For the reasons stated, I must reluctantly conclude that Congress exceeded the bounds of its authority in passing the Act with the individual mandate. That is not to say, of course, that Congress is without power to address the problems and inequities in our health care system. The health care market is more than one sixth of the national economy, and without doubt Congress has the power to reform and regulate this market. That has not been disputed in this case. The principal dispute has been about how Congress chose to exercise that power here.

Because the individual mandate is unconstitutional and not severable, the entire Act must be declared void.

Score one for Liberty and Freedom of Choice.

Obviously, The Obamasiah© and his cohorts will appeal this decision to the Supreme Court, where I figure the decision will be upheld 5 to 4. This should happen this fall, which means it will happen just as Obama kicks off his re-election campaign (wait, did his election campaign ever really end?). If people are paying attention, this should also be one of the last nails in his Presidency’s coffin. (NOTE: I am not now, nor have I ever, advocated the use of violence against this or any other President or politician. Chill out, dudes and  dudettes, it’s just a form of expression!)

One of the main points of this decision is worth bringing up. The Commerce Clause cannot be used to justify the Federal Government’s regulation of inactivity, as currently interpreted by Supreme Court case law. If this were to be allowed, there would be absolutely no limits whatsoever on Congressional power. Care must be taken to ensure that judges who think that the Constitution is a “living, breathing document” are kept from being placed on the Federal Bench and Supreme Court. All it takes is one liberal activist judge to find a way to change this, and everyone’s freedom and liberty are in question. I mean, would you like it if the government fined or otherwise punished you for NOT doing something?

Health Care Reform as a Tax Increase
Who can forget Barry mixing it up with George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s This Week over whether or not the mandate to purchase health insurance was a tax or not?

STEPHANOPOULOS: You were against the individual mandate…

OBAMA: Yes.

STEPHANOPOULOS: …during the campaign. Under this mandate, the government is forcing people to spend money, fining you if you don’t

How is that not a tax?

OBAMA: Well, hold on a second, George. Here — here’s what’s happening. You and I are both paying $900, on average — our families — in higher premiums because of uncompensated care. Now what I’ve said is that if you can’t afford health insurance, you certainly shouldn’t be punished for that. That’s just piling on.

If, on the other hand, we’re giving tax credits, we’ve set up an exchange, you are now part of a big pool, we’ve driven down the costs, we’ve done everything we can and you actually can afford health insurance, but you’ve just decided, you know what, I want to take my chances. And then you get hit by a bus and you and I have to pay for the emergency room care, that’s…

STEPHANOPOULOS: That may be, but it’s still a tax increase.

OBAMA: No. That’s not true, George. The — for us to say that you’ve got to take a responsibility to get health insurance is absolutely not a tax increase. What it’s saying is, is that we’re not going to have other people carrying your burdens for you anymore than the fact that right now everybody in America, just about, has to get auto insurance. Nobody considers that a tax increase.

People say to themselves, that is a fair way to make sure that if you hit my car, that I’m not covering all the costs.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But it may be fair, it may be good public policy…

OBAMA: No, but — but, George, you — you can’t just make up that language and decide that that’s called a tax increase. Any…

STEPHANOPOULOS: Here’s the…

OBAMA: What — what — if I — if I say that right now your premiums are going to be going up by 5 or 8 or 10 percent next year and you say well, that’s not a tax increase; but, on the other hand, if I say that I don’t want to have to pay for you not carrying coverage even after I give you tax credits that make it affordable, then…

STEPHANOPOULOS: I — I don’t think I’m making it up. Merriam Webster’s Dictionary: Tax — “a charge, usually of money, imposed by authority on persons or property for public purposes.”

OBAMA: George, the fact that you looked up Merriam’s Dictionary, the definition of tax increase, indicates to me that you’re stretching a little bit right now. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have gone to the dictionary to check on the definition. I mean what…

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, no, but…

OBAMA: …what you’re saying is…

STEPHANOPOULOS: I wanted to check for myself. But your critics say it is a tax increase.

