Obamascare, The New Path To Bad Medicine
Apr 30, 2012 Political
Anyone who thinks the Food and Drug Administration is in business to protect people is living in a fantasy world. The FDA approves drugs and says whether they can be used and by whom and then when there is a problem the FDA has no responsibility. It points fingers to the drug manufacturer. Of course those who made the drug are culpable but so are those who approved the drug.
The FDA is so concerned about the health of people that it is considering removing the need for a prescription for certain drugs like those to treat high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
This means that patients would not need to see a doctor in order to get those medications. While that might be reasonable for some medications (like 800 mg Ibuprofen) it is not wise for others like blood pressure medication.
These conditions require monitoring by a doctor. The medications often require blood tests and other testing to ensure the medication is therapeutic and not causing damage. It is also important that people do not take the drugs to treat perceived rather than actual maladies.
What if the high blood pressure is caused by another condition?
The FDA is doing this for what reason?
It is considering making some medications over the counter (OTC) to reduce the cost of Medicare which is even more burdened by Obamacare.
The cost and not the health of the patient is the overriding factor in this decision. If people get injured or die as a result of this decision then it is a small price to pay to keep costs under control (which might not be under control for those not on Medicare as insurance companies decide not to pay for OTC medication).
Sounds like a back door death panel to me.
While I think the FDA does stupid things and makes some drugs prescription when they do not need to be I also think the random removal of drugs in order to save money is criminal.
Then again, Obamacare is a criminal law.
If we are going to have an FDA then it needs to make sound decisions that protect the public.
Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
The Constitution Trumps ALL Other Reasons
Apr 3, 2012 Political
The Supreme Court heard arguments in the case against Obamacare and the initial impressions from most thinking people are that it will not stand. The impression is that the individual mandate will not pass Constitutional muster and that the entire law might be struck down. The left realizes this and has begun its attacks. They have been chastising Justices for being unwilling to read a 2700 page law to determine which parts can be saved.
This anger comes from the same people who did not read it before they voted to pass it.
There is speculation that Obama already knows how things will shake out and I think that if he does it is because Justice Kagan leaked the results of the vote to him.
He made his first public statements on the issue yesterday and he discussed how it would be unprecedented for this law to be ruled unconstitutional. He discussed how justices are unelected and he said that the bill was passed by a “strong majority” in Congress.
This is all bluster and to me indicates he knows how the vote went and he is positioning himself to run against the Republicans who challenged this and the “activist” court that threw it out.
The Constitution is the Supreme Law of the Land, period. In that document the Supreme Court is charged with making sure the actions of the Executive and Legislative branches are within the confines of it. The Court is not activist if it rules that the Constitution was violated. An activist court is one that makes its own rules or laws. One that follows the Constitution is not activist no matter how much Obama claims it is. It would be an activist Court if it went through the legislation and decided piece by piece which parts are OK. That is for Congress to do. The Court only needs to decide Constitutionality of the mandate and then decide to scrap the entire law or not. Congress should handle the aftermath.
It also matters not one bit how many members of Congress voted to pass a bill. If every single member voted to pass a bill establishing the Catholic Church as the official church of the United States it would be unconstitutional. You can bet that Obama and every other person screaming about the majority in Congress who passed Obamacare would be lining up to oppose such a ruling because it violates the First Amendment to the Constitution. Obama would not say the Court should not overturn it because it was passed by a strong majority, he would be screaming about violating the Constitution.
We have a Supreme Court to ensure that majorities of any kind do not violate the Constitution and pass laws that affect people in violation of our law. That is their function and they are tasked with that duty.
One thing is certain; the number of members of Congress who voted on something is not a criterion the Court uses to determine if an item is Constitutional.
James Clyburn (D-SC) has suggested that Obama run against the Supreme Court. As Obama pointed out, they are unelected but his public statements leave the impression he is doing just that.
Perhaps, but it will do him no good. If Obama is concerned with majorities, a large majority of Americans (larger than the majority that passed Obamacare) oppose Obamacare and those folks will not be swayed by some argument that runs contrary to the idea that the Supremes upheld the Constitution.
Liberals will generally support Obama but are fed up with high unemployment and gas prices so they might stay home on Election Day.
Blacks, of course, will support him in overwhelming numbers no matter what he does.
The important take away is that the Constitution trumps all other items and that the Supremes are tasked with ensuring that document is upheld by the other two branches of government. This is why Obama does not like the Constitution and why he feels it is an outdated document.
It is also why he ignores it.
The true activists on the Court are the liberal justices whose work involves social engineering. They do not follow the Constitution and they work to uphold liberal ideas with little regard for the Constitution.
