Unpopular, Unconstitutional & Illegitimate

Thomas Jefferson: "The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government..."

Our government only has legitimacy to the extent that it submits to the will of the people...and to the extent that it protects the minority from oppression the by the majority by defending the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

The Democrats' health care legislation is an affront to our Constitution. The "individual mandate" included in the Democrats' bill forces Americans to purchase government-approved health insurance policies as a condition of lawful residence in the United States. There is no precedent for this requirement, and there is no provision within the Constitution that gives Congress the authority to impose this kind of mandate.

If we allow Congress to impose the individual mandate, to micromanage the health care industry and to imprison those who refuse to comply with the Democrats' schemes, there will no longer be any limit to what the Federal Government can force us to do.

Not surprisingly, the oppressive health care takeover agenda is almost as unpopular as it is unconstitutional. In one of the most recent polls, voters indicated a growing margin disapproval of the health care overhaul passed by the House of Representatives (51% disapprove, 35% approve).

Question: If a piece of legislation is unconstitutional and unpopular, on what basis is it legitimate?

Follow up question: If a piece of legislation is illegitimate, why should we comply with it?

Update:

Rasmussen: Support for ObamaCare support plunges to a new low (38% support, 56% oppose).

Health Care Pain? Government IS The Problem

Innovative people can always find a solution. The government can always find a way to interfere. Here's a perfect example from the New York Post:

The state is trying to shut down a New York City doctor's ambitious plan to treat uninsured patients for around $1,000 a year.

Dr. John Muney offers his patients everything from mammograms to mole removal at his AMG Medical Group clinics, which operate in all five boroughs.

"I'm trying to help uninsured people here," he said.

His patients agree to pay $79 a month for a year in return for unlimited office visits with a $10 co-pay.

Great idea! The patients were happy, the doctor was happy, everybody was happy, but...

[His] plan landed him in the crosshairs of the state Insurance Department, which ordered him to drop his fixed-rate plan - which it claims is equivalent to an insurance policy.

Muney insists it is not insurance because it doesn't cover anything that he can't do in his offices, like complicated surgery. He points out his offices do not operate 24/7 so they can't function like emergency rooms.

"I'm not doing an insurance business," he said. "I'm just providing my services at my place during certain hours."

He says he can afford to charge such a small amount because he doesn't have to process mountains of paperwork and spend hours on billing.

"If they leave me alone, I can serve thousands of patients," he said.

The state believes his plan runs afoul of the law because it promises to cover unplanned procedures - like treating a sudden ear infection - under a fixed rate. That's something only a licensed insurance company can do.

"The law is strict on how insurance is defined," said an Insurance Department spokesman.

A possible solution that Muney's lawyer crafted would force patients to pay more than $10 for unplanned procedures.

They are waiting to see if the state will accept the compromise. Still, Muney is unhappy because, he said, "I really don't want to charge more. They're forcing me."

Comments via State of (In)Dependence: "It's time that people see government for what it is—a leviathan that would rather take complete control of everything rather than fix anything. Just ask Dr. Muney's patients."

Fox News provided an update on the story (Insurance Industry Wins, Low-Cost Doctor Raises Fees):

The state Insurance Department told Dr. John Muney last month to end the $79-a-month medical service at his AMG Medical Group clinics in all five boroughs. Department spokesman Andy Mais says Muney was violating state law by basically operating as an insurance operator without a license.

The monthly fee buys unlimited office visits, including certain tests and in-office surgeries.

Muney will charge $33 per visit for all but preventive care, which Mais says brings him in compliance. Muney's spokesman says he'll challenge the restrictions through legislation.

Government interference exemplified by Dr. Muney's story is exactly why we have so many problems with health care in this country. Here are some additional painful examples:

• “Community Rating” laws, which limit insurers’ ability to charge different prices to different customers, raise prices by 20.3% for individual policies and 27.3% for family policies

• Mandated benefits raise the expected price of an individual policy by approximately 0.4% per mandate. For family policies the increase is approximately 0.5% per mandate. The typical state has about 20 mandates (with a range from 6 to 48) so a reduction from 20 to 10 mandates would imply a 4% decrease in price for individual policies, and a 5% decrease for family policies.

• “Any-Willing-Provider” laws, which limit insurers’ ability to exclude hospitals and doctors from their networks, raise prices by 1.5% for individual policies and 5.3% for family policies.

• Federal law places limits on the discounts employers and insurance companies can provide for healthy, cost-saving behaviors.

• Twelve million Americans go without health insurance because the Federal Government does not allow people to purchase insurance across state lines.

