Free Republic

Florida GOP Wants Voters to Reject Obama Health Care Law By Michael Peltier The News Service of Florida Florida voters will be asked in November to defy federal attempts to require Florida residents to carry health insurance under a proposed constitutional amendment that cleared its last legislative hurdle Thursday. In separate actions and following debate in both chambers, the House and Senate approved HJR 37, a joint resolution meant to nullify recent federal health care reforms if approved by voters in November, though opponents question whether the proposal will stand up in the courts. The House vote was 75-42. The...

AP reports that “4 million Americans — the vast majority of them middle class — will have to pay the new penalty for not getting health insurance when President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul law kicks in, according to congressional estimates released Thursday. The penalties will average a little more than $1,000 apiece in 2016, the Congressional Budget Office said in a report.” Penalties will be phased in from 2014. By 2016, the fine will be $695 or 2.5% of household income, whichever is greater. More than a dozen states are challenging the individual mandate in federal court as unconstitutional.

Thomas Jefferson and James Madison both warned us that if the federal government ever became the sole and exclusive arbiter of the extent of its own powers – that power would endlessly grow…regardless of elections, separation of powers, courts, or other vaunted parts of our system. Question – What do we do about it? The Federal Health Care Nullification Act. This Act is not over 1000 pages. It’s not 500 pages. It’s not a dozen, or even two. It’s one single page to nullify now. Here’s a majority of what it says: The Legislature of the State of _______________ declares...

Beware of Greeks bearing gifts, Homer teaches us, something every school child used to know. Beware of politicians and expert educators bearing standards, the last seventy years or more of Progressive education should have taught us. But we are slow to learn.

Power is always shifting and with the coming Republican majority (I hope) perhaps we should remind those on the left that if the Constitution and the Interstate Commerce Clause gives a Democratic Majority the power to mandate everyone buy health insurance, then it also provides a Republican majority the authority to madate everyone puchase at least one handgun, one SUV and one Hank Williams Jr. CD.... luckily they will all be made available at the annual madated Nascar Race we will each required to attend.

Which is greater, unfunded federal mandates on the states or the money that states receive? The argument has been in the past that if the mandates aren't paid for by the states, then they won't get the federal funds for other things. Which is greater? It seems to me that if the mandates are greater than the goodies received, then there is no motive to participate. Not participating in the unfunded mandates, despite losing other federal funds, would be a net win for the state. Anyone know? Also (not sure how accurate this is)... just heard last night that the...

Under this act, any new legislation that proposes a mandate on state and local governments estimated to cost more than $50 million dollars must have a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate and provide the funding to pay for the mandates. How many states are going to have to deal with unfunded mandates that far exceed $50 million dollars and into the tens of billions of dollars each year and pertain to a host of services that will have to be funded by the federal gov't under ObamaCare? If the unfunded mandates are funded, that would skyrocket the actual cost of...

The DNC has a new Web vid out mocking Mitt Romney’s increasingly contorted positions on the individual mandate. As you know, he backs it on the state level as rooted in conservative principles (a la Romneycare), but he’s been warning that implementing it on the Federal level (a la Obamacare) constitutes a frightening abuse of power that conservatives everywhere should resist. But, unless I’m missing something, the DNC appears to have unearthed video of Romney, during the 2008 GOP presidential primary, coming very close to endorsing the Federal mandate. The key bit comes at around 45 seconds in...

No matter what you think about the legislative maneuvers to get ObamaCare passed, you have to hand it to New York's representatives: At least they didn't engage in "Cornhusker Kickback" deals to get their constituents to bite on expanded Medicaid costs. But New York taxpayers need to watch out: As things stand now, they're set to be blindsided by a Medicaid fiscal hand grenade on a five-year fuse. Helping the state avoid the coming nightmare is the clear duty of New York's senior senator, Chuck Schumer -- one of the top Democrats in the Senate. You see, the Senate this...

The Vote: Conned by the promise of an ephemeral executive order, the last holdouts cave and ObamaCare advances. It doesn't add a single doctor or hospital room, but needs 17,000 new IRS agents to enforce it. Congressman Bart Stupak, D-Mich., spent months spelling out in minute detail how the Senate version of the health care overhaul permitted federal funding of abortion through its failure to expressly prohibit it. In the end, he cashed in his principles for an unenforceable executive order that is trumped by the Senate bill he voted to pass. An executive order is not the law of...

