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South Carolina Bill: Implement Obamacare, Go To Jail For Five Years

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Pursuing an archaic legal theory that punctuated pre-Civil War disputes between the federal government and states, South Carolina state Rep. Bill Chumley last week pre-filed a bill for the upcoming legislative session that would criminalize implementation of President Barack Obama’s 2010 healthcare reform law.

If his bill becomes law, any state official caught enforcing the healthcare law would be guilty of a misdemeanor and “must be fined not more than one thousand dollars or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.”

Federal officials caught enforcing the law, however, would be given stiffer punishment under the proposal.

Any federal employee or contractor enforcing the law “is guilty of a felony and, upon conviction, must be fined not more than five thousand dollars, or imprisoned not more than five years, or both,” the bill proposes.

“I think we’re within our rights to do this,” Chumley explained to U.S. News. “It’s an obligation, I swore an oath to uphold the Constitution and protect the people.”

Read more from this story HERE.

ObamaCare Will Bring Bureaucracy, Endless Rules And Coercion, But Improve Nothing

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A few years ago, my small local hospital asked a senate staffer if she could assist them in obtaining federal money for a new building. So she did, expediting the process by which that particular corner of northern New Hampshire was deemed to be “underserved” and thus eligible for the fed gravy.

At the ribbon-cutting, she was an honored guest, and they were abundant in their praise. Alas, in the fullness of time, the political pendulum swung, her senator departed the scene, and she was obliged to take a job out of state.

Last summer, she returned to the old neighborhood and thought she’d look for a doctor. The sweet old guy with the tweed jacket in the neatly painted cape on Main Street had taken down his shingle and retired.

Most towns in the North Country now have fewer doctors than they did in the 19th century, and the smaller towns have none. The Yellow Pages list more health insurers than physicians, which would not seem to be an obvious business model. So she wound up going to the health center she’d endowed so lavishly with your tax dollars just a few years earlier.

They gave her the usual form to fill in, full of perceptive inquiries on her medical condition: Do you wear a seat belt? Do you own a gun? How many bisexual men are you now having sex with?

Read more from this article HERE.

The Sebelius Coverup

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Many states are wisely signaling that they aren’t interested in doing the Obama administration’s bidding on Obamacare. As a result, many if not most of Obamacare’s insurance exchanges — the heart of the beast — will have to be set up and run by the Obama administration at the federal level.

States are not required to set up Obamacare exchanges, but it seems to have surprised observers that many are choosing not to. Politico reports that, with only 17 states so far having said they will set up the exchanges, the “Department of Health and Human Services’s role in bringing the law to life is going to be a lot bigger than originally thought.” More than a third of all states have already said they won’t set up the Obamacare exchanges. Among others, Republican governors Scott Walker, John Kasich, Sam Brownback, Rick Perry, Bobby Jindal, Nikki Haley, Nathan Deal, Paul LePage, Robert Bentley, Mary Fallin, and Sean Parnell have said they’ll refuse to set up the exchanges in their states.

In Missouri, voters took matters into their own hands, approving a ballot measure to vest authority over the decision in the Republican-led state legislature, rather than leaving it up to the Democratic governor. Missouri will not be establishing an exchange. Utah governor Gary Herbert, meanwhile, has opted for a sort of mild civil disobedience, saying that his state will continue to pursue “our version of an exchange based on defined contribution, consumer choice, and free markets” — a type of exchange that is rather plainly banned by Obamacare.

States’ refusal to be complicit in this crucial aspect of Obamacare should shine a spotlight on the development of the federal exchanges — and what it illuminates won’t be pretty.

The Obama administration’s congressional allies botched the drafting of this aspect of the health care overhaul, as the plain language of Obamacare doesn’t empower federal exchanges to distribute taxpayer-funded subsidies to individuals; it empowers only state-based exchanges to distribute the subsidies. (The administration pretends otherwise.) Moreover, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is lagging behind in developing the federal exchanges.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obamacare Driving Up Your Pet’s Healthcare Costs, Too

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American health care consumers aren’t the only ones who will be hit by slated Obamacare tax hikes. Medical bills for their pets may go up as well.

According to a rule published Friday by the Internal Revenue Service, some medical devices used in veterinary practices will be hit by Obamacare’s 2.3 percent device tax. Many of their manufacturers are expected to hike prices, meaning higher veterinary costs for the nation’s pet owners.

