The Supreme Court must now rule on this question, but we shouldn’t have to wait for that.I sent a letter to Congress telling them to repeal Obamacare now.

The hard-wired message says simply, “Please repeal Obamacare.”

I added these comments…

Uncertainty over what Obamacare will really cost companies is probably the major reason they’re reluctant to hire new people. Repeal Obamacare quickly, and this uncertainty will disappear. Unemployment would probably fall instantly, and dramatically.

Repealing Obamacare is probably the best thing you could do to create jobs.

But that’s not the only reason to repeal it.

Obamacare never had public support. It still doesn’t. The American people hate it. Plus…

The “individual mandate” is an affront to a free society. It violates the Constitution. The 11th Circuit agrees, and the Supreme Court will probably agree too.

And if the individual mandate goes, so must the rest of Obamacare. The individual mandate was essential to the scheme, because Obamacare also requires insurance companies to cover people with pre-existing conditions. The only way companies could afford that is through the requirement that everyone has to buy their product. But that won’t work if the court rejects the individual mandate.

This is a dangerous situation. If the Supreme Court kills the individual mandate, but not the whole of Obamacare, then the uncertainty companies face will grow. Job creation will remain stagnant.

America can’t afford to wait for a Supreme Court ruling, and then for further Congressional action to clarify things after the ruling. Instead, Congress should “fix” the problems of Obamacare by repealing ALL of it now.

You should also take IMMEDIATE steps to make health care more affordable, which is the key to expanding access. You can do this by allowing INDIVIDUALS to choose for themselves, with their own money. Here are some ideas…

* Introduce legislation allowing Americans to buy health insurance from any provider in the country, not just those licensed in their own state. This will reduce premiums for nearly every American.
* Remove all tax and regulatory incentives that tie health insurance to employment. This will give individuals full ownership over their own health insurance policies. This would also reduce the risk that people will end up uninsured because they change jobs, which is especially important to those Americans who have a family member with a pre-existing condition.
* Transition Medicare to a true voucher program with Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). People are always more prudent with their own money than they are when spending other people’s money. Therefore, HSA’s would reduce healthcare prices across the board.

Repealing Obamacare care now will help the economy immediately. It could also pave the way for more individual choice in healthcare. Choice would bring lowered costs, improved quality, and expanded access.

You can do better than Obamacare. Repeal it now. Then start over, using better ideas.

END LETTER

I urge you to send your own letter, or borrow from or copy the above. You can send your letter using DownsizeDC.org’s Educate the Powerful System.

And we invite you to share Downsize DC with your friends. “Like” us on Facebook and share us with your friends: http://www.facebook.com/downsizedc

Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

D o w n s i z e r – D i s p a t c h

Official email newsletter of DownsizeDC.org, Inc. & Downsize DC Foundation.

Many of Obamacare’s opponents believe that if we can’t outright repeal it, perhaps it would be easier to defund its implementation.

But even that is harder than it sounds.

That’s because the Obamacare bill contained obscure provisions requiring $105 billion in MANDATORY spending over the next nine years.

This means Congress can’t merely defund this amount in a budget bill. It must specifically REPEAL these provisions.

If they aren’t repealed, the federal healthcare bureaucracy will continue to grow.

That’s why I sent a letter telling Congress to repeal Obamacare’s mandatory funding. I encourage you to do the same.

You may borrow from or copy this letter . . .

You should repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). I believe it will harm our health, liberty, and property. In addition, it . . .

* Denies this and future Congresses the power of the purse
* Denies the people the right to self-government

That’s because the PPACA contains provisions that require $105 billion in MANDATORY spending over the next nine years. This means . . .

* Congress cannot merely “zero-out” Obamacare funding, like it can with other laws and programs
* It must specifically REPEAL these provisions, which is much harder
* The people will be taxed to pay for the funding of giant new healthcare bureaucracies, without their consent

The people and Congress from now until 2020 will be forced to live with what Congress did in 2010.

This violates the principles of representative government.

The funding of new laws should be determined by each Congress through the budget process. This $105 billion in mandatory spending impedes Congress’s right to set its own priorities.

