We’re sitting around on a Sunday night knowing our country is under attack, and that an attack is imminent.

But we’re used to living like that, it shouldn’t be that way, but it is. And we deal with it.

So we’re watching TV, messing around on the internet: suddenly an alert is sounded;

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Cross-posted at The Underground Conservative.

We cannot understate the obvious here, that the attempt by the Democrats Statists and Our Lord and Savior to impose ObamaCare, the nationalization of almost 20 percent of the national economy on the American people by fiat is breathtaking in its arrogance and is in effect de facto martial law.

Here’s the plain as day portion of the U.S. Constitution that is being completely ignored, Article I, Section 7:

Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States; If he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the Objections at large on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such Reconsideration two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a Law. But in all such Cases the Votes of both Houses shall be determined by Yeas and Nays, and the Names of the Persons voting for and against the Bill shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively.

The Great One, Mark “F. Lee” Levin via Doug Ross via Michelle Malkin expounds on just what an unconstitutional act is being foisted upon the American people by the dictator wannabes in Washington:

[T]his clause goes to the heart of this Republic.

This clause goes to the heart of how our representative body, that is Congress, makes laws. And so I want you to [observe] how particular the Framers were… They have to pass a Bill to present it to the President…

This is one of the most exacting clauses in the Constitution.

And, to the best of my knowledge, which extends over three decades, no Congress has previously tried to institute policies without actual statutes.

Here we have the President of the United States and Congressional leaders actually talking about the possibility of a brazen and open violation of one of the most fundamental aspects of our Constitution and Republic! How we actually make laws!

Let me be as clear as I know how. If this is done, this will create the greatest Constitutional crisis since the Civil War. It would be 100 times worse than Watergate.

…It would be government by fiat… meaning there would be no law… the mere discussion by officials in this government is such a grotesque violation of the actual legislative function of Congress [that it] puts us… at the brink. At the brink.

This is why we conservatives revere the Constitution. This is why we stress the Constitution’s words have meaning and historical context and must be complied with. Because otherwise we have anarchy, which leads to tyranny.

This is a crucial lesson for those of you who… aren’t sure what your beliefs are, or if you have any beliefs. Or aren’t sure if you even care. We have an effort underway by the one of the most powerful chairmen in Congress, the woman who heads the Rules Committee, …openly discussing gutting Congress. Gutting Congress.

And if this is done, this is about as close to martial law as you’ll ever get… So Louise Slaughter, a Representative from New York, is discussing, in essence, martial law. Now I can tell you, if they pursue this process, and try to impose this kind of a law, without actually passing a statute, that I will be in a race — with scores of others — to the courthouse to stop this.

I can’t think of a more blatant violation of the U.S. Constitution than this. And the liberal media has essentially ignored it!

…It’s not only absurd on its face — that these power-hungry ideologues, party-first-country-second types, would make the claim that the House voted on something it never voted on… that’s not only absurd on its face, it’s blatantly unconstitutional!

Levin calls for the expulsion of Louise Slaughter from Congress for blatant violation and willfully ignoring of the Constitution (via the United States of Earth):

Welcome to Martial Law America, where the Democrats Statists can impose their will on their servants, the American people, by fiat with the complicity of the watchdog lapdog national media, which has become the Fourth Branch of Government.

KatyinIndy says it best via Twitter:

90 plus million armed Americans will not tolerate a dictatorship in any form here in America.

We are headed toward the greatest constitutional crisis since the Civil War. And if once again it results in armed revolt to take our country back from the fascists and statists that comprise the ruling political class, then so be it.

Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.

Cross-posted at The Underground Conservative.

Looks like the deceitful, dishonest, dictator wannabes in Washington have a new trick to impose ObamaCare on the United States without ever having taken an actual vote: simply declaring they had already passed it previously.

It’s being called the Slaughter Solution, after Rep. Louise Slaughter (Statist-N.Y.) who devised the parliamentary trick.

