The Consent of the Governed

Knowing that the 111th Democrat-Progressive ruled Congress is indeed tyrannical in its endeavors to ram through ObamaCare, the Left continuously touts that the American people want this bill. Now, I have seen the polls and so have you, and so have the Democrats, including Obama, and they clearly know that they American people are vehemently against this healthcare takeover.

This leads me to my next point. I search through our Founder’s words in the Declaration of Independence. I’m searching for guidance, for the Founders must have known there would be tyranny lurking at every corner to deconstruct the nation that they had instituted. So many of us read the founding documents today, dusting them off, reading every word, clinging to every word. And there it is:

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — 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. emphasis mine

What’s missing is the how. We have the Right. But, does it go further?  An obligation, perhaps? Do the Founders leave the door open to any effective means? The people have the Right to abolish an oppressive form of government. Because we do not consent, we have the Right to institute a new government–to abolish all that exists and start new. All the entitlements, bribes, kickbacks, deals, unfair taxation–everything.  They give Americans the Right, directive, and ability to dissolve the current tyrannical government.  They knew this would happen.  That is why they give us the “Right” to guard this great nation against future tyranny.

In addition, our Founders, as only Fathers could to, give us the directive in the Declaration of Independence:

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. emphasis mine

It is our duty to ”throw off such government.” Not optional.  An obligation.

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Tags: Anita Dunn, Blue dogs, Cass Sunstein, consent of the governed, executive power
Posted Mar 15th 2010 at 1:21 pm in Uncategorized | 89050234 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/sahiller/2010/03/15/the-consent-of-the-governed/The+Consent+of+the+Governed2010-03-15+20%3A21%3A54SusanAnne+++Hiller

Swing Districts Oppose Health Reform

Heather Higgins and Kellyanne Conway in today’s Wall Street Journal:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she plans to bring health-care reform to a vote this week. Democratic leaders cite national polls that show support for individual provisions of the bill as a reason to pass this reform. Yet vulnerable politicians should be warned: Responses to questions about individual benefits, particularly when removed from a cost context, are different from those on the whole bill.

Voters in key congressional districts are clear in their opposition to what they have seen, read and heard on health-care reform. That’s one of the findings of a survey that will be released today by the Polling Company on behalf of Independent Women’s Voice. The survey consisted of 1,200 registered voters in 35 districts represented by members who could determine the outcome of the health-care debate. Twenty of those members voted for the House bill in November but now may be reconsidering. Fifteen voted against the bill but are under tremendous pressure to change their vote.

The survey shows astonishing intensity and sharp opposition to reform, far more than national polls reflect. For 82% of those surveyed, the heath-care bill is either the top or one of the top three issues for deciding whom to support for Congress next November. (That number goes to 88% among independent women.) Sixty percent want Congress to start from scratch on a bipartisan health-care reform proposal or stop working on it this year. Majorities say the legislation will make them and their loved ones (53%), the economy (54%) and the U.S. health-care system (55%) worse off—quite the trifecta.

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Tags: government health care, health care reform, independent women's voice, Nancy Pelosi, ObamaCare
Posted Mar 15th 2010 at 11:13 am in Congress, Healthcare, News, Politics | 90102124 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2010/03/15/swing-districts-oppose-health-reform/Swing+Districts+Oppose+Health+Reform2010-03-15+18%3A13%3A19Publius

Which Democrats Get Free Passes?

Starting today, the RNC should offer Free Passes to targeted Congressional Democrats who will agree to vote NO on health care.

The Free Pass should include:

• A guarantee no national money will be used against the Democrat in the general election.
• A guarantee if the Democrat wants to jump parties (far less likely), he/she will receive the RNC’s endorsement in the primary & national money in the general.

Yes, Pelosi still faces hurdles. Yes, a government take-over of health care would inflame America’s likely voters and lead to greater Republican gains in November.  Yes, we can attempt to repeal it.  Yes, we can cheer SCOTUS to rule it unconstitutional.

But, none of these things is worth the current Republican passivity.   We have no time for party purity here.   Our own focus must be jobs, jobs, jobs.   And we cannot get bogged down with “repeal it,” even if we gain power.

Right now, Republicans should be locking down NO votes with as much carrot as we have stick.  We’ve put the fear of god into them, for the ones still fence sitting, it is time to offer salvation.

