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Posts Tagged ‘Health Care Reform’

source: Raw Story

A few miles from the White House, anti-government protesters will be brandishing guns, rifles, and cartridges of ammunition.

Civil war? Nope. Just an anti-government militia protest in a national park, where activists will be able to legally carry multiple weapons in open sight.

The gun-backers’ “Restore the Constitution” rally is set to be the first armed protest in a US national park, held at Fort Hunt and Gravelly Point, Virginia, locales run by the National Park Service. Their target? President Barack Obama and his agenda, health-care reform, climate control and bank bailouts.

It turns out, however, that it’s President Obama who actually made their rally possible. In May 2009, he signed a measure allowing Americans to carry guns in national parks into law.

The National Rifle Association, in a press release at the time, wrote:
Story continues below…

On Wednesday, NRA-backed legislation to restore the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens in national parks and wildlife refuges passed in the U.S. House of Representatives by an overwhelming bipartisan majority of 279-147. Today, the measure was signed into law and, as specified in the legislation, will take effect in nine months, on February 22, 2010. This was a major repudiation of the gun control community’s anti self-defense agenda.

The current Department of Interior (DOI) regulations were amended by the Bush Administration in 2008, allowing law-abiding citizens to defend themselves by carrying a concealed firearm in national parks and wildlife refuges. However, early this year, a federal district court in Washington, D.C. granted anti-gun plaintiffs a preliminary injunction against implementation of the new rule. NRA has been working for the past several years in the regulatory, legal, and legislative arenas to achieve this policy change.

“It has been an NRA priority to change the old, outdated rule, and we are pleased that Congress passed this critical legislation,” said NRA-ILA Executive Director Chris W. Cox. “This step brings clarity and uniformity for law-abiding gun owners visiting our national parks and wildlife refuges. NRA will continue to pursue every avenue to defend the American people’s right of self-defense.”

The National Park Service’s recent report revealed that 11 murders, 35 rapes, 61 robberies and 261 aggravated assaults occurred on parklands in 2006. Our parks also contain hidden methamphetamine labs, marijuana fields and illegal drug and illegal alien smuggling routes. In addition to these dangers and potential attacks from human predators, park visitors have to consider attacks from animal predators. Between April and December 2007 there were at least a dozen grizzly bear attacks reported by park visitors. Today, 31 states allow the carrying of firearms in state parks–all with safe and satisfactory results.

The national park carry law took effect in February.

The rally, to be held today, comes on the fifteenth anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombings. But a spokesman says the date was chosen to honor the 1775 battles in Lexington and Concord during the Revolutionary War.

According to The Washington Post, which reported on the protest Monday, those in attendance at the rally will include: “Mike Vanderboegh, who advocated throwing bricks through the windows of Democrats who voted for the health-care bill; Tom Fernandez, who has established a nationwide call tree to mobilize an armed resistance to any government order to seize firearms; and former Arizona sheriff Richard Mack, who refused to enforce the Brady law and then won a Supreme Court verdict that weakened its background-check provisions.”

The Post noted that activists have “full support of the federal government they fear.”

Approval for them to carry weapons is “carefully detailed in the 26-page event permit, complete with the gun regulations of both Virginia and the Interior Department and a commitment to provide fencing, barricades and bike racks for the event.”

“We handle tens of thousands of demonstrations of a First Amendment nature annually,” a spokesman for the U.S. Park Police told the reporter. “We are handling this event no differently than any of the others. We assess what their needs are to allow us to facilitate a safe and successful demonstration so they can exercise their rights to free speech and free assembly without interference.”

source: PBS
It wasn’t pretty, but it worked. Inside the backroom deals and hardball politics that finally got Obama his health care bill.

source: truthout.com

Immigration reform has been pegged as the next big political battleground, according to an editorial in The Chicago Tribune and reports by CNN. Though it was overshadowed by the health care reform negotiations, advocates say a national march on Sunday, March 21, in Washington, DC, demanding immigration reform has set the stage for a move toward reforming the America’s immigration law.

“This is the only issue area that had a concerted movement behind it,” said Martine Apodaca, communications director at the National Immigrant Forum, which organized Sunday’s march.

The march, which brought more than 150,000 people out to Washington’s Mall, followed the announcement of a new plan sponsored by Sens. Charles Schumer (D-New York) and Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina). Their blueprint would offer a path to legalization, as well as a temporary worker program and tighter border controls.