Would House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her fellow House Democratic leaders try to cram the Senate version of Obamacare through the House without actually having a recorded vote on the bill?

Not only is the answer yes, they would, they have figured out a way to do it, according to National Journal’s Congress Daily:

“House Rules Chairwoman Louise Slaughter is prepping to help usher the healthcare overhaul through the House and potentially avoid a direct vote on the Senate overhaul bill, the chairwoman said Tuesday.

“Slaughter is weighing preparing a rule that would consider the Senate bill passed once the House approves a corrections bill that would make changes to the Senate version.

“Slaughter has not taken the plan to Speaker Pelosi as Democrats await CBO scores on the corrections bill. ‘Once the CBO gives us the score, we’ll spring right on it,’ she said.”

Each bill that comes before the House for a vote on final passage must be given a rule that determines things like whether the minority would be able to offer amendments to it from the floor.

In the Slaughter Solution, the rule would declare that the House “deems” the Senate version of Obamacare to have been passed by the House. House members would still have to vote on whether to accept the rule, but they would then be able to say they only voted for a rule, not for the bill itself.

Here’s the logic behind the apparent political suicide of the Democrats Statists: the political tea leaves already show they will take one of the biggest whuppings at the polls ever in November. Might as well impose one more act of nationalization — two, if you count the nationalization of student loans being bundled into this — before they go down.

The act of creating a new national entitlement that the Republicans will be too cowardly to eliminate will create another Third Rail of American politics that will become permanent. Plus, they’ll only be out of power for a short time while the voters have a temper tantrum and once they complete the coup d’etat with amnesty for illegal aliens, they’ll have at least two new constituencies that will vote them back into power for at least a generation.

That’s the rationale. Being out of power for two years is a small price to pay knowing that the changes they will force on the American people will become permanent and irreversible. Remember: the way the Senate bill is worded, most of it cannot be eliminated without a supermajority vote and the death panels cannot be eliminated ever. They are permanent.

Armstrong Williams labels the Democrats’ Statists’ scheme corrupt:

The latest move by the transparent, above-politics Democrats to slaughter the democratic process in the hopes that Americans are just dumb enough to fall for yet another ruse. The House passes — or rejects — a rule before it considers any given piece of legislation; this rule lays out the parameters for debating that particular bill. Sometimes these rules are strict, sometimes they’re lax; it all depends on how much debate time or how many amendments they want to allow on a given piece of legislation. And then sometimes the rules are just plum dirty. Like this Slaughter Solution.

And one of the bloggers at Red State predicts an extreme backlash if they try this trick, and we won’t have to wait until November:

1. The Supreme Court will strike it down within days.
I don’t remember which of the 3 authors I cited said this (or maybe I heard it on the radio), so I don’t know who to cite. But every American has standing here, due to the exceedingly far reach of the Health Care Takeover bill. Somebody will sue. I predict GOP members of Congress will, and it will go straight to the Supreme Court. They will strike down the whole caboodle, and they will do it almost immediately. Probably 6-3, with Breyer and Kennedy voting with the originalists. Their ruling is very likely to include language extremely damning of the behavior of Democrats.

2. Numerous states will declare statutorily under the 10th Amendment that this law will be unenforceable within their borders.
I’m guessing 20 states. The move has been afoot for awhile anyway, and this blatant flouting of the Constitution will trigger the America-loving, freedom-loving instincts into bold (if rash) action. And while they’re at it, they’re going to say the same thing about everything emanating from the EPA.

3. There will be public anti-government outrage so great that it will boil into violence.
I do not condone this; it will be ugly and more than a little scary. Lest I give anybody fresh ideas, I will not expound upon it other than to say it will be directed, not generalized — directed at objects, property, and symbols of government, not at people. Although those who voted for this Slaughter Rule would be wise to perhaps hang around in Washington for awhile.