As a matter of principle, you must . . .

* Repeal ALL of Obamacare
* Or, until that can happen, insist that any spending bill also contains legislation that REPEALS these mandatory spending provisions

Stand firm!

END LETTER

You can send your letter using DownsizeDC.org’s Educate the Powerful System.

And we invite you to “like” us on Facebook and share Downsize DC with your friends: http://www.facebook.com/downsizedc

Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

D o w n s i z e r – D i s p a t c h

Official email newsletter of DownsizeDC.org, Inc. & Downsize DC Foundation.

First, Ron and Rand appeared together on ABC Morning News with George Stephanopoulos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO9KaSrj1sM

Neil Cavuto talks to father and son in a more lighthearted discussion but ultimately they discuss raising the debt ceiling and economics. At one point Ron Paul laughs at the nibbling around the edges and says, “I want to repeal the whole government.” Good old Ron.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IJMzVHsMWw

And finally both appear on John King USA on CNN:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qPQpImxDJE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vVLYtOoGac

For example, there is Albert Springwater, who is the president’s teleprompter cleaner. “It’s a very important job,” he says. “Without a clean and readable screen, the President might go from talking about oil drilling to reciting the Gettysburg Address. In fact, I let one of my assistants go the other day when, because of careless wiping, the president mistook the word ‘France’ for ‘Venezuela’ and threatened to put a sea blockade on Paris.”

But what really lured him away from his prestigious White House job? “There was an opening at Best Buy that I just could not ignore. Aisle after aisle of TVs waiting to be dusted off and sprayed with glass cleaner. How could I pass up an opportunity like that?”

Another soul looking wistfully at the exit sign is Billy Tribs, the youngest economic advisor in American history. His reason for leaving? “My parents are moving to New Haven and they want me to attend fifth grade there. This has been a great job but sometimes you have to follow your heart.”

And his most memorable accomplishment? “My dad said don’t tax the rich, but the way I saw it, this was the only way to get back at parents who won’t let you stay up past nine. Payback is payback.”

For Doroteo Arango, chief head of immigration in the western United States, the decision was made for him. “Many people said I was pushed out but, actually, my green card ripened and turned red. Besides my aging mother needs help keeping the drug traffickers off her lawn in Tijuana.”

Bo Marker is the official White House Excuse Maker. His job is to deflect criticism from the president and his policies with witty and trenchant comebacks.

His proudest moment before he leaves in late December? “I coined the phrase, ‘It’s Bush’s fault’. Before that, everyone was blaming poor Fannie and Freddie Mae oversight. It kept the heat off the president’s spending plans.”

Another accomplishment? “I co-wrote Vice President Biden’s recent statement at a Minnesota fundraiser that he’d ‘strangle members of the GOP who complain about the federal budget’. But I was somewhat disappointed that my observation that ‘Republicans eat little children’ was deleted. Oh, well, some battles aren’t worth fighting.”

Finally, one of the least recognized but most important luminaries heading into retirement is Arthur Tutek. His work on the Obama healthcare program may be unfathomable but it is there, somewhere in the thousands of pages of the massive bill. His work speaks of his legal roots, he is a trial attorney, and of his great concern for the downtrodden, especially the downtrodden lawyer. “My contribution to the healthcare bill was allowing more opportunities for needed litigation. For example, it’s about time patients were able to sue the food staff. How many times do you hear heart-breaking stories of people not receiving their fruit cups in their dinner tray. Fruit is an essential part of our diet. We all need fruit and in depriving people of their fruit we’re creating severe complications somewhere down the line.”

But it doesn’t end there. “I’m all for going after janitorial staffs. Who hasn’t used a hospital bathroom or doctor’s office where they’ve got inferior-quality toilet paper hanging from their rolls. We’re talking about the one that’s made out of recycled wax paper. Patients should have the right to expect good toilet paper, you know, that kind those bears use on TV.”

Though these White House people are not as as well-known as their more televised superiors, their stories need to be told.

We hope we have gotten the word out on the important work they did.

