaCare to an unwilling nation would backfire in ways that Democrats will find difficult to imagine. That is the type of atmosphere some liberals, such as Chuck Schumer are willing to create now and for the foreseeable future.

Here is the link to the story on the Social Security Institute article from Dr. Hunter:

In other news and opinion:

As the Byrd Rule Flies: Why Dems Can’t Use Reconciliation to Pass Radical ObamaCare

Co-ops a federal-subsidy trough

From Moe Lane at Redstate: Howard Dean threatens primary challenges on public option ‘no’ votes.

Is ObamaCare Constitutional?

Blue Dog: Hey, maybe we should start over on ObamaCare. Won’t happen, but this can be killed in the Senate. I am still astounded nobody has picked up on this yet.

ObamaCare: Does the media matter?


]]> http://www.thesubstratum.com/general-politics/obamacare-can-be-stopped-dead-in-its-tracks/feed/ 2 http://www.thesubstratum.com/general-politics/florida-utah-may-opt-out-of-obamacare-by-asserting-states-rights-under-the-10th-amedment-ten-other-states-may-join/ http://www.thesubstratum.com/general-politics/florida-utah-may-opt-out-of-obamacare-by-asserting-states-rights-under-the-10th-amedment-ten-other-states-may-join/#comments Mon, 10 Aug 2009 02:48:10 +0000 G.J. Merits http://www.thesubstratum.com/?p=247 UPDATE 1: 9/9/2009 The Nightmare That Is The Senate Finance Committee Healthcare Proposal – RINOCare Gone Wild. Pay attention to what the Senate is doing right under our noses. It is important to understand what the Senate Finance Committee healthcare proposal means to you. Hint: it’s not good.

Update 2: Finally someone is talking about the constitutionality of ObamaCare. It is this very issue which strengthens the case made by Dr. Lawrence Hunter to use the two Jim Demint amendments and pressure five Senate Democrats on the Finance Committee to stand with their party. What Senator wants to stake their careers on a bill that may pass only to be repealed later? The real question comes down to how long can the states tie up this legislation in the courts. We only need three years. Is ObamaCare Constitutional?

Watch for more of this to come. Utah is looking into using its state constitution and the 10th Amendment protection of states rights from an encroaching federal government to opt out of ObamaCare should it pass Congress.

SALT LAKE CITY — Republican Utah lawmaker Carl Wimmer, R-Herriman, wants Utahns to have the option not to take part in a federal health care program.

He says he’s drafting a proposed amendment to Utah’s Constitution; one he believes will get overwhelming approval.

“We’re going to pass a state Constitutional amendment stating that people will not be forced by the national government to purchase health care insurance and that small businesses will not be forced to provide them,” Wimmer said.

Voters, of course, would have to pass the amendment, and it would have to get at least two-thirds majority in the Utah House and Senate. But Wimmer says it’s worth it, no matter what comes out of the Federal health care reform effort.

He says it’s a state’s rights issue and that Utah has made good progress on its own reform plans. “We don’t need help from the Federal government figuring this thing out, we know how to do it and we’re able to do it far more efficiently than they are,” he says.

Such an amendment could lead to cuts in federal funding and to lawsuits, but Wimmer says it’s time states “wean themselves” from federal dollars and that lawsuits may be the only way to “turn the tables” on the Federal government.

The course for the ObamaCare ship is in uncharted waters, while ways to defeat it are not as difficult as one might think. First, Congress needs a bill for the President to sign. In this and the prevous post I outline the process whereby this can come to pass. These are not my ideas, but come from two very distinguished gentlemen, their biographies presented in my previous post. Keep reading.

Even if passed by Congress, expect strong resistance with a slew of state’s rights movements via the 10th amendment and subsequent lawsuits. There is plenty of time to tie this legislation up in the courts. Long enough, in fact, for the opportunity to derail the legislation by repealling it in a future Congress. However, if enough states fight Obama’s attempt to sieze control and increase the powers of federal government the fissures and fault lines created by this backlash would not favor ObamaCare. What vulnerable Senator or Representative really wants to stake their careers on legislation that may pass, only to possibly be killed later, or that would create such an outcry against federal powers as to start a movement of decentralizing power back to the states? In the end, polling and passion will win the day and minds will be changed. We are living through history, and many of us are actively a part of it. As Obama has shown us, we can no longer take liberty and freedom for granted. It is the duty of every American who cherishes liberty for themselves and future generations to take to the streets and town halls, to encourage state legislatures to resist the federal governement, and to call Senators and Representatives and make their voices heard. This is a beast that can be slaughtered.

