Text 6076, 93 rader
Skriven 2010-03-23 07:08:56 av Bob Ackley (1:300/3)
   Kommentar till text 6039 av Robert LaPrise (1:282/1055)
Ärende: Healthcare
==================
Replying to a message of Robert LaPrise to Ward Dossche:

 WD>> The real issue, universal healthcare, was not at stake.
 WD>> This was merely preparing the election of November and the
 WD>> ones of 2012.

 WD>> Shame on you to all who reject something as beneficial.

 RL> Where exactly in the Constitution does it give the Federal
 RL> Government the power to require me by law to purchase
 RL> health insurance or be fined?

No place.  According to the Constitution the congress is permitted to pass
legislation in seventeen specific areas.  Health care and education are not
included in those areas (nor, FTM, are national parks and a bunch of other
areas
the national government is involved in).  According to the Constitution those
powers not specifically granted to the national government are reserved to the
states or to the people.

The Constitution also does *not* give the power to the executive to issue
'executive orders' binding on the states or the people.  'Executive orders' are
a creation of the congress in emergency legislation passed to deal with the
Depression back in about 1933.

Nor, incidentally, does the Constitution give the executive branch the power to
write regulations that have the force of law (except when those regulations
deal
solely with executive branch functions, such as military regulations).  Another
thing
the Constitution does not provide for is 'administrative law judges,' which are
executive branch flunkies charged with giving the government whatever it wants
WRT enforcement
of those unConstitutional regulations.

The Constitution also requires that people receive a jury trial.  You don't get
a jury
in tax court.  Regardless of the amount of money at risk, in tax court the
defendant
is not authorized to get a jury trial (the reason for this, of course, is that
the IRS
lost most of its cases that went to juries).

 RL> This is not car insurance where if I choose not to own a car
 RL> I don't have to have insurance but if I DO choose to buy
 RL> and operate a motor vehicle I can be required by STATE law
 RL> to purchase insurance.

 RL> Who exactly does this benefit? Big government?

 RL> This is not Constitutional which is a complaint many of us
 RL> have (66% of people polled last I saw) and has nothing to
 RL> do with party affiliation or politics. We've seen the
 RL> disaster that Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are,
 RL> many of us do not want yet ANOTHER government run, tax
 RL> payer funded "reform". Unlike Social Security, Medicare,
 RL> and Medicaid (which were all overstepping the boundaries of
 RL> the Federal Governments powers as established in the
 RL> Constitution) we still have the power to prevent this.

 RL> "We the people" is how the Constitution begins, not "We the
 RL> legislators" not "We the Congress" not "Me the President".
 RL> But what "We the people" apparently want doesn't mean
 RL> anything to anyone in the current Administration (as if it
 RL> has meant anything to any recent Administration for
 RL> decades). We already have representatives on record (who
 RL> voted for this) stating they voted their conscience (as if
 RL> they have one) not the desires of their constituents who
 RL> elected them and pay their salaries.

 RL> And you say "Shame on us"?

Actually he's right, but not for the reason stated.  Shame on us for allowing
the political situation in this country to deteriorate to the level that it
has.
Most of the American people are blissfully unaware of what their elected
officials are up to, and most of them don't care enough to remedy the
situation.
Over half of the American people don't bother to register to vote, and of those
who do register, only about half bother to show up at the polls on election
day.

 RL> Too bad they don't teach Constitutional Law as a mandatory
 RL> subject for US citizens from H.S. up, maybe some of the
 RL> people so in love with this bill would realize how wrong it
 RL> really is.

Note that several of the folks posting in this echo are not US citizens
and do not reside in the US.  That said, most of them seem to have a
better handle on the US Constitution than many if not most US citizens do.

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 * Origin: Bob's Boneyard, Emerson, Iowa (1:300/3)