Obamacare: Mandatory Socialized Medicine

Obamacare
Mandatory Socialized Medicine

Note: You might want to start at the Obamacare Index Page, especially if you arrived here by using a search engine.

Obamacare is being developed by leftist politicians who don't appear to be concerned about technicalities such as the Constitution. Nothing in the Constitution authorizes the federal government to act as an insurance company or to manage hospitals. And certainly nothing in the Constitution permits the federal government to require U.S. citizens to purchase medical insurance.

Subsections:

Obamacare will be mandatory -- and therefore unconstitutional.

Despite what you may have heard, health care is not a right.

Senator Reid shamelessly buys votes

Obamacare carries an odor of corruption.

Obamacare will be mandatory -- and therefore unconstitutional

There's nothing optional about it. Whether you need it or not, you will have to purchase Obamacare or go to jail.

Obama administration issues regulations for individual mandate. The Obama administration took new steps Wednesday [1/30/2013] toward implementing the individual mandate in its signature healthcare law, downplaying the scope of the unpopular provision by stressing rules that allow exemptions from the requirement to purchase insurance. The Internal Revenue Service and the Health and Human Services Department emphasized exceptions to the mandate, which were detailed in new regulations that also laid out the process by which the IRS will calculate penalties for going uninsured.

Trashing Tricare. The Obama administration's proposed defense budget calls for military families and retirees to pay sharply more for their healthcare, while leaving unionized civilian defense workers' benefits untouched. The proposal is causing a major rift within the Pentagon, according to U.S. officials. Several congressional aides suggested the move is designed to increase the enrollment in Obamacare's state-run insurance exchanges.

Yes, Congresswoman Pelosi, We're Serious: On the Constitutionality of Obamacare. Several times during the debate and deliberation, my mind harkened back to the words of former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Remarking on the original Obamacare bill, Pelosi infamously said that first "we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it." Even more outrageous was another Pelosi observation, especially given the pivotal role of the Supreme Court. In October 2009, Pelosi was asked by a reporter if the healthcare legislation was constitutional.

Pelosi Has 'No Idea' If Supreme Court Will Hold Individual Mandate Constitutional. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) who in 2009 rebuked a reporter for asking her where the Constitution authorized Congress to require people to buy health insurance — "Are you serious? Are you serious?" she said then — now says she has "no idea" if the Supreme Court will rule that the mandate is in fact constitutional.

More than Just Broccoli: The Real Slippery Slope of ObamaCare's 'Must-Buy' Provision. If ObamaCare is judged constitutional, it will not simply be a new law, but a precedent for laws of the kind that should trouble all of us.

Obamacare not an enumerated power. The mandate is more than just unpopular — fully 72 percent of Americans, including 56 percent of Democrats, think it is unconstitutional.

Back to the Future? When a 1942 Supreme Court decision that most people never heard of makes the front page of the New York Times in 2012, you know that something unusual is going on. What makes that 1942 case — Wickard v. Filburn — important today is that it stretched the federal government's power so far that the Obama administration is using it as an argument to claim before today's Supreme Court that it has the legal authority to impose ObamaCare mandates on individuals.

The Constitution vs. Obamacare. The Supreme Court this week is hearing arguments about some specific, grave constitutional concerns about Obamacare: most prominently, whether the federal government has the power to order all Americans to purchase health insurance that meets the federal government's standards. But it is worth taking a few steps back to remind ourselves that while this requirement is an unprecedented infringement on Americans' liberty, the legislation as a whole — in its conception, not just its details — is an offense against constitutional government. As is much of modern government, and conservatives should not shrink from saying so.

Give Me Liberty, Not ObamaCare. On March 23, 2010, ObamaCare was signed into law — marking a massive down payment by the president on his pledge to "fundamentally change America." ... With its passage, for the first time in the history of our nation, the federal government decided it could regulate Americans' inactivity — a sad departure from the limited-government framework our Founders established.

Obamacare: The reckoning. Obamacare dominated the 2010 midterms, driving its Democratic authors to a historic electoral shellacking. But since then, the issue has slipped quietly underground. Now it's back, summoned to the national stage by the confluence of three disparate events: the release of new Congressional Budget Office cost estimates, the approach of Supreme Court hearings on the law's constitutionality and the issuance of a compulsory contraception mandate.

Alaska gov: Enacting health care may violate oath. Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell said Thursday [2/3/2011] he has asked his attorney general to advise him on whether implementing and enforcing the federal health care overhaul would put Parnell in violation of his oath of office. ... Parnell told reporters that he took an oath to support and defend the constitutions of the United States and Alaska.

The Supreme Court Is Not Our Benevolent Dictator. The clear and inherent constraints of the Constitution would, if applied with intellectual honesty, put an end to the expansionist vision of the federal government that is essential to the Left's program of statism. The Left cannot abide applying the Constitution as it is written because this would upend its multipronged efforts to reshape American government and society at large. There is, for example, nothing in the Constitution allowing for a federal mandate that all adults purchase health insurance.

Constitutional Health Care. The U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights were not written and ratified by the states for the purpose of allowing congressmen free rein to control every aspect of our daily lives. They were written for the opposite purpose of leaving Americans free. ObamaCare flagrantly violates that principle.

ObamaCare and the General Welfare Clause. Remember the Cornhusker Kickback? In a frantic effort to move ObamaCare through the Senate last December, the following provision was added to the bill: Nebraska was given a $100 million exemption to cover the costs of the bill's dramatic expansion of Medicaid. The special exemption was ultimately dropped during reconciliation, but not only because of the public outrage it generated. Many realized it was unconstitutional for a reason that now applies equally to the health-reform law: Both violate the general-welfare clause.

Congressional Report Casts Doubt on Obamacare's Constitutionality. A report from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) casts doubt on the two main arguments used by the Obama administration to defend the individual insurance mandate that is the central component of the controversial health "reform" law. Published on October 15, the CRS report examines the arguments both for and against the constitutionality of the individual mandate, which requires every American to purchase government-approved health insurance or else pay a fine.

The Obamacare mandate is unconstitutional. Thursday's [10/7/2010] decision in Thomas More Law Center v. Obama is a short-term victory for President Obama's health control law. Yet a close reading of the case suggests that the law may have a very tough time once it gets before the Supreme Court. The Obama administration's strategy has been to try to delay the legal cases as long as possible. In order to bring a case in federal court, a plaintiff must have "standing" — a personal, concrete legal interest, as opposed to a generalized grievance. The Obama administration asserted that no individual could have standing to challenge the mandate until 2014.

Constitution of No. When a reporter asked House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) during a press conference last year where the Constitution granted Congress the authority to enact an individual health-insurance mandate, she answered, "Are you serious? Are you serious?" Speaker Pelosi then dismissed the question and moved on to the next reporter. This exchange illustrates the way "yes we can" liberals treat the Constitution: They simply ignore it when it gets in the way of their big-government bailouts and takeovers.

Tossing A Few Legal Queries Into The 'Void'. It would be naughty to ask [Elena Kagan] about litigation heading for the Supreme Court concerning this: Does Congress have the right, under its enumerated power to regulate interstate commerce, to punish the inactivity of not purchasing health insurance? So, instead answer this harmless hypothetical: If Congress decides interstate commerce is substantially affected by the costs of obesity, may Congress require obese people to purchase participation in programs such as Weight Watchers? If not, why not?

A Message from Congress: No One Questions Our Authority. In the history of the United States, Congress has never forced individual Americans to buy any good or service. That would change if the health care bills approved by either the House or Senate ever became law. Each would require individuals to buy a health insurance plan approved by the government.