Florida is also asserting 10th Amendment State’s Rights under the U.S. Consitution (emphasis mine):

On the heels of a successful state-level resistance to the 2005 Real ID Act, activists and state legislators alike are focusing their efforts on state governments as a way to resist new federal programs.

The latest? Health Care.

In response to what some opponents see as a Congress that doesn’t represent their interests, State Legislators are looking to the nearly-forgotten American political tradition of nullification as a way to reject any potential national health care program that may be coming from Washington.

The most recent effort comes from Florida State Senator Carey Baker and State Representative Scott Plakon, who this week filed a proposed State Constitutional Amendment (HJR37) as a means to prevent Floridians from being affected by any Federal Health Care Legislation. If approved by the legislature, Florida residents could be voting on it as early as 2010.

HJR37 would deny the ability of any new law to impose demands, restrictions or penalties on health care choices on Floridians. Versions of proposed federal health care reform legislation have included insurance coverage mandates, and certain penalties on employers who fail to provide employee health insurance.

It states, in part:

(1) A law or rule shall not compel, directly or indirectly, any person, employer, or health care provider to participate in any health care system

(2) A person or employer may pay directly for lawful health care services and shall not be required to pay penalties or fines for paying directly for lawful health care services. A health care provider may accept direct payment for lawful health care services and shall not be required to pay penalties or fines for accepting direct payment from a person or employer for lawful health care services.

A similar measure, called the Health Care Freedom Act, has already passed in Arizona, and residents of that state will have the opportunity to vote on it in 2010. Sources close to the Tenth Amendment Center say that more than ten other states may see such proposals introduced in the coming session.

Of course, this may not even be necessary as outlined at the Social Security Insitute here by Dr. Larry Hunter:

While a constitutional amendment is a sound and desirable backup measure, and a powerful prophylactic against future over reach by Washington, Wimmer and his compatriots are strategically positioned to drastically reduce the chances of nationalized healthcare ever occurring in the first place. To do so, they need to prevail upon Republican U.S. Senator Bob Bennett to stop trying to negotiate a version of ObamaCare Lite with the White House and his Democratic Senate Colleagues.

Senator Bennett’s version of ObamaCare, which he has introduced with Oregon Democratic Senator Ron Wyden as The Healthy Americans Act (S. 391), is really nothing more than ObamaCare in drag—a Trojan RHINO with ObamaCare hiding inside ready to be smuggled into the country disguised as a “bipartisan compromise.” Bennett’s “solution” to the problems afflicting the healthcare system is not a conservative, market-based solution that one would expect a conservative Republican Senator to promote; it is not a plan that encourages and promotes individual self-reliance; it is RHINOCare (Republican Healthcare In Name Only) that simply wraps ObamaCare in a Republican skin and does not reflect conservative principles and values.

The bill would end the employer tax exclusion for employer-based health-insurance benefits and replace it with a combination of direct federal subsidies and individual tax deductions. In other words, it would increase people’s dependency on Washington dramatically. Mandatory insurance premiums would be collected through automatic payroll deductions from workers’ paychecks, which would be enforced by the IRS. Employers also would be required to pay into the nationalized healthcare system on a payment schedule based on number of employees, employer revenue and an average-plan premium—clearly a tax on employers to fund universal heath coverage run by the federal government.

Senator Bennett’s bill would replace the employer as the tax wedge in the health-insurance market with a direct government tax-and-subsidy wedge designed to drive the after-tax price of healthcare below market-clearing levels—it’s called price controls and it will lead inevitably to healthcare rationing. Hence, the bill would replace one poison with another: Rather than having the employer make critical decisions about what kind of healthcare is available to workers, as the current system does, government would assume a much more direct and active role in making these determinations. For example, the Wyden-Bennett plan would replace the current health system with one that is heavily regulated by the federal government. Individuals would have access only to plans permitted by the government, and they would be required by federal law to purchase such a plan.

The federal government would standardize the entire insurance market through direct mandates and regulations. The federal government would determine which health plans people could buy. The bill would establish a standard benefits package.