President Obama said he would only consider working on immigration reform legislation if it had bipartisan support.

However, some roadblocks remain. In a statement March 19, Graham said: “The first casualty of the Democratic health care bill will be immigration reform. If the health care bill goes through this weekend, that will, in my view, pretty much kill any chance of immigration reform passing the Senate this year.”

The issue of immigration reform has been sidelined since the Bush administration failed to push through its proposal in 2007. His bill was also a bipartisan effort and supported a path to legalization for undocumented immigrants, but it died with a Senate filibuster at a time when the US unemployment rate was less than 5 percent.

However, as The Chicago Tribune editorial states, the push from below is clear: “Their message, punctuated by Sunday’s meet-up, was not subtle: Get off the dime or lose the support of the growing Latino electorate.”

Are tea parties, bloggers, and other patriot groups being infiltrated? This article might give a clue.

source:Yahoo News

Last night, as the clock approached midnight and the long House debate on health care reform was finally winding down, Rep. Bart Stupak stepped to the microphone on the floor of the chamber to deliver his remarks. As the famously anti-abortion congressman was denouncing a measure to kill the deal he’d struck earlier in the day for President Obama to issue an executive order reiterating that no federal funds would pay for abortions, a voice suddenly shouted “Baby killer!” from the GOP side of the House floor.

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source: Reuters

As the Congress once again rallies to pass healthcare reform legislation, momentum is growing in many states to pass laws to block the changes — a move that could lead to a legal battle over states’ sovereignty.

Bills and resolutions have been introduced in at least 36 state legislatures seeking to limit or oppose various aspects of the reform plan through laws or state constitutional amendments, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

“There’s going to be a big free-for-all lawsuit about this,” said Michael Bird, legislative counsel for the NCSL.

The House of Representatives is to due vote on Sunday on a sweeping healthcare overhaul that would require all Americans to have health insurance, but would give subsidies to help low- and middle-income workers. It would also ban insurance practices like refusing coverage to those with pre-existing medical conditions.

Opposition efforts at the state level “in general … seek to make or keep health insurance optional, and allow people to purchase any type of coverage they may choose,” the NCSL said.

Democratic House leaders on Friday voiced growing confidence of winning a close vote. If the bill passes the House, it would then only have to pass the Senate by a simple majority under the planned procedure on the legislation.

Mirroring the partisan politics that have dogged the federal legislation, state measures to block healthcare reform are more likely to arise and succeed in states where Republicans control at least one legislative chamber and the governor’s office.

So far, only two states, Idaho and Virginia, have enacted laws, while an Arizona constitutional amendment is seeking voter approval on the November ballot. No anti-health care reform legislation has emerged in Democrat-dominated states like Illinois and New York, according to the NCSL.

Idaho Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter signed a bill on Wednesday allowing the state’s attorney general to file a lawsuit opposing federal healthcare legislation requiring individuals to buy medical insurance.

Otter sees federal legislation as overreaching and bound to add to medical expenses of state governments, spokesman Jon Hanian said .

“He’s concerned we can’t afford it,” Hanian said, adding that Otter, a Republican, is disappointed in how the Democrat-led U.S. Congress is handling the legislation.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs on Thursday dismissed as political positioning the complaints by states that the healthcare overhaul may endanger their independence or be too costly.

In the latest version of the bill, all states would receive extra funding to cover Medicaid costs that are expected to rise under the reform, including 100 percent federal coverage for new enrollees under the plan through 2016. Medicaid is the healthcare program for the poor jointly administered by the states and federal government.

Still, states are concerned that the burden of providing healthcare will fall to them without enough federal support and that the reforms infringe on their powers under the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights.

For example, Texas Governor Rick Perry, a Republican, says the proposal will double the number of Medicaid recipients in his state and cost an additional $24.3 billion over the next decade.

TENTH AMENDMENT ARGUMENT

Many states cite the 10th Amendment, which says “powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states,” as proof that the U.S. government cannot set their healthcare laws.

Gibbs did not accept that complaint. “What we’re about to pass and sign into law will meet Constitutional muster,” he said.

Robert Natelson, a constitutional law professor at the University of Montana School of Law, said it would be easier for states to argue for standing to file a lawsuit that claims the federal government has overstepped its constitutional powers.

“The legal question is, Does this health care bill exceed the federal government’s powers or it is invalid for other reasons?” he said.

