Obama Violates the First Amendment

Famous Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black once stated, “I am for the First Amendment from the first word to the last. I believe it means what it says.”  In part, what it says is that, “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech.”  To prove how serious the authors of the Bill of Rights were about this indispensible freedom, they gave Americans the ability to defend the right by force if necessary in the very next Amendment.  Even given the historic support from the High Court for the First Amendment and the means to defend it given by the Founders, this past week the Obama Administration violated its oath to uphold the Constitution by issuing a decree abridging the First Amendment right to speech.

In a memo to private health insurers from a senior official at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) the Obama Administration issued a decree ordering them to stop informing Medicare beneficiaries that health reform legislation before Congress could hurt them and curtail their benefits if enacted.  The memo went on to say that the government might take legal action against insurers that are mobilizing opposition to the legislation by sending “misleading and confusing” messages to seniors. 

Say what you will about insurance companies, this is by no means a defense of them.  It is instead a rebuke of an administration that is playing fast and loose with basic rights guaranteed to all Americans, including corporations.  In the United States, corporations are separate legal entities that retain the same rights as individuals.  Humana, the company whose letters to clients prompted the decree from HHS, has as much right to speak out for or against federal legislation as I do.  Congress, the President, and the Supreme Court have no power to abridge Humana’s right to free speech.  Obama should know this given that he is a constitutional lawyer.

Secondly, the decree smacks of fascism.  Corporations do not exist in America to serve the interests of the state.  Obama has this collectivist mindset, a lot like the previous administration, “you are for us or against us.”  Any discord with the Administration’s positions and you may find yourself threatened with legal action.  Perhaps the President is confused.  Maybe he has let his takeover and running of GM, Chrysler, and AIG cloud his vision and he now thinks that he can dictate the terms of existence for all American companies.  Unfortunately, few members of his own party have expressed any discomfort with the decree.  In fact, Democratic Senator Max Baucus has urged HHS to crack down on the mailings.  In addition to a government that is not listening to the people, now we have one that is also attempting to stifle the peoples’ dissent.

Of course, attempting to litigate any company that disobeyed the gag order would end in defeat for the Administration.  There is no precedence for restricting speech against government legislation.  Even inaccurate or misleading speech is protected.  But, to top it all off, the information Humana peddled to seniors was actually accurate.  According to the Congressional Budget Office, the bill released last week in the Senate by Baucus would cut payments to Medicare Advantage plans by about $139 billion over 10 years.  Certainly this represents a significant chunk of change and would result in reduced benefits for seniors.  If the Humana information was misleading, at least Obama could look like he was standing against deceit and chicanery.  This would be somewhat admirable.  But because the information is true, he simply looks like a despot.

In 1906, Evelyn Beatrice Hall said, “I may disapprove of what you say, but I defend to the death your right to say it.”  Taking the presidential oath of office to defend the Constitution is equivalent to Hall’s statement.  But, with the current president, he apparently has no problem not only shirking his duty but violating it.  It’s no wonder his approval rating continues to drop and Americans are taking to the streets in the millions to protest his policies.  After all, Americans are not asking Obama to give his life for free speech just to respect it even when it disagrees with his policies.

Dennis Kucinich: Poster Child for Non-Existent Constitutional Rights

Last week I blogged on how non-existent Constitutional rights granted by Congress and presidents alike were responsible for the bankruptcy of America.  Thus, over the years, some of us have been given the right to a job, a certain wage, free food, retirement income, financial bailout for irresponsible behavior, and so on and so forth.  In 1971, when Nixon took America completely off the Gold Standard, he opened the gate for massive federal spending and tantalized and encouraged our shameless leaders to grant the above mentioned non-existent Constitutional rights and many more. 

This week I received an email from Congressman Dennis Kucinich of Ohio entitled  “A New Movement: Health Care as a Civil Right” .  Sure enough, another member of Congress was at it again.  Seems the congressman along with Representative John Conyers of Michigan and 85 co-sponsors in the House have proposed legislation that would make health care for all a civil right.  Get this; it would be of the single payer variety like they have in Europe.  You know the systems where the citizens boast that their healthcare is free even though they pay exorbitant amounts of taxes to the government and in many situations must wait for care or are denied care altogether.  Kucinich boasts that his plan would eliminate premiums, co-pays, and deductibles.  So I suppose our care would be free as well.  And he also claims that, “All health care assets in America would become not-for-profit.”

As anyone with any common sense knows there is no such thing as something for nothing.  This is precisely why we are in the mess we are in today.  Kucinich is promising something huge that he can’t deliver.  At the very least, someone will have to pay the basic costs of healthcare.  Certainly, doctors, nurses, scientists that develop drugs, and the janitors that clean the hospitals and labs are not going to work for free.  As a matter of fact, smart people in America will either not enter the medical profession or if they already have will go someplace else to make a decent living given the time and expense it has cost them to become doctors.  But, I am sure that when this happens the good congressman would then propose legislation whereby the federal government pays for all medical educations.  You can see where this is bound to go. 