OBAMA: My critics say everything is a tax increase. My critics say that I’m taking over every sector of the economy. You know that.

Look, we can have a legitimate debate about whether or not we’re going to have an individual mandate or not, but…

STEPHANOPOULOS: But you reject that it’s a tax increase?

OBAMA: I absolutely reject that notion.  [Emphasis added]

Here, Barry quite clearly and emphatically says that the mandate is not a tax increase. Of course, that was 2009.  This year, things are a little different…

When Congress required most Americans to obtain health insurance  or pay a penalty, Democrats denied that they were creating a new tax. But in court, the Obama administration and its allies now defend the requirement as an exercise of the government’s “power to lay and collect taxes.”

And that power, they say, is even more sweeping than the federal power to regulate interstate commerce.

Administration officials say the tax argument is a linchpin of their legal case in defense of the health care overhaul and its individual mandate, now being challenged in court by more than 20 states and several private organizations.

So remember folks, when Barry Two-Face is selling you some piece of legislation you can’t believe a word he says. Just think of him as a used car salesman or liberal journalist.

Release of the Lockerbie Bomber
Regarding the release of the Lockerbie Bomber, Barry Two-Face said this:

President Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron today both agreed that the decision to release Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al Megrahi last year was a bad decision, and Obama said he fully supports Cameron’s efforts to learn more about the about the release.

Turns out, maybe Barry Two-Face doesn’t want the Prime Minister to learn too much more about this…

THE US government secretly advised Scottish ministers it would be “far preferable” to free the Lockerbie bomber than jail him in Libya.

 Correspondence obtained by The Sunday Times reveals the Obama administration considered compassionate release more palatable than locking up Abdel Baset al-Megrahi in a Libyan prison.

The intervention, which has angered US relatives of those who died in the attack, was made by Richard LeBaron, deputy head of the US embassy in London, a week before Megrahi was freed in August last year on grounds that he had terminal cancer.

The document, acquired by a well-placed US source, threatens to undermine US President Barack Obama’s claim last week that all Americans were “surprised, disappointed and angry” to learn of Megrahi’s release.

Scottish ministers viewed the level of US resistance to compassionate release as “half-hearted” and a sign it would be accepted.

The US has tried to keep the letter secret, refusing to give permission to the Scottish authorities to publish it on the grounds it would prevent future “frank and open communications” with other governments.

Remember, real American citizens were murdered when this guy blew up Pan Am Flight 103. Barry Two-Face, as usual, had no problems lying to the families of the victims of this terrorist, as well as the rest of us.

How in the world can this degenerate sleep at night? Has he no honor? Or is this just more of “The Chicago Way” that Democrats have been following for years.

Welcome to Obama’s World, comrade. Did you honestly think that just because men and women have been dying for over 200 years to protect your freedom and liberty that it was guaranteed?  Since the founding of this Republic, the American People have been warned over and over again; The biggest danger to your freedom and liberty comes from within, not from others. And so it begins…

Congressional Democrats have harassed, bribed, bought, and threatened enough of their own to pass ObamaCare. Over 55% of the American People said they didn’t want it, but Obama and the Democrats didn’t listen. After all, they are smarter than you and know better. You should just go back to your home, continue sending more and more taxes to Washington, and shut up. Who are you to question The One™?

Arrogance is an ugly thing, and it is currently residing in the White House. Obama has thrown the American People under the bus in favor of his socialist vision for America. The Main Stream Media (MSM), being his willing accomplice, will now crank out story after story heralding the passage of this bill as just as important as the Civil Rights Bill, while trying the make minority opinion on this bill in the country look bigger than it is.  Get ready to hear one sob-story after another, 24/7/365, each and every time The One™ speaks about this bill, which will be a lot. He still thinks that he can sell it to you, if only you were smart enough to understand.