The bill requires all individuals to purchase government-defined health coverage without any real choice for individuals to pick a plan that best suits their needs. Senator Bennett even requires that all health insurance policies pay for abortions.

The plan would use direct government regulation to “squeeze out inefficiencies” in the system. In other words, the system would rely upon a new federal bureaucracy to implement “cost-control” measures that would ration and delay care to reduce overall healthcare spending.

Let’s call a spade a spade: Wyden-Bennett represents a form of healthcare fascism in which government and private insurance companies work hand-in-glove (an insidious “public-private partnership”) to control who spends how much, on what medical goods and services, for whom, under what circumstances and on what schedule. While the bill would leave a private-insurance façade on the system, Senator Bennett is actually proposing to turn healthcare over to the government to run, making private insurance companies and healthcare providers essentially agents of the federal government.

Dr. Hunter continues to describe why there is an important political reason for Senator Bob Bennett to stop negotiating with the White House on health care, how the Democrats could ram through a version of health care reform via the reconciliation process, and how Senator Jim DeMint offered a point-of-order amdenment (passed unanimously) and motion to instruct the Conferees (79 yeah votes) that would all but kill the reconciliation process, only to have Senate Budget Committee Chairman, Kent Conrad, ignore the 60-vote requirement and allow it to be removed from the Budget Resolution in Conference. Everyone lives by the rules, unless you’re and Senator. It is elitist and dishonest, in the least, to ignore rules while expecting the rest of us to live by them. Call your Senator and Representative and ensure they commit themselves to the rules that, in one case, all of them voted for. Read My Discussion With Lewis K. Uhler – How 5 Republican Senators May Hold The Future Of Healthcare In Their Hands.

Dr. Hunter makes an excellent point that a constitutional amendment is a sound and desirable backup measure, and a powerful prophylactic against future over-reach by Washington. Even if ObamaCare passes, it is this my belief that states around the country draft resolutions and amendments that reassert state’s rights, putting the federal governement and the Obama administration on notice to tread lightly and expect one hell of a fight if they even attempt to tip-toe on our rights. Time to put the lot of them in thier place or throw the bums out. Many inside the beltway should thank their lucky stars that tar-and-feathering are out of fashion.

Stay out of our lives.

In othe news and opinion:

A must see video that should be passed on. The Public Plan Deception – It’s Not About Choice. Three public statements advocates of single-payer health insurance explain that a health care bill with the “government monopoly option” would move America toward a single-payer government health care system. In the video Professor Jacob Hacker admits, publicly, that:

Someone once said to me this is a Trojan Horse for single-payer. Well it’s not a Trojan Horse, its just right there (audience laughter). I’m telling you, we’re going to get there, over time, slowly, but we will move away from reliance on employment based health insurance as we should, but we’ll do it in a way that we won’t frighten people into believing they are going to lose their private insurance.

Watch the entire video. Email it. It is damning to the narrative of the Obama administration and its liberal allies – it pulls aside the curtain and allows us to peak behind the stage where we find the naked emperor.

The gift that keeps on giving. Dick Durbin, who as you remember compared America to Nazi Germany opens his pie hole and ticks off another segment of the public content until now with sitting on the sidelines. He accomplishes this task, free of charge, by stating the town hall meetings are clearly orchestrated and insulting a growing segment of the American public. I mean, you can’t buy that kind of motivation, the type of motivation that awakens a growing number of us to get out and make our voices heard. If any orchestration is going on, it’s people like Dick Durban and Nancy Pelosi, and Obama who are the wind in our sails, and I thank them for that. Keep up the good work and watch as more of us join the largest movement since Civil Rights. Note to self – liberals unable to follow simple logic. The more they open their mouths and accuse people like me and you of being automatons when it is clearly their side that is orchestrating violence at the town hall meetings, clearly liberal organizations such as the SEIU that are robots at the beck and call of Obama the citizen spy master, the more of us show up, the angrier we are, the more desperate they look, and the more the poll numbers for health care plummet. Anybody home in that brain there Dick? Obama? Rahm? Nancy? Any liberal?

Please, keep talking. Don’t ever stop. It’s like free advertisement when liberal leaders decide to bloviate ad nauseum and explain how good their version of health care is for us, yet refuse to back a resolution that would require them to “enjoy” the same benefits as their own constituents. An on August 22nd, when the recess rally occurs, liberals like Dick will look like fools and skulk back under their rocks. At that time, only a few brain dead liberals will buy the already lifeless meme of orchestrated resistance when they see millions of people taking to the streets. Ahhh, I love the smell of crybabies in the morning.