Obama's constitutional malpractice: [Scroll down slowly] This is the radical interpretation of the Commerce Clause embedded in the health care bill. It is not a power to regulate commercial activity, but to compel it. The change is unprecedented. All previous Commerce Clause cases have dealt with regulating pre-existing activity, but if someone is not buying health insurance, there is no commerce to regulate. The clause has never been used to compel private citizens not engaged in commerce to spend money on a government-mandated program. This is a new, extreme and potentially dangerous interpretation.

Congressional Research Service memo raises fresh constitutional questions about Obamacare. A just-released memo from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) raises fresh constitutional concerns about a provision in President Obama's health-care law that could impose tens of millions of dollars in fines on Congress, state and local governments.

Close Call But Court Will Find Individual Mandate Unconstitutional. The health care bill that Congress passed recently is now being challenged by 18 states to date. The constitutionality of the bill will be a close call, with strong arguments on both sides. As former staff director of the bipartisan Commission on the Bicentennial of the U. S. Constitution, I wish here to present — as impartially as possible — both sides of the case, believing along with John Stuart Mill that "he who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that."

Saving Guam from Capsizing All in a Day's Work for U.S. Congressmen. Politicians are smart, so just shut up and get out of their way. But American citizens keep coming up with the oddest objections to what politicians are trying to do. Representative Phil Hare was explaining how he was using his miraculous legislative powers to cure all sick people, and do you know what someone asked him? Whether it was constitutional. What the [heck]? What does that have to do with anything? So Rep. Hare, quite startled by this idiocy, said, "I don't worry about the Constitution." Why would anyone worry about the Constitution? If it ever comes up, you just wave your hand and say, "Commerce Clause!" and that should cover it.

Hope and Change ... the Constitution. We live in a fundamentally different country from that which existed only days ago. The government now requires that every American purchase health insurance. The Constitution has been attacked, interpreted in a way beyond its original intent. Therefore, we must change it.

ObamaCare and the Constitution : The constitutional challenges to ObamaCare have come quickly, and the media are portraying them mostly as hopeless gestures — the political equivalent of Civil War re-enactors. Discussion over: You lost, deal with it. The press corps never dismissed the legal challenges to the war on terror so easily, but then liberals have long treated property rights and any limits on federal power to regulate commerce as 18th-century anachronisms. In fact, the legal challenges to ObamaCare are serious and carry enormous implications for the future of American liberty.

Obamacare vs. the U.S. Constitution: Public support for Obamacare is dismal. ... Nonetheless, Obamacare is like a quietly rumbling volcano — dormant, but not yet dead. ... Consequently, those who want to stop this ruinous measure should keep highlighting its shortcomings until this initiative is extinct. Consider, then, that Obamacare flunks the first test of any potential federal law: It is not constitutional.

CBO: Health Bill Would Force Families to Buy Insurance. If Congress passes the Senate health-care plan, according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, American families will be required by federal law to buy a federally approved health insurance plan that will cost a minimum of $12,000 per year — and, on average, will cost $15,000 per year — whether their employer or the government helps them with the premium or not.

Gaming The Health Insurance Mandate. Democrats claim their newly passed health insurance reform will eventually provide health coverage for more than 30 million uninsured people. Don't bet on it. The key to achieving that goal, Democrats believe — along with expanding Medicaid and subsidies for buying coverage — is the individual mandate, which requires individuals to have health insurance or pay a fine. The mandate is supposed to push nearly everyone into the pool to minimize free-riding on the system.

Bachmann: We Won't Obey 'Illegitimate' Health Care Bill. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is going a step beyond simply pledging to fight efforts to pass the health care bill — she's openly pronouncing that people should personally declare it unconstitutional and defy it, depending on how it ends up getting passed.

Rep. Burgess: Government Could Potentially Force Us to Buy General Motors Products. Representative Michael Burgess (R-Texas) told CNSNews.com that if the mandate in the health care law requiring individuals to purchase health insurance or be penalized is upheld by the courts, the federal government could mandate anything, such as requiring all Americans to purchase a General Motors car.

A Manageable People. Obama's stated logic behind compelling all Americans to buy health insurance was that the system wouldn't work unless everyone was compelled to be part of it. Conformity is of course is a major requirement for big government solutions, they don't work unless everyone is forced to take part in them.

Obama's Proposal Includes Individual Health Insurance Mandate. The health care plan proposed by President Barack Obama on Monday [2/22/2010] includes an individual mandate requiring every American to have health insurance despite concerns from Republican lawmakers and legal experts that the provision is not constitutional.

States to Congress: 'Don't tread on me.'. On Wednesday [2/17/2010], the Tennessee Senate voted 26-1 to order that state's attorney general to file a constitutional challenge against any federal legislation that mandates the purchase of health insurance. Since forcing citizens to buy insurance is at the heart of the so-called "health-care reform" effort, this kind of challenge could represent a crippling blow to the Obama administration's plans.

Mandatory Insurance Is Unconstitutional. Federal legislation requiring that every American have health insurance is part of all the major health-care reform plans now being considered in Washington. Such a mandate, however, would expand the federal government's authority over individual Americans to an unprecedented degree. It is also profoundly unconstitutional.

Reform Unraveling. What kind of country would imprison citizens who felt it was in their best interest not to purchase health care insurance? We may soon find out.

The U.S. House of Presumptuous Meddlers. As an American, I am embarrassed that the U.S. House of Representatives has 220 members who actually believe the government can successfully centrally plan the medical and insurance industries. I'm embarrassed that my representatives think that government can subsidize the consumption of medical care without increasing the budget deficit or interfering with free choice.

The Myth of the Moderate Democrat. Don't assume that the 38 Democrats who voted against Nancy Pelosi's extremist version of health care reform wouldn't have supported it if their votes had been needed. The days before the final passage on Saturday were not filled with stirring appeals to get Democrats to back the bill so much as an auction to decide whom to let off the hook.

Can Obama and Congress Order You to Buy Broccoli? Can President Barack Obama and Congress enact legislation that orders Americans to buy broccoli? If so, where did they get that authority? What provision in the Constitution empowers the federal government to order an individual to buy a product he does not want? This is not a question about nutrition. It is not a question about whether broccoli is good for you or about the relative merits of broccoli versus other foods. It is a question about the constitutional limits on the power of the federal government. It is a question about freedom.

Where does the Constitution Authorize Congress to Order Americans to Buy Health Insurance? [Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick] Leahy, whose committee is responsible for vetting Supreme Court nominees, was asked by CNSNews.com where in the Constitution Congress is specifically granted the authority to require that every American purchase health insurance. Leahy answered by saying that "nobody questions" Congress' authority for such an action.

Pelosi: 'Are You Serious?' When Asked About Constitutional Authority. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) did not explain where Congress gets the authority to force Americans to buy health insurance, when asked by CNSNews.com, and dismissed the query with the response, "Are you serious? Are you serious?"

Rhetorical Tax Evasion. Chairman Max Baucus's bill includes the so-called individual mandate, along with what he calls a $1,900 "excise tax" if you don't buy health insurance. ... And, lo, it turns out that if you don't pay that tax, the IRS could punish you with a $25,000 fine or up to a year in jail, or both.

The Editor says...
What this means is that the IRS will be selling health insurance at gunpoint. If you are about to spend a year in jail on IRS charges, at some point you're going to be surrounded by men with guns.