4. (Even more) new candidates opposing incumbent Democrats will come out of the woodwork.
Many already have, but many have considered, then declined. Many of those will change their minds, even in blue states. And new ones will pop up like dandelions. And a whole bunch of them will win. The leftist partisan national media currently think Republicans might, juuuuuuuust MIGHT, get 40 seats and the House back. Idiots. It was already going to be 80 and 8. But after this stunt, it might be 120 and 14. This is what happens when the entire center turns on a party.

5. State AGs will bring charges against sitting Congressmen for whatever they can plausibly pin on them.
Sedition is the actual crime (IMHO), and that’s a federal charge. But no USA will touch this, since they work for the president. Because members of Congress cannot be recalled, citizens will be thirsting for vengeance. Very loudly. State AG’s will be chomping at the bits to exact SOME form of payback, encouraged (or pushed) by their citizenry. Things like corruption, conspiracy, bribery, racketeering, tax fraud, and so on, will be easy indictments. As the last few months have shown, congressional Democrats have been so thoroughly corrupt for so long, nobody will even have to trump up anything.

6. Republicans will shut down business in Congress until January 5.
Then it will REALLY get fun.

Democrats will lose the country days after they pull the Slaughter Rule. They’ll have their illegal law both flouted and overruled, their members will be subject to investigations and indictments, and not a single item of interest will be signed into law, nor will any appointment be approved, before January 5, when a hundred or more of them leave Washington for good.

For the record, I have no problem with No. 3, even if that does make me an extremist. Remember: the patriots who fought the Revolutionary War against the exact same type of tyranny were extremists. And as Thomas Jefferson said:

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

Clearly, the folks in Washington are tyrants and are indistinguishable from the likes of King George III and Parliament in the 18th century or virtually any other dictator from any other period in history. The likes of Bela Pelosi, Dingy Harry and Barack Hussein Obama believe they are our rulers, not elected to serve the people or at most govern.

As of now, Bela Pelosi has told the House Democrats Statists that the Slaughter Rule is a go, as soon as next week.

The United States is now being ruled by King Rameses II:

So let it be written. So let it be done. Welcome to the new dictatorship of the proletariat.

Photoshop by Slublog.

House Democrats have been wandering away from the taxpayer funded hog trough on Healthcare Reform, finally realizing that they were being fattened up for next November’s Market.

 

No problem……… Obama is calling them back to the trough while slopping in fresh buckets of  billions of dollars for the government takeover of student aid loans without having to face a 60 vote cloture vote in the Senate:  http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100312/D9EDAV381.html

 

I wonder what other buckets of slop he has ready if this won’t be enough: Cap & Trade?  Immigration Reform?  More taxes on top of more taxes?  Now’s the time to throw it all in since the Constitutional laws for the legislation process has been deemed to no longer be in effect for this President and his Democratic Congress……….. but then, people who did not rely on the MSM during the election, knew that the One believed that the US Constitution “represents the fundamental flaw of this country to this very day” http://newsmax.com/InsideCover/obama-constitution/2008/10/27/id/326165

 

Let’s face it, the One knows how to get them Dem’s snouts back into the trough.

For the second time in 4 months, the forces of Obamacare have failed to bend the “Stupak 12″ to their will.  The End Game for Obamacare is finally approaching.

The AP reports:

Top House Democrats said they have given up trying to win over some conservative Democrats demanding that the bill strictly bar federal aid for abortion. That means they likely will have to win converts from among 39 House Democrats who voted against the House’s initial health bill in November.

This shows how “serious” Pelosi et al were about addressing Stupak’s concerns, and how un-Nelson-like the House holdouts on this issue have been.  Nelson caved in days, and the “discussions” with Stupak lasted what—5 minutes?

I wouldn’t call Stupak “conservative” in any way (he supports a “public option”) and for the most part, “Blue Dog” status is more mythological than unicorns and dragons.  However, on the issue of abortion funding, there is good reason to conclude that there is actually some pro-life integrity on the Democrat side in the House, and that integrity should be commended.  Does this surprise me?  Yes, but what a pleasant surprise.