Instead of asking, “Would you like paper or plastic?” the checkout clerk may soon ask, “Do you need our form W-9?”

A W-9 is the IRS’s “Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification.” Because of the new healthcare law . . .

If you spend as little as $55 at the local Office Shack each month, you’ll exceed $600 for the year. That means you’ll need to file a 1099 with the IRS for Office Shack. You’ll also need to get a W-9 from Office Shack so that you can have their tax id number handy when the time comes to fill out the 1099.

It used to be that businesses only had to file 1099s for unincorporated, independent contractors (with some exceptions). But now a 1099 will be required every time a business spends more than $600 with any entity. Multiply this requirement across the entire economy and it amounts to a tsunami of hundreds of millions of additional tax form filings.

This is what happens when we let politicians pass un-read bills containing thousands of pages!

Not surprisingly, a revolt is building against this requirement, but it will be a lot easier to repeal this 1099 requirement now, before the election, when the politicians are paying more attention to public opinion, than it will be after the election. So take action now!

Please send Congress a letter asking them to repeal the 099 Tsunami. We have a NEW CAMPAIGN for this purpose.

This one is simple. There’s no need to write personal comments unless you have something extra to say. The hardwired message we provide reads . . .

There’s a coming 1099 tsunami. Stealth language in the 2,400-page health legislation requires millions of businesses to issue hundreds of millions of additional IRS Form 1099s every year. It’s a cumbersome and expensive, anti-business measure, during a time of unemployment. Please repeal this provision now!

You can send your letter to Congress using DownsizeDC.org’s Educate the Powerful System.

Please send your letter today. There are only a few weeks left before the Election. Now is the time to get this terrible provision repealed.

And be sure to tell your friends. Here is a handy link to share with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, and other sites: http://bit.ly/9Bvx28

Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

D o w n s i z e r – D i s p a t c h

Official email newsletter of DownsizeDC.org, Inc. & Downsize DC Foundation.

Louisville WHAS 11′s political reporter Joe Arnold has the scoop:

Supporters of the policies of President Barack Obama knocked on doors in Louisville and Lexington over the weekend, as part of the “Moving America Forward” canvass to “support Democratic allies for President Obama.”

Presumably, that includes candidates for federal office, Jack Conway and John Yarmuth.

According to a release from Organizing for America-Kentucky (OFA-KY), volunteers are reaching out “to 2008 first time voters, sporadic voters, and newly registered voters to talk to them about the importance of electing Democratic allies for President Obama who will keep the country moving in the right direction.”

As President Obama has made clear in recent weeks, this election represents a choice between Democrats who have worked tirelessly to move the country forward or a return to the failed Republican policies that set the country in the wrong direction. Since taking office, President Obama and Congressional Democrats have passed historic reforms to the health insurance industry and Wall Street, and pulled the American economy back from the brink of depression.

Jack Conway was named by Senator Robert Menendez, leader of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, as “the next Obama.”

Voters should question why Jack Conway used his support for ObamaCare in the primary to defeat the conservative Democratic candidate Daniel Mongiardo – Jack also pandered to the left on the Bush tax cuts against Mongiardo, only to pander back after the primary (the media did not report it) – but, now, Conway does not campaign on his support for the extreme Obama lead takeover of the health care industry.

Last week, the National Republican Senatorial Committee launched this ad in Kentucky pointing out Jack Conway’s support for the Obama lead legislation.

But the similarities don’t stop with ObamaCare, several of Jack Conway’s limited issues listed on his campaign website resemble Barack Obama campaign pledges; especially, Jack Conway’s “jobs plan.”

Is Jack Conway the next Obama? Or was Barack Obama’s platform a one-hit wonder?

Jack Conway faces Dr. Rand Paul in Kentucky for the senate seat being vacated by retiring United States Senator Jim Bunning.

In this message . . .

* How I lost my doctor
* Terrifying statements from the new head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
* Plus, a special offer from NullifyNow.com

The Democrats promised us lots of things about their healthcare bill (just like the Republicans promised us lots of things about Iraq). For instance . . .