Here’s my list of persuadable Democrats to be offer a Free Pass:

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Tags: blue dog democrats, government health care, Nancy Pelosi, RNC, Supreme Court
Posted Mar 15th 2010 at 5:31 am in Congress, Featured Story, Healthcare, News, Obama, Politics | 89346163 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/mwarstler/2010/03/15/which-democrats-get-free-passes/Which+Democrats+Get+Free+Passes%3F2010-03-15+12%3A31%3A13Morgan+Warstler

Gibbs: ObamaCare the Law of the Land by Next Sunday

Doing his rounds on the Sunday talk shows, WH spokesman, Robert Gibbs, stated:

Gibbs added that those on next week’s Sunday talk shows “will be talking about healthcare not as a presidential proposal but I think as the law of the land.”

It’s interesting to note that Gibbs did not mention the reconciliation package. In fact, there has been a definite cooling of the rhetoric about the prospect of reconciliation in the Senate.

Note to those members of the House, you are being duped. The Senate will not take up the reconciliation package at all. After the House is stupid enough to fall for their bait and pass the ObamaCare bill, the Senate will deem reconciliation an impossibility due to the Byrd Rule.

In addition, Gibbs stated:

President Barack Obama will look to campaign on the new healthcare law in midterm elections, Gibbs said.

“We believe healthcare reform is going to pass, and once it passes we’re happy to have the 2010 elections be about the achievement of healthcare reform,” Gibbs said.

The GOP would love to run on the platform of the Democrats ramming ObamaCare down our throats, and the Slaughter Rule will make it the ultimate death blow.

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Tags: government health care, Obama Care, reconciliation, Robert Gibbs, white house spokesman
Posted Mar 14th 2010 at 5:31 pm in Congress, Healthcare, News, Obama, Politics | 89390349 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/sahiller/2010/03/14/gibbs-obamacare-the-law-of-the-land-by-next-sunday/Gibbs%3A+ObamaCare+the+Law+of+the+Land+by+Next+Sunday2010-03-15+00%3A31%3A45SusanAnne+++Hiller

‘Schoolhouse Barack’

Remember Schoolhouse Rock, that civic-minded Saturday morning cartoon short from the 1970s? It’s time to update it for the Obama Era.

”I’m Just a Law”

LAW (singing): I’m just a law, yes I’m only a law,
And I don’t know why they passed me at all.
Cause — no — one — knows what is in me
No one’s read a darn word,
I was typed up last night
By a 20-year-old nerd,
But Pelosi twisted elbows all day.
How I hoped and prayed they would stall
But today, all in all, I’m a law.

BOY: Hello, Law, why so glum?

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Tags: government health care, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, ObamaCare, Pelosicare
Posted Mar 14th 2010 at 3:01 pm in Congress, Healthcare, Obama, Political Humor, Politics | 8274686 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/jherricane/2010/03/14/schoolhouse-barack/%27Schoolhouse+Barack%272010-03-14+22%3A01%3A50John+K.+Herr

How Republicans Can Stop The Health Care Bill in 3 Steps

The stakes in the health care debate continue to climb. For the Democrats, they truly are in between a self- imposed Barack and a hard place. If they produce a health care bill that Obama signs over the objections of the American people, they risk losing 55 or more House seats and 8-10 Senate seats. If they don’t push through a bill, they will have angered yet another part of their base.

For the Republicans, any failure to demonstrate a principled resistance to the Democrats will hurt them, in the Fall, among Tea Party voters and their base. If it passes, it will do irrevocable harm to our health care system and the solvency of our government, while hurting the economy and the dollar for decades to come. Worse yet, history has shown that de-nationalizing socialized healthcare is beyond difficult. In other words, hoping for the repeal of ObamaCare is not a good option.

That much danger requires that the Republicans pull out all of the stops to literally stop its passage. As the “final” vote on the bill looms, Republicans in Congress simply must enlist the voice of the American people in their effort and force the Democrats to abandon the bill. Here is a 3 point plan to do just that.

1. Adopt a HealthCare Covenant With America. The existing health care bill represents everything that is wrong with American government today. It is a 2600 page monolith and few have any idea of its true contents – as Nancy Pelosi so eloquently noted (“But we have to pass the [health care ] bill so that you can find out what is in it.”) Republicans quickly and simply must contrast that with a one page charter, contract, or declaration. which sets forth 7 – 10 key reforms in simple straightforward language. The contents should obviously emphasize private sector reforms, such as the promotion of HealthCare Savings Accounts (“HSAs”), coupled with the modernization of government regulations, i.e. updated regulations/laws to allow increased pooling across state lines – all with an eye to addressing the deficiencies of the current health care system.