The Washington Times agrees, the polling data does not back up the protesters are scripted. Drooping polls undercut scripted protest claims

CRITICAL: White House continues spy campaign: White House Launches Health Tattle-Tale Site on another .gov website. The site is here. Don’t forget to turn yourself in by using the contact section of the page. Ask them to address this video. Amazing how many lies these people will attempt to propagate in a vain attempt to spread the meme of “ObamaCare” is good for you. Watch this one backfire and the polls to drop even lower. Perchance the older site was inundated with millions of emails? Let’s do it again. Melt the phone (202-501-0282) and email of Lee Ellis (lee.ellis@gsa.gov), policy administrator of the GSA Federal Acquisition Service which assign .Gov domains and creates the guidelines for the use of .Gov domains. Be courteous.

More protests in Austin. Some protests in Massachusetts. Did I just read that?

Death panels? What death panels? Oh, those death panels

Rep. Tsongas tries to explain why Congress is exempt from Obamacare. Fails.

“Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American.”

Tsongas (D-MA): I won’t take ObamaCare because I have better options. Wow, the truth from a Democrat!? Quick, somebody turn her in to flag@whitehouse.gov. She’s spreading disinformation! It’s fishy I tell you!

It appears as if Obama’s coattails have become an anchor. Net approval for Dem Senators declining twice as fast as GOP counterparts

Dems Continue “Listening Tour”– Fists, Boots, Bullhorns, Stomping Heads, Smashing Faces, Assaults Included. I can’t wait for the 22nd. A little camera off in the background to document a few things, some thug(s) about to commit an act of stupidity their tiny brains can’t begin to comprehend, and then me. By the time I am done defending myself, said thug(s) will be spending so much time in the hospital they’ll name a wing after them. It will be called the Stupidity Wing – fully paid for by the SEIU.


]]> http://www.thesubstratum.com/general-politics/florida-utah-may-opt-out-of-obamacare-by-asserting-states-rights-under-the-10th-amedment-ten-other-states-may-join/feed/ 10 http://www.thesubstratum.com/general-politics/my-discussion-with-lewis-k-uhler-how-5-republican-senators-hold-the-future-of-healthcare-in-their-hands/ http://www.thesubstratum.com/general-politics/my-discussion-with-lewis-k-uhler-how-5-republican-senators-hold-the-future-of-healthcare-in-their-hands/#comments Fri, 07 Aug 2009 19:51:25 +0000 G.J. Merits http://www.thesubstratum.com/?p=245 I just got off the phone with Lewis K. Uhler, Founder and President of the National Tax-Limitation Committee (NTLC). Mr Uhler’s career is long and distinguished:

Lew Uhler is founder and President of the National Tax Limitation Committee, one of the Nation’s leading grass roots taxpayer lobbies.

With offices in the Sacramento Area (Roseville) and Washington, DC, NTLC works with the White House, Members of Congress, legislators in states across the Nation and grassroots organizations to limit state and federal spending through legal restrictions and constitutional change. Uhler has been at the forefront of the national movements for a Tax Limitation/Balanced Budget Amendment to the United States Constitution and for term limits.

In 1968, then-Governor Ronald Reagan selected Uhler to serve on the California Law Revision Commission. In 1970, Reagan designated Uhler as the Governor’s State Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity. Subsequently, Uhler served in Reagan’s cabinet as Assistant Secretary of the Health & Welfare Agency. In 1972, Governor Reagan asked Uhler to organize and serve as Chairman of the Governor’s Tax Reduction Task Force. With the assistance of a nationwide panel of advisors (including Nobel Laureates Milton Friedman and James Buchanan), the task force developed California’s landmark Revenue Control and Limitation Act, which became a model for tax-expenditure limitation measures in many states.

About three hours prior to my speaking with Mr. Uhler, I talked with him briefly during an American Liberty Alliance teleconference, where strategies for defeating ObamaCare were discussed at length. However, it was something Mr. Uhler said that caught my attention. After the teleconference, I called the NTLC to get additional clarification of what Mr. Uhler discussed. Three hours later, my cell phone rang and I found myself talking to man who used to know and work for Ronald Reagan. A rush to say the least.

