How the New Congress Can Roll Back Obama’s Agenda
Soon to be former Speaker Baghdad Bob’s Pelosi’s assessment on November 2 that the Democrats would hold the House of Representatives to the contrary notwithstanding, it will no longer be under “liberal” Democratic Party control come January. Perhaps she will not like the results when she sees them. The conservatives seem to be in the ascendancy, with more than sixty House seat gains, six Senate seat gains (including the Obama seat in Illinois), and at least ten governorship gains. There is lots of election analysis elsewhere, and I won’t try to provide more of it here; suffice it to say that the people have spoken, loudly and effectively. Despite all spin, President Obama won’t be able to get contentious new legislation through the Congress, and the House can prevent the funding of some Obama initiatives already passed; Yes he Can’t. Lame-duck congress? Bad stuff may happen but there are cures.
Senator DeMint of South Carolina said during his victory celebration that the Republican Party must not only challenge the Obama initiatives but must also remedy its own excesses:
These Republicans know one thing: If they don’t do what they say this time, not only are they out, but the Republican Party is dead, and it should be.
Even though President Obama retains veto power over legislation and in any event still has a somewhat compliant Senate, he need have little impact on the power of the Congress to unravel some of his worst initiatives; the Congress had better do it; this article suggests how.
The green stuff being spewed around is not “ObamaMoney”; there is no “ObamaMoney.” It all comes from taxes and appropriations passed by the House and the Senate — or from borrowed funds as approved by both houses. The provisions of the Constitution so providing mean what they say, for some pretty good reasons; at this juncture they are critically important. Under Article I Section 7:
All bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills.
The White house web site states:
Appropriations bills are initiated in the House. They provide the budgetary resources for the majority of Federal programs, but only a minority of Federal spending.
The House has been very protective of this prerogative despite some dissent in the Senate:
[T]he Constitution is clear about revenue legislation but does not directly address appropriations, or spending, measures. Extending the House’s right to originate to the spending category has been a matter of long dispute between the House and the Senate. The Senate has repeatedly asserted its right to originate spending legislation, adopted resolutions to that end, even called for commissions to study the dispute. However, the House has a different perspective. House precedents have defined “revenue measures” to include general appropriations bills, claiming that at the time the Constitution was adopted, “raising revenue” meant “raising money and appropriating the same.”
So, whenever the Senate does initiate appropriations legislation, the House practice is to return it to the Senate with a blue piece of paper attached citing a constitutional infringement of House prerogatives. The practice of returning such bills and amendments to the Senate without action is known as “blue-slipping.”
Without House action, Senate-initiated spending legislation cannot make it into law. So in practice, the Senate rarely attempts to initiate such bills anymore, and if it does, the House is diligent about returning them. Regardless of one’s opinion of the correct interpretation of the Constitutional provision, the House refusal to consider such Senate legislation settles the matter in practice.
Article I, Section 8 provides:
The Congress [both houses acting together, not just one] shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States . … To borrow Money on the credit of the United States … .
Article I, Section 9 provides:
No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.
Article II confers none of these powers on the president. Hence, without the Congress, and particularly the House, the president can’t fund his rejected initiatives, by appropriations, taxes, or borrowing money.
There are lots of ways to cut federal spending, and some of them make sense. The National Endowment for the Humanities perhaps; there are lots more. However, first things first.
The House must provide separate and detailed appropriations bills.
Appropriations bills are usually lengthy and cumbersome omnibus beasts, little read and less understood. That legislative process is not fixed in concrete. Indeed,
“There is no legislative process anymore,” said Fred Wertheimer, the legendary open-government activist who has been monitoring Congress since 1963. “Bills are decided in advance of going to the floor.”
. . . .