The Education of Congressman Hoyer. Congress is moving closer to enacting a law requiring all Americans to purchase health insurance. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer says that this is "like paying taxes." He's right about that. But Hoyer made this statement as part of an effort to justify the health-care mandate on constitutional grounds. Here he indicates that he doesn't understand the Constitution that he took an oath to support. When asked what power the Constitution gives to Congress to enact this legislation, Hoyer claimed that it came from the Constitution's "general welfare" clause.

Constitutionality of health overhaul questioned. On top of all the other obstacles facing President Obama in his quest to pass health reform is this one: Does the U.S. Constitution allow the government to require uninsured Americans to buy medical insurance or impose a tax penalty if they refuse?

Beware the health insurance police. A constitutional debate among legal scholars is being waged over a key provision in the Democrats' health care legislation that poses this question about the freedom to be an American: Can the federal government force people to purchase medical insurance or pay a tax if they refuse?

Sen. Hatch Questions Constitutionality of Obamacare. Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, who has served in the Senate for 33 years and is a longtime member of the Judiciary Committee, told CNSNews.com that he does not believe the Democrats' health-care reform plan is constitutionally justifiable, noting that if the federal government can force Americans to buy health insurance "then there is literally nothing the federal government can't force us to do."

Pelosi: Buy a $15,000 Policy or Go to Jail. Today, Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee Dave Camp (R-MI) released a letter from the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) confirming that the failure to comply with the individual mandate to buy health insurance contained in the Pelosi health care bill (H.R. 3962, as amended) could land people in jail. In response to the JCT letter, Camp said: "This is the ultimate example of the Democrats' command-and-control style of governing — buy what we tell you or go to jail. It is outrageous and it should be stopped immediately."

Sen. Reed: Forcing People to Buy Health Insurance is Constitutionally Justified. When asked where specifically the Constitution authorized Congress to mandate that individuals buy health insurance, Sen. Jack Reed (D.-R.I.) said that he "would have to check the specific sections" but said that it was like making people "sign up for the draft."

Sen. Ben Nelson: 'I'm Not Going to Be Able to Answer That Question'. Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) told CNSNews.com that because he is not a constitutional scholar he was "not going to be able to answer that question" of where specifically the Constitution authorizes Congress to mandate that individuals purchase health insurance.

Mandatory Health Insurance is Like States Requiring Driver's Licenses, Warner Says. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) told CNSNews.com that the constitutional authority for Congress to require individuals to purchase health insurance is the same that allowed for Medicaid and Medicare, and for states to require driver's licenses. He also said critics who suggest the health care bill is unconstitutional are making a "spurious argument."

Criminalizing Health Care Freedom. The "reformers" in the White House and the House of Representatives have made all too plain their vision of the federal government's power to coerce individual Americans to make the "right" health-care choices. The highly partisan bill the House just passed includes severe penalties for individuals who do not purchase insurance approved by the federal government. By neatly tucking these penalties into the IRS code, the so-called reformers have brought them under the tax-enforcement power of the federal government.

Mandating Disaster. Democrats don't need the public option to engineer a "federal takeover of our health care system." All they need is the power to force Americans to purchase insurance. A mandate will fundamentally alter the relationship between Americans and their government. Instead of the government being accountable to them, they will become accountable to their government. No less than the Congressional Budget Office — a non-partisan government agency — once admitted as much.

Obamacare is unconstitutional. As Harry Reid's health care bill moves to the Senate floor, the debate over Obamacare finally begins in earnest. Shouldn't the Constitution be part of that debate? By what authority, after all, could Congress force all Americans to buy health insurance?

Praising Saul Alinsky and Cloward-Piven. The health care juggernaut working its way through Congress is, to any political realist, virtually unstoppable in some form. We will be yoked under it even if some cosmetic changes are made. Of course there will also be the unstated understanding that any section that is sacrificed for passage will be resurrected in the future. One section that won't be cut, I feel sure, is the mandate for individuals to purchase health insurance, either from private, but heavily regulated, health insurance companies, or from the Federal government. The current language of the bill, as I understand it, requires this purchase under the threat of fines, or imprisonment.

An Unconstitutional Mandate. There is no question that the Supreme Court has upheld extensive regulation of economic activity through the Commerce Clause, but it has never upheld any requirement by Congress that an individual participate in economic activity. There is nothing in the Constitution that allows Congress to punish you if you don't engage in commerce. Liberal law professors and editorial writers such as Erwin Chemerinsky of UC-Irvine and Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post try to gloss over this point, and won't admit that the Supreme Court has never approved any such requirement.

Why the Personal Mandate to Buy Health Insurance Is Unprecedented and Unconstitutional. This "personal responsibility" provision of the legislation, more accurately known as the "individual mandate" because it commands all individuals to enter into a contractual relationship with a private insurance company, takes congressional power and control to a striking new level. Its defenders have struggled to justify the mandate by analogizing it to existing federal laws and court decisions, but their efforts do not withstand serious scrutiny. An individual mandate to enter into a contract with or buy a particular product from a private party, with tax penalties to enforce it, is unprecedented — not just in scope but in kind — and unconstitutional as a matter of first principles and under any reasonable reading of judicial precedents.

Obama's Individual Health Care Mandate is Unconstitutional. The Senate is debating the future of American health care, yet one very important issue has yet to get a full and fair debate. Is the individual mandate that forces citizens to purchase health care insurance a constitutional power of the federal government? When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca.) was asked this question, she answered with the non sequitur "are you serious?"

Individual Mandate: Is It Constitutional? Congress is currently considering national health care reform legislation that will fundamentally change the health care industry in the United States. Critics have alleged that the reform proposals may be unconstitutional, especially the proposed individual mandate requiring nearly every American to purchase insurance or face a penalty. While an individual mandate has been considered before, no such proposal has ever come so close to being enacted into law.

The Editor says...
Chances are, the government won't send anyone to prison (or to FEMA camps) for failure to buy Obamacare insurance. More likely, the government will make your life so difficult that you will eventually comply. You will end up on a list of non-conformists, and you'll find it difficult to get into any federal building, and impossible to get an airline ticket or renew your driver's license. (Someday the same treatment will be given to those who refuse to carry a National ID Card.) It sounds a lot like what you would expect from a Chicago thug: You'd better buy my insurance, or something bad will happen to you.

Sen. Landrieu Declines to Say Where Constitution Authorizes Mandatory Health Insurance. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) told CNSNews.com she would leave it up to the "constitutional lawyers" to explain exactly where Congress gets the constitutional authority to force Americans to buy health insurance, the central mandate in both the Senate and House health care bills.

Sen. Akaka Says 'I'm Not Aware' of Constitutional Authority for Mandatory Health Insurance. When CNSNews.com asked whether the Constitution gives Congress the authority to make Americans buy health insurance, Sen. Akaka said: "I'm not aware of that, let me put it that way. But what we're trying to do is to provide for people who have needs and that's where the accessibility comes in, and one of the goals that we're trying to present here is to make it accessible."

Sen. Merkley: Mandatory Health Insurance is Part of Congress's 'Very First Enumerated Power'. CNSNews.com asked Merkley: "Specifically where in the Constitution does Congress get its authority to mandate that individuals purchase health care?" Merkley said: "The very first enumerated power gives the power to provide for the common defense and the general welfare. So it's right on, right on the front end." Before CNSNews.com could ask a follow-up question, Merkley's press secretary pulled him away, apparently to attend an event.

Sen. Lincoln: Congress Can Force Americans to Buy Health Insurance. Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) told CNSNews.com that Congress has the authority to force individual Americans to buy health insurance because the U.S. Constitution "charges Congress with the health and well-being of the people." The words "health" and "well-being" do not appear anywhere in the Constitution.