One blogger sums up this sad state of affairs very well: "Let it not be said that the problems in our healthcare system are the result of free markets. We have not had free markets for a very long time."

More

We Need a National Market for Health Insurance.

Obama and the Perfect Political Storm. It's hard to sell change voters don't think they need.

Perfect Example of The Health Care Problem

The uninsured: A bogus excuse for trillions in new welfare spending

Obama’s Threat to Bypass Republicans on Health May Be ‘No Win’

40 Compelling Reasons to Support Conservatism

These are the reasons I am a conservative:

• All men are created equal.  They are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights including Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
  
• Once liberty is lost, it is rarely recovered.
  
• Private property and liberty are inseparable.
  
• The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. 
  
• The principal responsibility of the government is to the citizen. Otherwise, the government ceases to be legitimate.
  
• One-size-fits-all government fits no one well.
  
• A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.
  
• An all-powerful government is the greatest threat to liberty.
  
• Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.
  
• The powers not delegated to the Federal Government by the Constitution are reserved to the States or to the people.
  

• The Federal Government should make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
  
• No person should be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.
  
• Equality is the natural right of every individual to live freely under self-government, to acquire and retain the property he creates through his own labor and to be treated impartially before a just law.
  
• Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.  
  
• The right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
  
• The conservative despises tyranny.
  
• Redistribution of wealth for the "greater good" is tyranny in disguise.
  
• You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
  
• The only thing that can cure poverty is wealth.
  
• That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise.
  

• The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
  
• The law has placed the collective force at the disposal of the unscrupulous who wish (without risk) to exploit the person, liberty, and property of others. It has converted plunder into a right, in order to protect plunder.
  
• You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
  
• To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
  
• If the Constitution’s meaning can be erased or rewritten, and the Framers’ intentions ignored, it ceases to be a constitution but is instead a concoction of political expedients that serve the contemporary policy agendas of the few who are entrusted with public authority to preserve it.
  
• To say that the constitution is a living and breathing document is to give license to arbitrary and lawless activism.
  
• The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.
  
• A people cannot remain free and civilized without moral purposes, constraints, and duties.
  
• The individual is more than an abstract statistic or faceless member of some group.
  
• Taxation of private property or the regulation of such property so as to reduce its value can become in effect a form of servitude, particularly if the dispossession results from illegitimate and arbitrary state action.
  

• The individual knows better how to spend that which he has earned than do large bureaucracies populated by strangers who see classes of people rather than individual human beings.
  
• Private property rights serve the common good: "What belongs to no one is wasted by everyone. What belongs to one man in particular is the object of his economy and care." 
  
• The conservative opposes crony capitalism where the Statist uses the power of government to subsidize one favored enterprise at the expense of another.
  
• The government is obligated to qualify immigration to those most likely to contribute to the well-being of the civil society.
  
• If a nation does not show and teach respect for its own identity, principles, and institutions, that corrosive attitude  is conveyed to the rest of the world, including newly arriving aliens.  And if this is unchecked, the nation will ultimately cease to exist.
  
• The moral imperative of all public policy must be the preservation and improvement of  American society.
  
• If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known, that we are at all times ready for war.
  
• Great nations have responsibilities to lead and we should always be cautious of those who would lower our profile because they might just wind up lowering our flag.
  
• Civil society is a harmony of interest, not a zero sum game in which the politically powerful exploit the politically weak.
  
• Free people working in self-interested cooperation, and a government operating within the limits of its authority promote more prosperity, opportunity and happiness for more people than any alternative.

There are two options: liberty and tyranny.  Which will you choose?

Sources: The Constitution of the United States of America, Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto, the Declaration of Independence, and many others.  We stand on the shoulders of giants.

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Pure socialism

Just what the Doctor ordered? The GOP Health Care Alternative.

Obama's Sneering Remarks

Did Obama learn nothing from the aftermath of his comments about "bitter clingers"?

While celebrating the first 100 days of his administration's relentless campaign to insult, intimidate and ridicule every conservative in America, Obama finally broke his silence on the Tea Party Protests of April 15.  Speaking at a town hall meeting on Wednesday, Obama set aside some time to insult the Tea Party participants.  Watch the video and read the quote:

"So, you know, when you see those of you who are watching certain news channels that on which I'm not very popular and you see folks waving tea bags around let me just remind them that I am happy to have a serious conversation* about how we are going to cut our health care costs down over the long term, how we're going to stabilize Social Security. Claire and I are working diligently to do basically a thorough audit of federal spending. But let's not play games and pretend that the reason is because of the Recovery Act, because that's just a fraction of the overall problem that we've got. 