When all was said and done, Mr. Uhler decided to send me an email from Lawrence Hunter, PhD of the Social Security Institute. Dr. Hunter also has a distinguished career, and served on the White House staff as a policy advisor to the president during Ronald Reagan’s second term. The email is titled: Building the Case Against Moving Healthcare Reform under Reconciliation in the Senate. I encourage readers to read the blog entry referenced at the beginning of the email which follows (emphasis mine):

I just posted a new blog (“Utah Op Out” — http://socialsecurityinstitute.com/blog_post/show/200) explaining why the Wyden-Bennett healthcare reform bill is another Trojan RHINO in which ObamaCare will be smuggled into the United States as a “bipartisan compromise.” I wrote the blog not only to alert people to the fatally flawed nature of Senator Bennett’s bill but also to emphasize how important it is for the Senate Republicans to maintain a united front in opposition to ObamaCare. Many Republicans are of the opinion that there is nothing that can be done to stop ObamaCare in the Senate because the Democrats will ram a bill through under Reconciliation. Therefore, their reasoning goes, it is better to negotiate a less-bad bill than get stiffed with a horrible bill. I do not believe the situation warrants this pessimism and defeatist attitude. If Republicans remain united in opposition to ObamaCare in all its variants and play it smart in the Senate, I believe the procedural situation can be played to make it very difficult for Democrats to ram a bill through under Reconciliation. Here is the last part of that blog, which addresses the procedural situation in the Senate. I urge all of you to rally behind the argument that the Senate already has TWICE adopted a 60-vote rule on healthcare committing the Senate NOT to pass ObamaCare under Reconciliation. Were it not for an extraordinary act by the Budget Committee Chairman that runs contrary to Senate tradition, custom and norms, Reconciliation would not even be a theoretical possibility now. The integrity of the Senate still means something to enough Democrats that if we play it right, I believe we can dissuade them from moving this bill under Reconciliation. It is certainly worth the fight.

. . .Beyond the fatally flawed nature of Senator Bennett’s bill, there is an important political reason for him to stop negotiating with the White House on healthcare. A united Republican front is required in the Senate to stop the Democrats from ramming ObamaCare through the Congress by a razor thin majority. True, a united Republican front in the U.S. Senate may not be sufficient to head nationalized healthcare off at the pass. Senate Democrats could ram it down the nation’s throat through a special provision called Reconciliation, which short circuits the Senate’s super-majority rules that ordinarily protect an intense minority from being run rough shod over by a bare majority. Under Reconciliation, which drastically limits debate and amendment opportunities, a mere 51 votes is all that is required to pass legislation. Ordinarily, 60 votes are required to cut off debate before bringing a measure to a vote.

However, with a united Republican front in the Senate, Democrats would be hard pressed to jam a bill as comprehensive and detested as ObamaCare down Americans’ throats. Current polls indicate that more people oppose ObamaCare than support it. Moreover, Senate Republicans stand on very strong procedural grounds for resisting a bum’s rush on government-run healthcare through the Reconciliation process. It would take an act of extraordinary arrogance and recklessness for the Democratic Leadership to use Reconciliation this way.

During deliberations on the Senate Budget Resolution earlier this year, Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) introduced a point-of-order amendment that would require a 60-vote majority to pass “any bill, joint resolution, amendment, motion, or conference report that eliminates the ability of Americans to keep their health plan or their choice of doctor (as determined by the Congressional Budget Office).” The Senate approved the DeMint Amendment unanimously.

Subsequently, before the Senate Budget Resolution went to a Conference Committee where differences with the House Budget Resolution were to be worked out, DeMint offered a motion to instruct the Conferees not only to insist on retaining the 60-vote provision in the final Conference Report but also to widen the scope of the provision to cover any provision and so forth that decreases the number of Americans enrolled in private health insurance while increasing the number enrolled in government-managed, rationed health care. The DeMint motion to instruct passed the Senate by an overwhelming vote of 79 to 14.

As a matter of congressional comity, the House ordinarily would have been expected to accede to the Senate provision since it affected Senate rules that applied only to the Senate. Remarkably, Senate Budget Committee Chairman, Kent Conrad, allowed the DeMint 60-vote requirement to be removed from the Budget Resolution in Conference.