Michael Boldin, founder of the Tenth Amendment Center, a think-tank on the relationships of the states and federal government, pointed to previous state movements to nullify federal laws in areas such as medical marijuana and Real ID, a federal standard for driving licenses. In the case of marijuana, Boldin said 14 states allow its use for medical purposes despite a prohibition in federal law that has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

A similar situation may arise with healthcare reform, where there could be mass noncompliance with the law without any real consequences, Boldin said.

source: Aiken Standard
By ROB NOVIT
Senior writer

Debbie Nix isn’t affiliated with any tea party groups – yet. But that could soon change for the Aiken resident after about 150 people responded to her call for a rally opposing the health care reform measure that’s moving through Congress.

They gathered at the steps of the Aiken County Courthouse on Thursday, holding signs reading “Kill the bill” and “No to health care. It’s passage = death to America and Americans.”

“It’s unbelievable to me what is happening in our country,” Nix said. “This is about control, a bill that will be voted on at some time in future … and it will vastly affect all of us.”

Nix contends the health care bill will create 1,700 new programs and 150 new bureaucracies to oversee those programs. It will cost $500 billion to implement, she said, and Medicare will lose that same amount.

She and her husband, Harry, own two small businesses and have paid 100 percent of their employees’ health insurance.

“Our concern is how this will affect our business and our employees and our parents and us,” Nix said. “We’re afraid of rationed health care. This is going to be a disaster economically for our country.”

Others who addressed the crowd included Jerry Guerin, who grew up in Ireland and has traveled to and lived in many other countries. His brother-in-law in Ireland has cancer that is operable. But with socialized medicine, Guerin said, only one surgeon is available. He’s on vacation and no appointment is available until July.

“I talk to doctors over there and hear their stories,” Guerin said. “We have the best medical system in the world and don’t let anybody tell you differently.”

Nix said a tea party group out of Columbia wants to fill a bus to attend a rally this weekend in Washington, and she’s thinking about joining them. Another speaker, Marilyn Doremus, urged people to support such efforts.

“What we can do,” she said, “is talk to friends. Do you really think the people in Congress now to represent us? They aren’t listening to voters. We all have to work together. We need to find a place to come together and bring our neighbors.”

Small-business owners Mark and Pam Thompson acknowledged that the health care they purchase as independent contractors “is obscenely expensive,” but it’s still better than the White House-backed bill, Pam Thompson said.

“We’re increasing the debt for or children and grandchildren,” her husband said. “But I think every citizen ought to have the exact same health care program that the Congress has. We’re paying for theirs.”

Across the street from the courthouse, a small group stood in protest of the protesters, with Christine Green holding a small sign supporting President Obama.

“Somebody has to stand up,” she said. “They had eight years to decide how to go. We’ve taking over now and we’re going to do it.”

Jerry and Nancy Hansen said they were driving by and stopped to give Green support. The country is in desperate need of health care reform, as well as political reform, the couple said. Jerry Hansen is concerned about the division and animosity that has meant nothing is getting through Congress.

As for those opposing the legislation, “they’ve been misinformed,” Nancy Hansen said. “These are fear-based responses while the rest of the world has managed to take care of its citizens. Economically, the lack of health care reform is an unsupportable condition.”

But the health care bill is about controlling people’s lives, Pete Seaha said. The legislation would require extra employees for the IRS to determine whether people have insurance and issue fines in they don’t, he said.

“The care will be assigned through a government panel,” he said. “We could all take a step back and incrementally repair the system, purchasing insurance over state lines and have tort reform. But once they have control of our health, they will have control of everything else.”

Nix urged people sharing her concerns to get in touch with her at voteno2hr3962@gmail.com.

Contact Rob Novit at rnovit@aikenstandard.com.

source: bignews.biz

Are Obama and Pelosi really ready to end their Don Quixote quest for health care and actually vote? No, Pelosi and Obama have adopted the “demon pass” procedure to avoid a vote yet get the bill.

Now that it is crunch time for counting votes on health care, and after Obama has kept Ohio under siege with his flurry of recent visits to friendly audiences in order to threaten Ohio congressmen, we find out that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has now come up with yet another procedural manipulation called the “deem and pass” procedure to circumvent the Constitution and force legislation through the House with no vote on the Senate Health reform bill.