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Tags: government health care, health care covenant, Health Savings Accounts, ObamaCare, townhall meeting
Posted Mar 12th 2010 at 5:31 am in Congress, Featured Story, Healthcare, News, Obama, Politics | 88002218 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/tdelbeccaro/2010/03/12/how-republican-can-stop-the-health-care-bill-in-3-steps/How+Republicans+Can+Stop+The+Health+Care+Bill+in+3+Steps2010-03-12+13%3A31%3A44Thomas+Del+Beccaro

Fact Check: Politician Massa Said He’d Vote for Single Payer

The controversy surrounding the accusations and resignation of Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) is a bit bizarre.  When he lashed out at the administration, and particularly chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, it was viewed as a peek beneath the veil of Washington inside baseball.

It’s a veil few have the stomach to look beneath.  Regardless, Massa’s comments were seized upon as proof of what has been said all along about the administrations tactics to do anything necessary to pass ObamaCare.

Is Massa telling the truth?  I don’t know.  It seems plausible.  It certainly seems to fit the matrix of what the administration has done in the past to twist arms and pressure members of Congress to pass its bill.

But I do know Massa took heat last summer when his meeting with a group of liberal bloggers was recorded and put on YouTube.

Massa: So what happens at my town hall meetings, frankly, is important, because I’m in one of the most right-wing, Republican districts in the country.  And I’m not asking you guys to go back to wherever and send people to me, this is a generic statement about ‘what can I do?’ Well, that’s one thing we can do.

Blogger: So if we got your meetings to 60/40 and there was single payer in a bill, you’d vote for it?

Massa: Oh absolutely, I’d vote for single payer.

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Tags: eric massa, government health care, leftist activists, netroots, Rahm Emanuel
Posted Mar 9th 2010 at 9:13 am in Congress, Healthcare, News, Politics | 8660253 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/kolson/2010/03/09/fact-check-politician-massa-said-hed-vote-for-single-payer/Fact+Check%3A+Politician+Massa+Said+He%E2%80%99d+Vote+for+Single+Payer2010-03-09+17%3A13%3A05Kyle+Olson

The Dems Don’t Trust Obama – for Good Reason

All this talk about reconciliation is a distraction from the bigger picture: In one year Obama has lost his own party. He can’t get them to pass his signature bill. And now he has lost their trust. (Even though the media rarely mentions it, he had a filibuster proof majority in the senate and a super majority in the house and he STILL couldn’t get it done.)

The WSJ has a great piece on this

The cleanest option for Democrats would be for the House to pass the Senate’s Christmas Eve bill word for word, thereby bypassing a Senate filibuster under the normal rules and forwarding ObamaCare directly to the Rose Garden signing ceremony. But Speaker Nancy Pelosi has repeatedly said the votes simply don’t exist for the Senate bill as is…

Thus the convoluted scheme the White House has mapped out. The House would first pass the Senate bill, and then pass a reconciliation bill that addresses these objections—in effect converting the process into a makeshift and unprecedented vehicle for amendments…

Iron-clad promise—or double-cross? After all, the White House would much prefer the Senate bill, because by its lights the cost-control programs are tougher than what the House prefers…

In other words, perhaps Mr. Obama has embraced this reconciliation two-step only to renege as soon as the House gives him what he wants.

Add in Rep. Massa’s (D-NY) accusations that Obama’s boys booted him out because he voted against the “health care” bill and the allegations that Obama gave away a judicial appointment to Congressman Matheson (D-Utah) to get his vote for health care and the unbelievable has occurred. The bill looks sleazier than it did after the Cornhusker Kickback, The Louisiana Purchase and the Gator Aid.

Moderate Democrats can’t trust their own president. Getting ANY health care bill passed is now Obama’s top priority. He has convinced himself that it will be his legacy. He knows it’s very unpopular with the American people. (Even SNL knows that). But he believes the people just don’t know what’s good for them and they will eventually thank him for it. The lefties think you are too stupid to handle your own affairs – watch Robert Reich.

