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Healthwatch: Freedom [Obama's unconstitutional power-grab to arbitrarily issue waivers to Obamacare]
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News
Nov 9, 2012, 2:24:02 AM11/9/12
to
http://lewrockwell.com/sowell/sowell116.html
"Waiving Freedom"
by Thomas Sowell
November 9, 2012
Among the objections to ObamaCare, one that has not gotten as much attention
as it should is the president's power to waive the law for any company,
union or other enterprise he chooses.
The 14th Amendment to the Constitution provides for "equal protection of the
laws" for all Americans. To have a law that can cost an organization
millions of dollars a year either apply or not apply, depending on the whim
or political interest of the President of the United States, is to make a
mockery of the rule of law.
How secure is any freedom when there is this kind of arbitrary power in the
hands of one man?
What does your right of freedom of speech mean if saying something that
irritates the Obama administration means that you or your business has to
pay huge amounts of money and get hit with all sorts of red tape under
ObamaCare that your competitor is exempted from, because your competitor
either kept quiet or praised the Obama administration or donated to its
reelection campaign?
Arbitrary ObamaCare waivers are bad enough by themselves. They are truly
ominous as part of a more general practice of this administration to create
arbitrary powers that permit them to walk roughshod over the basic rights of
the American people.
The checks and balances of the Constitution have been evaded time and time
again by the Obama administration, undermining the fundamental right of the
people to determine the laws that govern them, through their elected
representatives.
You do not have a self-governing people when huge laws are passed too fast
for the public to even know what is in them.
You do not have a self-governing people when "czars" are created by
Executive Orders, so that individuals wielding vast powers equal to, or
greater than, the powers of Cabinet members do not have to be vetted and
confirmed by the people's elected representatives in the Senate, as Cabinet
members must be.
You do not have a self-governing people when decisions to take military
action are referred to the United Nations and the Arab League, but not to
the Congress of the United States, elected by the American people, whose
blood and treasure are squandered.
You do not have a self-governing people when a so-called "consumer
protection" agency is created to be financed by the unelected officials of
the Federal Reserve System, which can create its own money out of thin air,
instead of being financed by appropriations voted by elected members of
Congress who have to justify their priorities and trade-offs to the
taxpaying public.
You do not have a self-governing people when laws passed by the Congress,
signed by previous Presidents, and approved by the federal courts, can have
the current President waive whatever sections he does not like, and refuse
to enforce those sections, despite his oath to see that the laws are
faithfully executed.
Barack Obama, for example, has refused to carry out sections of the
immigration laws that he does not like, unilaterally creating de facto
amnesty for those illegal immigrants he has chosen to be exempt from the
law. The issue is not - repeat, NOT - the wisdom or justice of this
President's immigration policy, but the seizing of arbitrary powers not
granted to any President by the Constitution of the United States.
You do not have a self-governing people if President Obama succeeds in
having international treaties under United Nations auspices govern the way
Americans live their lives, whether with gun control laws or other laws.
Obama's "citizen of the world" mindset was revealed back in 2008, when he
said "We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes
on 72 degrees at all times ... and then just expect that every other country
is going to say okay."
The desire to circumvent the will of the American people was revealed even
more ominously when Barack Obama said to Russian President Medvedev - when
he thought the microphone was off - that, after he is reelected and need
never face the voters again, he can be more "flexible" with the Russians
about missile defense.
There are other signs of Obama's contempt for American Constitutional
democracy, but these should be more than enough. Dare we risk how far he
will go when he never has to face the voters again, and can appoint Supreme
Court justices who can rubber stamp his power grabs? Will this still be
America in 2016?
Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford
University. His Web site is www.tsowell.com. To find out more about Thomas
Sowell and read features by other Creators Syndicate columnists and
cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page.
"Waiving Freedom"
by Thomas Sowell
November 9, 2012
Among the objections to ObamaCare, one that has not gotten as much attention
as it should is the president's power to waive the law for any company,
union or other enterprise he chooses.
The 14th Amendment to the Constitution provides for "equal protection of the
laws" for all Americans. To have a law that can cost an organization
millions of dollars a year either apply or not apply, depending on the whim
or political interest of the President of the United States, is to make a
mockery of the rule of law.
How secure is any freedom when there is this kind of arbitrary power in the
hands of one man?
What does your right of freedom of speech mean if saying something that
irritates the Obama administration means that you or your business has to
pay huge amounts of money and get hit with all sorts of red tape under
ObamaCare that your competitor is exempted from, because your competitor
either kept quiet or praised the Obama administration or donated to its
reelection campaign?
Arbitrary ObamaCare waivers are bad enough by themselves. They are truly
ominous as part of a more general practice of this administration to create
arbitrary powers that permit them to walk roughshod over the basic rights of
the American people.
The checks and balances of the Constitution have been evaded time and time
again by the Obama administration, undermining the fundamental right of the
people to determine the laws that govern them, through their elected
representatives.
You do not have a self-governing people when huge laws are passed too fast
for the public to even know what is in them.
You do not have a self-governing people when "czars" are created by
Executive Orders, so that individuals wielding vast powers equal to, or
greater than, the powers of Cabinet members do not have to be vetted and
confirmed by the people's elected representatives in the Senate, as Cabinet
members must be.
