Joel's Rant

What is about to happen is a constitutional crisis not seen in this country since the Civil War.  Forget Watergate, forget FDR attempting to stack the Supreme Court, forget Andrew Jackson’s central bank, forget Dred Scott, forget all of that.  We are about to face the end of the Republic as we know it, a change in the fundamental relationship between the Federal Government and the people of the United States, a change marked by statism and loss of liberty and freedom.  What is about to happen is, essentially, a coup d’état.  Perhaps no guns will be fired, but the results will be just as devastating and consequential.  And if that weren’t frightening enough, half our population either doesn’t see what’s happening, doesn’t care what’s happening or supports what’s happening. 

As everyone familiar with how a television or radio works knows by now, the Democrats in the House of Representatives, and with the complete and total support of the Democrats in the Senate and the Democrat president of the Unites States, are planning on forcing the so-called health care reform bill through Congress and onto the president’s desk for signing without one House actually having voted on it.  As any middle school kid knows, the Constitution, in Article 1 Section 7 requires “in all cases the votes of both Houses shall be determined by yeas and nays and the names of the persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the journal of each House respectively.”  That requirement is quite unlike the Amendments, which may be interpreted to mean this or that.  This is extremely specific and forms the basis and backbone of the Constitution.  To quote constitutional scholar and talk radio personality Mark Levin, “Two branches of the United States Government have and are presently intending to transgress the requirements of the U.S. Constitution, rendering the liberty of United States citizens at stake.”

This “deem & pass” procedure ostensibly obviates the need for House members to make a yea or nay vote on the previously passed Senate bill.  Instead it allows for Members to merely vote on amendments altering the Senate bill, thereby “deeming” or “assuming” that they passed the Senate bill.  In fact, Nancy Pelosi even stated that deem & pass is good because the Democrat members don’t want to vote on the Senate bill at all anyway.  Are you getting this?

Make no mistake, this “deem & pass” scheme shows the contempt Democrats have for the people of this country and more importantly the contempt they have for the Constitution of the United States.  This is a Democrat scheme, these are Democrats forcing this fiscal and social fiasco on the people of this country and saddling our children and grandchildren with unsustainable debt they will have to pay even before they’ve earned or spent any money of their own, or before they’ve even been born.  This is actually a form of child abuse.

And even if deem & pass had been used before it was never used like this, for a purpose that would put under government control over 1/6 of the American economy.  Instead, it was used, by both parties, to add amendments to pending bills without first voting on each amendment separately, but the difference is that the fully amended bill eventually went back to each of the Senate and House for their individual vote before moving to the President for final signature.  That is not what would be happening this time.  In fact, using this “deem & pass” in this way, with only one House actually having voted yea or nay, has never been used at any time in the history of the United States.  NEVER!  Now this truly is historic, no?

And even if it had been used, so what?  It was unconstitutional whenever it had been used and by whomever used it, Democrat or Republican.  It has never been challenged before, and now it will be.

For those who think there’s no difference between Republicans and Democrats, look to see how many Republicans are voting for this bill.  Look to see which Republicans are scheming to get this corrupt bill passed and by any and all means necessary.  The answer in none.  Not a single one.  Republicans may have had spending issues of their own, and for which they’ve been punished at the ballot box over the past 4 years, but they’re not socialists or Marxists or Maoists or Communists or worse.  Only Democrats identify themselves by those terms, and only Barack Obama, of all the presidents in American history, surrounds himself with people known to be those things.  

Just to understand, or attempt to comprehend the danger our country’s in, take a look at this Barack Obama quote from his interview a few days ago with Brett Baier of Fox News:

“I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about what the procedural rules are in the House or Senate.  What I can tell you is that the vote that’s taken in the House will be a vote for health care reform. And if people vote yes, whatever form that takes, that is going to be a vote for health care reform. And I don’t think we should pretend otherwise. And if they don’t, if they vote against it, then they’re going to be voting against health care reform and they’re going to be voting in favor of the status quo. So Washington gets very concerned with these procedures in Congress, whether Republicans are in charge or Democrats are in charge.” 

He’s not concerned with “procedures?”  Really?  He’s not concerned if Congress sends him a bill “passed” under unconstitutional procedures?  Apparently not.  He clearly has no interest in fulfilling his oath to “……..preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” 

The procedures in question aren’t some minor minutiae, they aren’t just merely some outdated process that gets in the way and needs to be resolved with dispatch.  It’s the Constitution of the United States, our nation’s governing document, for crying out loud.  Without the rules of the Constitution, without the “process” of the Constitution, anything can be done by anybody for any reason and at any time.  There are no rules, there’s no reason to have a Senate or to have a House or to have any of the instruments that make the government accountable to the people.  There are no checks and balances; there are no roadblocks to effecting otherwise potentially diabolical legislation.  Without the Constitution there’s no rule of law.  Instead there’s the menace of the majority, the potential for dictatorship and totalitarian government, there’s the government of the Third World, or worse.  Without the Constitution we’re left with only one word to describe our government and that one word is TYRANNY.

For Barack Obama, the Constitution is merely something that gets in the way of the things he wants to do; for the Democrats, the Constitution is an annoying roadblock to what they view as their birthright.