Sen. Conrad 'Assumes' Constitution's Commerce Clause Gives Congress Power. Senator Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) told CNSNews.com that he does not know specifically where in the Constitution Congress is given the authority to require that Americans buy health insurance, as mandated in both the Senate and House health care bills, but Conrad said he assumes the power is granted through the Constitution's Commerce clause.

Sen. Burris Cites Unwritten Constitutional 'Health' Provision. When asked by CNSNews.com what specific part of the Constitution authorizes Congress to mandate that individuals must purchase health insurance, Sen. Roland Burris (D-Ill.) pointed to the part of the Constitution that he says authorizes the federal government "to provide for the health, welfare and the defense of the country." In fact, the word "health" appears nowhere in the Constitution.

The Editor says...
Obviously, when confronted with tough questions, the Democrats are just making up answers on the spot, revealing their collective ignorance in the process.

Refuting the "Health Insurance - Auto Insurance" Analogy. It has been said, even by some law professors, that Congress can force Americans to buy health insurance because ...well, everybody knows that the "government" can force us to buy auto insurance. Read on, and I will show you how such statements constitute a serious assault on "federalism" and our constitutional Republic.

Senate Health Care Bill Would Force $15,200 Yearly Insurance Fee, According to CBO. Forget the public option. Even without it, the health care bill presented in the Senate by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D.-Nev.) would make some middle-class American families pay what amounts to a $15,200 annual federally-mandated insurance fee, according to facts revealed in analyses published by the Congressional Budget Office.

Conservative Leaders Against the Unconstitutional Individual Mandate. Mandating that individuals must obtain health insurance, and imposing any penalty — civil or criminal — on any private citizen for not purchasing health insurance is not authorized by any provision of the U.S. Constitution. As such, it is unconstitutional, and should not survive a court challenge on that issue. Supporters of the legislation have incorrectly contended that the legal justification for the mandate is authorized by the Commerce Clause, the General Welfare Clause, or the Taxing and Spending Clause. Given that this mandate provision is essential to Obamacare; its unconstitutionality renders the entire program untenable.

The Editor says...
Don't get too confident that the Supreme Court will naturally find Obamacare to be unconstitutional, especially if he can put another couple of leftists on the court before this question comes up. Remember, President George W. Bush signed "campaign finance reform"* into law assuming the Supreme Court would throw it out, and of course, they didn't, and we're stuck with it.

Challenge to health bill's constitutionality fails, 39-60. A challenge to the Senate health bill's constitutionality failed on Wednesday afternoon in a party-line vote. Sens. John Ensign (R-Nev.) and Orrin Hatch's (R-Utah) point of order arguing that the Senate bill is unconstitutional under the Interstate Commerce Clause and Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution failed in a 39-60 vote. The vote was the first in a series Wednesday afternoon as senators prepared to invoke cloture for final passage of the Senate's health bill.

Grassley: Vote on bill's constitutionality is likely meaningless. Senate Republicans' plan to vote on the constitutionality of the healthcare bill probably won't mean much, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) conceded Wednesday [12/23/2009]. The point of order on which senators will vote this afternoon challenging the constitutionality of the Senate's health reform bill isn't likely to sway courts, Grassley said.

Whores... I mean Senators march the Health Bill forward. Regardless of the last minute tricks and changes, we can pretty well count on the fact that abortions will be paid for; health care rationing will occur, targeting our seniors; Doctors will be paid whatever the Government says they will be paid; Insurance companies will be forced to raise their rates and will increasingly not be able to compete against the rigged and controlled prices; and my personal favorite: We will all be forced by the Federal Government to have health care or be fined and sent to prison.

Give Me Liberty, or Give Me Obamacare. Obamacare would require Americans to buy government-approved health insurance. It would make it illegal to offer choices in insurance plans beyond the handful of very similar ones that the government would allow. ... At its core, what Obamacare really means is a loss of freedom. Obamacare would significantly diminish Americans' freedom to control the fruits of their own labors and to spend them as they choose and as they think best.

Richard Epstein: The Reid Bill Is Blatantly Unconstitutional. At PointOfLaw.com, the distinguished University of Chicago constitutional scholar Richard Epstein provides a painstaking, withering analysis of the healthcare legislation wending its way through the Senate. He concludes that it is clearly unconstitutional. The essay is lengthy and, in places, complex; but it is brilliantly done, accessible, and compelling.

Why the Reid Bill is Unconstitutional. Senator Orrin Hatch has long urged that the legislation is unconstitutional for its overreaching on individual choice. This paper focuses on the constitutional question in the ratemaking context, by comparison to analogous regulations in the context of public-utility regulation.

Health Care Not In Constitution. Sen. Dianne Feinstein says it comes under the Commerce Clause. Rep. Steny Hoyer says it's mandated by the "general welfare" clause. Despite liberal wishes, health care is not a right. The "living Constitution" that Democrats and their court appointees have given us may be the death of our freedoms. Their constitution adapts to the times and serves the whims of the elitists. The Constitution is supposed to limit government powers. It does not allow government to do anything it feels like doing.

Mandating Health Insurance Contradicts 'Normally Considered' Limited Role of Gov't. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said Wednesday that mandating that individuals purchase health insurance may be a "violation" of the Constitution, and that it contradicts what he thought the "limited" role of the government was understood to be for "centuries."

Sen. Bob Casey: Health Care Mandate Constitutional But Not Sure... Senator Bob Casey Jr. (D-Pa.) said he was not sure if there is a "specific constitutional provision" that gives Congress the authority to mandate that all Americans have health insurance. Casey asserted, however, that the initiative was constitutional.

Boehner: 'I Think It's Wrong to Mandate the American People to Have to Do Anything'. When asked by CNSNews.com on Thursday where the Constitution authorizes Congress to order Americans to buy health insurance — a mandate included in both the House and Senate versions of the health care bill — House Minority Leader John Boehner (R.-Ohio) said that he was "not a laywer" but that he thought such mandates were wrong.

Alaska Senator Begich Doesn't Say Where Congress Gets Authority. When asked, Senator Mark Begich (D-Alaska) did not say where Congress gets the constitutional authority to require that Americans purchase health insurance, as both the Senate and House health care bills mandate. He instead said that the issue was "just more stall tactics" used by Republicans to hold up Senate passage of the legislation.

Sen. Sanders: Constitutional Authority 'Probably' Same As Medicare. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) told CNSNews.com that the constitutional provision that empowers the government to run Medicare and Medicaid is "probably" where Congress gets the authority to require Americans to buy health insurance, as both the Senate and House health care bills would mandate.

Sen. Nelson: Constitutionally, Congress Can 'Probably' Mandate Health Insurance. Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) said Wednesday [12/23/2009] that Congress is given the constitutional authority to mandate that individuals buy health insurance in "probably the same place" that states get the power to mandate that people purchase auto insurance.

Is the mandate to buy health insurance constitutional? Ilya Somin writing at Volohk Conspiracy fleshes out what is sure to be a court challenge against the constitutionality of individual or business mandates to purchase health insurance. His point — there is no "consensus" among constitutional scholars on the issue.

Sen. Lautenberg Declines To Say Where Congress Gets Constitutional Authority. At the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, Dec. 22, CNSNews.com asked Senator Lautenberg, "Specifically where in the Constitution does Congress get the authority to mandate that individuals have health insurance?" Lautenberg said, "I am not going to answer that," and then walked away.