These justices Obama does not refer to as activists.
Obama says rejection would be unprecedented but he is wrong (hyperbole anyone). I would like to say it is unprecedented that something that is so obviously unconstitutional would go down to a 5-4 ruling.
Sadly, a 5-4 ruling is the norm as liberals ignore the Constitution in favor of social engineering.
Obama is proud of them even if he does not understand the Constitution.
Maggie’s Notebook has an interesting article.
The Daily Caller has an article about Obama’s hollow threat to the Supremes…
Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Tags: Democrats, kagan, laws, lies, Obama, obamacare, supreme court
The Obama Spin Machine Thinks You Are An Idiot
Mar 29, 2012 Political
“The confidence of the people will easily be gained by a good administration. This is the true touchstone.” –Alexander Hamilton, speech to the New York Ratifying Convention, 1788
The mark of a good administration is one that tells the truth. Americans are adults and most prefer the truth. We might not like it and we might get angry but we want to know the realties. Unfortunately, politics involves doing and saying whatever is necessary to get elected and then to hold office.
Barack Obama lectured Hillary Clinton on why we should not have an individual mandate in health insurance and once he was in office he pushed for that mandate. After three days of Supreme Court hearings it looks like that mandate could be his undoing.
That is where the spin comes in and that is where they think you are an idiot.
The White House is rebranding the individual mandate as the “individual responsibility clause” of the bill. The White House goes further by claiming that the individual mandate, oops I mean the individual responsibility clause, was a Republican idea.
You read that right. The White House is claiming that the unpopular mandate was the invention of the Republicans. While this should come as no surprise because this White House always blames someone else, it should be seen for what it is. It is a blatant attempt to rewrite history and blame the Republicans for the mess that this has become.
But wait, it gets worse.
The White House is calling this bill a bi-partisan effort. For those with any doubt, bi-partisan means that the two parties involved supported the effort. I guess by some abstract, twisted logic one could call it bi-partisan since Democrats and Independents supported it but that is not what the White House means.
The White House is saying it was bi-partisan in an effort to place equal blame for the mess on both parties so that the damage can be spread out and Obama can be portrayed as a victim of bad Congressional decisions.
If it was a bad decision why did he push it, why did he defend it and why did he sign it?
More to the point though, the bill is not bi-partisan because NOT ONE SINGLE Republican voted for it.
The Democrats made deals, bribed members, and used legislative trickery to get this bill passed and it was ALL done by Democrats.
Keep that in mind folks. The Republicans were not allowed to be part of the negotiations. Their ideas, those that were considered, were voted down or excluded. They were not included in the meetings and they had no say in the process.
The whole thing was entirely a Democrat effort and only Democrats voted for it and they did so in the middle of the night around Christmas while wheeling Robert Byrd in in his wheelchair.
It was the Democrats who made a big show of the issue by parading around with a huge gavel while inventing stories of racist comments. Remember all that fanfare? Remember the show and the big grins on their faces? Remember how proud they were to have passed this thing? Remember it all because they are now trying to change the story.
This mess belongs entirely to Barack Obama (his signature legislation we are told) and his Democrats who rammed it down our throats.
We had to pass it to see what was in it and when that happened people liked it even less. Now the answer to Pelosi’s question is becoming clear.
Remember? She was asked if it was Constitutional and her reply was “are you serious?”
Yes, we were and that issue has been addressed this week. While anything can happen it is becoming very clear that the SCOTUS does not hold the view that the mandate is Constitutional. Even if it does, the end result will spell disaster.
Now the regime is trying to shift blame, rewrite history and implicate Republicans in this total Democrat mess.
So I will have to respond with Pelosi’s words…
Are you serious?
Most of us are not that stupid…
Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Tags: bi-partisan, bribes, Democrats, kickbacks, lies, Obama, obamacare, spin, supreme court
Democrats In Panic Mode
Mar 27, 2012 Political
It looks like it was not a good day for Obamacare and by extension, all those law makers who pushed it. While it is certainly too early to tell and anything can change, it appears that the government had a bad day in front of the Supreme Court. The Solicitor General was so bad that Justice Ginsburg and Justice Kagan interjected to help him out. They were pushing him in the right direction and assisting him in making his case. By the way, Kagan should have recused herself but she is a liberal and they have no ethical principles.
The conservative Justices asked tough and pointed questions that the SG was not prepared to answer. The left has hopes it can pluck one of the conservative justices and win a 5-4 decision (because the liberals will obviously never vote in favor of the Constitution) and they might succeed. Some are left wondering if Roberts or Kennedy will be that fifth vote and most say it is too close to call. I think it will be 5-4 overturning but it would not surprise me to see the thing go the other way.