* If you have insurance you like, it won’t change
* If you have a doctor you like, you’ll be able to continue seeing him or her

Well, how are those promises working out for you?

Personally, my insurance hasn’t changed, YET, but my doctor has.

My “liberal Democratic” doctor probably cheers most of the Social-Fascist policies proposed by his favored political party, except that the healthcare bill happened to gore his personal ox. The result is that he has stopped . . .

* seeing Medicaid and Medicare patients
* taking health insurance payments
* accepting fees for services

Instead, he is now a concierge doctor. His remaining patients pay him a lump sum each year, for which they receive a set list of tests, and “unlimited” consultation. The price was too rich for me, and so I’m now among the hundreds of his former patients who need a new primary care physician.

Thank you so much President Obama and Congress.

We predict that this is only the beginning of the chaos. Please pay attention to the statements made by the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that I quote in my sample letter below. They highlight why it’s important to keep fighting the new healthcare law. We must never let the politicians assume that we have submitted to their coercion.

Please send Congress another letter about this issue.

You can borrow from or copy my sample letter . . .

My determination to repeal the recently passed healthcare bill has increased after reading the following statements by Dr. Donald Berwick, the recently appointed head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). http://tinyurl.com/2dbmrut

Dr. Berwick: “The unaided human mind, and the acts of the individual, cannot assure excellence. Health care is a system, and its performance is a systemic property.”

This concerns me because Dr. Berwick seems to believe that HIS unaided human mind is capable of determining THE SYSTEM that we should all submit to.

Dr. Berwick: “I would place a commitment to excellence—standardization to the best-known method—above clinician autonomy as a rule for care.”

In other words, one size fits all, and Mr. Berwick’s unaided mind is ready and willing to tell us the ONE METHOD by which we must all be treated.

“Young doctors and nurses should emerge from training understanding the values of standardization and the risks of too great an emphasis on individual autonomy.”

Nevermind that we all have individual genomes, and individual genetic expressions, and individual everything. Mr. Berwick wants us all to be same-sized square pegs that he will pound into his preferred round holes. It’s also very evident that he wants to silence individual thought and innovation in the minds of the next generation of healthcare providers.

Dr. Berwick clearly views himself NOT as a public servant, but as a RULER. If you want to distinguish yourself from Dr. Berwick, please demonstrate that you want to serve me rather than rule me. You can do this by sponsoring legislation to repeal the recently passed healthcare law.

END LETTER

You can send your letter to Congress using our Educate the Powerful System.

Finally, before closing, we want to call your attention again to NullifyNow.com. This fine organization is working on another approach that could help to overturn the new healthcare law, and perhaps many other things too — state nullification. Jim Babka will be speaking at two of their events in the coming months. You can . . .

* Learn more here
* Buy very cheap tickets for a day-long, NullifyNow event near you

Perry Willis
Vice President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

D o w n s i z e r – D i s p a t c h

Official email newsletter of DownsizeDC.org, Inc. & Downsize DC Foundation.

by Neeraj Chaudhary, Investment Consultant in the Los Angeles branch of Euro Pacific Capital

In his weekly radio address this past Saturday, President Obama happily commemorated the 75th anniversary of Social Security. From my perspective, the milestone is nothing to celebrate. For although the president spoke earnestly about the “obligation to keep the promise” of Social Security, in reality, the program will wreck the government’s finances within 10 years.

The numbers are simply astounding. Social Security is the largest social program in the world, making up over 40% of all federal spending. Over 58 million Americans – 1 in 5 citizens – receive a monthly check from Social Security. Although these numbers are already daunting, demographic realities will soon cause the program to expand much more rapidly.

According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), entitlement programs and net interest costs may be expected to consume fully 93% of federal revenue by 2020. Think about that: in less than 10 years, the Social Security program (which includes Medicare and Medicaid) will have gotten so big that only 7 cents of every dollar of federal revenue may be left for everything else.

What exactly does “everything else” include? Try the entire military, FBI, freeways, disaster relief, NASA, housing agencies, and the postal service – to name a few. If new revenue is not found, and if current Social Security obligations are not changed, the remainder of federal programs would have to be cut by 88% by 2020. Simply put, the “third rail” of American politics is about to electrocute us all.