Sen. Hutchison: 'No Place in Constitution' Gives Congress [that] Authority. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) said there is "no place in the Constitution" that grants Congress the authority to require that Americans purchase health insurance, as both the Senate and House health care bills do. She added that the health care bill recently passed by the Senate is a "trampling of individual rights."

White House to State AGs: No 'Legitimate Constitutional Concerns' in Senate Health Care Bill. The White House on Tuesday [1/5/2010] dismissed the concerns of 13 state attorneys general about the constitutionality of a clause in the Senate health care bill that singles out Nebraska for special treatment when it comes to covering the cost of expanding Medicaid coverage. While stating that he had not read a letter from the attorneys general about the issue, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs nonetheless told CNSNews.com, "I do not believe that anybody has legitimate constitutional concerns about the legislation."

Health Care Bill Could Face String of Legal Challenges. Organizations and lawmakers opposed to the health care reform package are getting their legal briefs in a bunch, threatening to challenge the constitutionality of the sweeping overhaul should it make its way to President Obama's desk.

GOP AGs may sue over health bill. On the eve of an historic Senate health care reform vote, more than half of the Republican state attorneys general have organized to provide a legal analysis of the constitutionality of a controversial provision in the Senate bill and to explore potential legal challenges.

Congressmen Who Want to Force Americans to Buy Health Insurance Are Defying the Constitution. Both the House and Senate versions of the health-care reform bill would force all individuals who are citizens or legal residents of the United States to buy health insurance or else pay a fine, even though the Congressional Budget Office has reported that the federal government has never before required Americans to buy any good or service.

Health Care and the Ailing Constitution. Here's the question I didn't get a chance to ask President Obama when he stopped by Montana recently. So far as I know, no one else has asked it of him either: "If the federal role in health care is not enumerated in the Constitution, and it isn't, then shouldn't it be reserved to the states or the people as guaranteed by the 10th Amendment?"

Is Government Health Care Constitutional? The Supreme Court created the right to privacy in the 1960s and used it to strike down a series of state and federal regulations of personal (mostly sexual) conduct. ... If the government cannot proscribe -- or even "unduly burden," to use another of the Supreme Court's analytical frameworks -- access to abortion, how can it proscribe access to other medical procedures, including transplants, corrective or restorative surgeries, chemotherapy treatments, or a myriad of other health services that individuals may need or desire?

Healthcare legislation is a threat to liberty. Congress is ignoring the Constitution by requiring all Americans to buy health insurance and ordering states to establish health benefit exchanges to run the new federal healthcare system.

Obama's Health-Care Plan Will Hurt More Than Help. The Obama health-care takeover plan is an enormous, unconstitutional expansion of the federal government. It will cost the American taxpayer at least $1 trillion, and perhaps closer to $2.5 trillion. President Obama's plan heavily taxes those who provide the products, services and payment for health care — including drug makers, insurance companies, medical device manufacturers and employers who pay for most of the nation's health care. All this raises costs...

The Constitution: Another Victim of Obamacare. Reports have come out today [3/12/2010] that the Parliamentarian has not ruled that the President must sign a law before it is considered a law for reconciliation purposes. First, they came up with a strategy to get Obamacare passed in the House without the House ever voting on the bill, now they have come up with a strategy and a ruling to get the Obamacare bill to qualify as law without the President signing the law.

Unconstitutional Procedure Being Used to Pass Unconstitutional ObamaCare. House leaders are preparing to ram through ObamaCare this week without a vote. Not only is the legislation unconstitutional, but the process being used to pass it is unconstitutional. ... This procedure is going to be debated extensively this week and may be the key issue as to whether President Obama signs legislation to provide a de facto government-run health care system.

The Truth About Progressives — aka Marxists: To fully understand the progressive movement and their current rush to grab one-sixth of the US economy via unconstitutional federal health care mandates, one must follow the trail that leads from the Maoist Movement of the 60s that started in Berkley California, and the Marxist Movement that has culminated in the joint venture between the Communist Party USA and Socialist Party USA, today's Democratic Socialists of America.

An unconstitutional solution. Michael McConnell, a law professor at Stanford and a former judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, argues that the "Slaughter solution" for enacting Obamacare is unconstitutional. The argument, which appears in the Wall Street Journal, is straightforward. ... McConnell's argument seems unassailable. The problem is getting a court to entertain the argument, if we get to that point.

No bill can become law unless the exact same text is approved by a majority of both houses of Congress.
The House Health-Care Vote and the Constitution: Democratic congressional leaders have floated a plan to enact health-care reform by a procedure dubbed "the Slaughter solution."

Slaughter says her solution is 'constitutional'. Emerging from a meeting with Democratic leaders in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) office today [3/16/2010], House Rules Committee Chair Louise Slaughter (D-NY) discussed the constitutionality of the "self-executing rule" she has condoned. This particular procedure could be used to "deem" the Senate version of the health care legislation passed in the lower chamber without members voting on the actual health care bill.

The Slaughter Rule: Yet Another Reason Obamacare Would Be Unconstitutional. As written, the current health care bill before Congress already is guaranteed to face serious constitutional challenges on enumerated powers, 5th Amendment, racial discrimination, and unequal state treatment. Now the White House seems determined to add a whole new reason courts will throw out Obamacare on sight. Director of the Stanford Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School and former-federal judge Michael McConnell explains...

Would Supreme Court rule unconstitutional law passed with Slaughter Solution? Democrats in Congress might want to re-read the 1998 Supreme Court decision Clinton v. City of New York, 524 U.S. 417 before moving forward with the Slaughter Solution to pass President Obama's health care reform bill. ... The reason, according to Amy Ridenour at the National Center Blog, is that the Justice John Paul Stevens articulated in the majority opinion the precise rationale for a similar ruling against legislation passed using the Slaughter Solution.

Slaughter House Rules. We're not sure American schools teach civics any more, but once upon a time they taught that under the U.S. Constitution a bill had to pass both the House and Senate to become law. Until this week, that is, when Speaker Nancy Pelosi is moving to merely "deem" that the House has passed the Senate health-care bill and then send it to President Obama to sign anyway.

Slaughter Rule Unconstitutional. Stanford Professor Michael McConnell, writing in the Wall Street Journal, argues that the Slaughter Rule end run is unconstitutional.

What Democrats Think of the American People: Democratic leaders in the House are apparently moving towards the "Slaughter Solution" of avoiding a direct vote on the health care legislation and instead passing the Senate health care bill by voting to "deem" it passed. As they do so, they keep reassuring the media — and each other — that the American people don't care.

I Will Not Comply. If the House fails to hold a straightforward vote on the Senate bill that was passed a couple of months ago, that bill can neither become law nor be amended by future congressional action. It will have died. There will be no ObamaCare bill, no new taxes or regulations, and no unconstitutional mandate that Americans buy health plans approved by politicians. The president and his allies may claim otherwise, but that won't change the reality of the situation. If they command the rest of us to pretend they have passed the bill, I will not comply. You shouldn't, either.

20 Ways ObamaCare Will Take Away Our Freedoms: You are young and don't want health insurance? You are starting up a small business and need to minimize expenses, and one way to do that is to forego health insurance? Tough. You have to pay $750 annually for the "privilege." (Section 1501) You are young and healthy and want to pay for insurance that reflects that status? Tough. You'll have to pay for premiums that cover not only you, but also the guy who smokes three packs a day, drink a gallon of whiskey and eats chicken fat off the floor. That's because insurance companies will no longer be able to underwrite on the basis of a person's health status. (Section 2701).