The House Rules Committee, which is meant to tweak the language in bills that come out of committee, sometimes rewrites key passages of legislation approved by other committees, then forbids members from changing the bills on the floor. Only five times this year [2004] were House members allowed to amend policy bills on the floor, and only 15 percent of bills this year were open to amendment. For the entire 108th Congress, just 28 percent of total bills have been open to amendment — barely more than half of what Democrats allowed in their last session in power in 1993-94. Further, the Rules Committee has blocked floor votes on legislation opposed by the Bush administration but supported by a majority of the House. For example, a bill to extend benefits to the long-term unemployed has been kept off the House floor despite what backers say is the support of a bipartisan majority.
Some of that must change and, since the Republicans will control the House and therefore the House Rules Committee, much can be done to grab hold of the appropriations process. The House rules are cumbersome and change every session, particularly whenever there is a change in the party holding the majority; they are often difficult to understand. That’s one of the reasons why the House Rules Committee is one of the most important committees. It sits rather like a coven of high priests, whose machinations control what the lesser priests do. Each committee also has its own rules, which have similar effects.
Mr. Miller has hit it out of the park. This is exactly the way to go.
All the waste, all the boondoggles, all the intrusiveness…
It can stop right now.
It is very important for the present Congress not to pass any appropriations bills between now and January, when the new Congress takes over. Between now and then, all legitimate “obstructionist” tactics must be used to run out the clock. It may get unpleasant, but that’s OK. Cancer surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy for caner are unpleasant but sometimes necessary for survival.
Excellent piece. First order of business should be to take all these gigantic administrations one by one and reduce them to “offices” with personnel and budget trimmed to do only the most necessary work. Then start pruning from there.
The federal government should act in most cases merely as a consulting agent setting standards for the states to perform certain tasks (i.e. care of the environment). They should not be in the business of promoting art. America created great forms of art (jazz, for example, a thoroughly American form of music) without any help from governments of any kind.
It is OK to grant patents, set the standards for radio frequencies, determine the nature of traffic signs, so we can have some useful uniformity in some areas BUT only when the normal private associations cannot provide a useful standard.
The US could function VERY WELL with a government 30% the size of this Behemoth. The US is becoming a dwarf with a giant head. The bloated federal government may have put a man on the moon (for what?) but it is now incapable of plugging a hole or fix a region devastated by a storm.
I have learned recently that the Dept. of Defense hauled a double-wide to Virginia all the way from the West Coast for the benefit of an relocating officer. I cannot imagine why the US taxpayer has to pay for nonsense like that. That kind of behavior MUST STOP NOW.
Catino, I agree! One modification may be in order. Lets shoot for 20%?
Here’s how I put it in an email to Erik Cantor:
We need to:
– Define the problem. Most simply, we’re spending too much money.
– Break the problem down into as small, unique segments as possible.
– Evaluate each segment, and determine the best solution to that aspect of the problem.
– Recommend the solution for comment and debate.
– Implement the solution, either as it was stated originally, or as amended.
It will work on any size problem,from the largest to the smallest. It’s the procedures the military uses in building war plans.
Old Patriot – You do justice to suggestions diagnosing the symptoms and suggesting treating with more bandaid’s BUT…..EVERYBODY is ignoring dealing with the ROOT CAUSATIONS of the problems!
1. Social programs and spending using (abusing) the CONSTITUTIONS COMMERCE CLAUSE.
2. Destruction of the nations private sector economy with decades of legislative and Executive regulatory policy using (abusing) the CONSTITUTIONS COMMERCE CLAUSE. This one is the KINGPIN of 98% of the nations problems created by government and the one that has allowed the government to become so large and overreaching of States and individual rights to govern their private sector business and economies.
Solution….. under the new political and govermental makeup of the States Governors, just short of 2/3 GOP, now would be the good time to initiate a STATES CONVENTION MOVEMENT to offer a constitutional amendment, narrowly defining the federal governments authorities to regulate the States COMMERCE.