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Tags: Barack Obama, Big Government, government health care, health care reform, ObamaCare
Posted Mar 9th 2010 at 6:57 am in Congress, Healthcare, Obama, Political Humor, Politics, Uncategorized | 8608281 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/gknapp/2010/03/09/the-dems-dont-trust-obama-for-good-reason/The+Dems+Don%27t+Trust+Obama+-+for+Good+Reason2010-03-09+14%3A57%3A09Greg+Knapp

Tuesday Open Thread: Massa Edition

Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) has been pressured to resign his seat in Congress, due to allegations of sexual harassment. He have no information about the truth of the charges, but we find it interesting that the Democrat leadership moved so swiftly to push his ouster. Certainly, it has nothing to do with the fact that Massa was a vote against “cap-and-trade” and “ObamaCare.”

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Tags: cap-and-trade, eric massa, government health care, Nancy Pelosi, ObamaCare
Posted Mar 9th 2010 at 3:18 am in Open Threads | 86438100 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2010/03/09/tuesday-open-thread-massa-edition/+Tuesday+Open+Thread%3A+Massa+Edition2010-03-09+11%3A18%3A27Publius

The Reconciliation Process: Reconciling or Tearing the Nation Apart

Washington is abuzz these days with talk of “reconciliation” a word in our usual lexicon that suggests bringing people together. In this case, however, it is a larceny of language. It is divisive and not conciliatory and it is, understandably, creating anguish and outrage among those who understand the subterfuge at play here. Political mischief is about to run amok as this corruption of Senate rules becomes the strategic center piece President Obama and the Democratic majority in Congress will utilize to ram their health care bill into law.

To be sure, the reconciliation process has been used a number of times during the past thirty years, usually without much angst or controversy. It has, essentially, been used in the past to remove legislative stumbling blocks to initiatives with fairly strong bi-partisan support. American tradition as well as old-fashioned common sense has generally dictated that consequential legislation enjoy broad bipartisan consensus and, in fact, the most ambitious reconciliation bills of the past have been, more often than not, popular on both sides of the aisle. In these cases, reconciliation was used for procedural reasons, not to force through a bill that couldn’t get 60 votes. It has, however, never been used to advance legislation that a substantial majority of Americans have said they do not want. Nor should it be.

It was one of the wisest and most respected of Democrats, the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who warned his colleagues, “Never pass major legislation that affects most Americans without real bipartisan support. It opens the door to all kinds of political trouble.” It appears that the Administration and the congressional Democrats are, indeed, going to open the door to all kinds of political trouble. To paraphrase Professor Harold Hill who once bellowed in the musical comedy Music Man, “There’s trouble right (there) in River City”…the river now being the Potomac and the city being our nation’s capital, Washington, D.C.

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Tags: Barack Obama, democratic majority, government health care, health care reform, ObamaCare
Posted Mar 8th 2010 at 10:22 am in Congress, Healthcare, News, Obama, Politics | 8528680 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/oftheeising/2010/03/08/the-reconciliation-process-reconciling-or-tearing-the-nation-apart/The+Reconciliation+Process%3A+Reconciling+or+Tearing+the+Nation+Apart2010-03-08+18%3A22%3A48Of+Thee+I+Sing+1776

Reconciliation Is a Deceptive Distraction from the True Intentions

Building on a previous post exposing that Harry Reid took the existing House-passed bill, H.R. 3590, entitled the Service Members Home Ownership Tax Act of 2009 and replaced the existing bill language, via an amendment, with the Senate’s version of the healthcare bill–creating a new H.R. 3590–the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Engrossed Amendment as Agreed to by Senate).

I stand by my assertion that Reid took H.R. 3590–knowing that all bills that raise revenue must originate in the House per the Constitution–as evidenced by the actual bill text dated December 24, 2009 seen here in a screen shot and his trick:

This further confirms that the March 18th House healthcare vote is the final vote for passage; however, there are still many pundits who just don’t comprehend this fact.

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Tags: government health care, Harry Reid, health care reform, HR 3590, Nancy Pelosi
Posted Mar 8th 2010 at 7:59 am in Congress, Healthcare, News, Politics | 8565085 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/sahiller/2010/03/08/reconciliation-is-a-deceptive-distraction-from-the-true-intentions/Reconciliation+Is+a+Deceptive+Distraction+from+the+True+Intentions2010-03-08+15%3A59%3A26SusanAnne+++Hiller

Health Care and the Left’s Perverted Definition of ‘Rights’

One way that leftists have managed to keep alive their dead, defeated, bankrupting theories on issues like so-called health care is by perverting the definition of very basic terms.