Enacted in 1935, Social Security turns 75 this year (its sibling, Medicare, is a mere pup at age 45). By comparison, our great republic is over 200 years old. In other words, for most of our nation’s history, Americans have not relied on a Social Security check or Medicare insurance in their old age.

These programs have grown rapidly during the historically brief period since their inception. Even after adjusting for inflation, Social Security taxes have risen fourteen-fold since 1935, and Medicare taxes have risen at least four-fold since 1965. And yet, despite massive tax increases for both programs, their balance sheets have only deteriorated. But it’s important not to confuse size with permanence.

Instead of tackling the issue head-on by cutting spending, leaders in both parties continue to exacerbate the problem. Medicare Part D – signed into law by former President George W. Bush just seven years ago — increases our nation’s unfunded liabilities by nearly $16 trillion! And while the fiscal impact of President Obama’s health care reform law is still being debated, one thing is for certain: total expenditures will rise, not fall. Those Americans who criticize Europeans for spending so much money on social programs should take a good look in the mirror.

If an American politician were to take a courageous stand to reform this failing system, how would the nation react? One can already picture elderly Social Security recipients being trotted out by the mainstream media in a heartbreaking plea for sympathy. Any intimation that our seniors might suffer would surely stop the debate cold. No matter that a bankrupt program would offer far fewer benefits than one that has been reformed.

The original mission of Social Security was to provide a basic subsistence income to the elderly during the Great Depression. But while the initial intention may have been laudable (no one wants to throw Grandma and Grandpa out on the street), the program has predictably spiraled out of control. In 1935, each person receiving funds from Social Security was supported by 17 workers. By 2020, a Social Security recipient will rely on just about 2 workers paying in. Since neither Republicans nor Democrats have demonstrated a willingness to cut those monthly checks, get ready for higher taxes (and higher inflation).

Alarmingly, there is growing evidence that the current tax bite, and the prospect of higher taxes in the future, is already destroying jobs in the American economy. In a recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, small businessman Michael Fleischer vividly described his reluctance to hire more employees due to the current burdens of health insurance, Social Security payments, unemployment insurance, and other government-mandated costs, as well as the potential for added burdens in the near future. No doubt this sad drama is playing itself out in company after company all across the country.

We are saddled with a large and growing tax burden that will eliminate jobs, an exploding but untouchable government program that is set to consume nearly every dollar of federal revenue, and virtually nothing left for essential programs such as national defense. Happy birthday, Social Security?

Neeraj Chaudhary is an Investment Consultant in the Los Angeles branch of Euro Pacific Capital. He shares Peter Schiff’s views on the US dollar, the importance of the gold standard, and the rise of Asia as an economic power. He holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley.

One way to cure them of their cluelessness is to pressure them to pass the Enumerated Powers Act. This short, simple bill will require that all bills cite their authority under the Constitution. This requirement will be a step in the right direction of rolling back the federal government to its Constitutional limits.

We’re asking you to . . .

1. Find out if your Representative or Senator has sponsored the Enumerated Powers Act
2. Send a letter to Congress telling them to pass it

You may borrow from or copy this sample letter (include a thank you to any of your reps who are already sponsors of this legislation) . . .

As you know, Utah Sen. Bob Bennett was defeated in his bid for re-election at his own party’s nominating convention. His votes for unconstitutional spending, like the Big Bailout, led to public outrage.

The two challengers who defeated him talked openly about the Constitution as a basis for limiting government. They were even given a pop quiz on the Constitution, and generally gave thoughtful, informed answers. http://www.cityweekly.net/utah/article-11483-lee-vs-bridgewater-constitution-pop-quiz.html

There are more and more candidates like them, nationwide. After a decade of giant deficits, crony capitalism, undeclared wars, and diminishing liberties under BOTH parties, Americans are fed up. More and more of us are demanding a return to limited, Constitutional government. Challengers are seizing the opportunity and talking about the Constitution.