The ONLY federal government authority over States COMMERCE should be to establish criminal and civil tort laws as they may apply to fair trade among the States, safe workplace standards, chemical and metals pollution, foods and goods safety standards, fair financial economic development and finance standards, exports/imports to and from enemy desginated foreign markets and monetary standards of import/exports among the global marketplaces. All commerce to include transportation and energy defined as critical to national security in times of constitutionally declared war would have an exception clause allowing the government temporary regulatory authority through the conclusion of the war. All other authorities of the nations commerce should be left soley to the States.
Having accomplished such a constitutional amendment, ALL previous legislation granting the federal government commerce authority to regulate the nations private sector commerce would be REPEALED. Exceptions to the immediate repeal would be social security, medicare and childrens health care. These programs would involve a phase-out to a privatization program not to exceed 30 years.
Do this and see how fast economic industries will return to the States and their communities while at the same time, returning common sense value for goods and services to include well managed welfare assistance to those abled bodied citizens who legitimately need it temporarily from the States and their communities. The entire nation would once again begin to prosper under the States with the federal government out of the way. THIS IS HOW AMERICA BECAME THE GREAT NATION IT ONCE USED TO BE!
Republicans have to watch out that they don’t make the same mistake that Obama did during the election. At the start of Obama’s economic reign of terror, he promised that unemployment would not go above 8% if we spent a trillion dollars on “stimulus.” We spent the money and unemployment stayed firm at 9.6% and the Democrats got killed. Now the Republicans are coming into Congress saying that they will reduce spending. But if they end up taking pork earmarks from the government, how will that make them look? The Republicans have to stay firm on the causes that got them elected. Reduce overall spending, eliminate earmarks, and lower taxes and you can’t go wrong. Furthermore, the American public will support the Republicans in all of these efforts. If the Republicans do what they say they’re going to do, they will win easily in 2012. If not, they will go the way of the Whig Party and open up the very real possibility of a popular third party.
Politicians in this country have to understand that the days of empty promises are over. You simply cannot humor the American public and expect them to vote for you. The world has changed and Americans now expect their elected representatives to do what THEY want them to do, not the other way around. Go figure.
There must be a god, and he must have a place in his heart for The United States.
If the Democrat Party had remained in control, there would be a tax on every citizen who gets the benefit of a 2 mph or above breeze.
God is spelled with a capital.
You must be a graduate of Farouk U.
Ouch, Cybergeezer. That was nasty and uncalled for.
Been watching too much Bill Maher, have you?
[T]he Constitution is clear about revenue legislation but does not directly address appropriations, or spending, measures.
The creators of the Constitution didn’t envision that Congress would turn itself into a piggy bank using the peoples’ cash.
“I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.”
~James Madison
That girl on video (prior to the election) is still waiting for her share of ObamaMoney to make the car payment and cover the rent.
Disappointment all around.
Earmarks. Still waiting. Still waiting. Earmarks. Debt ceiling. Still waiting. Why haven’t Republicans fixed the economy yet? Why are soldiers still in Afghanistan? Why are people still unemployed? Come on Tea Baggers, get cracking. Let’s see some results. “Oh gosh” and “you betcha” aren’t policy platforms. You inherited a recovering economy, don’t drive it back into he ditch.
Keep your pants on but hold on tight because you’re in for one hell of a ride next year!!
No. Sorry. The honeymoon is over for the Tea Party and the Republicans. Let’s see some action.
Until 01/02/11, the Democrats will still control Congress, and everything will remain screwed-up until then, you big dummy. Republicans WILL turn it around in 2011, however. So stay tuned in from your padded cell, you loony.
Sorry. Not good enough. You have to fix everything right now. You have to pass legislation that will be filibustered. You have to pass bills that won’t pass because a lone senator puts a hold on it. Right now!
People like “Your Sensei” perform a vital role: that of comic relief while the grownups take back over and clean up the mess his favored candidates made.
I detect the stench of “Praetorian” in “Your Sensei.”
Come on Tea Baggers, get cracking. Let’s see some results… You inherited a recovering economy, don’t drive it back into he ditch.
