Jindal: State suit possible

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Health-care dispute enters newphase

• By MARSHA SHULER AND MARK BALLARD
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Mar 22, 2010

Gov. Bobby Jindal said Monday he wants to fight the federal health-care overhaul legislation by raising a “states rights” argument in court.

Jindal asked Attorney General Buddy Caldwell to file a lawsuit that would exempt Louisiana from the health-care bill, which the U.S. House passed late Sunday and is expected to be signed into law today.

Caldwell’s spokeswoman, Tammi Arender, issued a statement late Monday saying the attorney general is considering either joining lawsuits being considered in a number of other states or filing a separate lawsuit, “whichever he deems to be most effective.” Caldwell did not respond to three interview requests Monday.

Jindal said the health-care revamp legislation pushed by President Barack Obama amid Republican criticism, violates the 10th amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Requiring the purchase of health insurance is an improper use of “the commerce clause to impose a mandate on our people,” he said.

The 10th Amendment says that states have the powers not granted to the national government nor specifically prohibited in the Constitution.

“This bill shifts huge costs to the states and basically violates the 10th Amendment of the Constitution. I’m hopeful our attorney general and the other states that join in this will be successful in reminding Congress there is a 10th Amendment,” Jindal said at a hastily called news conference in the Governor’s Mansion.

Jindal also said he would pursue legislation during Louisiana’s legislative session, which starts March 29, to opt the state out of using taxpayer money to fund elective abortions in the state’s purchasing exchange.

Two lawmakers have filed legislation for consideration in the session asserting Louisiana’s rights in the health-care arena. Jindal said passage of those type bills would help the state’s case.

Virginia became the first state to enact a law aimed at stopping the federal government from imposing health-care reform on that state. Similar legislation has been or proposed by legislatures in 34 other states.

Other states planning a constitutional court challenge to the health-care overhaul bill include Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah and Virginia.

What’s at issue is that the federal health-care revamp measure would require people to purchase insurance policies or face penalties, said Gil Dupré, chief executive of the Louisiana Association of Health Plans, a trade organization.

The bill guarantees that people with pre-existing conditions can find health insurance and that those who are ill cannot be dropped from their policies. Privately owned insurance companies can only afford to cover the costs of treating the chronically ill by using the money paid in premiums by people who don’t use the insurance as much, Dupré said.

A larger pool of money is necessary to pay for a larger group of people needing services, he said. But many healthy people won’t voluntarily enroll and pay premiums for insurance they don’t immediately need, Dupré said.

Obama’s health-care plan would require that everyone buy health-care insurance, usually through an employer, many of whom would receive tax credits. People unable to afford a policy would receive financial help. But those who still refuse to purchase a policy would be penalized.

“That particular provision — mandating a person buy an insurance policy — is what the states are challenging in court,” Dupré said Monday morning.

The governor said the legislation also would force an expensive expansion of the state’s Medicaid program that would cost the state $345 million a year when fully phased in.

In his own news conference later Monday afternoon, state health Secretary Alan Levine said that extra expense wouldn’t kick in until the 2020-2021 state year.

Though still studying the proposed law, Levine said he could find no immediate state costs associated with the legislation.

Levine said the added state costs down the road will come because of an estimated 360,000 to 380,000 more people who are projected to be eligible for government sponsored health care under the proposed law. The government-run health insurance program covers 1.2 million poor, elderly and disabled people — roughly one of every four Louisiana residents.

Under the federal legislation, that number would expand to 37 percent — a little more than one of every three residents, Levine said.

Levine said he also worries there won’t be sufficient health-care providers to take care of the new enrollees that the legislation calls for.

Help GOA Repeal Anti-gun ObamaCare!

Gun Owners of America E-Mail Alert
8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102, Springfield, VA 22151
Phone: 703-321-8585 / FAX: 703-321-8408
http://www.gunowners.org/ordergoamem.htm

Monday, March 22, 2010

Well, it was a long, hard fight.

You spent nearly a year working with GOA to kill the anti-gun ObamaCare bill, even though much of the time, people were saying that its passage was inevitable … that it was going to pass no matter what we did.

But as you know, it wasn’t inevitable, and we almost beat the anti-gun legislation that passed last night.  By 4 pm yesterday, House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi still did not have enough votes to pass this monstrosity!

If you were watching the “sausage making” on Sunday — or have been listening to the news today — you know that we narrowly lost the battle over ObamaCare.  [Click here to see how your Representative voted.]

That’s the bad news.  The good news is that we only lost a battle… for the war is not over.  Here’s what your GOA is doing to stall ObamaCare in its tracks:

* Gun Owners of America has been working in Virginia to pass legislation that will exempt citizens from purchasing ObamaCare.  This legislation has passed both houses and is now sitting on Governor Bob McDonnell’s desk.  He is expected to sign this bill tomorrow, making the Old Dominion the first state to take such an action.  Other states are looking to follow Virginia’s example, and you can be sure that GOA will be involved in those states, as well.