States' Rights: Idaho requires its attorney general to sue the feds if ObamaCare passes while Virginia, the cradle of liberty, heads the line of states in front of the federal courtroom. Somewhere Patrick Henry is smiling. As the second coming of King George III seeks to impose the leftist mandate of national health insurance on the unwilling American people, the states are once again in revolt. This time they're unwilling to be the colonies of an imperial federal government determined to spend and tax us into bankruptcy while treating the Constitution as if it were bird cage liner. Is this...

No three letters strike fear in the hearts of Americans that I-R-S. According to a new report by the GOP members of the House Ways and Means committee, If the Senate Obamacare bill gets passed by the house, the IRS is going to gets a lot more intimidating because it is going to get a slew of new responsibilities. They will be sort of like Barack Obama's not so secret health insurance police. “If the Democrats’ health care bill becomes law, the IRS could have to hire more than 16,000 additional agents, auditors and other workers just to enforce all...

Most health-care discussions are like something out of Alice in Wonder land. The biggest complaint about the medical care is "it costs too much." Yet one looks in vain for anything in the pending legislation that will lower the costs. One of the biggest reasons for higher medical costs is that somebody else is paying those costs, whether an insurance company or the government. What's the politicians' answer? To have more costs paid by insurance companies and the government. Back when the "single payer" was the patient, people were more selective about what they spent their money on. You went...

If you read the fine print in the Congressional plans, you'll find that a lot of cherished aspects of the current system would disappear. NEW YORK (Fortune) -- In promoting his health-care agenda, President Obama has repeatedly reassured Americans that they can keep their existing health plans -- and that the benefits and access they prize will be enhanced through reform. A close reading of the two main bills, one backed by Democrats in the House and the other issued by Sen. Edward Kennedy's Health committee, contradict the President's assurances. To be sure, it isn't easy to comb through their...

Self-Evident Truths: Sen. Dianne Feinstein says it comes under the Commerce Clause. Rep. Steny Hoyer says it's mandated by the "general welfare" clause. Despite liberal wishes, health care is not a right. The "living Constitution" that Democrats and their court appointees have given us may be the death of our freedoms. Their constitution adapts to the times and serves the whims of the elitists. The Constitution is supposed to limit government powers. It does not allow government to do anything it feels like doing. Cass Sunstein, the head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, is the author of...

Keith Olbermann ended his broadcast tonight with one of his Murrowesque reports from the health care battlefield. He acknowledges, however, there has been no war as he desperately quotes Churchill in his opening of a promised special commentary on health care reform: "Our loyal, brave people ... should know the truth. ... they should know that we have sustained a defeat without a war." Oh the drama. Given the choice of this "perversion of health care reform" or jail, Olbie chooses jail. After railing for a few minutes over the moderates in the Democratic party, Republicans, bipartisanship and a bizarre...

Failure to buy health insurance in the just-passed health care bill could get you five years in jail with a $250,000 fine. How can violating a law that's unconstitutional be a felony, asks Investor's Business Daily (IBD)? The passage last Saturday night of the House health care measure by a fragile 220-215 margin may well prove to be a Pyrrhic victory. In polls, townhall meetings and tea parties, Americans have shown they don't want a "reform" that costs a staggering $1.2 trillion yet fails to meet the left's desire of insuring all the uninsured. And they certainly don't want a...

Health Care Reform: Failure to buy health insurance in the just-passed health care bill could get you five years in jail with a $250,000 fine. How can violating a law that's unconstitutional be a felony? The passage last Saturday night of the House health care measure by a fragile 220-215 margin may well prove to be a Pyrrhic victory. In polls, townhall meetings and tea parties, Americans have shown they don't want a "reform" that costs a staggering $1.2 trillion yet fails to meet the left's desire of insuring all the uninsured. And they certainly don't want a bill that...

Weary of news stories that legislative support for health-care reform is all but dead, Democratic leaders have been seizing every handy podium to declare that "the votes are almost there," "there is 90 percent agreement" on a proposal, "we are now prepared to move forward" and so on. In fact, even among Dems, there's nothing close to agreement on the major issues that have held up reform so far. Here's a primer on where the gaps between Democrats are wide: Individual Mandate: This should've been low-hanging fruit. Democrats agreed on a mandate early in the process. But it became increasingly...

Health Reform: House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer says it's constitutional to mandate insurance coverage. Congress, he insists, has "broad authority" to make us buy things to provide for the "general welfare." Democrats' Alice In Wonderland interpretation of what they consider to be a "living Constitution," where words mean what they say they mean based on political considerations, gets more bizarre by the minute. (snip) We've been down this road before. In 1994, Hillary Clinton's secretive health care task force was trying to nationalize health care. "A mandate requiring all individuals to purchase health insurance would be an unprecedented form of...