The word “right” is one of the most glaring examples of a definition that’s been distorted by the intellectual house-of-horrors mirror that is leftist theory.

Image: CATO Institute

Every American has the “right” to health care they argue.

They’re right. Every American does have a right to health care. In fact, they have that “right” right now. They have the right to buy insurance. They have the right to not buy insurance. They have the right to pay out of pocket. They have the right get a second opinion. They have the right to rub a little dirt on it and suck it up. They have a right to help out  a friend in need.

What they don’t have is the “right” to health care in the perverted leftist sense of the word.

A “right,” in the traditional American lexicon laid out by the likes of Thomas Jefferson, is something that exists by virtue of our humanity. It is “inalienable” and we are endowed with these rights by our creator. No government or institution has the power to take away these rights. You exist, therefore these rights exist.

In the leftist sense of the word, though, a “right” is something very different. In fact, it’s not a “right” at all: it’s a handout provided to you by government, often at exorbitant costs to society.

“I have the ‘right’ to health care!” the leftists demand angrily. “Therefore, the government must provide it for me!”

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Tags: Canadian Health Care, government health care, government rights, health care, health insurance
Posted Mar 6th 2010 at 12:07 pm in Culture, Healthcare, Justice/Legal, Politics | 85050247 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/kbyrne/2010/03/06/health-care-and-the-lefts-perverted-definition-of-rights/Health+Care+and+the+Left%27s+Perverted+Definition+of+%27Rights%272010-03-06+20%3A07%3A22Kerry+J.+Byrne

ObamaCare: Bend Over

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Tags: government health care, government take over, ObamaCare, public option
Posted Mar 4th 2010 at 4:59 pm in Healthcare, Obama, Political Humor | 83994202 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/cmuir/2010/03/04/obamacare-bend-over/ObamaCare%3A+Bend+Over2010-03-05+00%3A59%3A45Chris+Muir

New Government Programs Always Cost More Than Predicted

It’s time to stop playing along with this ridiculous game called, “The government says the health care bill will cost…” It’s always wrong. And it’s always wrong by underestimating the cost. Why don’t the Republicans point this out? (Probably because they’ve been big government spenders, too.)

Look back at when Medicare was first created:

At its start, in 1966, Medicare cost $3 billion. The House Ways and Means Committee estimated that Medicare would cost only about $ 12 billion by 1990 (a figure that included an allowance for inflation). This was a supposedly “conservative” estimate. But in 1990 Medicare actually cost $107 billion.

In 2007, total Medicare spending was $431 billion! That isn’t even close to the costs predicted in 1965. Why do we act like the numbers coming out of Congress and the CBO have any basis in reality?

The predictions for Medicaid were just as wrong:

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Tags: Barack Obama, Big Government, federal spending, government health care, health care reform
Posted Mar 2nd 2010 at 12:21 pm in Congress, Healthcare, Political Humor, Uncategorized, federal spending | 82574109 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/gknapp/2010/03/02/new-government-programs-always-cost-more-than-predicted/New+Government+Programs+Always+Cost+More+Than+Predicted2010-03-02+20%3A21%3A15Greg+Knapp

Freedom is a Right, and Any Health Care Bill That Takes Away Americans’ Freedom is Wrong

After the conclusion of yesterday’s nationally-televised health care “summit” hosted by President Obama, in a video for YouTube’s Citizen Tube I answered five health care questions submitted and voted on by the You Tube community.  The questions posed on You Tube are the same questions and concerns I hear from Americans across the country.  They want to us scrap the current bill and start over with common-sense, step-by-step measures that lower health care costs.  And they want to know why Congress insists on passing massive bills that no one in America has time to read or understand.  My Republican colleagues and I agree a different approach is needed – not just to health care reform, but to the way Congress works on every issue.

In the video, I respond to citizens’ questions about health care reform.  On one question, for example, about whether I believe that health care is a right, I said that, “I believe that freedom is a right, and that any health care bill that takes away Americans’ freedom is wrong.” I also answered questions about my support for health care reforms aimed at lowering Americans’ health care costs, such as medical liability reform and allowing Americans to purchase health insurance across state lines, and pledged I will insist on smaller, simpler bills and implement a mandatory 72-hour online reading period for all bills if Republicans are entrusted with the majority.

