Obamacare waiver corruption must stop.
Are you appalled by the fact that every day it seems the Obama administration has granted, like some King on high or Pope from the Middle Ages, waivers from the Obamacare law to companies, organizations or states? And, if you’re not appalled, what’s wrong with you? Selective law enforcement? That’s the road to tyranny. The article highlighted here is written by a doctor and the cousin of Barack Obama, Milton R. Wolf. It appears in the Washington Times.
Selective enforcement of the law is the first sign of tyranny. A government empowered to determine arbitrarily who may operate outside the rule of law invariably embraces favoritism as friends, allies and those with the best-funded lobbyists are rewarded. Favoritism inevitably leads to corruption, and corruption invites extortion. Ultimately, the rule of law ceases to exist in any recognizable form, and what is left is tyranny.
America’s founders rejected that road to tyranny when they boldly declared that all men are created equal. They wrote a Constitution meant to secure the promise of equal protection under the law. Snip –
…Before casting his vote in favor of Obamacare, Sen. Kent Conrad, North Dakota Democrat, described it as “a Ponzi scheme of the first order, the kind of thing that Bernie Madoff would have been proud of.”…
The now-familiar monthly trickling down of new waivers is, at best, a tacit admission that Obamacare is a failure. So far, seven entire states and 1,372 businesses, unions and other institutions have received waivers from the law. The list includes the administration’s friends and allies and, of course, those who have the best lobbyists.
More than 50 percent of the Obamacare waiver beneficiaries are union members… The same unions that provided more than $120 million to Democrats in the last two elections and, in many cases, openly campaigned in favor of the government takeover of your health care, now celebrate that Obamacare is not their problem.
But the political payoffs don’t stop there. The Obama administration didn’t forget its closest friends in the latest round of waivers. Although there are 435 congressional districts across America, nearly 20 percent of the new waivers, amazingly, found their way to a single district – Mrs. Pelosi‘s. As for Mr. Reid, well, the entire state of Nevada found an early waiver in its Christmas stocking. After all, what kind of a friend would the president be if he couldn’t pull a few strings? Snip –
Americans deserve and, in fact, are guaranteed by our Constitution a level playing field. We were never promised equality in results, but we do deserve to play by the same rules and to be judged by the same standards. When a new law like Obamacare is so deeply flawed that its supporters openly violate these American bedrock principles to sustain it, it’s time to repeal that law.
Yes, remember the Constitution? Apparently, the administration needs a reminder of what it says and what it means. We do not have the right of Kings here. We the People are in charge. Let’s remind them. Send them this post. Read it all here:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/may/20/obamacare-waiver-corruption-must-stop/
Now, the granting of waivers is not in the president’s authority, and it is not in Congress’s authority to grant him that authority. Plus, the word “waiver” does not appear anywhere in the text of the Obamacare law. It looks like another area to challenge the law’s constitutionality. This is from David J. Shestokas from the Law, Crime and Justice section of the website Suite101.com.
Professor Philip Hamburger, Professor of Law at Colombia law school, has pointed out the history of waivers. In the Middle Ages, waivers, though called “dispensations” at the time, were handed out originally by popes, granting individuals exemptions from following church law. English kings found this to be a grand idea and as kings were at one time thought to be above the law, the king could give anyone he wanted to a license to not obey it.
This was very troubling to the English parliament, and eventually in 1688 it declared that the any “dispensation” or “waiver” by the king was now illegal. The king’s power was taken away, unless granted by parliament in regards to a specific law.
So, if you’re not troubled by Obama’s unconstitutional grant of waivers from an unconstitutional law, you might want to question whether you fully understand the implications. Is the president of the United States now a king? Didn’t we fight a revolutionary war to remove ourselves from the tyranny of the throne? Why would any free American want to be beholden to one man, one man who decides who has to follow a law and who doesn’t?
Professor Hamburger traces the development of American law on the subject and points out that not only does the Constitution not grant presidential authority to issue waivers; it does not give Congress the power to grant such authority to the president.
Beyond the lack of a grant of presidential authority to issue waivers, the Constitution requires that all American citizens be treated equally. The Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment reads as follows:
“No state shall … deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
While clearly, the 14th Amendment was written to apply to the states, the Fifth Amendment applies just as clearly to the federal government. The Fifth Amendment contains its own Due Process Clause:
“No person shall be … deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law…”
The United States Supreme Court has determined that an element of the due process referred to is the equal protection of the laws as developed under the 14th Amendment. Ultimately equal protection mandates that the law be applied equally to all parties subject to it. This likely means that any party that applied for a waiver and was denied can pursue a claim that there was unconstitutional application of the law. Snip –
It would appear that anyone requesting and not getting a waiver from the government freeing them of compliance from the ACA, or Obamacare, will have the real possibility of challenging the act on the applications of a waiver process that is not included in the law and does not comport with the due process or equal protection requirement of the Constitution.
So, with that in mind, perhaps we should all apply for waivers from Obamacare. Let’s see how the administration supports this anti-American, unconstitutional process they are thrusting on the country. Undermining the very idea of law and order is a despicable, but not surprising, method of this current gangster government.
Read more at Suite101: Another Constitutional Problem for Obamacare? Health Care Waivers | Suite101.com http://www.suite101.com/content/another-constitutional-problem-for-obamacare-health-care-waivers-a353768#ixzz1N57zAsiZ
Michael Barone says that the budget deal John Boehner passed in the House also includes a requirement for the General Accounting Office to conduct an audit of the Obamacare waivers granted by the administration. Barone, famous for coining the term “Gangster Government” as it applies to this current administration, includes these waivers as one of the most in-your-face examples of it.
…it requires the Government Accountability Office to conduct an audit of the waivers from the Democrats’ health-care bill that are being issued in large numbers by the secretary of health and human services.
This will raise an uncomfortable question. If Obamacare is so great, why are so many companies and organizations trying to get out from under it? And, more specifically, why are so many Democratic groups trying to get out from under it? Snip –
By what criteria is this relief being granted? That’s unclear, and the GAO audit should produce some answers. But what it looks like to an outsider is that waivers are being granted to constituencies that have coughed up money (or, in the case of Maine, four electoral votes) to the Democrats.
If so, what we’re looking at is another example of gangster government from this administration. The law in its majesty applies to everyone except those who get special favors.
Read all of Barone here:
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/264953/president-whatever-michael-barone
Check out this ad from Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS. It highlights how the unions were in favor of Obamacare and now are exempted from it. It’s kind of – Obamacare for thee, but (it sucks, so) not for me. Watch it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE7X8vTG6Qo
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