Government can't force people to buy insurance they don't want. It is not part of my job as Colorado Attorney General to tell our Congressional delegation how best to reform the nation's health care system. And I don't see it as my role to opine whether the Patient Protection and Affordability Health Care Act is good public policy. It is my job however, to defend states' rights and the constitutional rights of Colorado citizens when the federal government oversteps its bounds.

Indiana's GOP Governor Mitch Daniels: 'I Don't Know' If ObamaCare is Unconstitutional. Mitch Daniels, Indiana's Republican governor, said he does not know whether the new health care bill signed into law by President Barack Obama is constitutional. Many Republican members of Congress have said the legislation is unconstitutional and 20 state attorneys general have joined a lawsuit led by Florida challenging the law's constitutionality.

Is Obamacare Constitutional? The attorney generals in several states are mounting a constitutional attack on Obamacare. The focus of that attack is the claim that the Commerce Clause in the Constitution cannot be stretched to mandate that individuals be required to purchase health insurance.

Penalty for Not Buying Insurance Isn't a Penalty, Says Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee. [Scroll down] "You're not punished if you have health insurance, in fact. And so you are, in fact, incentivized to have health insurance, rather than take the negative which is to suggest that because we have a penalty you are being punished," Rep. Jackson-Lee said. "I am helping you. I am helping you not to have 26 percent un-insurance in the state of Texas. I'm helping children be insured. I'm helping diverse minorities be insured," said Rep. Jackon-Lee.

The Editor says...
Awwww... Big Brother is just trying to help. We should all learn to love Big Brother.

Why Broccoli Matters. The broccoli issue is not about regulating the food market. It's about the uniqueness of the health care market, an observation frequently made by ObamaCare supporters in an attempt to establish a limiting principle. The argument goes like this: because non-participants in the market (i.e., "free riders") present a risk that must be accounted for, it is appropriate to require these individuals to enroll for coverage or pay a penalty. But the uniqueness of the health care market is precisely why the mandate should not stand.

Despite what you may have heard, health care is not a right.

When Did Everything Become A Right In This Country? I was watching T.V. the other day, when a story came up about Obama-Care, on the screen was a liberal saying, "at least, health care is now a right." As I sat there I said to myself, Just what we need another right in this country, I mean really, it seems everything is a right these days. [...] No one owes you a house, a job, a bank account, or a successful life. You want those things? Go get 'em. If you are not happy with your life, it is up to you to change it.
Atrocious punctuation in original.

Human Rights: A Governmental Power Grab. [Scroll down] This brings us to a dangerous scenario associated with human rights. Namely, the way governments can use them as a justification for reaching deeper and deeper into the daily lives of their citizens. A great example of this can be seen in the way President Obama and his surrogates couched many of their arguments for the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. ObamaCare, in the language of human rights. According to them, health care is a human right which, in turn, justifies putting a system into place whereby every American has health care coverage.

Pelosi: Obamacare Is 'A Right'. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) said at her Thursday [6/7/2012] press briefing that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act — AKA Obamacre — is not a privilege but "a right." At the same time, Pelosi also said Social Security and Medicare are rights.

Rand Paul: If You Believe In A Right To Health Care, 'You Believe In Slavery'. "With regard to the idea of whether you have a right to health care, you have realize what that implies. It's not an abstraction. I'm a physician. That means you have a right to come to my house and conscript me. It means you believe in slavery. It means that you're going to enslave not only me, but the janitor at my hospital, the person who cleans my office, the assistants who work in my office, the nurses."

Is Liberalism a Religion? I've concluded that for some people on the left, political beliefs are like a false religion in which the parishioners become unable to distinguish myth from reality. How else can you explain the statements of Donald Berwick, President Obama's recess appointee to run Medicare and Medicaid, on his way out of office the other day? For starters, he claimed that the Affordable Care Act (what some people call ObamaCare) "is making health care a basic human right." Then he went on to say that because of the new law, "we are a nation headed for justice, for fairness and justice in access to care."

Give Me Liberty or Give Me Health. In the December 15 issue of America's most prestigious medical pubication, The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Eric Friedman and Eli Adashi write, "In passing The Affordable Care Act, the United States took a giant, if partial, step toward joining nations wherein the right to health constitutes an inalienable moral and legal right." Notice how the authors replace the term health care with just the term health. As a medical doctor, I strongly disagree that health is or should be a human right.

The 'Right to Health Care' Can Be the Right to No Care. If you read British newspapers, you know their universal health care system is cutting more and more services. There, everyone's right to health care is becoming the right to no care. Do we want that in the USA?

ObamaCare: Insurers Need Permission to Survive; Citizens, to Live. Suppose our government declared that everyone had the "right" to a nice steak dinner. The government would require restaurants to sell $50 steak dinners to all comers. But to keep prices affordable, restaurants could only charge $25. No restaurant could survive long under such a scheme, and most Americans would be outraged at such a blatant violation of restaurant owners' rights.

Health care is a service, not a right. Much of the debate over health care policy begins with two mistaken notions, first that health care is different than other goods and services and therefore does not respond to normal economic rules, and second that it is "too important" to be entrusted to the anonymous forces of markets. ... A "right to health care" does not appear in the U.S. Constitution or its Bill of Rights, or in any state constitution, or in the writings of the Founding Fathers or the British intellectual tradition they drew their inspiration from. This was not an oversight.

Blame the Bishops. A lot is being said and written about why national health care legislation is becoming a reality. The simple fact, available for all to see, is that the U.S. Catholic Bishops ensured passage of the bill in the House, enabling the Senate to move forward with its version. Like "progressive" strategist Robert B. Creamer, the Bishops believe that health care is a right to be guaranteed by government.

Give Me Liberty or Give Me Social Justice. Americans on both left and right are unhappy with the current health care reform bills. The left is upset because neither the House nor Senate version goes far enough towards putting government firmly in control of our medical decisions, with the goal of providing equal coverage for all no matter what the price. The right is upset because we see the bills' provisions as unwarranted intrusions on our liberty that create a "right" where none existed before. We believe that reform would be better handled by fostering competition in the private sector rather than increasing government intervention in vital decisions that should remain between doctor and patient.

How do you spell "Chutzpah"? [Scroll down] Something else that needs to be stressed is that medical care is not a right. It is a service. When your toilet breaks, you call a plumber. He comes and fixes it. Then he gives you a bill. Why should it be different when you break your arm? Of course, we live in a compassionate society: if you break your arm and go to a hospital emergency room you will be treated even if you haven't got a sou (or a euro).

The Obama 4 year plan to re-make America. [Scroll down] The current administration insists on highlighting this country's presumed moral obligation to support the contentious alternative of a Public Option contained in the President's Health Care bill, since it believes that — except for the unborn — optimum health is the inalienable right of every person.

Conyers to Introduce Constitutional Amendment Making Health Care a 'Right'. During his speech at a recent National Press Club luncheon, House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) said he is introducing a constitutional amendment that would establish health care as "a right" for all Americans. "We need a real serious bill and, by the way, the fundamental question, 'Is health care a constitutional right?'" he said. "I mean, do you have a right to health care in the American system of government or not?"

Is there a 'right' to medical care? Do you have a "right" to medical care? Is medical care free? Does it grow on trees? If you don't pay for your own medical care, do you have a "right" to get medical care at other peoples' expense? Do you have a "right" to have other people forced to pay for your medical care?

Opposing Obama is Satan's work? A "right" to health care means the state must compel more than just payment. It must compel medical care providers to render their services regardless of compensation or any other consideration. If someone has a "right" to medical care, then a physician may not deny any care for any reason. Doing so would be an infringement of the patient's "rights."