In contrast, when members of Congress were asked about the Constitutionality of the new health insurance mandate last fall, their answers ranged from ignorant to contemptuous. http://www.downsizedc.org/blog/where-in-the-constitution

And Congress is still clueless . . .

* The 2,319-page financial regulation bill (H.R 4173) nowhere specifies the Constitutional provision that grants legislative power to unelected bureaucrats
* The 266-page Food Safety bill (S.510) doesn’t mention the provision whereby the Federal Government can regulate local food producers and sellers
* And the only mention of the Constitution in the 114-page DISCLOSE Act (H.R.5175) is an admission that the bill’s Constitutionality will be challenged in court!

Supporting the Enumerated Powers Act is one way to tell the American people that you understand and care about the Constitution. It requires that each bill cite its authority under the Constitution. If Congress is unable to do this, the bill should be scrapped.

The Enumerated Powers Act will turn Congress in the direction of limiting and shrinking government, which is what the American people want.

Don’t be clueless. Pass the Enumerated Powers Act NOW. If you don’t, your replacement probably will.

END LETTER

You can send your letter through DownsizeDC.org’s Educate the Powerful System.

And spread the word! Forward this to friends and Digg it on our blog.

James Wilson
Assistant Communications Director
DownsizeDC.org

D o w n s i z e r – D i s p a t c h

Official email newsletter of DownsizeDC.org, Inc. & Downsize DC Foundation.

He’s so similar to George W. Bush, and in some cases worse (drone bombing fetish?), on foreign policy that I expect to hear him start mis-pronouncing the word “nuclear” any day now.

He, like his fellow progressives, believes government is the solution to all the problems of the world. Will it take someone hurling a shoe at him to wake him up to the fact that the government doesn’t have such a great track record when it comes to solutions? That probably wouldn’t work. He’d just accuse the shoe-thrower of being a Right-wing extremist and/or a Tea Party racist and/or a domestic terrorist and/or a misguided soul who has been brain-washed by “my opponents” to believe that government is the problem.

Then he may calm down a bit and suggest that perhaps he just needs to explain things better so the stupid peasants that live around his DC castle and beyond understand that the proper role of government is to be involved in every aspect of their lives.

For instance, let’s investigate the health welfare individual mandate.

Virginia (my home state) passed a law that went into effect yesterday. The law exempts Virginians from the mandate. Virginia has also sued the federal government claiming the mandate is unconstitutional. Here is the latest on this lawsuit (from Reuters):

RICHMOND, Virginia (Reuters) – The state of Virginia and the government were pitched in a legal battle in a federal courtroom on Thursday that could lead to the undoing of the massive healthcare reform law passed three months ago.

Judge Henry Hudson of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Richmond heard the federal government’s arguments to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Virginia that contends the healthcare law’s requirement that all Americans have health insurance is unconstitutional.

Before President Barack Obama signed the radical overhaul of the multi-billion dollar health insurance industry into law, Virginia’s legislature passed its own law that took effect on Thursday that says no one could be mandated to buy health insurance.

While the judge will only decide if the suit can proceed — a decision Hudson said he would render within 30 days — the court heard the first airing of arguments that could make their way to the Supreme Court as some states resist implementing the law.

States “resisting” federal law is just a modern day more politically-correct version of nullification.  There are several states participating in this effort. Virginia is not alone.

If the case is not dismissed, both sides will return to court on October 18 for a summary judgment. If it is dismissed, Virginia will likely appeal and keep the suit in the courts. Regardless, other lawsuits will proceed, including one filed in Florida by more than a dozen states. In July alone, the federal government will have to argue in court twice, once in California on July 16 and once in Michigan on July 21.

Legal analysts say there is a good possibility one of these cases will reach the highest court in the country, but most say there is only a slim chance that the Supreme Court will rule in the states’ favor.

This version of nullification, successful or not, is the best method available to fight back against federal government overreach. The question is are there enough judges with the stones to uphold these “nullification” lawsuits in the courts? I hope we all get a chance to find out.

