By Christopher Merola
3/23/2012
March 23, 2012, marks the 2-year anniversary of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act becoming law, otherwise known as “Obama Care.” It was On March 23, 2010 that President Obama signed the act into law and sanctioned one of the greatest power grabs by our federal government in our nation’s history.
The Obama Care bill is unconstitutional on many counts. From the 5th and 14th Amendments that require the federal government to give American citizens due process of law in order to take our life, liberty and property from us; to the 10th Amendment that allows the states to determine matters not specified in the Constitution, this Obama Care law is a complete trampling upon the liberties of all Americans.
Let’s consider the basis upon which Obama and the Democrat Congress enacted the Obama Care law in the first place. They passed the bill in Congress based on their interpretation of the Commerce Clause of the Constitution of the United States. However, the Commerce Clause only gives the federal government the power to regulate how Commerce is traded between the states. The federal government has no authority to tell the American people what kind of commerce to buy. Yet, that is precisely what Obama Care does.
Furthermore, the federal government has no authority to fine the American people when they don’t buy a certain brand of commerce, in this case, the Obama Care brand insurance. That is also what this law does to the American people.
The Democrats used a specious argument -- one that sounded good on the surface, but had no real substance of any kind. Think of a package of bubble gum. The federal government has the constitutional power to regulate the packaging and selling of bubble gum between the states, for instance. However, the federal government has no constitutional authority to tell the American people which brand of bubble gum we must buy or chew. Well, chew up, America. The Democrats are forcing us to buy and chew their brand of healthcare.
Think back to when this issue was being discussed and debated. We were told by members of the Democrat Party and some of their cohorts in the media, that there were millions of Americans living without health insurance. Supposedly, the federal takeover of the health care industry, which represents about 1/6 of our nation’s economic output, would ensure that everyone had access to a health care plan. Conservatives in Congress and in the media warned that the opposite would take place.
Looking at other nations like Canada and Great Britain that have a nationalized health care system, conservatives across the nation reminded us all that rationing of health care plans would soon take place if the Obama Care bill became law. President Obama went on television to calm the fears of many. He stated that we would be able to keep the health care plans we have if we liked them.
Speaking to the American Medical Association (AMA) in Chicago in June of 2009, Obama said, "So let me begin by saying this: I know that there are millions of Americans who are content with their health care coverage -- they like their plan and they value their relationship with their doctor. And that means that no matter how we reform health care, we will keep this promise: If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period. If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period. No one will take it away. No matter what. My view is that health care reform should be guided by a simple principle: fix what's broken and build on what works."
Bold words from Obama, but as it turns out, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office recently found that as many as 20 million Americans will lose their health care coverage – all as a result of the Obama Care law. In fact, that same Congressional Budget Office found that the cost of Obama Care is $1.76 trillion over the next ten years, not the $940 billion we were told it would cost. That’s about twice the cost.
This really should not surprise us. Only a few months after Obama Care became law, in June of 2010, Time magazine published an article by Kate Pickert titled, "How Health Reform Will Impact Existing Plans." The article stated, "But now that regulations about existing employer-sponsored plans have been issued, it's becoming clear that many of the 160 million Americans with job-based coverage will not, in fact, be able to keep what they currently have. Republican critics of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act point to the Obama Administration's own estimates that by 2013, 39% to 69% of employer plans will be subject to new regulations and not grandfathered in, or exempted from the new rules."
It is only fitting than that Obama would make such a Machiavelli-esque statement to the AMA while in Chicago, the city where he worked with ACORN, a leftist organization started by Marxist radical Saul Alinsky. Obama cut his radical activist teeth in Chicago. There, speaking to the AMA, Obama demonstrated his cognitive dissonance. He told the crowd what they wanted to hear, but later signed into law something that operates 180 degrees in the opposite direction of what he stated.
Just like conservatives warned, Obama Care forces millions of Americans who are happy with their health care coverage and health plans, to give them up in exchange for a substandard Obama Care plan, all while making us pay for it with our tax dollars.
While running for president, candidate Obama stated in 2008, “I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.” Yet, Obama Care raises taxes on many every day house hold items like Q-tips and tampons.
The manner in which we take care of ourselves, the choices that we make concerning our health, all the way down to the health and beauty items that we purchase, are being regulated by the federal government. This is not just the redistribution of wealth; it is the redistribution of health.
Consider this scary fact: new Health and Human Services (HHS) rules are being dictated from Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and other Obama Care appointees without any congressional oversight or accountability. There are over 700 new directives issued thus far.
There is an HHS mandated $1 a month surcharge to pay for abortions. There is an HHS mandate that forces businesses and religious organizations to pay for such things as the “morning after” abortion pill, contraception, and even sterilizations for college girls. What in the world does sterilization of college girls have to do with health care?
Mandating religious organizations pay for items that violate their religious beliefs is an obvious violation of the First Amendment. President Obama tried to move past the mandate controversy by stating that religious organizations will no longer have to pay for contraception or the abortion pill, but insurance companies will pay instead. However, this new change in policy is just a shell game as the same religious organizations (i.e. Baptist and Catholic hospitals) will still pay for contraception and the abortion pill indirectly. Insurance companies will simply increase their premiums to pay for the new mandate. Religious organizations will then have to pay for the increased premiums.
At the 2010 health care summit, Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi made her own Machiavelli-esque statement concerning Obama Care when she said, “In its life, it will create 4 million jobs - 400,000 jobs almost immediately.” On the contrary, the CBO believes that Obama Care will kill as many as 800,000 jobs.
The discovery of so many draconian regulations and mandates seem to be increasing each day. So does the price tag.
Redistributing our wealth is not enough for Obama and Congressional Democrats. They have mandated the redistribution of our health. If we do not rise up in November 2012 and redistribute power from their hands into the hands of “We the People,” as our founders intended, we may not have much of a constitution left to defend. Maybe, that was the whole point of Obama Care after all.
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To read a related article about ObamaCare, click here.
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