I know you're not
going to listen to me.
I'm going to say it
anyway, because as a concerned citizen of The United States of America,
I must.
You are making a
grave, perhaps nation-ending mistake.
Attempting to "deem"
the Health Care bill passed when it has not
actually been voted on is not Constitutional. Article 1, 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.
Every Bill which
shall have passed the House of
Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be
presented to the President of the United States; If he approve
he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to
that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the
Objections at large on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If
after such Reconsideration two thirds of that House shall agree to pass
the Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objections, to the other
House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by
two thirds of that House, it shall become a Law. But in all
such Cases the Votes of both Houses shall be determined by Yeas and
Nays, and the Names of the Persons voting for and against the Bill
shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively.
If any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days
(Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the Same
shall be a Law, in like Manner as if he had signed it, unless the
Congress by their Adjournment prevent its Return, in which Case it
shall not be a Law.
This is the black-letter law of the land.
There are millions
of Americans who are extraordinarily
pissed off right now. Some of them, like me, write scathing columns on
The Internet or we rant on Talk Radio and Television (such as Judge
Napolitano)
But some just
smolder. Some remember the other founding document of our Republic, The Declaration of Indpendence, which says, in part:
That whenever any
Form of Government becomes destructive
of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it,
and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such
principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall
seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
That doesn't sound
so good. What has tempered these people is largely what always has in
all nations, that is:
Prudence, indeed,
will dictate that Governments long
established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and
accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to
suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by
abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
Indeed.
Neither you or I
know where the line is for that
cross-section of the citizens in this land. I cannot speak for them,
for I am not inclined toward the sort of actions that they are, nor do
I countenance them. As such I'm not exactly on those folks' "A list".
In fact I fear the
day they decide to express their
disgust, for while in singular number those expressions are horrifying,
as a group such actions harken to a time I hope we would never revisit
in this nation.
But I do understand,
and see, that they are seething in anger at what has befallen this
once-great country.
They have watched as
thirty years of corruption in Washington DC has turned our economy and
government into a bad joke.
They have watched
their jobs go overseas to a Communist
Nation for the benefit of a handful of corporate oligarchs, while
Washington chortles.
They have watched
banksters do everything in their power
to imprison them in debt, including bribing Congress to remove usury
laws, "reform" bankruptcy so as to render a significant percentage of
the population under effective indentured servitude (allegedly
prohibited by the Constitution) while the very same banksters declare
bankruptcy at the drop of a hat and stick lenders with losses, and
while these very same banksters peddle fraudulent securities, cook
their balance sheets and generally defraud everyone in the nation -
then force the taxpayers, at gunpoint (quite literally, if you remember
the fall of 2008 - you were in the room with Bernanke and Paulson when
they threatened tanks in the streets) to bail them out.
Finally, they have
watched Health Care turn into a
monstrous mess, with cost increases of 10, 20 even 30% or more a year.
These costs are expanding at that rate because ambulance chasers like
former Presidential Candidate John Edwards make millions while Congress
has passed laws forcing Americans to eat the development expense for
every advanced medical technology over the last 30 years. Congress has
refused to demand that medical practitioners bill everyone the same
price for the same procedures and drugs. Congress has passed laws
exempting medical providers and insurers from anti-trust law, so those
aggrieved cannot sue in private causes of action for these abuses. And
finally, Congress has forced all of us to eat the cost of care for
illegal invaders who commit their first crime with their first
step over our national boundary. All of these abuses and more could be
addressed, but none of them are in the bill you wish to advance, and
that, Madame Speaker, is intentional.
But all of this,
while it has been outrageous and even
criminal, has been, for the most part, Constitutional. It may be the
stuff of a Banana Republic, and it may violate equal protection of the
law (a founding principle and in fact a guaranteed right), but Congress
has never cared about any of that in my 47 years on this planet.
Witness all the laws
you, Madame Speaker and the rest of
the Government (including this Health Care plan) do not have to obey
while the rest of us do under pain of fine or even imprisonment.
What you propose to
do now, however, is not Constitutional.
Rather than
negotiate, advance and pass something like my four-point plan
that would, along with dropping anti-trust protections and ending the
practice of preventing reimportation of drugs and devices, attack the
problem at the source, you instead are putting forward the Senate's
2200-page monstrosity.
You are doing so
because this bill is not about Health
Care at all. It is about revenue, and you know it. It is about the
fact that The Federal Government is running into a wall at warp speed
trying to furiously cover up all the fraud and scams in the financial
system while at the same time spending over $1.5 trillion we do not
have to replace collapsed consumer demand.
You must raise
revenues, and you know it - or this ship
called "The USS Treasury" sinks beneath the waves, and the first
sacrifices to go overboard will be all the Seniors on Medicare and
Social Security - not by choice, but by force of fiscal insolvency.
In short, this is
just another Washington scam.
But this time you're
going too far, and you're taking a horrific risk.
You must not, Madame
Speaker.
You must instead
face this nation and tell the truth.
We cannot fund the
scams and frauds any more. Those who
committed them must go to prison, even if they're campaign contributors.
We cannot borrow 10%
of our GDP and spend it forward, as
the CBO projects we will try, in a futile and permanent attempt to
replace consumer demand.
If we do not stop
this idiocy we will soon be unable to
fund Social Security, Medicare and Welfare in all its forms, leading to
an immediate and critical breakdown of our society.
The mad reach for
revenue, Madame Speaker, is why you're in such a hurry - and you know
damn well I'm right.
If you succeed, we
will get your tax bill now and the promised health care never.
That's a fact.
There is a bright
white line for every person in this
country who has taken an oath to uphold our Constitution. It is in
different places for each of those individuals, but you had better
believe it exists.
For some it will be
crossed if you try to disarm Americans, as was attempted after
Katrina.
For some it will be
crossed if you try to occupy their homes.
And for some, it may
be crossed if you attempt to "deem" this bill passed, when The House
has not actually passed it.
I pray this evening
I am wrong, and that for no material
number of people - indeed, for no one person - that is where their
personal line is.
But I am reasonably
certain that this prayer will be offered in vain.
Therefore, the
choice is yours, not mine, for all I can do in furtherance of my hopes
(and abeyance of my fears) is pray.
You, Madame Speaker,
on the other hand, can act to quell this idiocy.
Or you may tempt
fate, you may tempt the millions of
people who have swore an oath to defend and uphold The Constitution
and, having done so, went to war throughout our history. Many of those
people, along with millions more who never wore a uniform stand today
in defense of that "quaint" old piece of parchment - but not in defense
of you, nor any other person.
You may also provoke
States to assert their long-dormant
10th Amendment rights for real, not in some quaint "one off" regarding
intra-state weapons manufacturing. That, Madame Speaker, harkens back
to a time I'd rather not revisit as well.
You will almost
certainly lose your Speaker's Gavel come
November, as the mortal sin against the Constitution of deeming a bill
passed without actually voting on it is so inimical to a republican
form of government and displays such gross arrogance that you have
forfeited your right to wield that gavel by mere contemplation of the
act.
I am quite certain
that I stand with millions of other
Americans who are willing to put forth whatever effort is necessary to
see that occurs come November - at the ballot box - whether you proceed
with your abhorrent plan or not.