It is time to bring some sanity to the healthcare debate. Let’s hit the reset button. There is no emergency and no necessity to pass health legislation this year. Senate Republicans must form a united front to insist that the Senate abide by the 60-vote rule it passed twice in recent months requiring that it not pass major health reform under Reconciliation. They owe it to the Senate in which they serve; they owe it to the American people whom they represent.

There are five Republican Senators in particular with a proclivity to reach across the aisle. Doing so in this case will result in usurping the will of the people of the United States and selling us out. The cooperative option being floated by the Senate Finance Committee is nothing more than the public option in disguise. The concern is that protesters are concentrated on Democrat Representatives and Senators, while it is quite possible that five Republican Senators hold the future of American health care in their hands.

From the Limit Taxes website:

Obama Care is on the ropes. It is fatally defective and must be killed. Later we can start over on the right track. There is no way we can fix Obama Care and should not be negotiating to do so.

Blue Dog Democrats know how bad Obama Care is, but the political pressure on them is enormous. They are hoping a few senate Republicans, who are currently negotiating with Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, will come up with a compromise that will give them the cover to vote for a House Bill.

For the future of our nation it is essential that Obama Care self destruct. What better way than to have the Blue Dogs and other Democrats kill it themselves. So it is vital that you contact the following well intended Republican Senators and ask them to stop negotiating and to do everything possible to defeat Obama Care in the Senate!

To find out more about the identity of these five Republican Senators, which state they represent, and how to contact them, see here. Don’t forget to attend any town hall meetings called by any of these five Senators and tell them to just say no to cooperatives and health care reform as currently envisioned by the liberal spectrum of the Democrat party. Shock them by insisting they demand adherence to the 60-vote rules passed by Senate members regarding health care reform. Nothing like an informed citizenry. Be polite but assertive. I know the passion is high, but I believe these five Senators can be reasoned with. I doubt any Senator will ultimately want to stand against two amendments voted on unanimously in one case and overwhelmingly in another. The image projected to the public that we should follow the rules while the Senate can choose to ignore them would be like setting off a hydrogen bomb – imagine the backlash. Combine that with 10th amendment challenges already planned in two states and possibly followed up by ten additional states (see the update below) and it is quite possible the legislation would not survive a 10th amendment challenge, or that in 2010 or 2012 the entire legislation could be watered down procedurally or repealed altogether. With no real guarantee that ObamaCare will pass or survive passage in Congress, why risk a political future to begin with?

Also, don’t forget the August 25th Recess Rally. Go to the link and check your state for more information.

Of course, it won’t hurt to ensure that all Democrat and Republican Senators insist on the 60-vote rule they passed twice.

Pass this information on – use the Share This button at the bottom of this post. You can email the story to your friends and have them pass it on. You can also use social networks to get the word out. And don’t forget there are still a lot of Democratic Senators and Representatives who need to hear from you. I know it sounds like a great deal of work, but ask yourself – are your freedoms worth it? If you start to feel overwhelmed, just remember the countless souls who died so the greatest country this world has known could exist and thrive. Stop Obama now.

Update: Follow up on this story: Florida, Utah May Opt Out Of ObamaCare By Asserting State’s Rights Under The 10th Amedment. Ten Other States May Join.

In other news and opinion:

Culture of Corruption: Dodd/Conrad cleared in Countrywide probe

Sebelius calls her SEIU “brothers and sisters” to battle; Dennis Rivera decries “terrorist tactics”

SEIU’s new attack video on “Teabaggers”. If you can believe this, the SEIU, in a definite show of their complete lack of intelligence, actually use video of their members committing acts of violence by kicking some poor soul as he lays on the ground. I guess they hope the viewers will believe it is the evil teabaggers. I know hamsters with more brain power than this. While I never had any fear of these bozos before, I can now honestly say they are about the stupidest bunch I’ve ever witnessed.

Mel Martinez’s strange resignation

An Open Letter To The President

Why ObamaCare goons do not help ObamaCare

Grassley: Town halls could force senators to start over on healthcare. I say, it’s time to start over and do this right. No more rushing bills through Congress that nobody has read. Let’s get a bill that addresses the issues that need attention but leaves the fundamentals in place for the free-market, innovation driven system we have today. If we are to have competition to drive down costs, let it be among private insurers and leave the governments and cooperatives out. The cooperative approach is nothing less more than a Trojan horse for what will one day force a single payer system upon us. No more ObamaCare. It’s time for AmericaCare. Hit the reset button.

Is ObamaCare Constitutional?


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