Posted on 08/25/2013 2:46:51 PM PDT by Veritas_et_libertas
Freedom and popular government in Britain and America became possible because over the course of many years the English House of Commons, and later the American colonial legislatures, were willing to exert the power of the purse to discipline an overreaching executive.
In Britain, the House of Commons—Parliament’s lower chamber—sometimes defunded the executive in order to curb it. The House was willing do this despite threats from the Crown and “bad press” from the English establishment. In America, the colonial assemblies were willing to defund the king’s governors to check their power.
Freedom likely would have been impossible without the constancy of the “people’s houses,” led by great parliamentary leaders like Edward Coke in England and Patrick Henry in America.
The U.S. House of Representatives is the direct descendant of the House of Commons and of the colonial assemblies. Like them, it enjoys power to defund government programs. Yes, the Senate has to approve financial bills. But those bills have to originate in the House, and nothing forces the House to send to the Senate a money bill for a program the House doesn’t want.
Today’s headline says that although the Republicans control the House of Representatives, there still are not enough votes to defund Obamacare.
*snip*
If these pusillanimous politicos were in charge during critical moments in the 17th and 18th centuries, no doubt America would never have been free, and we’d all be slaves of the British Crown today.
(Excerpt) Read more at constitution.i2i.org ...
* Obamacare’s massive new bureaucracy is a classic case of executive branch overreach;
* its central promises turn out to be false—health care premiums are going up, not down; and people are losing the insurance coverage the President promised they could keep;
* the President himself says he is forced to suspend part of it;
* a clear majority of the American people want it to go away;
* most members of the House of Representatives say they want Obamacare to go away;
* those Representatives have the power of the purse; but
* they still “can’t” defund it?
Just whom do they think they are kidding?
Any congress critter that says they can’t defund this nightmare is a bald faced LIAR.
GOP is SCARED TO DEATH of the inevitable race riots that will ensue. They’d rather suffer a slow, certain disaster that an uncertain crisis that the “media” will blame on the racist conservatives that our military think are the extremists.
As for the government being shut down, that will never happen under Obama regardless of how Congress votes. For the last three months, our government has exceeded it's legal capacity to borrow, yet they continue unabated. The rule of law means nothing. So why give sanction to this Administration's illegal action?
Repubs differ from Dems only is method... they believe their plan is better than the Dems plan, they don’t disagree in agenda.
Look at their last candidate, Romney. Look at their actions now, refusing to defund. Look at how they did not complain about Obama’s usurpation when he by decree delayed implementation of the law for certain classes of persons, and how Boehner one-ups Obama by passing legislation to delay implementation for remaining classes of persons.
Look at Amnesty. The Repubs reject the massive bill promoted by Dems, and in stead promote several smaller bills, together having the same end as the Dem bill. The RNC stated policy is Amnesty.
The ruling Democrat-Republican Party has got to go.
“GOP is SCARED TO DEATH of the inevitable race riots that will ensue. “
No, the GOP is serving their real masters. Wall Street and the large multi national corporations want to eliminate the cost of health care from employee benefits by offloading it to the government. Congress did not have the courage to transition directly to a federal government managed single payer system. Obamacare was designed as the intermediate step. Once it is completely implemented, and the people complain, Congress plans to solve the problem by moving to a government run single payer system. At that time employer paid health insurance will end.
The Dems will get another huge entitlement program for its low information constituents plus a huge bureaucracy to employ more Dem voting government workers. The corporate fatcats who fund the RNC will enjoy billions of dollars in additional profits by offloading medical costs on the government. The middle class will assume the cost of funding the single payer system through higher taxes.
The Republican Party is demonstrating everyday it is not aligned with conservative voters or the middle class.
They ‘can’t’ de-fund it because they have been convinced that de-funding it would lose them the Hispanic and black votes.... votes they will NEVER get in a million years.
Yes, there are some critters in congress who think a bird in the bush is better than a bird in hand.
Mid-terms are coming up, best not to make waves to some of these congress people...
“The Dems will get another huge entitlement program for its low information constituents plus a huge bureaucracy to employ more Dem voting government workers. The corporate fatcats who fund the RNC will enjoy billions of dollars in additional profits by offloading medical costs on the government. The middle class will assume the cost of funding the single payer system through higher taxes.”
Well said.
I would add that both the gop and ‘rat wing of the uniparty will get a source of graft - waivers won’t be cheap - as well as access to all that personal data. Nice to have when you want to do opposition research on your opponent, don’t you think?
Whatever happened to the doctrine that laws passed by a sitting Congress can’t obligate a future Congress?
I know of no such limitation. The Clinton semiauto and normal cap magazine ban lasted 10 years until it sunset.
But there is that pesky Article 1. Section 9, Para 7 thingy. Appropriations can only be made in accordance with law. People do not work for free very long. Obamacare may be stillborn, but the IRS will still collect the penalty (I meant tax) until it is abolished.
OK, let’s put our thinking caps on and look at the likely outcome of the strategy to defund Obamacare.
Congress ( the lower house ) votes to DEFUND Obamacare (the GOp has a significant majority in the house ).
What happens next when it reaches the Senate?
The US Congress supports al Qaeda,
ignores the Constitution,
imposes “Laws” for peons and not itself,
waives ObamaCARE/RomneyCARE/DeathCARE for itself
its staff and its mistresses,
as it remains drunk, whoring, and cashing in its endless payoffs.
This will probably not end well.
I’d like to see the following put into legislative language:
1) Except for the provisions of the so-called “Affordable Care Act”, all previous line-items in the previous budget are to be continued in the manner typically found in a continuing budget resolution.
2) No funding requirements in the aforementioned “Affordable Care Act” are to be fulfilled unless *all* measures in that act are put into place in time schedule specified in that act
3) No government subsidies for easing the financial burden of that act shall be granted to any individuals (congress members, executive branch members, congressional staff, etc) nor to any organizations (unions, favored businesses, etc) that are not equally available to the general citizenry.
The House should pass that continuing resolution, clear out of town, and leave no forwarding address. Let the Senate and President decide if they want to put the whole Obamacare fiasco into effect impartially, or if they want to shut down the government.
Thinking cap? It isn’t exactly rocket science. Senate either passes the same bill killing Obamacare or refuses to go along. If they sign on, Obama faces the same choice. Whoever refuses to sign onto the budget passed by the house,, causes the government to shut down.
Government gets no money until Obamacare is repealed. Not a damned dime.
Whats the alternative? The Boehner solution of a few trivial fixes to obamacare and then letting it go live in january?
they don’t care they have jobs for life we don’t
The House should send an actual budget, with no funding for obamacare, to the Senate. Let Harry Reid kill it. And if he sends it back with changes simply tell him to “Send it to Rove because we ain’t interested”.
I believe obama when he says there are republicans who 0agree with him but are afraid of not being re-elected. It’s probably boner.
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