Townhall...
Pulling the Plug on
Obamacare
by Matt Barber
Obamacare is like turnip greens: bitter and hard to swallow, but Mommy
made you choke them down anyway. The difference is that turnip greens
are constitutional (though perhaps they shouldn’t be). They’re also
likely to extend your life rather than cut it short.
As demonstrated by the 2010 Election Day massacre, the government
takeover of health care, the euphemistically tagged “Patient Protection
and Affordable Care Act,” infuriated voters as Democrats cooked it up
and force-fed it to America for Christmas Eve dinner.
Despite being assured by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California
Democrat, that we needed to “pass the bill so [we] can find out what’s
in it,” a recent Rasmussen poll reveals that a majority of Americans -
having since found out what’s in it - continue to favor its repeal.
Indeed, by granting more than 1,000 Obamacare waivers (read: payoffs)
to a host of unions and corporations, the Obama administration has
tacitly admitted this socialized medical monstrosity is neither
“affordable,” nor does it “protect patients.”
Still, while Republican rooks maneuver to checkmate King Obama via
legislative repeal, others have gone the judicial route. On Tuesday, in
fact, Mathew D. Staver, founder of the Liberty Counsel and dean of
Liberty University School of Law, will be the first to challenge the
constitutionality of Obamacare at the federal court of appeals level.
He will argue the case of Liberty University v. Geithner before the
Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Va.
The Liberty Counsel officially represents both Liberty University and
two private individuals in the lawsuit. Unofficially, it represents the
majority of Americans.
Later that day, the Court of Appeals will also hear the case of
Commonwealth of Virginia v. Sebelius, filed by Virginia Attorney
General Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II. The cases will be argued seriatim (in
succession) by each counsel, respectively.
The Obama-Pelosi-Reid triumvirate ambitiously maintains - against
considerable evidence to the contrary - that Democrats’ particular
brand of health care reform is so important, so unique that the U.S.
government is justified - for the first time in history - in forcing
every American citizen to purchase his own untenable, unsustainable and
demonstratively defective product under penalty of law. Obamacare
categorically lays the groundwork for universal health care. They
didn’t just sell us a lemon, they squeezed it in our eyes and said,
“pay up or else.”
This is a case of first impression. That is to say, no Supreme Court
case has ever allowed the federal government to force people into the
stream of commerce. Neither has the high court ever permitted the
federal government to compel its citizens to buy a government-defined
product. If government has the authority to force unwilling citizens to
purchase health insurance, then there is simply no limit to the power
this mushrooming centralized mammoth can wield.
On Tuesday, Virginia will challenge the individual mandate, while the
Liberty Counsel will go after both the individual and employer
mandates. As with Virginia’s case, the Liberty Counsel argues that
Congress lacks authority under the Commerce Clause, the Necessary and
Proper Clause, and the Taxing and Spending Clause to implement this
unparalleled power-grab.
The Liberty Counsel also raises other constitutional objections,
including issues relative to the First Amendment’s Free Exercise
Clause, the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the First
Amendment’s Establishment Clause and the Fifth Amendment’s Equal
Protection Clause.
Mr. Staver commented on the case in advance of Tuesday’s historic oral
arguments: “It is the hope of many Americans that this lawsuit is a
fast track to the ultimate demise of this overreaching health insurance
law. This law represents an astonishing extension of the federal
government into the personal and business decisions of Americans. If
Obamacare should be upheld by the courts, then there are no limits on
what Congress can do. I think it is clear that Congress far exceeded
its authority under the Constitution.”
Indeed, when one’s stated goal is to “fundamentally transform America,”
the U.S. Constitution, as intended by our nation’s founding
visionaries, becomes a significant encumbrance rather than an
instrument of freedom.
It’s little wonder that exceeding constitutional authority has become
the defining hallmark of this, the most radical presidential
administration in American history.
Read it at Townhall
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