The gigantic, Obama-Pelosi created hole (it’s not a mere ditch) is not a ‘recovering economy’. It’s a world-class looting on cargo-cult principles, created in hopes of a Cloward-Piven catastrophe leading to revolution.
Give thanks that despite the NPR-CBS-ABC-NBC-NYT-LAT poodles in full cheerleader mode for Dear Leader, the electorate woke up and massively exercised its veto power at both Federal and State levels.
Your feeble attempt at using the tea parties as a red herring is just as effective as a fart in the general direction of the red-state voters. Suggest that you pray for continued Republican stupidity, it’s your best hope at this point.
When did we ever promise to get out of Afghanistan?
Still sucking your thumb, I see. Wetting the bed too? Thought so.
Dear newly elected Republicans–
We are all so excited you are going to take office!! Here is what we want you to do for us.
There are two machines at work in our government, and they are messing everything up. The first is in your own parth, where the entrenched elites are running things THEIR way and NOT listening to the people they were hired to represent. They will try to chew you up and spit you out as obedient little cogs. Your mission is to break the machine and rebuild it so it works for US.
The second machine is composed of special interests; politicos out for themselves, lobbyists out for our money, and all of them out to limit our liberty. Your mission is the same as for your party machine.
I don’t know how you are going to accomplish it–I do know it won’t be easy and will cost you a lot. You will age much faster in office than we will as we support you. Please know we are grateful you have taken on this challenge for us; please know we support you and pray for you. GO GET ‘EM
party. Sorry.
No apology necessary. Didn’t bother to read your too wordy comments anyway.
The founders’ calculus is still working for us.
The House of Representatives was meant to be the body that was closest to the people, and was therefore given the greater power of funding and de-funding.
The powers of the executive are few by comparison. Tthis was by design, to prevent just such a hijacking of the government as we are experiencing.
I have read many previous comments against Boehner and McConnell. I have come to realize that the comments bear not one semblance of reality. I have been watching the speeches and reaction of Boehner and McConnell, and I am VERY PLEASED with what I have been hearing. Both have been humble and realize that this election WAS NOT a mandate for Republicans, but a vote against Obama. To We the American People this is our foot on the brake to stop the insanity. I am sure that the Republicans will do the right things procedurally to STOP what Obama and the Demonrats have already implemented. I slept better last night. What needs to stop is the fighting between the entrenced Republicans like loser Lindsay Graham and the Tea Party. They MUST learn to work together for We the People.
Hey, you won’t believe what I heard! Obama’s spending $200 million PER DAY to take his circus to India. Yeah, he’s renting out the entire Taj Mahal! He has 34 warships off the coast to protect his wonderfulness! Yep, heard it from Rush. Heard it from Sean. Heard it from Michele Bachmann and Drudge and WorldNetDaily and Glenn Beck. You know, all very solid straight shooters. Sure, the libtards are saying, “what are you, nuts?” What else can they say, they’re libtards.
This is exactly the kid of selfish, misdirected runaway spending we have to stop. It’s time to restore truth and honesty to our society. We can’t let the Lame Stream Media runaway with our honor and drive this great country into the ground.Have fun on our dime, oh Anointed One, because it won’t last forever.
I thin we should investigate how this insane trip came to be, exactly how much it cost, and fire anyone who tried to pull the wool over America’s eyes.
this story has been completely debunked- it came from Indian press reports which have been discredited
Typical troll. Who should we believe, you or Rush and Sean and Drudge and Fox and Michelle Bachmann. I think they’ve all proved that they don’t need to lie. They haven’t yet, why would they start now? If they say it’s $200 million per day, then I believe them. They certainly haven’t said anything about it being debunked.
When are you liberals going to wake up and realize that the Lame Stream Media just makes stuff up, doesn’t fact check ANYTHING, and uses their power just to make conservatives look bad. They just take anything they can find and put it out through the paid mouthpieces in their echo chamber to advance their sick selfish agenda. Thank god we have Fox and people like Laura Ingrham and Michelle Malkin and Mark Levine to offer some fair and balanced (that means objective) reporting on this stuff.