Over the past year, Republicans have used new media tools to interact directly with the American people.  Whether on Twitter, where House Republicans outnumber their Democratic counterparts two-to-one, or YouTube, where eight of the top 10 most-viewed and most-subscribed YouTube channels in Congress are from the GOP, House Republicans are listening to and learning from the American people.  Below is full text of my answers to You Tube:

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Tags: blair house summit, government health care, health care reform, health care summit, individual mandate
Posted Feb 26th 2010 at 11:29 am in Congress, Healthcare, News, Obama, Politics, federal spending | 81222262 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/jboehner/2010/02/26/81222/+Freedom+is+a+Right%2C+and+Any+Health+Care+Bill+That+Takes+Away+Americans%E2%80%99+Freedom+is+Wrong2010-02-26+19%3A29%3A04Rep.+John+Boehner

What MSM Won’t Tell You: Doctors Are Challenging Government Health Care-and the AMA

Attempting to enact his big-government health care scheme, President Obama and his supporters frequently claimed that a “majority” of doctors supported his health-care plans.  When the American Medical Association – which had opposed HillaryCare – signed onto Obama’s plan last year, the organization seemed to make the President’s case.  Most people assumed that the AMA represented most of the doctors in the country.  But in fact, the AMA represents less than 20 percent of all physicians in the United States.  And yet as the organization’s leadership moved more to the left, it held a near monopoly on media attention on issues pertaining to public health.   No longer.

As the AMA has become increasingly politicized in recent years – issuing a statement in support of climate change, for example, in 2008 – a new group of doctors has risen to challenge them.  Like other anti-statist groups that have risen in opposition to the Obama-Reid-Pelosi agenda, Docs4PatientCare are challenging the AMA’s stranglehold on health care matters, just as other groups once challenged the right of the left-leaning American Bar Association to determine what judges are and are not qualified for the United States Supreme Court.  How Docs4PatientCare managed to barge its way into the closed-door meetings of Washington offers a lesson to other groups seeking to have a voice in their federal government.

Founded by Dr. Hal Scherz, a prominent Atlanta physician, the group of doctors expressed concern that like so many other professional groups, the AMA’s leadership have been  thoroughly “Washingtonized” – caring more about the pleadings of other lobbyists on K Street, White House invitations and Capitol Hill committee appearances than the professions they are supposed to represent.  As doctors have taken a battering over several decades from insurance companies, HMOS, and government agencies, Scherz says the AMA was a bystander.

“As the insurance companies become more and more impossible and government intrusion keeps growing, we’ve seen our delivery of care to our patients compromised and our incomes decrease,” he said.

But it was the AMA’s support for ObamaCare that really troubled Scherz and others in his field.

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Tags: AMA, docs4patientCare, government health care, ObamaCare, Pelosicare
Posted Feb 19th 2010 at 5:55 pm in Congress, Healthcare, News, Obama, Politics | 77522124 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/mlatimer/2010/02/19/what-msm-wont-tell-you-doctors-are-challenging-government-health-care-and-the-ama/What+MSM+Won%27t+Tell+You%3A+Doctors+Are+Challenging+Government+Health+Care-and+the+AMA2010-02-20+01%3A55%3A38Matt+Latimer

Health Care Summit Conflicts with Constitution

Republicans ought politely to decline President Barack Obama’s invitation to a summit on health care reform. It’s not just a potential “trap,” as House Minority Leader John Boehner suspects, aimed at fast-forwarding a modified health care reform bill through Congress under a smokescreen of superficial “bipartisanship.” It’s also a violation of the spirit of our Constitution’s separation of powers.

The President has no legislative authority. He can propose laws—indeed, we expect him to do so—that are then introduced by legislators in Congress. He can sign a bill or veto it once it has been passed by both the House of Representatives and the Senate. He can mediate disputes among legislators to broker agreements. But the President cannot intervene directly in the legislative process until it is over.

The discussion that President Obama has proposed with Republicans for February 25th was, no doubt, inspired by his success at a question-and-answer session with the GOP last month. However, the new event is beginning to assume the trappings of a formal legislative session. Republicans will be asked to propose changes to the Senate version of the health care bill, and the President will offer compromises.

