Democrats Elated, Relieved After Pushing Health Care Reform Forward

Our first baby steps to true health care reform, finally. Still have a lot of work to do, but, congratulations to those Senators who pushed it through.

Full:http://www.countercurrents.org/laskin211209.htm

Finally, proponents of the mandate often cite the fact that states require drivers to purchase auto insurance as justifying a federal individual mandate for health insurance. This is a facile comparison that ignores the constitutional differences between federal and state authority to regulate. As noted above, Congress can only legislate when there is a specific provision of Article I of the Constitution that authorizes it to enact that type of law. Conversely, the states have virtually unlimited legislative authority to pass laws that foster the public welfare, health and safety. Driving is a privilege, and the states are free to impose any reasonable condition on the exercise of that privilege that they choose. In any event, the states have limited the auto insurance requirement to the purchase of liability insurance to cover injuries sustained by third parties. No state requires drivers to purchase insurance to cover their own injuries.

For single-payer advocates, a very powerful argument is that, while the individual mandate to purchase private health insurance is unconstitutional, Congress can lawfully tax to support a government financed health insurance program. Article I empowers Congress to use its taxing powers in support of government programs that foster the public welfare; this is the constitutional authority for Social Security and Medicare. But to extend that authority to requiring Americans to purchase a private commodity raises profound civil liberties issues. If Congress can compel the purchase of insurance from a for profit insurance company, it can compel the purchase of any commodity if there is an arguable public policy to support it. The auto industry is collapsing? Forget Cash for Clunkers, just order Americans to buy cars or tax them if they don't. Obesity crisis? Order Americans to join health clubs, or tax them if they don't. If Congress gets away with this, there is no stopping point and Big Business will have succeeded in making Americans into involuntary consumers whenever it so chooses.

*Sheldon H. Laskin is an attorney who has appeared in the United States Supreme Court. He is an Adjunct Professor in the Graduate Tax Program at the University of Baltimore Law School. Mr. Laskin specializes in state tax cases under the Commerce Clause of the US Constitution.

I am so happy! I'M going to drink to Harry--and Vickie and Ted, and Schumer, and all the rest, and all of us who put Obama in. Yes, in spite of all opposition, we can.

FDL:

The Senate's health care bill must be killed.... See More

It is an ungodly mess of errors, loopholes, and massive giveaways. When the American people find out what's actually in this bill, they will revolt. Congress and President Obama have no choice but to do better for health care than this bill.

Sign the petition: the Senate health care bill must be killed.

How bad is the bill?

Forces you to pay up to 8% of your income to private insurance corporations -- whether you want to or not

1. If you refuse to buy the insurance, you'll have to pay penalties of up to 2% of your annual income to the IRS

2. After being forced to pay thousands in premiums for junk insurance, you can still be on the hook for up to $11,900 a year in out-of-pocket medical expenses.

3. Massive restriction on a woman's right to choose, designed to trigger a challenge to Roe v. Wade in the Supreme Court

4. Paid for by taxes on the middle class insurance plan you have right now through your employer, causing them to cut back benefits and increase co-pays

5. Many of the taxes to pay for the bill start now, but most Americans won't see any benefits -- like an end to discrimination against those with preexisting conditions -- until 2014 when the program begins.

6. Allows insurance companies to charge people who are older 300% more than others

7. Grants monopolies to to drug companies that will keep generic versions of expensive biotech drugs from ever coming to market.

8. No reimportation of prescription drugs, which would save consumers $100 billion over 10 years

9. The cost of medical care will continue to rise, and insurance premiums for a family of 4 will rise an average of $1000 a year -- meaning in 10 years, you family's insurance premium will be $10,000 more annually than it is right now.

10.
I could go on, but it should be clear: this is not reform. This is a con job.

Sign our petition: kill the Senate bill.

Interesting to see the desperation tactics.

"The disgruntled right" is the minority party. They are SUPPOSED to lose and be unhappy. The disgruntled left is within the majority. Big difference

"If this bill pass, 30 million more Americans will have health insurance."

Where do you get that information? I'm one of the 30 million uninsured. Nobody is going to give me insurance. In fact, they're going to take a big chunk of money that I don't have and make me buy a crappy product from the same people who got us into this mess.

NO "FAVORS," please!

Making criminals out of those of us who aren't insured does NOT equal providing insurance, making it affordable, or anything like that.

One often overlooked aspect in this whole convoluted issue is the fact that stimulus funds are being invested to make health care records and information much more accessible and transparent. In the final analysis, the system will not improve until consumers have the ability to know what they are paying for and whether it is working. Obama is, for better or worse, a pragmatist. Last year at this time we were expecting an economic apocalypse, so the fact that we dems can argue about this is a stumble towards improvement. Take heart--at least we aren't republicans.