The irony that abortion funding will be the final torpedo in comprehensive health reform is simply delicious.  The Hyde Amendment has been the law of the land for years, but the inability of democrats to continue to live under the principle of the Hydge Amendment will in the end, the death knell for their generational desire for HCR.

TIme to remain vigilent, but prepare for celebration (i.e. time to stock up on some extra adult beverages)!

 

 

How about this to get you to take your eyes off the ObamaCare ball;

Senate Health Care Bill Dead on Arrival, Pro-Life House Democrats Say

The health care reform bill passed by the Senate on Christmas Eve appears to be dead on arrival in the House, as seven anti-abortion Democrats intend to join the ranks of lawmakers who plan to vote against the legislation, Fox News has confirmed

Seven new no votes would be enough to kill the Senate bill, and several more fence-sitting lawmakers are under pressure from both sides of the aisle.

Foremost among the seven new no votes is Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., whose anti-abortion amendment to the House version of the legislation got the bill passed in that chamber last year.

But because the Senate and House Democratic leaders weren’t able to agree on joint legislation before losing their supermajority in the Senate this year, they have few options other than getting the House to pass the Senate bill and then making changes to the law through a separate budget reconciliation bill that could pass with simple majorities.

The Senate bill, however, doesn’t contain the same language as the Stupak amendment, which explicitly prohibits federal funding of abortion in any of the reform measures intended to expand health care coverage to millions of uninsured Americans.

How many times has this zombie returned from the dead after we heard something similar to this? I’m not buying it, and you shouldn’t either.

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It appears that Obama is channeling his inner David Farragut when it comes to healthcare reform. The Admiral’s now legendary cry, “Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead,” worked well in the Battle of Mobile Bay, but will the same approach work in the battle for health care reform?  After all, Farragut was able to keep the vast majority of his forced intact – with all but one of his fleet passing safely through the barrage of mines. On the other hand, Obama’s hard nosed approach has caused fractures and rifts within his own party which threaten to derail his reform train. Despite the protests of constituents, the public opinion polls, and his own free-falling disapproval rating, President Obama remains obstinate.

On his quest to impress health care reform onto the populace he has proven willing to do whatever it takes. Recently retired Democratic Congressman Eric Massa said as much this morning,

“Mine is now the deciding vote on the health care bill and this administration and this House leadership have said, quote-unquote, they will stop at nothing to pass this health care bill. And now they’ve gotten rid of me and it will pass. You connect the dots.”

Nobody is confusing Massa with a saint. He made some drunken crude comments that deserved to put him in hot water. But I didn’t hear similar pressure among the Democratic Leadership for Charlie Rangel’s removal. In fact, I heard a constant chorus from Nancy Pelosi defending her old friend,

“I think that every member is entitled to have his day before they ethics committee.”

Every member except for “no” votes on health care apparently, apologies to Eric Massa.

The Administration’s bag-o-tricks to pass health care extends well beyond ethical double-standards. Last week President Obama dug up a Chicago favorite – political nepotism. At the time the President invited ten on-the-fence Democrats to cajole them into voting yes for health care. One of those targets, Representative Jim Matheson of Utah, got more than just a talking to. Matheson’s brother, Scott, was named by the President to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10^th Circuit. Following the announcement Jim, who had previously voted against the Energy and Commerce Committee health care bill and the House Bill, announced that he was now “undecided.”