Moonbat.
Humorous cartoon related to this topic called “Riding in the Back” at http://drawfortruth.wordpress.com/2010/11/06/riding-in-the-back/
>>Under the perhaps radical procedures suggested here
Oh dear. What’s “radical” about these procedures? Their effectiveness? Their ingenuity? The common sense underlying them? Heaven help us.
High stakes poker. If the congress actually did place a CO2 restriction on the EPA budget, and the president vetoed it, you’ll see the mother of all finger pointing contests, with the media on the president’s side. “Who shot the EPA?”
But you’re right. There simply is no other way.
WHOA!! There IS Obamamoney! QE2!
No congress and no budget necessary. No representation of tax payers or tea partiers necessary. Ben Bernanke can, and is buying/financing anything Obama wants including Buy America Bonds. Isn’t it nice to know that the efforts of Gov Christie and the fine citizens of Delaware are even now helping to finance California’s debt.
That may be, but the President has no authority to spend that money without the consent of Congress.
I think he only needs the consent of Bernanke, who does the transfer of funds himself. It’s an end run around congress.
It’s the classic “Tragedy of the Commons”, known today as no moral hazard. If California can be bailed out why not Delaware? So why should anyone tighten? Spend away, the fed will bail everyone out.
The Federal Reserve, unlike the EPA, FCC, Department of Agriculture, Department of Justice, et al ad finitum, is “self funding” and, while subject to limited congressional oversight, is largely independent at least in theory. The whole regulatory system for banks in the U.S. is a bit of a mess. During the summer of 1965, as a law student, I worked for the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C. and succeeded in getting the then general counsel, Howard Hackley, to write an article for the Virginia Law Review. It’s been a long time, but I think this May 1966 article is Part 1 and this June 1996 article is Part 2, although only the first page of each is provided. If so, I edited it. It was entitled “Our Baffling Banking System.” In the intervening years whatever insights I may have had about the banking system have vanished.
It would take substantial legislation to change the FED even a little bit and without both houses of the Congress and a compliant President, very little if anything effective can be done about it. That’s for later, if ever. Then, perhaps we can defund hurricanes and tornadoes (just joking).
In the meantime, I suggest that the focus be on the agencies and departments dependent on appropriations, which the FED is not. There is a truly Augean stable to muck out, without dithering around trying to do the impossible. If the new House majority can deal with the EPA, FCC, et al that will be a monumental accomplishment. That must be the focus and if successful will, like one thousand lawyers at the bottom of a lake, be a good start.
I do not agree. The Fed is unconstitutional. List its stockholders. Private banks, owned by private persons. We authorize them to print money and lend it back to us at interest. In other words, we authorize them to steal from the taxpayers. We need to end the fed- yesterday!
Mr. Miller – IF we were to establish say six (6)independent economic/financial regions and reduce the current FED blueprint down to a statistical agency for congressional economic oversight, the new system would work rather well and efficient as opposed to what we have now.
There are many positive factors from such a change and I’m sure you can figure out most of them so I’ll spare everybody from a lengthy thesis.
However, let me briefly touch on a couple of factors.
First, the congress should be the ONLY mechanism for which has the authority to direct the treasury to print currency and manipulate the value of the dollar based upon well defined authorized perameters.
Second, the private sector economies should be the sole economic and financial driving mechanism, leaving the government out of the revenue generating investment instrument business with the exception of wartime debt and social security until such time as it transitions to privatization.
Here again, the future of the restoring the nation and implementing this proposal is to hold a States or Peoples Constitutional Convention to amend the commerce clause, severely restricting the federal governments authority to regulate commerce. In my opinion since the 90′s there has simply been to much currency pumped into the nations economy leading to much of the current problems. Independent regional economic/financial centers would eliminate this in the future on a broad national basis. Again, I believe the single most important job ahead of the nation to restore itself is, to amend the constitutions commerce clause.
you can do anything in government if you control the purse
you can end a war simply by pulling the funding
DEFUND EVERYTHING
DEFUND OBAMA
DEFUND IT ALL
And a penny for the Guy, if you please.