What Would the Founders Think of ObamaCare? Is health care a "right?" The liberal wing of the Democratic Party has long sought to make it so, and they may be on the verge of achieving their goal. Legislation currently winding its way through Congress would effectively make health care (or more properly, health insurance) open to every American citizen via government subsidized dispensation. Of course, no such "right" is enumerated in our founding documents — or is it?

A Right That's Wrong. Of the many objectionable provisions in the House's latest medical insurance bill, none is as destructive or morally offensive as the one that declares health care to be a "right."

Is Health Care A "Right"? Not According to Governments Who Run Health Care. When I'm speaking publicly on health reform, people sometimes ask: "Do you think that health care is a human right?" My answer is: "Yes, I believe that you have a right to spend your own money on health care of your choice, free of government interference." This prompts a moment of reflection in those who understand the difference between a culture in which people take care of each others' needs as members of a civil society, versus one in which we surrender our liberty to unlimited control of our health-care resources by government agents.

Kennedy's 'Right' Is Wrong. When Sen. Ted Kennedy, valiantly fighting brain cancer, took the stage at the Democratic convention on Monday night, he made it clear that he is now on a mission that cannot be completed unless he returns to the Senate next year — with Barack Obama in the White House. Kennedy's quest is to socialize medicine in America.

The people's veto: Has its time come? Sen. Harry Reid said not long ago that Congress was "declaring" health care to be a right, but Reid would do well to study the foundational document of American liberty. In the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson wrote, "We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Rights are not granted or created by the legislature or the king, but by God.

Health Care A Right? More Like A Wish. True rights, such as those in our Constitution, or those considered to be natural or human rights, exist simultaneously among people. That means exercise of a right by one person does not diminish those held by another. In other words, my rights to speech or travel impose no obligations on another except those of noninterference. ... For Congress to guarantee a right to health care, or any other good or service, whether a person can afford it or not, it must diminish someone else's rights, namely their rights to their earnings.

Obama to America: Bend Over and Cough. Americans resoundingly reject ObamaCare. What, then, accounts for the Democrats' determination? Democrats believe health care is a right. Start with that premise and everything else makes complete sense.

Natural Law and the 'Right' to Health Care. Is there a "right" to health care? The U.N., the EU, and now the U.S. Congress are on record as taking the affirmative on this question. The basic rationale is that the fact of everyone's needing health care (true) translates directly into everyone's having a right to it (false). ... In sum, one can either believe in the "right" to health care or the Constitution's foundation in natural law. It is impossible to believe in both.

Brother, You Ain't My Keeper. Barack Obama has tried to seize the moral high ground in the health-care debate, declaring in a conference call with religious leaders that government-provided health care is required by "a core ethical and moral obligation: that is that we look out for one another, that I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper." Well, I have news for the president: Brother, you ain't my keeper.

A Basic Human Right to Obamacare? Under President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the United States for the first time joined the U.N.'s Human Rights Council. The U.S. has long steered clear of this council, reluctant to participate in a "human rights" body that despots like Syria and Libya routinely chair.

Sheila Jackson Lee: Obamacare is a Consitutional Right. The second a massive, unpopular government entitlement program enters its implementation phase, it instantaneously transforms into a sacrosanct Constitutional right. That's the word from noted Constitutional scholar Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX).

Sheila Jackson Lee Says Repealing ObamaCare Violates Constitution. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Democrat from Texas, said on Tuesday afternoon [1/18/2011] that repealing the national health care law would violate the Constitution. Arguing that the Commerce Clause provides the constitutional basis for ObamaCare, Jackson Lee said repealing the law by passing Republicans' H.R. 2 violates both the Fifth Amendment's right to due process and the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause.

Obamacare carries an odor of corruption

Insurer with NY's 'worst' record of complaints gets $340M Obamacare loan. The New York-based Freelancers Insurance Company has been rated the "worst" insurer for two straight years by state regulators, and data compiled by a national insurance association show an extremely high rate of consumer complaints. The firm was founded in 2008 by Sara Horowitz, who worked with Obama while he was in the Illinois state senate to launch Demos, a left-wing, New York think tank funded in part by George Soros.

The IRS Illegally Expands Obamacare Tax Credits. Recently I wrote that the states could kill Obamacare by refusing to implement its insurance exchanges. [...] Even if the federal government creates an exchange in a state that has declined to do so, it would not be authorized to issue tax credits or fine noncompliant businesses. Thus, if the majority of the states refuse to create exchanges, it will doom Obamacare. There is, however, one weakness inherent in this strategy. It assumes that the Obama administration will obey the law.

ObamaCare's Secret History. On Friday [6/8/2012] House Republicans released more documents that expose the collusion between the health-care industry and the White House that produced ObamaCare, and what a story of crony capitalism it is. If the trove of emails proves anything, it's that the Tea Party isn't angry enough.

Obamacare: A plan of, by and for special interests. For a law that supposedly sticks it to big business, President Obama's health care overhaul sure has a lot of industries counting on it for profits. In recent weeks, plenty of new evidence suggests Obamacare was a boondoggle for special interests.

Obama is a failure, in every way possible. Stimulus packages were not to stimulate the economy but were to siphon off money for the bonuses of executives in failing businesses. Since when does failure deserve a bonus? What else did he do? His ObamaCare will bankrupt America and was passed with bribes, threats, arm twisting and backroom deals.

Health care industry ♥s Obama. President Obama spent the first 16 months of his presidency pretending to fight the health-care industry. "For those who fight reform in order to profit financially or politically from the status quo," the White House website blared in 2009, "the president sends a simple message: 'Not this time.'" When the Senate passed the health-care bill, he thanked the upper chamber "for standing up to the special interests." This was all hogwash. The industry that spent more on lobbying than any other in 2009 was the drug industry, and that industry backed the bill, and rewarded Senate Democrats by running ads in support of them. The bill subsidizes the heck out of drugmakers, doctors, hospitals, and other providers. Insurers dislike a lot of the bill, but they're fighting to save it from conservatives — after all, the law requires people to buy their product.

Kagangate: A Coverup Of Obamacare Conflict-Of-Interest? Judicial Watch and the Media Research Center have obtained potentially explosive e-mails that could prove Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan provided misleading answers during her Senate confirmation hearings when she said she had no involvement as U.S. Solicitor General in any strategizing over how to defend the health care reform law known as Obamacare. Whether or not she had any such involvement is crucial in determining whether she must recuse herself from cases dealing with the constitutionality of Obamacare.

Obama is paying back the unions for their support in 2008.
ObamaCare's Longshoremen Rules. The Senate Majority Leader's new version specifically exempts "individuals whose primary work is longshore work." That would be the longshoremen's union, which has negotiated very costly insurance benefits. The well-connected dock workers join other union interests such as miners, electrical linemen, EMTs, construction workers, some farmers, fishermen, foresters, early retirees and others who are absolved from this tax.

Washington Post and CBS receiving money from Obamacare slush fund. Two mainstream news organizations are receiving hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars from Obamacare's Early Retiree Reinsurance Program (ERRP) — a $5 billion grant program that's doling out cash to companies, states and labor unions in what the Obama administration considers an effort to pay for health insurance for early retirees. The Washington Post Company raked in $573,217 in taxpayer subsidies and CBS Corporation secured $722,388 worth of Americans' money.

Obama Staffers Profit from Obama Health Care Plan. It turns out that President Barack "Change" Obama isn't changing things that much after all. At least not for David Axelfod, who appears to be playing the classic Washington insider's game for fun and profit.