These are not just procedures.  The rules set forth in the Constitution are what set us apart from all other nations and made us the greatest military, financial, and cultural power in the history of the world.  Yet, the Democrats would destroy that document and the country along with it to get what they want and what they want is power.  Their arrogance is breathtaking.

Think about this; if this “deem & pass” scheme is allowed to go forward, will it be used again?  Of course it will, and right away.  Once health care has been put to rest Barack Obama will move on to cap & trade, immigration, and a host of other liberal and Marxist dreams from the 60’s.  If health care is allowed to stand through deem & pass so will all other legislation.  The Constitution will have been completely ignored.  And if they ignore the Constitution, what else are they willing to ignore?  What won’t they do? 

If the Democrat Party is willing to completely ignore the Constitution they can do anything.  And from just such arrogance can be born totalitarianism.   It’s happened before and it can happen again, and it can happen here, and it eventually will.

To quote Thomas Jefferson “Liberty is when the government fears the people, while tyranny is when the people fear the government.”  Say no more!

And that’s all there is to it.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704207504575130321235660474.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_opinion

Okay, it’s now official.  The Democrat Party is now the political party of wholesale and unmitigated corruption.  Clearly the Republican Party has been known to practice some nefarious activities of their own, but not like this.  Not on this scale.  Not when that corruption reaches every home and every person living in America.  This is offensive and dastardly.  This is the Soviet Politburo come alive, right here in our nation’s capital.

If Barack Hussein Obama and the Capitol Hill Democrats had the votes, would they be gaming the system, changing the rules, forcing their version of health reform down the throats of the American people?  If their health care plan were good for the country, would they need to bribe and buy the votes of senators from Nebraska, Louisiana, Florida, Vermont, and Massachusetts and their labor union contributors to the detriment of the rest of the nation?  Would they have to resort to this unconstitutional behavior?  And would they have to hide these and other debasements in a 2700 page document that even Nancy Pelosi herself, claimed earlier this week, has no idea what’s in this bill?

Forget completely the Senate’s standard rule of requiring a super-majority of 60 votes to pass important and far-reaching legislation.  If they had the votes would they need to float the idea that VP Joe Biden might, using his power as the President of the Senate, override the House Parliamentarian and change to the Democrat’s benefit even the Reconciliation Rules to illegitimately bend them even more in their favor?   In effect, the Democrats are doing everything they can to literally steal this vote. 

If this isn’t outright tyranny I’m not sure what is.  Can someone explain to me how this isn’t tyranny of the sort practiced by the totalitarian regimes of the past?

Without even getting into the well documented economic peril this bill brings to our country, you have to know something is very wrong when even the Democrats admit that this bill actually collects 10 years of taxes to pay for only 6 years of so-called benefits and that’s how they rationalize it will be deficit neutral.  Are you getting how insane that is?

But there are dangers hidden in those 2700 pages that rarely get discussed, that rarely see the light of day, which can bring misery and menace to the American people.  Are you aware that this bill allows the federal government to go into your bank accounts, without your authorization, and electronically take from them anything they want?  Why do they want that power?  If that doesn’t scare you, try this. 

Are you aware that this bill authorizes payments to doctors based only on their “positive outcomes”, not on the procedures they perform?  That sounds pretty good, no?  The answer is NO, that’s not good, that’s disastrous.   If a doctor will only be paid if you get well, then the physician community will only take the easy to heal cases.  The tough stuff, the life threatening stuff, the stuff that doesn’t always work out, they’ll take a pass on since otherwise they may not be paid.  Is that something you wan to accept?

Or how about the fact that this bill authorizes the government to reduce the reimbursements of those doctors that perform the most procedures or tests?  This bill calls for reducing each year the reimbursements of the top 10% of doctors that run up the most procedures or tests.  And every year another “top 10%” get their reimbursements cut and so on and so on.  That’s sounds pretty good, no?  The answer is NO, that’s not good, that’s disastrous.  What that means is that doctors will be reluctant to do a procedure, even if they think you need one, or be reluctant to send you for a test, even if they think you need one, because otherwise they may find themselves in that top 10% and thereby get their reimbursements cut.  Is that something you want to accept? 

That’s just some of the stuff that’s in this bill, for crying out loud. There’s much more.   Are you worried?  You should be.

So why are Barack Hussein Obama and the Democrats forcing this upon the American people when clearly this bill is unacceptable?  And why do they insist on voting this coming week?  What are they afraid of? 

The answer is because this bill will forever change the relationship the people of this country will have with the federal government.  This is what will change this country from capitalist to socialist, from a society of producers to a society of victims, beholden to the government for their survival.  The country will be changed from a place of liberty to a place of government control.  And they need to do it right now because they fear the American people, other than the drones and takers, are figuring all this out and the president and his minions are running out of time.  And they know it.

But I believe there’s a silver lining if this catastrophe passes through Reconciliation and becomes the law of the land.  If that happens, the Republicans and conservative minded Members of Congress should immediately run on a platform of repealing this bill also through Reconciliation.  Now, since Barack Hussein Obama will veto such an appeal, it would be necessary to wait until 2012 when a conservative president takes control and in that case the bill will be repealed.