I’ll pay for his ticket back to Kenya!
We’ve sent them the message, “It’s broke, now fix it or we stop sending you our hard-earned money.”
Republicans should STOP blabbering about reducing gov’t, defunding programs, repealing health care, withdrawing troops, creating jobs and all kinds of vague statements and provide clear, definite objectives.
That’s what 11-02 was about.
“We won!!! You can sit in the bus, but in the back. We will not give you the keys, as you can not drive. Don’t tell us what we should do.”
Sound familiar??? All of a sudden you got an urge to hear an alternative???
Vivo – As a republican switching from being a democrat in 1952, I could not agree more! I have been preaching on deaf ears to my GOP friends for more than six years now the same message you suggest….and for certain the past 18 months.
Of recent, they have been good at pushing the same old political rhetoric of simplicity and irrelevancy with NO well thought out and realisticaLLY defined strategy. Everybody including the politicians are addressing the known problems….symptoms….ignoring addressing and dealing with the systemic causations over the past many decades.
Fiscal bean counters pushing numbers around from here to there on the discreationary spending ledger is futile to the enormity of the nations economic woes.
To restore this great nation there must be an amendment to the constitutions commerce clause “narrowly” defining the federal governments authority to regulate commerce. Then over say, over three decades maximum, transition all social programs to privatization while at the same time, reducing the size of the Executive Branch back down to its intended constitutional size and authority.
Anything less than this is futile and history will repeat itself over and over as the federal government grow in sized and authority reducing the States right to govern and estaqblishing a central federal government that no future economies can support.
The problem with ‘reducing the size of Government’ is that too many business people are out to screw consumers.
Many business people are very clever and greedy, and consumers are ignorant and powerless. Scams abound and someone has to dedicate themselves to fighting them.
True, there are lots of folks out there who would like to see government remain big and get bigger. Some businesses, unions and others fall into that category. However, the new Congress will have a mandate to thwart them and should it fail to do so there is likely to be another new Congress come 2013.
It’s obvious you support a CLASS SYSTEM: owners vs. workers.
By definition, there is no stability and fairness, just struggling.
No Paradise for now . . .
Vivo…Thanks for your reply!
Greed and corruption was not an ingredient of the nations businesses and industrial base until the socialists labor unions began its excellerated corruption and power grab from the 60′s forward. If you become a student of the socialists writing and strategies from the 20th century you will come to understand the “processes” of the socialist labor unions “anti-capitalism” movements. They are all about class warfare and destroying capitalism in America regardless of all their populist and internal evolutions and rhetoric. They are all about striving to accomplish the defeat of capitalism and replacing it with a “collective” economy of equality…something history has repeatedly shown to be a miserable failure.
Labor unions are solely responsible for having driven most all of America traditional manufacturing economy to foreign soil because of their greed. They believe that if there is “profit”, that profit belongs to the employees and to hell, with companies being able to save and reinvest capital for the current trends and for future needs…i.e. the auto industry being decades behind now in tooling and the ability to withstand economic turn downs……commercial airlines now having to outsource to foreign entites much of their maintenance and flying outdated planes and technology. Same with the avaition control systems across the nation. Same for the railways systems across America. Same in the service industries across America who have gone abroad. Wherever the socialist labor unions rise up they drive up the cost of goods and services, arbitrary inflation, loss of competitviness, and ultimately loss of jobs in America to foreign soil. That is just a simple fact!
Yes, much of our businesses and society at large have followed suit and learned to be greedy. Now its time to take back America and however painful it may be, restore fairness for goods and services and Traditional American values. If we don’t, there will never be any economies that will support the enjoyed high employment and prosparity this nation has always enjoyed.