* GOA is ready to assist the 38 states which are now planning to file suit against the anti-gun health care law as soon as the President signs it tomorrow.  Over ten years ago, GOA helped Sheriffs Richard Mack and Jay Printz sue the federal government after the Brady Law required law enforcement to run background checks.  You may remember that in Printz v. U.S. (1997), the Supreme Court ruled in our favor.  We will now try to parlay that victory and make the same case here, namely, that the federal government can not force state authorities to act on its behest.

* Finally, GOA is committed to targeting the sell-out congressmen who turned a deaf ear to your letters, phone calls and emails.  For almost a year, Gun Owners of America has been the ONLY gun group at the national level working to kill this legislation.  Some thought this was an impossible battle… but what they don’t realize is that even though we narrowly lost, the fight has been well-worth the effort.

Why?  Because the sleeping giant has been awakened… the American people have been radicalized and they are ready to kick the bums out of office.  This sentiment would not have happened if we had remained silent and had sat on our hands.

So with your help, we will make legislators pay for their arrogance in November!

But to do all of this, we are going to need your help.  Will you stand with us?

We need 100% participation from our members to help make a difference.  We realize that times are tough, so even if you can spare only a few dollars, would you please help us take on the giant Obama-machine?

Please go to the GOA website and tell us you’ll be part of this effort to repeal ObamaCare.  At http://gunowners.org/ordergoamem.htm you can contribute to GOA.

Thank you.  Every little bit helps!

Is ObamaCare Headed for a Supreme Court Smackdown? Thanks Tpgow

March 22, 2010

Michael Filozof

Now that the House Democrats have rammed ObamaCare down the throats of the nation by a vote of 219-212, the situation is indeed bleak. But Conservatives and Tea Partiers despondent over the fact that liberal Democrats just passed a massive encroachment on our liberties over their massive protests should take hope. James Madison saw this coming, and his forethought will give opponents of ObamaCare one last shot at killing it.

In Federalist #10, Madison wrote “Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm.” (Boy, did he ever get THAT right.)

Knowing that the nation’s future leaders would include usurpers and potential tyrants, Madison sought a way to preserve individual liberty despite their efforts. He thus devised the system of the separation of powers. “[E]ssential to the preservation of liberty…” he wrote in Federalist #51, “it is evident that each department should have a will of its own” and “members of each department should be as little dependent as possible” on the other branches.

Passage of legislation by Congress and the signature of the President are not enough. The next step is judicial review by the Supreme Court, an independent and co-equal branch of government. (Already the states of Idaho and Virginia have vowed to sue the Federal government over ObamaCare, and the passage of the legislation will doubtless spawn hundreds of other lawsuits as well).

Madison was a brilliant enough thinker to understand that the separation of powers relied on more than each branch having the “necessary constitutional means” to resist the others. The separation of powers provided each branch with the “personal motives” to “resist the encroachments of others.”

“Ambition,” wrote Madison, “must be made to counteract ambition. The interests of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the [branch].”

Thankfully, the Court has an axe to grind with Obama.

Remember the State of the Union Address? In January, Obama took a cheap shot at the Supreme Court’s courageous decision in the Citizens United case, upholding free speech and overturning key provisions of the “McCain-Feingold” law. Congressional Democrats whooped and jeered at the Court like obnoxious schoolboys. The Court was humiliated. Justice Alito shook his head in disgust and muttered that the President’s remarks were “not true.” In March, Chief Justice Roberts told an audience at the University of Alabama that the behavior of the President and the Congressional Democrats was “very troubling,” and questioned why the Supreme Court should even bother to attend a “political pep rally.” Roberts’ remarks caused the White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs to issue a snarky rebuttal, again condemning the Court’s decision.

It is quite likely that the “individual mandate” in ObamaCare requiring all Americans to purchase health insurance against their will is unconstitutional. But after the State of the Union dust-up, the Court has more than just technical legal motives to take up the case.  Madison lamented that reliance on personal motives and ambitions “should be necessary to control the abuses of government” but understood that this was a “reflection on human nature.”

I’m hoping that Madison’s understanding of human nature was correct, and that Justices Alito and Roberts are chomping at the bit for the chance to get back at Obama and his Congressional goons for the humiliation they inflicted on the Court. A decision striking down ObamaCare, authored by Justice Alito, would be the ultimate smackdown.

Silver Linings Thanks Tpgow

Power Line

March 21, 2010 Posted by John at 4:13 PM

With Stupak’s collapse, passage of the Democrats’ government medicine bill is assured. This is a dark day in American history; one of the darkest. But there are many reasons for optimism. Here are a few:

* The health care battle is just beginning. Next, the Senate will try to enact the House’s “fixes” to the original Senate bill. Some Senators say that won’t happen. If not, then President Obama has the option of signing the original Senate bill–now passed by the House–Cornhusker Kickback and all. I assume he would do that, but the resulting blowback from House Democrats, not to mention the American people, would be something to behold.

* The health care bill’s taxes will go into effect promptly, but its substantive provisions are, for the most part, deferred for four years. This means that we have plenty of time to repeal the legislation. Sure, it will take a new Congress and new President. But repealing this disaster of a bill will by a rallying cry for the American people for years to come. Moreover, even if the Republicans only take over the House in November, and not the Senate, won’t it be possible to throw roadblocks in the way of the bill’s implementation? Won’t budget appropriations be necessary to sustain the various federal tentacles the bill seeks to establish? What will happen if the House simply refuses to fund them?