The issue is not whether Scott Matheson is qualified. Republican Congressman Orrin Hatch even stepped in to help shepherd the nomination through Congress. The issue is whether he would have been the nominee without the surrounding circumstances. The questions come from context. A week ago Joe Sestak claimed he was offered a federal job not to run against Presidential favorite Arlen Specter in the Pennsylvania primary. An initially reluctant Senator Landrieu was suddenly more than happy to see health care get passed after receiving hundreds of millions in the Louisiana Purchase. Ben Nelson, who was on record as saying “my vote is not for sale” suddenly changed his tune after being offered billions of dollars in benefits for his state via the Cornhusker Kickback. All told, Democratic leadership has given us very little reason to trust their claim that the appointment is based on pure qualifications. In the words of Massa, “…you connect the dots.”

Barack Obama came into office promising a new era of transparency. However throughout the process, the health care image has been distorted by bribery, corruption and favoritism. Damn the rules. Full speed ahead.

by Brandon Greife, Political Director of the College Republican National Committee

Read more at: www.collegerepublicans.org

Jonathan Chait is not a stupid man.  He is not a man who doesn’t read or pay attention.  Therefore, one must assume that in writing his latest article for the TNR describing the GOP health plan alternatives as “Dickensian”, he consciously misrepresented the GOP legislation.  He proclaims that Health Savings Account benefit only the healthy while ignoring the sick.  He further accuses the GOP of promoting the idea that good health is some sort of reflection of moral propriety.

Of course, like most liberal representations of GOP proposals it is a ridiculous characterization.  But in the process, Mr. Chait reveals the typical liberal failure to connect with reality.  In the liberal world view economies and people are static.  So, Mr. Chait proclaims that society can be divided into the healthy and the sick.  Healthy people, he notes, understandably don’t want to subsidize the sick because if they are Republican they are selfish and morally impaired.

The reality is that most people, (thank heaven) start out life as healthy and end up toward the end of life with a host of maladies.  So most people fit in to both categories ( healthy or sick) at different times of their lives.  Health Savings Accounts allow healthy people to save for the time when they will be sick.

Mr Chait then makes the point that the tax exemption for Health Savings Accounts is worth more for people who pay taxes than people who don’t pay taxes.  He fails to acknowledge that two of the plans that have been most cited by advocates of HSA’s — Whole Foods and the State of Indiana, include a provision for employer contributions to HSAs.  More important, he fails to acknowledge that the current tax exemption for health insurance payments made by employers similarly is a greater benefit for people who pay taxes than those who don’t.

Third he fails to acknowledge that people who are poor and sick and can’t afford to pay for their own healthcare will continue to be eligible for Medicaidor something like it under any Republican plan.  But of course, including these details would derail his attempt to paint Republicans as the selfish people who don’t care.

The worst part of his argument is that he completely ignores the reason Republicans are willing to put the same amount of money into a Health Savings Account and High deductible insurance as is now paid for comprehensive coverage — because when people benefit by asking the price of something and challenge the utility and effectiveness of a procedure or a drug, they will make sound choices that cost less.

The truth that Chait is trying to hide is that Republicans have become the party of the little guy, championing the right of ordinary people to make their own health care decisions and while the Democrats have become the party of Experts who sit on death panels and tell us little people what’s good for us.

One hour and forty minutes after the White House issued their Easter deadline for ObamaCare to pass Congress, Democratic House Leaders conceded “they may not meet President Barack Obama’s challenge for swift action.”

Whenever the House Leadership moves a vote, it means they don’t have the votes. In Spanish, that’s mañana.

With the White House issuing a deadline and the Dem House leaders immediately and publicly saying, not so much, the White House looks silly and limp and powerless. They look even more out of touch and desperate than they did when President Obama announced that he will not quit with his self-appointed Captain Ahab role of hunting the great-health-care-white-whale.

But the best news (finally) is that a group of Democrats are willing to have News at 11 film them shooting ObamaCare in the head.

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This Armchair Economist Proposes a 10 point Contract from America that makes common sense changes that don't just tinker around the edges but are bold practical paradigm shifts that will restore America to economic greatness and opportunity for all of its citizens. Some points require a throwing out of the old and bringing in the new. Some the left will like and some the right will like.