“If the House does it’s job—-”. Very big IF indeed. If they don’t then they should certainly be scrapped. Oh, too bad they get lifetime benefits for being incompetents and sell outs. 2012 is ultimately the solution – you kill a snake by chopping it off at the head.
I have to tell you, again, that I have slim hope that this “legislation” (stalin care) won’t someday be resurrected. It wont pass a full repeal. There isn’t a ‘veto proof’ vote. And much like the “atmosphere reactor” in the movie ‘Total Recall’, some day some subversive will attach an amendment at the last minute that no one will read to a bill that will breathe life back into the monster and America will tumble to the next level of socialist hell that has been planned for us.
Everything considered, we did a decent job last week and the new Congress should be an improvement over the present one. I don’t like repeating myself incessantly, but we need to remain at least as attentive and involved as during the months leading up to November 2. If the new conservative members of the House of Representatives are so concerned about getting a bit of horse manure on their shoes that they don’t get busy mucking out the Augean stable, we will have to let them know of our displeasure in the only way that works, through the electoral process. If we don’t, guess who we have to blame.
No, there won’t be a full repeal of ObamaCare anytime before 2013 unless the Supreme Court manages to do it. That’s at least possible, and should the mandatory health insurance provisions fall the rest of ObamaCare seems likely to do so as well.
I agree that stealth provisions can get into legislation and that if not noticed can get through. That’s among the reasons why the House Rules Committee is one of the most important and why it must have strong and diligent leadership and staff. A ship without someone on watch, alert and reasonably sober can’t take care of itself. And, once idiotic legislation becomes law it is very difficult to repeal, particularly if only one house of Congress wants to do it.
Had I been aware of this excellent October 28th article from the New England Journal of Medicine when I wrote this article, I would certainly have doffed my hat and said “Thanks!”
Thank you, kind Sir, thank you. I wonder whether uncontrollable giggling, although a preexisting condition, is covered by ObamaCare.
The article continues by suggesting that gridlock and government shutdowns could occur unless someone backs down; true with an omnibus appropriations bill but not if the appropriations bills are agency specific and sufficiently detailed.
What ever happen to the Tenth Amendment where a state can deem a federal law null and void, called nullification? This is the process where the states legislature and senate pass a bill basically declaring federal law to be null and void as well as unconstitutional!
I believe there are several states that are looking into this technique mine is one of those and now with a new Republican Legislature Senate and Governor, I look forward to seeing this passed and signed by our new governor. If your state is not looking into this then get with your legislature or local Tea Party and get it going for your own sake!
Right wingers don’t get it. With the growth of globalization and technology, there will be less jobs in the future. How can your children (average citizens, not rich people) be able to get adequate health care and Social Security if you don’t plan for it now?
Guess who the minorities will be in just 20 years?
Planning is good. Making planning difficult or impossible is not. Presently, the economy is stuck in a rut due to regulatory uncertainty which makes business planning difficult or impossible.
As to what the racial/ethnic balance will be in twenty years, I can guess and probably come up with the answer your question suggests. That makes it very important that policies which, intentionally or inadvertently, seek to have current minority group members on the plantation and reliant on governmental largess be rejected. Not only are such policies and their results bad for them, that sort of thing will become increasingly difficult to fund.
“adequate health care and Social Security” = plantation?
Unless you are a millionaire, I hope you land in a nice plantation . . .
18. Skydiver
Why your mentality for derailment? Why not ‘improvement’?
Don’t you call yourself a ‘patriot’ until you can demonstrate it.
While I have no objection to the suggestions made by Mr. Miller, saying NO isn’t enough. In addition to opposing implementation of Obama’s policies, the Republicans/Conservatives should also be presenting legislation such as Tort reform, buying insurance across state lines and anything else that should have been done as a portion of Health related legislation. We need to get the progressives on record as being in favor or opposed, and that includes Obama.