The tax will not hit devices that are used exclusively for veterinary purposes. But a host of such devices are manufactured for use in both human health care and veterinary practices. Those devices’ manufacturers will have to pay the tax.

The IRS rule states: “Section 4191 [of the Internal Revenue Code] limits the definition of a taxable medical device to devices described in section 201(h) of the [Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act] that are intended for humans, but does not provide that the device must be intended exclusively for humans. Under existing [Food and Drug Administration] regulations, a device intended for use exclusively in veterinary medicine is not required to be listed as a device with the FDA, whereas a device intended for use in human medicine is required to be listed as a device with the FDA even if the device may also be used in veterinary medicine.”

According to the FDA, common “dual use” medical devices are “examination gloves, sterile catheters, infusion pumps, etc.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Gallup: Americans Turn on Government-guaranteed Health Care

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A new Gallup poll shows that 54 percent of Americans think it is not the federal government’s responsibility to ensure all citizens have health care coverage. This is the first time Gallup trends have shown a majority of Americans holding this opinion since 2000, according to Gallup’s Jeffrey Jones.

From 2000 until around the time President Barack Obama was elected, polls showed an easy majority of Americans supported government-ensured health care. In most years during that time frame, more than 60 percent of Americans thought the government should make sure everyone had health care.

“The shift away from the view that the government should ensure healthcare coverage for all began shortly after President Barack Obama’s election and has continued the past several years during the discussions and ultimate passage of the Affordable Care Act in March 2010,” Jones wrote, adding that 48 percent of Americans support Obamacare while 45 percent oppose it.

Read more from this story HERE.

John Boehner, Please Retire

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It’s clear. There will be no stopping Obamacare. There will be no justice on Benghazi-gate. There will be no stopping Barack Obama’s unconstitutional usurpations and abuses of power as long as John Boehner holds the reins of power as the Republican Speaker of the House.

It’s time for John Boehner to retire. He should let a younger leader, with more will to fight Obama, take leadership in the US House.

The situation is so dire that without new leadership, the Republican Party could actually dissolve into rival factions. He is even considering caving into Barack Obama’s drive for a massive tax increase. We stand on the precipice of a total capitulation of the Republican agenda by Speaker Boehner.

We need real leaders to challenge Obama. As long as John Boehner remains Speaker of the House, Obamacare will remain the law of the land.

Back on July 1, 2012, just four short months ago, Boehner marched in front of the cameras on “Meet the Press” and vowed to do whatever it takes to stop Obamacare. Practically thumping his chest, he said: “It has to be ripped out by its roots.” And he added: “We will not flinch from our resolve to make sure this law is repealed in its entirety.”

Taking him at his word, 127 members of the House, led by Representatives Jim Jordan and Michele Bachmann, reminded Mr. Boehner that he had the ability to actually keep that promise and signed off on a letter asking Boehner to take the lead and allow the House of Representatives to finally wield its legitimate and constitutionally-granted power of the purse to “rescind all Obamacare implementation funds.”

Don’t be deceived by anything you hear on the nightly news; the sad and simple truth is that John Boehner and House Republicans already had – and still have – the power to stop the implementation of Obamacare.

They had that power from the very day that Republicans gained control of the House of Representatives back in January of 2011, and they have that power at this very moment.

Mr. Boehner simply needs to hold a simple up-or-down vote in the GOP-controlled House of Representatives to deny Obamacare funding, and Barack Obama and Harry Reid can’t do anything to stop it. It really is that simple.

The problem is not that Republicans can’t stop the implementation of Obamacare. The problem is that the so-called GOP Leadership won’t stop Obamacare, and that’s why we need a change in leadership.

So what’s Boehner’s excuse?

Boehner apparently has his reasons. We call them excuses. His surrogates argued that Boehner’s refusal to fund Obamacare could set the stage for Barack Obama to exact his revenge by ordering a “government shutdown” and blame it on Republicans.

We say let Mr. Obama take his best shot. At some point, the rubber has got to meet the road.

We don’t need to concede defeat. A “government shutdown” is not only not as bad as you’ve been lead to believe; it’s also the last thing Barack Obama wants. It puts a stop to Obama’s out-of-control spending.

What we need is a true leader at the helm who is not afraid to call Barack Obama’s bluff and negotiate from a position of strength, and that man is not John Boehner.