Our Supreme Court has been a political branch rather than a judicial overseer for far too long and has engaged in social engineering many times. I believe that it is a sad thing that there is not a unanimous decision against something the Constitution does not allow. To see that a number of our highest judges can’t get on board with the Law of the Land is disheartening.
However, I can understand why the Court is confused. The Obama regime called the fine a penalty and then a tax and then a penalty and then a tax and Obama has argued both sides of the mandate. He argued one way as a candidate and another after he won (he was against it before he was for it). This is well illustrated in this video:
This very plainly shows that Obama argued one thing when he wanted you to vote for him (which many of you foolishly did) and then another way after he suckered you into voting for him. This is probably the kind of deception he was signaling when he told the Russians to give him space because he would have more flexibility after the election. Imagine how he could really screw us over when he does not have to worry about reelection…
Like I indicated, it is too early to tell and we really won’t know for sure until the ruling comes out in June but the talking heads were very sure that today was a bad day for the government. The Obama media were all sweating bullets, NPR, CNN, and the rest were in disbelief.
They are already writing the mandate off.
Next up is the severability. If they overturn the mandate will they trash the entire law or just the mandate? There is no severability clause so the entire thing should go but it is unlikely they will do that.
What does it mean? If they only throw out the mandate the other parts of the law will cause private insurance companies a lot of headaches and the Democrats would love nothing more than to have that happen so they could push for a single payer system. Many on the left say that Obama wins either way but I am not so sure.
If it is upheld then it will cause more Republicans to go to the polls to vote in people who will overturn it.
If only the mandate is overturned then Republicans will work just as hard to vote people in to get rid of the rest.
If it is completely overturned then all the people in Congress who voted for this will be painted as people who forced unconstitutional legislation down our throats and the deals and bribes will be brought to bear on them in the election.
In any event, the last two scenarios will cause a lot of Democrats heartburn as they worry about how it will affect their jobs…
It looks now like it might have been a bad idea for Obama to insult the justices during his State of the Union address. It certainly looks like his vote against John Roberts to be on the Court was unwise.
Not that the judges would hold a grudge…
But who would blame them?
UPDATE: The Daily Mail points out much of the same…
UPDATE 2: Kagan helping Soclitor General One wonders if she was not really arguing the case for the government…
Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Tags: lies, mandate, Obama, obamacare, overturn, supreme court, unconstitutional
Church Tries To Exorcise Obamacare Demon
Feb 8, 2012 Political
The Catholic Church is up in arms about a rule from the HHS requiring those who provide health care benefits to provide birth control, including the morning after pill (and at no cost at that). The Catholic Church is not the only religious institution upset about this but it has been the most vocal. The ruling does not apply to the houses of worship themselves but to organizations run by the Church such as Catholic hospitals and charities.
As far as I am concerned the federal government has no right to do this. The First Amendment does not allow any government action to establish a religion or prohibit the free exercise thereof. The Church is exercising its beliefs with regard to birth control and has every right to do so.
However, I have no sympathy for the Church because it supported Obamacare. The Church was perfectly happy when it was supporting something that required the rest of us to do things we did not want but now it is having a cow over it being forced to do something it does not want (The two have something in common; they are both likely unconstitutional).
The Church received assurances that it would not be forced to do things that ran counter to its beliefs but it looks like those assurances were designed to get support. Like many liberal constituencies the Church was used when needed and is now discarded. The Church should remember that when it lies with dogs it will get fleas.
There is uproar and the Church is indicating it will not comply with the law and says it will drop all insurance if the law is not changed. This plays right into the liberal’s hands because they want everyone to be forced into government run care. That was the goal from the beginning and it has not changed.
The people who will be affected by this should remember who did it to them and make things right in November.
But I think that will not happen. The Obama regime is catching hell over this issue and it might respond by dropping the requirement. Obama needs to get reelected and he can’t afford to have millions of Catholics turning against him.
Catholics though, should not fall for this. If, and it is a big if right now, Obama changes course it will be solely for political purposes and it will be temporary. If he gets reelected and no longer has to worry about reelection he will do as he wishes and impose his will on everyone. He will reinstate the requirement and thumb his nose at the Church.
Beware Catholics. He screwed you once and he will do it again.
But, you got what you asked for and though I disagree with the rules I think you got what you deserved.
This is what happens when you have to pass bills before you know what is in them. She lost her job and now regrets her vote.
So far the White House is standing firm.
Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Tags: catholic church, contraception, lies, obamacare