One of the more controversial – and unconstitutional – components of health care reform President Barack Obama signed into law yesterday is Congress’ mandate that individuals purchase health insurance or face a fine. The Heritage Foundation has documented that there is no provision in the Constitution empowering Congress to force Americans to buy a good or service. What’s more, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office agrees the mandate is entirely unprecedented. So where does Congress get the authority to justify that provision? On Friday, CNSNews.com went to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. John …
Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies and I have been talking on at NRO’s The Corner about the Census form and the particularly obnoxious Question 9 asking the person’s “race.” Mark sent his form in after marking the option for “Some other race” and writing in “American” and he had a column in USA Today about it. As I pointed out, federal law specifies that you can be fined if you either don’t answer ($100 per question) or provide a false answer ($500 per question). So the question …
Yesterday, President Obama signed his health spending bill into law promising the American people: “These reforms won’t give the government more control over your health care.” This statement is simply untrue, otherwise over 16,000 new IRS agents wouldn’t need to be hired to enforce the mandates. And if this was the case, Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) wouldn’t need to introduce an amendment to the reconciliation bill that would “limit the amount of discretion given to the Secretary of Health and Human Services under the current bill to determine acceptable levels …
Today the U.S. House of Representatives will take up a new “jobs” bill, HR4849, that includes a $2.5 billion provision to expand the size of welfare rolls and pay states when they add people to their caseloads. The Senate defeated a similar amendment by Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) earlier this month. However, it has been resurrected in the Ways and Means Committee and added to the “jobs” bill now before the House. The provision is actually a one-year extension of a new welfare program created as part of last year’s …
On April 6, 2009, Secretary Arne Duncan’s Department of Education sent letters to the families of 216 low-income children in the District of Columbia informing them that the $7,500 scholarships they had been awarded by the Department are now being rescinded. Instead of being able to send their children to the school of their choice, these DC parents now have no other option but schools that they believe are too violent and too disorganized to properly educate their child. Education Secretary Arne Duncan simply did not care what the parents …
A jubilant President Obama put his signature on health care legislation yesterday, but the work isn’t done quite yet. The U.S. Senate must pass the Reconciliation Act of 2010, making a number of tax changes to current law. By signing the legislation, Obama already broke his campaign promise not to raise “any form” of taxes on families making less than $250,000 per year. The reconciliation bill adds even more taxes for Americans — an estimated $52.3 billion over 10 years, according to a new analysis from Americans for Tax Reform. ATR’s Ryan …
The Washington Post today calls on D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty to take a stand on the embattled D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. PARENTS LOVE IT. Students benefit from it. But neither the White House nor most Democrats in Congress had the backbone to support a unique program that provides vouchers to low-income D.C. families in search of better educational opportunities. Now the question is whether D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) — who has made education his priority — has the guts his party leaders lack and will seek to save …
In light of this week’s events, many Americans are frustrated and disheartened. But we should take heart. Today marks the 235th anniversary of Patrick Henry’s famous speech, when he proclaimed “Give me liberty, or give me death.” This sentiment represents a legacy much older and nobler than tyrannical healthcare legislation and should inspire our efforts to restore liberty. Some may know the story; I tell it in the first pages of my book, We Still Hold These Truths. It was 1775. Patrick Henry, a young backcountry lawyer, rose before a …
At the signing of the Senate health bill today, President Barack Obama said: “In a few moments, when I sign this bill, all of the overheated rhetoric over reform will finally confront the reality of reform.” Let’s review some of the “overheated rhetoric” that is about to get tested by reality. Over the past months, the President and Congress have promised: that premiums would drop by $2500 per family; that if you like what you’ve got, you can keep it; that it would bend the cost curve down; that it …
Sunday’s partisan vote for health care legislation in the House signals the likely end of longtime cross-party cooperation among Members opposed to abortion. The last-minute collapse of the Stupak 7, pro-life Democrats who voted for the Stupak-Pitts abortion funding limitation amendment on November 7, 2009, as well as for the House bill passed that same day, made the Democratic leaders’ retreat on the Hyde Amendment bicameral. It followed the defections last December of Senators Ben Nelson (D-NE) and Bob Casey (D-PA), who engineered much of the abortion language opposed by …