* I’ve never been prouder to be a Republican. The party’s Congressional leaders have fought this battle to the end on behalf of the American people–with intelligence, toughness, persistence and good humor. The contrast between the parties has never been starker than in today’s debate. If any intelligent Democrats were watching–there must be some left–they had to be embarrassed for their party.

* Paul Ryan has emerged as one of the conservative movement’s strongest spokesmen. In the years to come, I think we will hear the words “I’m a Paul Ryan Republican” with increasing frequency.

* The health care debate has energized the conservative movement and awoken the sleeping giant, that is, the American people. The Democrats misinterpreted their electoral victories in 2006 and 2008 as a mandate for socialism. Now a majority of voters are intent on disabusing them of that misapprehension. Just about all of the political energy today is on the right–a remarkable fact, only sixteen months after the Democrats’ high-water mark in November 2008.

* Barack Obama has used his political capital–pretty much all of it–on unpopular legislation that will continue to rile the voters for years to come. As a result, Obama is a remarkably unpopular second-year President. And he hasn’t even experienced any bad luck yet. It is hard to see how he will be able to regain his footing.

So, be of good cheer. To paraphrase a great American, we have not yet begun to fight.

UPDATE: Tim Pawlenty tweets:

Hard to believe Congress would pass this mess of a health care plan. It will put us further into debt & dangerously expand scope of gov’t.

PAUL adds: Repeal may not be out of the question, but my advice is to exercise more and improve your diet. Try to minimize your encounters with Obamacare and delay your encounter with the death panel in whatever form it takes.

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2010/03/025892.php

New U.S. tourism: Anchor babies aweigh! Thanks Longknife

FROM JEROME CORSI’S RED ALERT

Businesses open backdoor for ‘birthright citizenship’

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Posted: March 22, 2010
12:51 pm Eastern

© 2010 WorldNetDaily

Editor’s Note: The following report is excerpted from Jerome Corsi’s Red Alert, the premium online newsletter published by the current No. 1 best-selling author, WND staff writer and columnist. Red Alert subscriptions are $99 a year or $9.95 per month for credit card users. Annual subscribers will receive a free autographed copy of “The Late Great USA,” a book about the careful deceptions of a powerful elite who want to undermine our nation’s sovereignty.

Medical tourism has taken a new twist, exploring opportunities for noncitizens to obtain “birthright citizenship” for their babies by taking vacations to the United States with the chief goal of having them in U.S. hospitals, Jerome Corsi’s Red Alert reports.

“Since 2003, more than 12,000 Turkish children have been born in the U.S., giving them instant citizenship, under the 14th Amendment,” wrote Dave Gibson in the Examiner. “They are part of a growing trend known as ‘birth tourism.'”

Flourishing in countries like Turkey, companies in the birth tourism business are able to arrange trips to U.S. cities like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago at a price ranging from $25,000 to $40,000, all for a package that includes the flight, city tours, living accommodations for several months and hospital expenses.

“Birth tourism relies on the lax interpretation of the 14th Amendment that Hispanic immigrants entering the United States through Mexico have used to argue Hispanic children born in the United States to illegal immigrants are ‘birthright citizens,'” Corsi explained. “The 14th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified in 1868, and its purpose was to make sure citizenship rights went to the native-born African-Americans whose rights were being challenged because they were recently freed slaves.”

He wrote that because hospitals issue birth certificates for every baby born, and birth certificates are key documents needed to get other official documentation, including driver’s licenses and passports, birth in the United States has been the backdoor for illegal immigrants to get their children rights of U.S. citizens.

Mark Krikorian, director of the Center for Immigration Studies, estimates that one out of every 10 births in the United States is to an illegal-alien mother. He points out that consular officers are not permitted to turn down a visa application simply because a woman will soon give birth.

Red Alert reports that each year 400,000 pregnant women enter the United States specifically to take advantage of birth citizenship opportunities.

To learn more about “birthright citizenship” and the trend of “birth tourism,” read Jerome Corsi’s Red Alert, the premium, online intelligence news source by the WND staff writer, columnist and author of the New York Times No. 1 best-seller, “The Obama Nation.”

Red Alert’s author, whose books “The Obama Nation” and “Unfit for Command” have topped the New York Times best-sellers list, received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in political science in 1972. For nearly 25 years, beginning in 1981, he worked with banks throughout the U.S. and around the world to develop financial services marketing companies to assist banks in establishing broker/dealers and insurance subsidiaries to provide financial planning products and services to their retail customers. In this career, Corsi developed three different third-party financial services marketing firms that reached gross sales levels of $1 billion in annuities and equal volume in mutual funds. In 1999, he began developing Internet-based financial marketing firms, also adapted to work in conjunction with banks.

In his 25-year financial services career, Corsi has been a noted financial services speaker and writer, publishing three books and numerous articles in professional financial services journals and magazines.

For full immediate access to Jerome Corsi’s Red Alert, subscribe now.