(more…)

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Tags: Barack Obama, government health care, Harry Reid, health care summit, John Boehner
Posted Feb 16th 2010 at 1:46 pm in Congress, Healthcare, Justice/Legal, News, Obama, Politics | 76338249 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/jpollak/2010/02/16/health-care-summit-conflicts-with-constitution/Health+Care+Summit+Conflicts+with+Constitution2010-02-16+21%3A46%3A10Joel+B.+Pollak

The Democrat Strategy for 2010: Bye Bye, Bayh

Senator Evan Bayh’s decision not to seek re-election this November makes him just the latest among numerous Democrats who announced they are quitting. They have looked at the Obamacare debacle, the crippling debt, the millions of lost jobs, and the looming national security disaster heralded by the increase in jihad terror attacks on American soil, and they’re getting out. They know that Americans are waking up to how the big government policies of the Democrats are continuing to hurt our economy, and are ruinous for America.

Swindling Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) will not seek re-election; the drug-addled Congressman Patrick Kennedy will not be seeking re-election in Rhode Island; Arkansas Congressman Marion Berry and Senator Byron Dorgan are leaving. Then there’s Michigan Democratic Lt. Governor John Cherry’s decision to end his floundering bid for governor. Colorado Governor Bill Ritter is also retiring. Not to mention the stunning late December party switch by freshman Alabama Representative Parker Griffith — just to mention a few.

And in Bayh’s whiny withdrawal speech, he made sure to take parting shots at the Republicans under the guise of the well-worn canard of their “lack of bipartisanship.” As if the Democrats worked with Bush.

The Party of No? Hardly. It’s the Save-America party, it’s the Say No to Communism party. Bayh didn’t speak of the irreparable damage the Democrats are doing to this country. He whimpered that only the Republicans said no to a jobs bill (although the government doesn’t create jobs, the private sector does) and that the Republicans wouldn’t sign off on another bloated, useless, cost-prohibitive commission to investigate bloated, useless, cost-prohibitive government spending. Funny how even a Democrat who is thought of as honorable and measured showed no honor in his parting remarks. He went out like an ankle-biting Democrat, pathetic and small.

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Tags: bailout, Barack Obama, byron dorgan, Chris Dodd, collectivism
Posted Feb 15th 2010 at 2:39 pm in Congress, Culture, News, Obama, Politics | 75830217 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/pgeller/2010/02/15/the-democrat-strategy-for-2010-bye-bye-bayh/The+Democrat+Strategy+for+2010%3A+Bye+Bye%2C+Bayh2010-02-15+22%3A39%3A35Pamela+Geller

Ensuring Liberty PAC: Creating a Tea Party Caucus

If you followed the news out of Nashville, you probably heard that some Tea Party folks are creating a Political Action Committee that will win 15 to 20 key Congressional races in 2010 and, perhaps, in years beyond. What you didn’t hear at the press conference was that several grassroots tea party organizers are so strongly in favor of this move that we have agreed to serve Ensuring Liberty PAC through its organizing parent, the Ensuring Liberty 501.c(4). Our local tea parties will continue unchanged.

Who Comprises the ELPAC

Very simply, ELPAC is led by six people from some of the most effective local Tea Party organizations in America:

• Mark Skoda of The Memphis Tea Party
• Steve McQueen of The Quincy Tea Party
• State Sen. John Loudon (MO-Ret.) of St. Louis Tea Party
• Rose Corona, a California farmer and Patriot
• Brad Ehmen of The Quincy Tea Party
• Bill Hennessy of St. Louis Tea Party

While you might not recognize all of these names, I do. These are the people who have been in the fox holes with us since day one. They are bold and resilient fighters for freedom. They are the men and women we turn to for counsel, support, advice, strength, and help across the Mid-West and across the the nation. We share mutual faith in each other. The men and women on this list have skills to win elections with grassroots activism. They embody what happened in NY-23 and Massachusetts.

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Tags: cap-and-trade, Doug Hoffman, Ensuring Liberty, first principles, government health care
Posted Feb 12th 2010 at 11:27 am in Congress, Culture, News, Politics, Tea Party | 74118293 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/bhennessy/2010/02/12/ensuring-liberty-pac-creating-a-tea-party-caucus/Ensuring+Liberty+PAC%3A+Creating+a+Tea+Party+Caucus2010-02-12+19%3A27%3A16Bill+Hennessy