This procedure has never been used for major legislation nor was it ever intended to be used for that purpose. Therefore, what Pelosi proposes, that the House only vote for fixes to the Senate bill while never voting on the Senate bill itself, is comparable to going to war with no war resolution approved by the Congress. Pure and simple, it is Constitutionally illegal.

Pelosi does not have the votes for a legitimate vote even though the Democrats control Congress by a huge majority. That much is obvious or she would not be proposing a procedure that is certain to assure her a spot in the history books, as the first Speaker of the House to flaunt a disregard for the US Constitution in the interest of partisan politics and because she is incapable of leading her own majority.

If her own Democrats will not give her the votes to pass the proposed Senate Health Care Reform kickback program, approving minor amendments while declaring the Senate bill deemed and passed with no vote is sheer insanity and will be an issue before the Supreme Court long before it can ever be implemented.

Pelosi and Obama are counting on a really stupid public to not understand the shell game that was just played on them with this Pelosi demon pass procedure and expect us to rollover and accept a monstrous bill full of secret deals, campaign payoffs, White House deals with the SEIU union bosses and the dreaded pharmaceutical companies, and who knows what else, because of all the lies we have heard on health care, claims that the process was transparent when secrecy dominated the process is the most arrogant and deceitful slap in the face of the public we have heard.

Well if Pelosi resorts to the demon pass rule of stealing our Constitutional process then Pelosi is not fit to serve as Speaker of the House because her own oath of office said she was to protect the Constitution, not undermine it with procedural gimmicks. And our president, proud of his status as a Constitutional Lawyer from Harvard of the Ivy League, had better start telling us what Constitution he took an oath to defend.

He has endorsed a procedural trick to circumvent the Senate with reconciliation, he has embarrassed the Supreme Court in front of the world, and now he is backing a procedural trick to circumvent the House. Is he trying to work in a bi-partisan matter as he promised or to undermine every separate branch of government, the
Legislature and Judiciary, that won’t do what he wants? This is sheer insanity.

Every ounce of energy and every bit of the attention of our president and White House is focused on this garbled health care reform bill and it has been the entire last year. Forget about jobs, unemployment, wars, crumbling foreign relations, drug wars spilling over the American borders, non-prosecution of the thieves on Wall Street, cover ups for the legislative and regulatory actions that led to the collapse of our economy, forget about everything that is important to Americans.

There are far better ways to fix health care than the conglomeration of secret deals and payoffs about to be shoved down our throats. It makes one wonder, what is really in the bill that makes it more important to the president and Democratic congressional leaders than any other problems, issues or priorities including the economy. What is in the bill that has caused such panic over not having the votes that they risk rules and procedures never intended for the purpose, and in the case of the Pelosi demon pass procedure, has never even been used for that purpose.

Is it so important to pass anything no matter what the cost, ramifications or even potential for helping with health care. It leads me to think we have still not been told all the secret deals made to get this bill passed and we are yet to know the real purpose for the bill. If it was just about fixing health care and lowering costs no one would object and legislative tricks would not be necessary.

Maybe in the interests of transparency President Obama and Speaker Pelosi could tell us the truth, why is this bill so important, what is in the bill they have not disclosed, and is it worth the challenges to the Constitutional foundation of our nation. Who did you promise and what did you promise to make this bill supersede everything our government has done for the last year. Transparency also means truth. It is time to put truth in the discussion.

Enough Washington, get the dirty deed done. We the people will deal with the consequences. Fix the real problems we face with the economy, unemployment, corruption, kickbacks, foreign affairs mess, coddling of Wall Street and lack of campaign reform . Admit whatever you do on health care will not happen for several more years and get on with the business of governing.

source: HSLDA
Home School Legal Defense Association

William A. Estrada, Esq.
Director of Federal Relations

March 15, 2010

We have previously encouraged you to call your U.S. representative and urge him or her to oppose the health care reform bill that is heading toward a vote in the U.S. House. We urge you to continue your calls. It is very likely that the U.S. House will vote on the health care reform bill this week.

HSLDA is aware of the high cost of health insurance and the problems this creates for individuals, families and businesses. HSLDA’s mission leaves us neutral on the issue of health care reform in general. However, HSLDA believes that the current health care reform legislation in Congress poses a serious threat to parental rights and homeschool freedom.

