The battle has been joined and it has started again in its original point of origin, the great State of Massachusetts. Another shot has been fired that has been heard around the World, but this time it was not a musket shot at Lexington, Massachusetts, but it came from the ballot boxes in the same state. Americans rose up and said we will not surrender our basic human rights to a government that will not listen to us and wants to subjugate us to tyranny.

            The election of Scott Brown to the U.S. Senate was a clear signal that Americans do not want the Federal Government to control our access to health care, do not want to be taxed to pay for a socialist form of government that punishes us for our hard work and our spirit of free enterprise, and does not want to provide the protections of our Constitution to the terrorists who would kill us and destroy our way of life. Yet, it appears that the message has not yet been heard by many of those in Washington D.C.

            While the so called progressives are stunned and in disarray after they received the message from the American people they plan to continue to ignore it. They have signaled that while the current clearly unconstitutional health care bills are on the back burner, the original plan remains the same and they will try again to implement in the future. In the meantime, the hysterical reaction in the halls of Congress and among the left wing “mainstream media” should show us that the attacks on our Constitutional rights will not only continue, but be more intense than ever.

            This attitude was reinforced in the State of the Union Address by the President when he went forward with his push for the unconstitutional health care bill and also for the unconstitutional Cap and Trade bill that will impose massive regulations and new taxes on American businesses and ultimately the American people, and further limit our ability to produce energy independently. The bottom line is that Obama refused to back off of his socialist agenda and in order to implement it he is willing to violate the Constitution. In order to do this and defy the outcry of the American people he will need to resort to extraordinary measures.

            The first target will be our rights under the 1^st Amendment to the Constitution. This amendment provides us with freedom of speech and freedom of the press and this has obviously become a major irritant to the left wingers in our country. Despite the fact that the major television networks and newspapers stopped reporting the news and became propaganda organs for the Obama administration, Americans continued to receive the truth though the radio talk shows of conservatives, though networks like Fox News, and through the efforts of independent sources on the Internet. Obama’s criticism of the media in his speech was clearly not aimed at his allies, but at the conservatives on talk radio and the news organizations like Fox that refuse to follow the party line. The left wingers are now making a concerted effort to shut off these sources.

            It has begun through the efforts of Mark Lloyd, the so called “Diversity Czar” appointed by Obama who views discussions of the freedom of speech and freedom of the press provided in the first amendment as “distractions”. He has also made it clear that he thinks the approach of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela is the one to take. Chavez has shut down numerous radio and television stations that disagree with his dictatorial policies and also jailed journalists. He has continuously stifled free speech. Of course, we can’t forget the bill pending in the U.S. Senate that would give the Federal government control over the Internet and allow Obama to take complete control over the Internet in any crisis that he declares exists.

            Then we have Cate Sunstein, Obama’s “Regulatory Czar” who has openly advocated the bringing of both socialism and ultimately communism to America and has shown his total distain for the Constitution by stating that it is Obama, and not the Supreme Court, that should ultimately interpret laws as to their Constitutionality. The President’s personal views on this were certainly confirmed by his unprecedented open criticism of the Supreme Court justices sitting in front of him during his State of the Union address. He chastised them publicly for upholding the 1^st Amendment right of businesses to participate in the electoral process by contributing to candidates.  

            During the same speech Obama proclaims that he will ignore the will of the people through their elected representatives and appoint a Budget Commission that the Senate refused to vote for. He will do this by Executive order. This is another dangerous precedent that violates the Constitution and it follows his most recent Executive orders giving protections to Interpol, the International Investigative Police agency, that are not allowed to our domestic police agencies. Then there is the strange order allowing him to appoint a Commission to oversee the use of state National Guards and the military in the U.S.

            This latter action is particularly troubling since it seems to violate both the Constitution and other federal laws that have always given the Governors of each state the right to control the deployment and use of the National Guard units in their states. It further seems to allow Obama to deploy federal troops at his will to suppress what he considers domestic unrest. Does this mean he is planning to stifle protests to his administration? Who knows? We can’t tell from his speech, but as one who believes in the Constitutional rights of all Americans, I am very concerned by both the rhetoric and the actions.

When you add in the bills pending in Congress attempting to limit the right of Americans to keep and bear arms provided by the 2^nd Amendment to the Constitution and the support of this administration of the United Nations Small Arms treaty that would also attempt to limit these rights then we have even more reason to be concerned. I believe the fight is just beginning.

There is still time to make one final push to defeat the healthcare legislation in the House and Senate before a final bill is voted on. Here are some key points everyone should make when contacting their representatives:

            1. There is nothing in the Constitution of the United States that authorizes Congress or any other branch of the Federal government to force anyone living in the United States to buy anything by virtue of their citizenship or residence. There are no U.S. Supreme Court decisions that allow this under either the “Commerce Clause” or the “General Welfare Clause” of the Constitution. Yet that is exactly what both the House and Senate versions of the Bills contain, a mandate requiring everyone to buy health insurance.

            2. The requirement to have automobile insurance is not the same thing. First, it is a requirement imposed by the individual states, not the federal government, and you can’t be forced to have it if you don’t own a car or you choose not to drive.

            3.  Thus the passage of any health care bill containing such a provision is a violation of Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution and the 9^th Amendment in the Bill of Rights.

            4. The regulation of the health care industry and the health insurance industry has always been left in the hands of the individual state legislatures. To now transfer all of this power to the hands of federal bureaucrats is a clear violation of the 10^th Amendment to the Constitution.

            5. Both the House and Senate versions of the bill provide for massive tax increases for most Americans. However, the Senate version also imposes a “tax penalty” on anyone who fails to purchase the health care insurance the Federal bureaucracy deems that person or family needs. This is not in fact, a tax, but a “fine” and failure to pay it can lead to imprisonment. This is therefore an attempt to bypass the provisions of the due process clause of the 5^th Amendment to the Constitution and take away property and liberty without “due process of law”.

            6.  By the very nature of this legislation there will have to be rationing of health care. The Senate Bill lays the ground work for this on page 1,000 in section 3403 by establishing an “independent” Medicare advisory board to make decisions about everything from Medicare payments to what type of medical devices can be paid for. The bill calls for specific reductions in Medicare benefits and prohibits seniors from using their own money to get the health care they desire. This is another massive violation of the due process clause and is aimed at older Americans.

            7. What makes this and other portions of the bill even worse are the provisions though out the legislation to limit the right of Americans to seek administrative or court review of the decisions made under the law. There are also new rules established to make it extremely difficult, if not impossible for a future Congress to repeal sections of the law or even modify them. This includes the rationing provisions which ultimately allow federal bureaucrats to make life and death decisions for people. The Congress is again ignoring the 5^th Amendment.

            8.  When you further consider the fact that a large number of people will be allowed access to the personal financial and medical information of individual Americans who are enforced to enroll in the health care plans you are also inevitably looking at violations of the right to privacy and the prohibitions against illegal searches contained in the 4^th Amendment to the Constitution.

            9. Last, members of the Senate should be asked to point out the specific language in the bill that prohibits federal funds from being used to pay for abortions, protects the right of conscience of those members of the medical community that don’t want to participate in abortions, and finally provides any enforcement mechanism to keep illegal aliens from participating in the programs set up in the bill. They won’t be able to cite any of these provisions because they don’t exist.

            This is not just a bad law; it is a direct assault on the Constitution of the United States and the rights of individual Americans. If it passes my next blog on this subject will detail the legal and political steps that we can take to stop the implementation of this power grab. Hopefully, I won’t have to write that article.

Michael Connelly

http://michaelconnelly.viviti.com/