What the Passage of the Health Care Bill Means to Americans
Americans take a back seat to the President and the Democrats agenda. by Shaun Eaves
(libertarian)
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
What the Passage of this Health Care Bill Really Means to Americans
March 21 2010 may or may not go down in the history books as the date of Americas' continual decline accelerated to break neck speeds. It may be seen by future generations as the day that America started producing sunshine and lollipops for everyone. All of this has yet to be seen.
What has been made evident and is loud and clear is the fact that to those in Washington, which ever party is in power, the voice of the electorate is meaningless. Pelosi has said that Democrats should be willing to sacrifice their jobs to get health care passed [1]. The Democrat leadership was even reported as saying that once they had gotten 216 votes; those representatives in contested districts could vote their constituency [2]. How is that for a novel idea, representatives being allowed to do exactly what they were voted into office to do? Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't the House of Representatives supposed to vote the will of their constituents? Rasmussen shows that the opposition to the bill was at 54% while only 41% favored it [3]. Gallup shows that more Americans believe that this bill will make them and the country worse off than it was before [4]. Perhaps we should change the name from the House of Representatives to the House of Screw What my Constituents Want I Got a Ride on Air Force One (a la Dennis Kucinich).
The democrats and President Obama pledged to the American people after the election of Scott Brown that they got the message [5]. Health care reform has not been what has been on the peoples' minds as we face 10% unemployment. I am sure many voters feel as I do, and the government meddling in 1/6th of the economy is not a means to fix the jobless rate. As many Americans are losing their jobs, homes, and retirement funds, health care reform is one of the furthest things from their minds. So, why now, two months removed has the health care battle been brought back to the forefront? Last I checked there have been no net gains in employment yet. People are still struggling to hold onto what they have, or trying to battle back to even during the hardest financial times of most of our lives.
So, what makes the health care battle so important to the President? Because all Obama seems to care about is Obama. He knew that if the health care bill failed to pass it would be seen as his Waterloo. Which, time will tell, it may be after all. One thing the American people seem to oppose in their elected officials is arrogance at the electorates' expense. This health care bill will create no new jobs, except for a few more bureaucrats. It may in fact cost many people their jobs in the long run, especially within the health insurance industry. As Joe Biden said "You know we're going to control the insurance companies [6]." Government control of private companies rarely if ever leads to job growth, and more often than not leads to job loss.
What saddens me the most about the passage of this health care bill is not that I am riled up by all of the hyperbole surrounding it; but rather one more bill will be signed into law without anyone truly knowing what is in it. The attitude in Washington was represented perfectly by John Conyers when he said: "I love these members, they get up and say, 'Read the bill'. What good is reading the bill if it's a thousand pages and you don't have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill [7]?" Has it really gotten to be too much to ask someone to know what they are voting on? If I sign a contract, am I not legally obligated to abide by it? Does anyone believe that it would hold up in court if I were to get up and say "I love these people who say Read the contract.' What good is it if you only have ten minutes and no lawyers to find out what it means?"
This bill is 2400 pages. Not only is it 2400 pages, but as of yet no one has been able to come out and say what it will accomplish. Speaker Pelosi has actually said "We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what's in it, away from the fog of controversy [8]." Now, correct me if I am wrong Mrs. Pelosi; but this isn't how our system is set up is it? Since when are the American people supposed to sit back and wait for the government, which works for us, to tell us what we will be allowed to have?
Excuse me for being skeptical of any piece of legislation that is 2400 pages long. By comparison; the Emancipation Proclamation is two pages, The Declaration of Independence is four pages, the Constitution is 21, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 currently clocks in currently at a grand total of 33 pages. So, with 3% of the pages needed for the health care bill we have been able to: Break away from England, Establish a never before seen system of government, free an entire race of people, and then give them equality. So, once again, I ask why would any piece of legislation require 2400 pages?
The only thing that I know that this bill really does is to expand Medicaid coverage to as many as an additional 15 million people [9]. They are doing this at a time when many doctors have started refusing Medicaid patients [10]. So, while the Democrats celebrate the "Victory" that has really accomplished very little to truly help anyone, we can all take some solace. They promised a Cadillac and delivered a Yugo, at Maybach cost. We can all take solace in the fact that this fight is not yet over. There are many states who are now taking this battle to the Supreme Court [9]. So long as the Supreme Court does not believe the case is to answer a political question, the health care bill may be over turned.
So, what the passage of this bill means to Americans is: Congress has told us that we are no longer a part of the process. It tells us that our country has become Of the Government, For the Government, and By the Government. I believe that it is about time that we as American citizens demand that our government, who are our subordinates, stop patronizing us like we are children. If we are unable to understand the complexities of a piece of legislation, is it not their fault? Let us seriously ponder that question for a second. Would it not be the government's fault if we were unable to understand what they were doing, since THEY took over OUR educational system, and the quality of our education system has declined continually since. Hopefully our health care system does not suffer the same fate, since THEY are messing around with OUR system.