The problem is found in Section 2951 on page 568 of this 2,074-page bill. This section is titled Maternal, Infant, And Early Childhood Home Visiting Programs, and will create a federal grant program to fund state home visitation programs. Under the terms of this program, government officials, including social workers, will be able to visit the homes of certain families “in order to promote improvements in maternal and prenatal health, infant health, child health and development, parenting related to child development outcomes, school readiness, and the socio-economic status of such families, and reductions in child abuse, neglect, and injuries.”

The home visitation program in the health care reform bill is voluntary. However, all the details of the home visitation programs are open to being politically influenced by government bureaucrats who may think that they know more about parenting than do parents. They may pressure parents to adopt child-rearing methods that are against the family’s religious beliefs. Home visitation officials may even threaten families with abuse and neglect investigations if the families do not choose to follow the official parenting education models.

And fundamentally, HSLDA believes that the federal government has no constitutional authority to fund and oversee home visitation programs and parenting classes. Once the federal government gets a foot into the door of families’ homes, will it ever stop?

These home visitations are the reason why HSLDA is opposing the health care reform bill.

There is still a very strong chance that the U.S. House of Representatives may approve the Senate’s health care reform bill that was passed on Christmas Eve. We ask you to call your U.S. representative and respectfully urge him or her to oppose the health care reform bill. There is no need to identify yourself as a homeschooler, because this bill will affect all Americans. You can use some or all of the following message:

“Please oppose the health care reform bill. Congress should not force an unpopular bill upon Americans, especially one that increases the power of the federal government and increases the national debt. I am also opposed the bill’s creation of government home visitation programs. Parents, not federal or state officials, should make child rearing decisions for their young children.”

You can reach your U.S. representative by calling the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121, or toll-free at 866-220-0044. You can find your U.S. representative by using HSLDA’s Legislative Toolbox.

We knew it would happen. Faux journalists on the Left have decided to make Joe Stack, the man who flew his plane into the IRS building in Texas, a poster boy of the right and especially the Tea Party folks. NewsReal Blog, Rush Limbaugh, and others prophesied that would happen before the flames were even put out in Austin.

Think Progress (TP), a left-wing activist blog, has joined the liberal blog chorus of ranters calling Stack a member of the Right. TP has now taken the next step of lies by attempting to link Stack to key Republicans in the House and Senate. The TP article I read comes off like something out of The Onion. It bears no resemblance to truth or journalism.

Check out the article they posted yesterday by Lee Yang that pathetically attempts to link Congressman Steve King of Iowa (and others) with Stack.

“The suicide bomber, identified as Joseph Andrew Stack, was allegedly a right wing extremist who wrote on a website that violence “is the only answer” and expressed anger at the IRS, the federal government, and health care reform. Some on the fringe right have declared Stack a hero…He (Rep. King) noted that although the attack was “sad,” “by the same token,” it was justified.” – Think Progress

How in the world can Yang write that paragraph? Did he not read Stack’s suicide manifesto? It is impossible to read that note and think Stack was a member of the Right. The man unabashedly attacked George W. Bush. He promoted the “Communist creed” over Capitalism and free enterprise. Moreover, he attacked the Catholic church in a way that sounded like Stack had just been reading the Communist Manifesto.

I am shocked that Yang wrote Stack was angry at health care reform like it would lend credence to Stack being on the Right. His suicide note shows he wanted a socialistic form of health care. So his anger was clearly directed at the Republicans for not passing Obamacare. Either Yang did not know that or is intentionally twisting the truth to push his lie.

Finally Yang calls Stack a hero of the “fringe right”. He doesn’t define the fringe right, but does go right into declaring some Republicans as part of that group in their supposed support for Stack. Yang fails to mention that the only people who have called Stack a hero are Stack’s own daughter and a couple of white supremacy groups.

The rest of the TP article tries to paint Rep. King, Senator Scott Brown (R-MA), and usual suspect Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) as somehow defenders, discounters, and promoters of Stack’s violence. Of course there is no proof for such accusations. TP even had the gall to assert King believed Stack’s actions were “justified” – even though King never came close to saying that.

Basically if someone on the Right says they don’t like something about the IRS, TP links them to Stack. Of course, key Obama staff who have avoided paying taxes in the past somehow get ignored by the Left in this whole discussion.

Hopefully liberal bloggers will learn to actually read Stack’s own words and give up on this pathetic attempt to link him with the Right. Such journalism is not only shoddy, but it’s harmful when you begin to try to destroy people’s lives and reputations with it. Think Progress needs to think responsible journalism.