But that’s not all.  In my vision, with the Reconciliation membrane breached, the conservatives, along with a conservative president, will be able to take a hammer to all the socialist and wasteful programs of the last 80 years and repeal or change them all; using only 51 votes instead of the otherwise required 60 votes.  It’ll actually be possible to undo it all, and I mean ALL!

And that’s all there is to it.

In an announcement that got little attention, if any, compared to the ObamaCare fiasco earlier this week, the Department of the Interior indicated that Barack Obama’s promised offshore drilling program in the United States would be delayed until no earlier than 2012.  What exactly is the point of that? 
 
Unless it’s an effort to starve America of energy and drive up the cost of fuel, thereby driving up the cost of everything purchased in the country, thereby forcing people to be more dependent on the government, thereby fundamentally transforming our country into a socialist society, I just don’t get it.  Is there anyone out there who can explain this to me?
 
This policy from hell is made all the more perverse when you realize that our essential enemy China has recently signed contracts with Cuba for drilling rights in Cuban waters.  This contract would allow China to set up rigs in Cuban waters but, using horizontal drilling technology, be able to drain American oil resources.  This is exactly what Saddam was doing with Kuwait back in 1990. 
 
Does that make sense?  What are the benefits of not drilling now?  Is this economic suicide?  What’s the point of this anti-American policy? 
 
Lately there’s been much discussion in the news media and talk show circuits about whether or not Barack Obama is actually a socialist.  I’m sure he is, but even if I gave him the benefit of the doubt what I’m certain of is that he’s not a friend of the United States.  He’s the first and only president of the United States to actually be anti-American.
 
And that’s all there is to it.
 
http://www.americansolutions.com/drill/2010/03/salazar-drilling-wont-begin-until-at-least-2012.php

I always expect Democrats in Congress to do the wrong thing, the selfish thing, the power grab thing.  Paraphrasing the famous words of the late great Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban, the Democrats never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.  They never let me down.  And so it is with the fraud that we call “Pay-Go.”

Pay-Go is legislation, demanded by Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi and all their minions, that requires “spending bills” be paid for prior to their being approved.  In other words, if a bill is contemplated that would cost, for example $10 billion, that $10 billion would either first have to be raised by increasing revenue (aka increasing taxes) or cutting spending from elsewhere or both.  The idea is to specifically not raise the deficit or add to debt.  Sounds pretty good, no?

So here’s a “transportation bill” in which the Dems decided to extend unemployment benefits, to beyond the 99 weeks already provided mind you, and also spend money on some transportation construction projects and they need $10 billion to do it. And so, of course, the first thing the Dems do is by-pass and exempt themselves from their very own Pay-Go legislation, which they passed just a couple of weeks before, and fund the bill by borrowing the money instead of raising the money.  The deficit be damned, full speed ahead over the “fiscal responsibility” cliff.  Why am I not surprised?

If the Democrats can’t find $10 billion to spend on this transportation bill, out of an overall Obama budget of $3.8 TRILLION (less than 3/10,000 of 1%) they will never cut anything or balance anything and have absolutely no intention of ever doing so.  The mask is off this nonsense.

But while I condemn Barack and Nancy and Harry and all the rest of the Democrats for their obfuscating the fact that they have absolutely no intention of curtailing or slowing or lowering or stopping any spending, and apparently seem just as satisfied if the nation goes bankrupt, no Republicans can be found similarly condemning the Democrats and holding their feet to the fire………that is except for Republican Senator from Kentucky, Jim Bunning.  Jim Bunning is using his power, authorized by a specific senate rule, to block the bill from being passed until the Pay-Go requirements are met.  And except for pulling a temper tantrum there ain’t nothin’ no one can do about it.

Only Jim Bunning has drawn a line in the sand and yelled to EVERYONE, even to Republicans, that enough is enough.  Only Jim Bunning has pointed to the law the Democrats just passed and demanded that the Congress live within the means Pay-Go requires.  And this is essentially what I worry about, that too many Republicans are too afraid of the “consequences” to do the right thing. 

But beyond merely the fraud perpetrated by Pay-Go are questions even more fundamental, like how many months of unemployment should be funded?  If 99 weeks are not enough, than how many are enough? Are we willing to fund 5 years of unemployment benefits?  How about 10 years?  What’s the limit?

And what’s the limit for all other spending?  As indicated above, the budget for FY’11 is $3.8 TRILLION of which $1.4 TRILLION was borrowed.  Is that the limit?  What if next year we need to borrow $2 TRILLION or maybe $4 TRILLION?  What’s the limit?

And what’s the limit of government?  Can they do anything they want?  Can they stop your medical treatment if it becomes too expensive?  Can they shut down your heat or air conditioning if you use too much electricity?  Can they cut off your food supply if you gain too much weight?  Can they limit how much carbon you exhale? 

What exactly are the limits, because right now there don’t appear to be any limits, none!

I’m hoping Jim Bunning is only the first, in a long line of others, who force us to ask what are the limits of our government.

And that’s all there is to it.

  
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/03/01/senate-impasse-puts-federal-employees-work/