__________________________________________________________
Floyd Brown is a political innovator, writer and speaker.

Floyd’s new book, Obama’s Enemies List, was released in August of 2012.

Time magazine wrote: “Brown has a stature among devoted conservatives that almost matches his physical heft (6 ft. 6 in. and 240 lbs.)”.

Floyd is the president of the Western Center for Journalism, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to informing and equipping Americans who love freedom. The WCJ also trains “citizen journalists” to become effective online advocates for freedom.

SCOTUS Opens Door to New Obamacare Challenge

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photo credit: onecle

It feels a bit like deja vu all over again. The Supreme Court has ordered an appeals court to reopen arguments on the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate and contraceptive coverage provisions, opening a potential path back to the highest court by late 2013.

The case at hand is one filed Liberty University, a Christian college in Virginia. The university had filed one of the earlier suits against the health care law, which was among the dozens dismissed by the Supreme Court when it ruled the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate to be constitutional.

The Liberty University case also is unique in that it was the only one where the appeals court decided it couldn’t even make a ruling, given that the provisions it was supposed to rule on hadn’t come into effect. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Anti-Injunction Act precluded any rulings about the mandate’s constitutionality before the mandate actually took effect and individuals began paying penalties.

The Supreme Court sided against that viewpoint. In its decision, the justices said that it was within the court’s power to rule on the health law now. That leaves Liberty wanting some answers on the provisions it challenged in court. The Obama administration also agreed that these issues should go back to the Fourth Circuit. Other courts are already hearing new challenges to the health care law, too.

Liberty University doesn’t want to challenge the individual mandate; we already know what the Supreme Court thinks about that. But it does want are answers on two other provisions that it challenged: the mandate that employers provide insurance coverage and the requirement that contraceptives be covered. ”Petitioners’ remaining claims should be subject to adjudication by the lower courts,” Liberty University’s lawyers wrote in a July 2012 petition for re-hearing.

Read more from this story HERE.

Study: U.S. Faces 52K Doctor Shortage by 2025; Obamacare, Immigration* Contributing Factors

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photo credit: jillk61

. . . Research published in the Annals of Family Medicine estimated that most of the doctor shortage will be caused by the rising U.S. population.

Aging adults and the expansion of healthcare coverage under the Affordable Care Act will contribute to a lesser extent, the study found.

Researchers predicted that the U.S. population will increase 15.2 percent by 2025, necessitating about 33,000 more physicians.

Aging adults will create the need for an additional 10,000 physicians in that period, while the Affordable Care Act will require about 8,000 more.

Read more from this story HERE.

*Immigration is inferred. The birth rate for the United State was 1.89 children per woman in 2011, which is well below the replacement rate of 2.1.

Alaska Won’t Have State-Run Health Insurance Exchange

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Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell has opted not to create a state-run health insurance exchange and will instead rely on the federal government to run the program. Parnell made the decision months ago and said he was standing by that as the Nov. 15 federal deadline for states’ choices looms.

“I think the federal government should pay for its own requirements, rather than the state,” Parnell said.

A health insurance exchange is an online website where consumers can shop a variety of health insurance options. Some states already have sites up an running while others are planning to work with the federal government to implement a hybrid exchange. But several states took Parnell’s stance, opting not to run their own exchange.

“They were only going to be funding a part of the health insurance exchange development and I just did not want to take us down the road of further entangling our finances with the Affordable Care Act if, indeed, the federal government would be financing it themselves,” Parnell said.

Read more from this story HERE.

House Speaker Boehner Gives Up Effort to Repeal Obamacare Because of Obama Win

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Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner said he would not make it his mission to repeal the controversial healthcare reform law following the re-election of President Barack Obama.

‘The election changes that,’ Boehner told ABC news anchor Diane Sawyer on Thursday when asked if repealing the law was ‘still your mission.’

‘It’s pretty clear that the President was re-elected. Obamacare is the law of the land,’ Boehner said.

Under Boehner’s leadership, the House tried repeatedly to repeal the healthcare law, the signature domestic measure of Obama’s first term.

While a few provisions were eliminated or changed, Senate Democrats blocked outright termination of the law.

Boehner added that parts of the law were going to be difficult to implement and that everything had to be on the table as lawmakers try to create a path to a balanced budget.

Read more from this story HERE.