"We are going to have to tighten our belts, but we're going to have to do it in an intelligent way, and we've got to make sure that the people who are helped are working American families. And we're not suddenly saying that the way to do this is to eliminate programs that help ordinary people and give more tax cuts to the wealthy. We tried that formula for eight years. It did not work, and I don't intend to go back to it." 

Wow. 

Need I remind you that these sneers are coming from a man who has nothing but bright smiles and warn handshakes for America's harshest critics? 

Speaking as a Tea Party Protester, I have to say that my initial reaction to these disrespectful remarks was very negative.  Watching the video, it was hard not to take the comments personally.  I felt angry, deflated, discouraged and disappointed. 

But after thinking about his remarks I've come to conclude that conservatives should be glad that he brought up the issue.  He has brought more attention to the movement and has given us the opportunity to keep the discussion going.  So here's your discussion... 

Mr. Hussein Obama, let me point out a few problems with your statements.  You disingenuously implied the following:

• The Tea Party protesters are not serious...they're just playing games.
  
• The Tea Party protests were focused only on the porcine "Economic Recovery" Act.
  
• The Protests were organized and orchestrated by Fox News
  
• The Protesters want to "give" money to the rich.
  

Obama, you know all of this is incorrect, but because your fragile ego has been wounded and your popularity is at stake, you've decided to help spread some misinformation.  You know the protesters are gravely serious; you know that the protests were a reflection of widespread disaffection stemming from concerns about a whole range of shameful and irresponsible government actions;  you know that the protests emerged from a sudden and unprecedented grassroots movement; and you know that the protesters aren't taking to the streets to pressure the government to give money to the rich.  

Obama your misinformation campaign speaks volumes about your fear.  You fear that America will wake up before it's too late to stop you.  

Yes, time is running out, but it's not too late.

More

Bluff called

The National Leadership Team of the Nationwide Tea Party Coalition today accepted President Obama`s invitation “to have a serious conversation..."

Courageous Obama targets tea bags at town hall

100 Days of Reckless Photo-Op Hubris

*By serious conversation, are you referring to one of those sessions when you sit us down to tell us how it's gonna be, and then remind us that "you won" when it's our turn to speak?  If so, you can keep your serious conversation to yourself.

Evil Flourishes When Good Men Do Nothing

Fulfill your mandatory public service obligation for the day—send this video to an impressionable Obama supporter:

h/t: M Conservative Operative

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Free NRA membership.  h/t: noliinsipientium

Today's America

Great post by a stalwart blogger

Thoughts on The Passing Scene

Random thoughts on the passing scene...

Alexis de Tocqueville

The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money. 

Margaret Thatcher

The trouble with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.

Ronald Reagan

No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth!

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.

It isn't that liberals are ignorant, its just that they know so much that isn't so.

Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.

Great nations have responsibilities to lead and we should always be cautious of those who would lower our profile because they might just wind up lowering our flag.

Thomas Jefferson

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.

A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.

Abraham Lincoln

Property is the fruit of labor...property is desirable...is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another; but let him labor diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built.

Benjamin Franklin

When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.

Socrates

Extreme freedom can't be expected to lead to anything but a change to extreme slavery, whether for a private individual or for a city.

CS Lewis

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

Thomas Sowell

The only thing that can cure poverty is wealth.

The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.

How can a President of the United States be re-elected in a landslide after four years when unemployment never fell below 15 percent for even one month during his first term? Franklin D. Roosevelt did it by blaming it all on the previous administration. Barack Obama may be able to achieve the same result the same way.

I hate to hear about "partnerships" between government and business, or between government and other organizations. When there is a partnership between an ant and an elephant, who do you suppose makes the decisions?

One of the most important skills for political success is the ability to make confident assertions of absurdities or lies.

There are too many people, especially among the intelligentsia, who will never appreciate the things that have made this country great until after those things have been destroyed—with their help. Then, of course, it will be too late.

Friedrich August von Hayek

‘Emergencies’ have always been the pretext on which the safeguards of individual liberty have been eroded.

P. J. O'Rourke

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.

More

No cuts or caps for executive salaries in Big Education

Receiving federal assistance may entail pay cuts for fat cat executives in business, but no such worries for highly paid big shots in higher education. One of the largest industries in America, one far more dependent on federal largess than Wall Street or Detroit, has immunity. 

Another fat cat executive

Postmaster General John E. Potter recently warned that economic times are so dire that the U.S. Postal Service may end mail delivery one day a week and freeze executive salaries. But his personal fortunes are nonetheless rising thanks to 40 percent in pay raises since 2006, a $135,000 bonus last year and several perks usually reserved for corporate CEOs.