Then Lisa Lambert, the article’s author, asserts  something that left me, a normally mild-mannered human, screaming at my computer screen in anger. Here it is:

In its argument, the U.S. government said the requirement to buy health insurance falls under the Commerce Clause, the constitutional provision allowing the federal government to regulate commerce between states. Also, the Constitution says that the federal government’s power is higher than the states’.

What?

Where in the U.S. Constitution does it say that the federal government’s power is “higher” than the states? I’m curious how many people who read that sentence will believe it is true. I’m not sure it is a blatant or malicious lie, but it is simply untrue. Then again if our lawmakers can cite the Commerce Clause to regulate any and everything under the sun maybe she’s right. Maybe the supreme law of the land in 1789 really has morphed into being just a “god-damned piece of paper” in 2010.

The Commerce Clause reads, “[The Congress shall have power] To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes”. (NOTE: The definition of “regulate” in 1789 was to “keep regular” or to “keep in proper functioning order”. The evidence is overwhelming that the Founders never intended for it to permit government direction and control of commerce.)

Now, “among the several States” defines the scope of the clause. It applies to interstate commerce. Since current law is such that health care is purely intrastate commerce (we can’t purchase health insurance across state lines) how can the Commerce Clause apply?

The judge deciding whether to permit the case stated his own dilemma with applying the Commerce Clause to the health welfare mandate.

[Judge] Hudson seemed skeptical of the idea that everyone in the country participates in the commerce of healthcare, saying that this could establish the paradox that a form of economic inactivity – not buying insurance – would be considered an economic activity.

This seems promising to me that the judge will ultimately permit the case to proceed. We’ll know that within the next 30 days.

The mandate is not set to go into effect until 2014. This gives any presidential candidate opposing Obama in 2012 political ammunition. All one would have to do is sign on to support Ron Paul’s bill (H.R. 4995) to repeal the health welfare mandate and then campaign on repealing it prior to it going into effect in 2014.

Imagine the GOP primary debates in 2011-2012. I envision all the GOP candidates fighting over supporting Ron Paul’s H.R. 4995 all the while Ron Paul sits back as the bill’s sponsor relaxed and ready for the next question.

It’s January of 2011 and a lone man stands on a street corner holding a sign in Ames, Iowa. The sign says, “Yes, You Will!” There is a picture of a man below those words.

It is either…

…a picture of Obama with a crown on his head and a whip in his hand.

Or a photo of a smiling Ron Paul with the phrase “run in 2012″ below the picture.

In either case, I’d be left smiling on the outside and hopeful on the inside.

There appears to be a de-facto nullification movement brewing in the United States. There are three main areas fueling this:

1. The National ID card or Real ID
2. Marijuana legalization/decriminalization
3. The health care mandate

The federal government demanded the states implement a national ID card. Back then they called it the REAL ID. These days they call it PASS ID and have attempted to make it more acceptable to the states. The states successfully thwarted implementation of original REAL ID by passing state legislation refusing to comply with the federal mandate. As of October of 2009, 25 states have passed laws refusing implementation of REAL ID in their state. This is the modern form of nullification. This is the model. Hopefully, PASS ID meets the same fate.

Several states have passed laws permitting marijuana for medicinal use and several are considering outright legalization. This goes directly against the federal laws against marijuana. This could become the next de-facto nullification, similar to REAL ID, if things continue down this path.

Opposing the new health care mandate is nullification in its infantile stages. Several state Attorneys General have filed suit on grounds that the health care mandate is unconstitutional. Virginia has passed a law exempting its citizens from the mandate.

You won’t hear many people within the debate on the above actually call what they are doing, “nullification”, but the net effect is the same. This idea of de-facto nullification appears to be the most effective and realistic method to oppose over-reaching federal government unconstitutional laws in our time. I expect to explore these ideas in more depth in Woods’ book and in my future writing.

Also, check out the upcoming “Nullify Now!” tour. Tom Woods, Jack Hunter, Jim Babka, and others are scheduled to speak.

See below for a “must see” Tom Woods  interview given by a “Zombie” about his new book.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrcM5exDxcc