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 What Senator wants to stake their careers on a bill that may pass only to be repealed later?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.

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?