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in this article are those of Shaun Eaves only and
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Shaun Eaves is solely responsible for the contents
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Will "We the People" stand up and hold Fedgov accountable? Or will WTP just lie down and take it? The Democrats can be forgiven for thinking that they can act with impunity in regard to health care. Afterall, the voters' track record isn't good when it comes to unconstitutional federal power grabs. Congress created the Federal Reserve and WTP did nothing. They created the income tax and WTP did nothing. They created Social Security and WTP did nothing. They created Medicare and WTP did nothing. They created The Great Society with all of its welfare handouts, and it took WTP thirty years to start complaining enough about it to force change. They created prescription drug coverage and WTP did nothing. They created the Dept. of Education and federalized public education, and WTP did nothing. They chipped away at the sovereignty of the states for decades, and WTP did nothing. Did we fight them in the past when they expanded fedgov power and trampled the Constitution under foot? No, we participated in it and rewarded them for it, election after election. Just so long as the Republicrats kept the flow of federal cash flowing through our districts, we were okay with it. We have bartered away the future of our nation for want of that new highway, bridge, reservoir, or social program. We can blame Congress and the Democrats all we want, but they only did what our electoral actions indicated that we wanted. The Congress will never be reformed until the people reform themselves and start to think differently (and constitutionally) about how fedgov should run its business. I believe it was Alexis de Tocqueville who said, '...the people get the government they deserve.' So, now we have Obamacare--and why not? We certainly worked hard for it.
The Problem in this country, and with We the People, is that we have become a society which feels entitled to all the "goodies" that government can "provide". Gone are the days of "Ask not what your country can do for, but ask what you can do for your country". Now the attitude is "I have a problem, where is the government?" For an example of this, just rewatch some footage of New Orleans circa Hurricane Katrina. Americans in the days of yore would have willingly evacuated on their own accord with advanced warning of a Category 5 Hurricane while living in a fish bowl. However; due to the entitlement mentality created by our government, people stayed where they were at until the government came to the "rescue"...and then shot at them for being "late".Â
I believe that this entitlement mentality started (I could be wrong, as my parents were yet a twinkle in my grandparents' eyes) with the New Deal. At that point We the People did try on many occaisions to stand up to the power grab by the government, and it was working until FDR threatened to stack the Supreme Court. That was when Justice Owen Roberts abandoned his principals, so that the court could remain judicially independant, which allowed the first series of entitlement programs to go through. As I stated, I may be wrong...but that is when I would wager that Americans essentially lost our independance from the government.Â
Once an entitlement is given it is extremely hard to get people to let it go, and those who recieve it will undoubtedly cling to it with all that they have.Â
The problem with the way that the government riles the populace up when pushing these entitlement programs lies mainly with how they frame the debate, with phrases like "If you do not support the health care bill you want poor people to die" (but I don't want to start going into what I hope to write my next article on). They also get those who will recieve the entitlement stirred up and frothing at the mouth, so that those who have the most to lose seem like the bad guys.Â
Unfortunately, it may take a complete economic collapse (which is what we are heading towards) for people to give up their entitlements (because the programs are insolvent). Of course, the same could lead to a complete loss of liberty as the programs could be used to cover every body reminiscent of Communist Russia.
Shaun--I really liked your article and I don't disagree with you at all.
The point I was making in my commentary is that the American voter can't blame anyone but himself for the predicament he now faces. Yes, we have an entitlement mentality. Of that, there is no doubt. But did the government FORCE that on us? No, fedgov repeatedly waived a carrot in front of our faces and we took it voluntarily. Over and over again. We the People have fallen victim--not to the government--but to our own avarice and laziness. (For lazy is what a people become when they are depending on the government to "fix" everything)
You mention Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal as being when we lost our independence from the government, but I think it might go back even farther in history to FDR's kinsman and presidential predecessor, Theodore Roosevelt. Ol' Teddy was very progressive and populist in his approach to government. He was big on trust busting, regulating business, and championing the cause of the common man. He described his domestic agenda as the "Square Deal." (Sound familiar?)
The creation of the Federal Reserve and the income tax during the Wilson years was also a key turning point.
Anyway, it is what it is. It's done and there's no undoing it now. Today's voter is much more educated and affluent than most Americans in Teddy or FDR's day. There is also information access today that would have boggled the minds of earlier generations. If We the People fail to realize what we have allowed to be done to us we will have no one but ourselves to blame.
I LOVED this article. It so articulated the frustration we feel as citizens, trying to talk to a brick wall and getting nowhere. I'm so angry, so irritated at what has become a joke. Shaun, I will be quoteing from this article for many days to come. And if I weren't sitting here with a baby on my lap, and a toddler at my feet, and two other children trying to do homework in the background, I would get more in depth at how much I appreciated your words. I guess, I'm just happy to see someone else say what's in my brain. :) Thank you. :)
