Here is what is going on over at Small Dead Animals, one of Canada's foremost blog sites. SDA is a conservative sight that brings a lot of insight to things, and some interesting commentary, sometimes incendiary, sometimes hilarious, but often thoughtful and concerned, like this time. The posting is not about the issue of abortion that is so important to Catholics and all those who support life, but primarily about the constitutionality of the whole mess. Different perspective. Same result. Here is the blog note:
If you think for a minute that we here north of the 49th do not care about our friends and neighbours south of us, you would be mistaken. And we do so passionately, as you will read below. We also care about freedom, something that is disappearing at such an alarming rate in North America that it is beating the ice bergs to extinction, only in part because Global Warming has been discovered to be a hoax, but that is a totally different topic. Here are the comments that accompanied this blog posting by the time I put this here.It's On
Mark Steyn:
I try to be a sunny the-glass-is-one-sixteenth-full kinda guy, but it's hard to overestimate the magnitude of what the Democrats have accomplished....Mathew Vadum:
America suffered an atrocity of catastrophic proportions last night and it’s not clear if the nation will ever recover.David Horowitz:
The President was right about one thing. The vote on Obamacare tonight was a historic one. The Democratic Party has...revealed itself to be an anti-democratic Party and an anti-liberty party. It is a party that has demonstrated its contempt for the Constitutional framework, for the democratic process, and for the expressed will of the American people. Its brazen contempt for the compact that holds the diverse factions of this country together has initiated a political war at home that will extend not only into the next elections but into the next generations....The people of this nation are still sovereign, and their voice will be heard. Tonight’s vote was lost but it is not the end of the battle. It is the beginning.From the "Idaho Health Freedom Act", passed last week:
The power to require or regulate a person’s choice in the mode of securing health care services, or to impose a penalty related thereto, is not found in the Constitution of the United States of America, and is therefore a power reserved to the people pursuant to the Ninth Amendment, and to the several states pursuant to the Tenth Amendment. The state of Idaho hereby exercises its sovereign power to declare the public policy of the state of Idaho regarding the right of all persons residing in the state of Idaho in choosing the mode of securing health care services.It is hereby declared that the public policy of the state of Idaho, consistent with our constitutionally recognized and inalienable rights of liberty, is that every person within the state of Idaho is and shall be free to choose or decline to choose any mode of securing health care services without penalty or threat of penalty.The thread is open for your comments, quotes, links, etc.
Well they got their death care now if Canadians want something fixed what the heck are we supposed to do.From the former Democrat supporters at HillBuzz:
"The Democrat Party is a Leftist party only now. If there were moderates and conservatives truly on the blue side of the aisle, they would never have allowed a bill like that to be passed. This was not how healthcare reform should have been done — with all the bribes, the unconstitutional mandates, the overreach of federal authority, and the Orwellian elevation of the Health & Human Services Secretary into an arbitrator of life and death for millions of Americans.
"We don’t see how a center-right nation embraces Democrats after this…not when Democrats have proven themselves to be so reckless, so Marxist, so un-American.
"We also don’t see how the party can ever be brought back from the Left now.
"There is just no going back possible."
(...)
"Democrats might think they won their big lottery yesterday…but we believe they’re going to lose everything, and will probably not exist as a major political party 10 years from now as a result."
Well, the nice thing is that the bill does stop short of further destroying the Canadian healthcare system. Nothing in there to prevent Danny Williams from hitting up the Mayo clinic again.
As we all know, winning elections is more important than fighting for what you ostensibly believe in. The health care act will never be repealed; the goal posts have been moved.
"The health care act will never be repealed."
Kevin, a few pundits agree with you, but - for what it's worth - I'm not so sure. I think there's going to be a serious, erm, chipstorm over this. The legislation is certainly going to be challenged on constitutional grounds. Even before the bill was passed, lawmakers in 35 states "filed or proposed amendments to their state constitutions or statutes rejecting health insurance mandates."
When Nancy Pelosi was asked - I'm paraphrasing - where in the Constitution is there a provision for the government to force people to purchase a government service, she replied,
"Are you serious? Are you serious?"
Not really a sound constitutional argument, certainly not one that would hold up in, say, the Supreme Court.
I don't think this one's over, not by a long shot.
I've never seen so many otherwise calm pundits, politicians and citizens so P.O'd, not just about the actual legislation but about the anti-democratic, unconstitutional process that led to it.
I agree, EBD. This is clearly in violation of the tenth amendment. I think that sometimes people forget just how powerful U.S. state governments are within the country, because most non-Americans mostly see the federal side of the country. There is going to be some serious push-back against the federales on this one ~ indeed, recall that the country was originally formed by the states' rebellion against the then British federal overreach ~ which could ultimately even result in a new constitutional amendment further damning this kind of behaviour. As Augustine of Hippo noted in Saturday night's reader tips, patience is the companion of wisdom in a case like this.
The election of the massive marxist Obama awakened the slumbering silent majority in the US. The Constitution shredding "health care" bill has now angered them. I expect to see huge marches on Washington - with only minor (derogatory) mainstream coverage. There will also be several States who flex their Constitutional muscles.
Liberty defenders will not surrender without a fight.
Now all we have to do is wait for that giant surge in popularity. Cause it sure still just looks like noise from here.
They've been violating the Tenth Amendment for a long time - think Social Security and Medicaid.
I hate to admit it, but I must agree that this will not be repealed...at least not until the US is much closer to economic Armageddon.
David Frum (a pox on his smugness) points out over at the NP (I will not link to that guy) that in 2 years, you will never get the votes necessary to revoke a person's insurance because they had a pre-existing condition.
It's just not going to happen - just as the Republicans never moved against the other anti-tenth-Amendment entitlements.
Even the New York Times agrees with the right
( well... at least on a important few points )
»...Never in modern memory has a major piece of legislation passed without a single Republican vote...»
»...Mr. Obama has lost something — and lost it for good. Gone is the promise on which he rode to victory less than a year and a half ago — the promise of a “postpartisan” Washington in which rationality and calm discourse replaced partisan bickering. ...»
Read the rest here,
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/22/health/policy/22assess.html?hp