Axelrod's unsolicited email on health care reform. That community organizing thing with soaring rhetoric, so effective during the presidential campaign, isn't working so well now that the presidency has actually been won. Vague promises won't do [when] solid accomplishments are necessary.

David Axelrod's Very Big Problem. The allegations in this Bloomberg story — if true — pose a huge problem for a senior advisor to the president, David Axelrod.

Obama Campaign Ad Firms Signed On to Push Health-Care Overhaul. Two firms that received $343.3 million to handle advertising for Barack Obama's White House run last year have profited from his top priority as president by taking on his push for health-care overhaul.

Corporate Shills for Hope and Change. Two weeks ago, the White House embraced $150 million in drug industry ads supporting Obamacare. This week, Bloomberg News reported that White House senior adviser and chief campaign strategist David Axelrod's former public relations firm, AKPD Message and Media, has raked in some $24 million in ad contracts supporting Obamacare — along with another PR firm, GMMB, run by other Obama strategists. The ads are funded by Big Pharma, the AARP, AMA and the powerhouse Service Employees International Union (whose Purple Shirts dumped $80 million in independent expenditures to get Obama and the Democratic majority elected).

Questions For Mr. Axelrod, et al. The deal itself may well be completely legal if a little starting to outsiders. What matters is whether Mr. Axelrod knowingly or unknowingly broke the law in striking the deal with his former firm and then participating in negotiations with people or entities that directly or indirectly sent cash to his former firm to produce and air ads pushing the president's health care agenda. ... The only question that really matters is whether or not David Axelrod violated any of the federal laws.

Quid Pro Quo. We noted here that the drug companies intend to spend $150 million -- more than the McCain campaign's entire television advertising budget -- on ads supporting Obamacare. Today on CNN, Wolf Blitzer asked Linda Douglass whether the ad campaign was part of the deal that the drug companies struck with the Obama administration.

Unions To Get Dues from ObamaCare. Thousands of union members rallied for Obamacare on Capitol Hill today [6/26/2009] in a massive display of union outreach that threatened to deliver more votes for a controversial "public plan" option. The rally came on the heels of Obama raising the possibility that unions would be exempt from taxing health care benefits. Obama said he was open to imposing new taxes on Americans who are not union members, which is a principle he adamantly opposed during his presidential campaign.

Mrs. O And The Patient Dump. It wasn't until white America accepted her husband that she was finally proud of America. The same America that allowed the hospital she worked for to screw over the same underprivileged her better half was organizing to raise his own political stature. The fact she's become the First Lady won't erase the past, and we should all be wary of the kind of health care her husband has in store for us.

The Obamacare Horror Story You Won't Hear. The White House, Democrats and MoveOn liberals are spreading health care sob stories to sell a government takeover. But there's one health care policy nightmare you won't hear the Obamas hyping. It's a tale of poor minority patient-dumping in Chicago — with first lady Michelle Obama's fingerprints all over it.

Back to ACORN General Hospital. Guess who's going to be much better off thanks President Obama's health care scheme? ... If the UAW gets to have controlling interest in the American auto industry, why shouldn't AFSCME, SEIU, and ACORN be allowed to run the 14% of GDP currently known as the American healthcare system? Millions and millions and millions of new dues-paying members from countless communities ripe for organizing. All without the hassle of passing card check.

GE a corporate sponsor. For all of the carping liberals did for eight years about corporate cronyism in George W. Bush's White House, they seem to turn a blind eye to the same behavior in President Obama's. With plans in place for a major overhaul in the health-care industry, General Electric is positioning itself to become a major beneficiary of these health care reforms.

Read the Union Health-Care Label. In the heated debates on health-care reform, not enough attention is being paid to the huge financial windfalls ObamaCare will dole out to unions — or to the provisions in the various bills in Congress that will help bring about the forced unionization of the health-care industry. Tucked away in thousands of pages of complex new rules, regulations and mandates are special privileges and giveaways that could have devastating consequences for the health-care sector and the American economy at large.

Culture of Corruption Produces Awful Health Care Bill. Usually a major welfare-state bill has to be passed by Congress and go into effect before it is exposed as corrupt. The money has to actually be flowing out of Washington before anyone notices that it's being diverted into a cesspool of special favors and sweetheart deals. But a lot of things are unprecedented about the current push for a health care bill. Never has such a major expansion of the welfare state been passed without bipartisan support and broad approval from the public. And rarely has the corruption of a program been exposed while it is still awaiting final approval in Congress.

More Details on Obama's Big Bribe to Big Labor: If you're part of one America, you have to pay a tax if you receive generous health benefits. But if you're part of the other America that has contributed handily to Democratic campaigns and has access to the White House, you can receive those same benefits without paying a tax.

ObamaCare's latest bribe: It took two days of wrangling behind closed White House doors under the demanding gaze of big-labor bosses, but President Obama won a major health-care victory yesterday [1/14/2010]. The same can't be said of America. The deal in a nutshell: a big, fat wet kiss for labor unions, which won exemption from a proposed 40 percent tax on on expansive private health-insurance plans until 2018.

Unions Collect A Health Care Payoff. Big Labor carved out a tax exemption for union members' health plans on Thursday [1/14/2010], paving the way for passage of health care reform. Call it what it is: a bribe to cronies in an increasingly corrupt overhaul.

Labor's $60 Billion Payoff. Democrats seem impervious to embarrassment as they buy votes for ObamaCare, but their latest move makes even Nebraska's Ben Nelson look cheap: The 87% of Americans who don't belong to a union will now foot the bill for a $60 billion giveaway to those who do.

Teachers union gets a pass on ObamaCare rule. The United Federation of Teachers — one of President Obama's key political backers — is the biggest beneficiary of a White House sweetheart deal that will exempt certain outfits from complying with new health-care rules, officials revealed yesterday [10/7/2010]. The quietly approved federal waivers for 30 companies, health insurers, unions and other groups across the country means the UFT doesn't have to gradually phase out caps on annual health coverage like everyone else.

Union Pushes for ObamaCare Then Is Granted Waiver. The irony would be humorous if it weren't so sad: The United Federation of Teachers, the New York City branch of the American Federation of Teachers, which pushed ardently for ObamaCare has now requested — and received — a waiver from its mandates.

ObamaCare Rewards Friends, Punishes Enemies. A primary task for the new Republican House majority is to undo as many of the pernicious effects of ObamaCare that it can. One of these effects is the spectacle of employers going hat-in-hand to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for waivers from some of the law's more onerous provisions.

Top 10 Obama Administration Investigation Targets: [#1] ObamaCare: Any measure that restructures one-sixth of the U.S. economy bears scrutiny particularly when passage of the bill required legislative bribes such as the Louisiana Purchase and Cornhusker Kickback. To paraphrase Nancy Pelosi, now that ObamaCare has passed, let's see exactly what is in it — and how it got there.

The Wisconsin Protests and the New Medical Ethics. The breaches of professional ethics displayed in Wisconsin may be an ominous foretaste of future problems Americans can expect under ObamaCare.

The State of ObamaCare. Big Government's most unhealthy program, ObamaCare, has been mutating and degenerating since the hour of its gruesome birth. Thousands of pages of new regulations have erupted from its bloated, heaving body like tumors. Waivers for politically connected unions and businesses have gushed from its open wounds. The Administration realized that the slow bleed of ObamaCare waivers was killing it politically, as each new waiver release gave critics a new opportunity to write about how awful the program is, and how corrupt Obama's government has become.

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