Obviously, if healthcare were to become “free” under any plan that resembled Kucinich’s the taxpayer would foot the bill for the huge expenses that would result.  I know this is a logical fallacy of sorts.  You see the biggest problem with the current system is that individuals do not actually pay for enough of their own healthcare.  On average about only 15 cents of every dollar spent on healthcare comes from individual’s pockets.  The other 85 percent of costs is covered by insurance companies, government and other private sources.  If I am only paying for 15 percent of any commodity then I care little what that commodity costs.  The incentive to comparison shop like you would to buy a car or groceries is non-existent in healthcare.  Someone else is paying for most of the cost.  Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth applies.  Obviously, our healthcare system has more wrong with it than that.  But the point here is that Kucinich’s plan would lower personal costs of healthcare from the current 15 percent to zero.  Logically, then, we would see even larger increases in healthcare costs due to the total disconnect between service and payment responsibility.  Put another way, if something is free, then consumers will use more of it and costs will rise astronomically.  You can’t fool this golden rule of economics.

Of course, Kucinich and his ilk know very little about economics.  It seems he knows even less about the Constitution.  He quotes the Constitution as his rationale for healthcare as a civil right.   According to him, “The Preamble to the United States Constitution and Article One, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution both describe an originating purpose of our United States: to promote the general welfare.”  The “general welfare” clause is an old argument that has been used by the rights granters for a long time.  Of course they take the clause out of context.  They quote it as if it stands alone.  In fact, immediately following the clause in Article 1 Section 8 sixteen enumerated powers of Congress are listed.  What is the purpose of this enumeration of powers if Congress’s powers are unlimited under the “general welfare” clause?  Additionally, general welfare means all of us are affected equally.  No government expenditure affects all of us equally except for those spent on the enumerated powers listed in Article 1 Section 8.  Thus, there is no Constitutional authority for Congress to legislate, regulate, or grant any rights that are not enumerated in Article 1 section 8 of the Constitution.  This includes so-called “free” universal healthcare.

No one knows for sure how the current healthcare reform debate will turn out.  It should be squashed altogether on constitutional grounds.  The proponents of federal socialized medicine do have recourse.  Under Article V of the Constitution they can pursue amending the document to allow them to take up the matter.  Naturally, they won’t do this because it would be a lot of work.  Instead, they just misquote the Constitution and propose healthcare legislation that will allow them to grant a new right and spend us further into bankruptcy.

Obama Couldn’t Care Less What America Thinks

Barack Obama showed his true colors in a recent trip to Montana.   The president was in Bozeman, Montana earlier this month to conduct a town hall meeting with “citizens” on his healthcare reform plan.  Naturally, most of what was really news was ignored by the press.  However, I was fortunate enough to receive an email from a friend that received an email from a friend who was on the ground in Bozeman, before, during, and after Obama’s visit.

According to the account, the true details of the president’s trip were appalling.  It amounted to an extravagant staged campaign stop for socialized medicine all at taxpayer expense.  In the first place, the town hall forum was held in a remote hanger at the local airport even though several venues (auditoriums, gymnasiums) in town were available for the event.  Thus, it was harder for average citizens to attend and seating and decorations had to be shipped in for the event.  In fact, according to airport workers in Bozeman the airport was abuzz with loads of shipments for the president for most of the week leading up to the forum.  One UPS employee even reported that thousands of dollars worth of lobster was shipped in for Obama and his entourage.  Since Montana has some of the best beef in the nation and they are experiencing the same economic hardships as the rest of us during this recession, one would think the president would be a little more empathetic toward his hosts and purchase their product to help their local economy.

Of course to get a ticket to see and maybe even ask the president a question was a complete run around.  Folks were not given the time tickets would be handed out until the morning before the day they were handed out.  Then, not even half of the tickets printed were handed out.  But, rest assured, folks with hard luck stories had their tickets.  Ahead of time, the White House called Bozeman’s Human Resource and Development Committee to get the names of folks who have experienced healthcare woes.  These folks got rides and tickets to the event all in an effort to give the impression that Montana was squarely behind the president’s plan to provide universal healthcare coverage to all Americans.  And just to make sure the impression was perfectly cemented, any questions for the president either from the media or the loyalists in attendance were screened ahead of time by the White House.

So, there would be no free exchange of ideas on healthcare reform that Obama claims he is willing to listen to.  Those that are opposed to nationalized healthcare were given a roped off area near the hanger to conduct their protest.  But, their unencumbered peaceful protest was short lived as a large busload of Service Employees International Union members was offloaded in their midst.  Clearly, whether the presence of these unionists was orchestrated by the White House or some other entity, their purpose was to start trouble and/or intimidate the anti-socialized medicine protestors.  As a matter of fact, one unionist was arrested for his aggression.  The eyewitness account indicated that the union members were well-organized, young, and relentless in following around the anti-Obama plan protestors.            

Now, I like many, have been a little dismayed at the behavior of some folks at the recent congressional town hall meetings.  But, what do we expect from people who are frustrated by their elected official’s actions – rigging elections, voting big bailout dollars for corrupt corporations, and ignoring their wishes on issues as important as healthcare reform?  The president is no different than members of Congress, but he obviously has the wherewithal to prevent the same scenes from happening at his town hall meetings.  If Obama was really a president of the people he would yearn to hear our voices.  He would travel modestly especially during economic hard times.  He certainly would not tolerate organized henchmen being used to squelch First Amendment freedoms.  Obama promised America “Change” but what we have really gotten is short changed.