You do not have a self-governing people when decisions to take military
action are referred to the United Nations and the Arab League, but not to
the Congress of the United States, elected by the American people, whose
blood and treasure are squandered.
You do not have a self-governing people when a so-called "consumer
protection" agency is created to be financed by the unelected officials of
the Federal Reserve System, which can create its own money out of thin air,
instead of being financed by appropriations voted by elected members of
Congress who have to justify their priorities and trade-offs to the
taxpaying public.
You do not have a self-governing people when laws passed by the Congress,
signed by previous Presidents, and approved by the federal courts, can have
the current President waive whatever sections he does not like, and refuse
to enforce those sections, despite his oath to see that the laws are
faithfully executed.
Barack Obama, for example, has refused to carry out sections of the
immigration laws that he does not like, unilaterally creating de facto
amnesty for those illegal immigrants he has chosen to be exempt from the
law. The issue is not - repeat, NOT - the wisdom or justice of this
President's immigration policy, but the seizing of arbitrary powers not
granted to any President by the Constitution of the United States.
You do not have a self-governing people if President Obama succeeds in
having international treaties under United Nations auspices govern the way
Americans live their lives, whether with gun control laws or other laws.
Obama's "citizen of the world" mindset was revealed back in 2008, when he
said "We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes
on 72 degrees at all times ... and then just expect that every other country
is going to say okay."
The desire to circumvent the will of the American people was revealed even
more ominously when Barack Obama said to Russian President Medvedev - when
he thought the microphone was off - that, after he is reelected and need
never face the voters again, he can be more "flexible" with the Russians
about missile defense.
There are other signs of Obama's contempt for American Constitutional
democracy, but these should be more than enough. Dare we risk how far he
will go when he never has to face the voters again, and can appoint Supreme
Court justices who can rubber stamp his power grabs? Will this still be
America in 2016?
Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford
University. His Web site is www.tsowell.com. To find out more about Thomas
Sowell and read features by other Creators Syndicate columnists and
cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page.
Sarah Ehrett's Lesbian Love Interest
Nov 9, 2012, 11:17:48 AM11/9/12
to
On Thursday, November 8, 2012 11:24:12 PM UTC-8, News wrote:
> http://lewrockwell.com/sowell/sowell116.html
>
>
>
> "Waiving Freedom"
>
>
>
> by Thomas Sowell
>
>SNIP<
> http://lewrockwell.com/sowell/sowell116.html
>
>
>
> "Waiving Freedom"
>
>
>
> by Thomas Sowell
>
Garbage in, garbage out.
Why don't you read something better? Maybe start with the classics, Melville and Twain, maybe some Socrates. But this crap you read is not good for your mental health.
Beaver Fever
Nov 9, 2012, 1:04:35 PM11/9/12
to
> Sowell and read features by other Creators Syndicate columnists and
> cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page.
This isn't even close to an obituary, moron.
> cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page.
Matthew Kruk
Nov 9, 2012, 2:36:17 AM11/9/12
to
You need some tranquilzers to calm you down.
Message has been deleted
~M~
Nov 9, 2012, 7:49:52 PM11/9/12
to
"Matthew Kruk" wrote in message
news:Cn2ns.217277$%p1....@en-nntp-02.dc1.easynews.com...
>You need some tranquilzers to calm you down.
Back to the content of Sowell's essay - shouldn’t everyone be entitled to
the provisions of Obamacare? Is it constitutional, or even moral, to allow
some organizations to deny their members the benefits of this healthcare
plan, while everyone else has the right to it?
--
“The care of every man's soul belongs to himself. But what if he neglect the
care of it? Well what if he neglect the care of his health or his estate,
which would more nearly relate to the state. Will the magistrate make a law
that he not be poor or sick? Laws provide against injury from others; but
not from ourselves. God himself will not save men against their wills.”
- Thomas Jefferson
news:Cn2ns.217277$%p1....@en-nntp-02.dc1.easynews.com...
>You need some tranquilzers to calm you down.
the provisions of Obamacare? Is it constitutional, or even moral, to allow
some organizations to deny their members the benefits of this healthcare
plan, while everyone else has the right to it?
--
“The care of every man's soul belongs to himself. But what if he neglect the
care of it? Well what if he neglect the care of his health or his estate,
which would more nearly relate to the state. Will the magistrate make a law
that he not be poor or sick? Laws provide against injury from others; but
not from ourselves. God himself will not save men against their wills.”
- Thomas Jefferson
Message has been deleted
~M~
Nov 9, 2012, 10:28:45 PM11/9/12
to
"News" wrote in message
news:G_SdnWS9U9S5IADN...@earthlink.com...
>You have the main problem backwards!
Sometimes you have to look at the problem backwards to see the answer.
--
“A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one
another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own
pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of
labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this
is necessary to close the circle of our felicity.”
- Thomas Jefferson
news:G_SdnWS9U9S5IADN...@earthlink.com...
>You have the main problem backwards!
Sometimes you have to look at the problem backwards to see the answer.
--
“A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one
another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own
pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of
labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this
is necessary to close the circle of our felicity.”
- Thomas Jefferson
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