The path to restore our freedoms, liberties, and country begins immediately. Attorneys General for several states will be filing suits to challenge the Constitutionality of this bill. If your state’s AG is filing a suit, support them however possible. If your state’s AG is not filing suit, contact them by phone, email, and letter and insist he join the fight. Don’t let up.

Next, you have to show up at the polls in November and get rid of every Democrat who voted yes on this bill. Each and every one. The only reason Obama could get away with this was because of his henchmen in the Congress. The best way to prevent Obama from doing any more damage to our country and Constitution is to deprive him of his ability to pass legislation.  If we stop this kind of  socialism from seeing the light-of-day in Congress, Obama can do little more than dream.

Finally, Obama must be removed from office in 2012. If we can remove the majority of Democrats from the Congress in November, Obama will be little more than a house-sitter for the last two years of his one and only term. There is no need to impeach him or investigate him or anything else; just let him sit there for two years. Let him travel the globe and continue apologizing for America’s past to his new European friends, showing off his Nobel Prize and giving inappropriate gifts to foreign dignitaries.  Oh, sure, he’ll make speeches and continue to talk down to us just as he’s done since he came on the scene, but so what? With no power in Congress he can’t do anything. Trust me, this will be enough.

The damage that Obama and the Democrats have done to this country and the Constitution is not irreversible; it can be corrected, but only if you take action. You will have to support the Constitutional challenges to ObamaCare. You will have to vote the current crop of Democrats out of office. You will have to remove Obama from the White House. Without you, none of this can happen and we’ll all see each other in the breadlines in the next few years. This is your chance to stand up for the America you grew up loving and being proud of. It’s your chance to defend your freedom and liberty from those who would destroy it in the name of  “progress.” Several hundred thousand members of the military have given their lives to ensure that you can act in these troubled times. Will you be able to look their survivors in the face and say that you did all you could to honor their sacrifice?

In case you were wondering, it is now clear that President Obama is not just tone deaf; he’s decided that he doesn’t care what the citizens of the United States think about his health care reform bill. So, like it or not, he is trying to get the Democrats in Congress to commit political suicide and use reconciliation (otherwise known as the “Nuclear Option”) to shove his multi-trillion dollar government takeover of the health care industry down the people’s throats.

On Tuesday, President Obama offered Republicans a small bipartisan olive branch. On Wednesday, he hit them with a partisan sledgehammer by vowing Democrats would ram his “new” health care plan (a revised version of the bill the Senate passed on Christmas Eve) through Congress using a budget tactic known as reconciliation that was never designed for passing legislation revamping one-sixth of the U.S. economy.

Once again, the Democrats’ arrogance will lead to their electoral defeat at the polls this November. They know the public is against this version of reform, and they don’t care because they think you’re just too stupid to know any better. They think if only Obama would weave his rhetorical magic on the people and explain his plan to them in a way that would allow them to actually understand how brilliant it is. What they don’t seem to grasp is that lacking a clear and understandable description of what they want to do is only half the problem. The other half is the fact that the actual legislation doesn’t even exist yet. Remember, Obama is an “idea” guy; he’s great at thinking up popular ideas. Actually constructing the legislative language to make the idea work is, apparently,  completely beyond his abilities. He leaves that to others under the guise of “getting other ideas.” It is a perfect example of his lack of any type of leadership ability. A leader would have made a reform proposal with actual details and strategies to accomplish the reform. Instead, he just handed it over to a group of people who can’t decide what to eat for lunch and said, “you do it!”

Now, it appears that Obama wants his reform passed by Congress before the Congressional Spring Break, in an effort to keep Democrats from having to face their constituants and explain why they refuse to represent them:

Democrats are racing the clock to pass health care reform ahead of a wave of Tea Party-driven town hall meetings planned for the spring recess — the kind of gatherings that nearly derailed the package last August.

But there’s a big difference this time around. Last summer, Democrats were encouraged to hold the town hall meetings, and they were blindsided by the backlash, which was recorded and promoted in countless YouTube clips. This time around, they have a good idea of what’s coming — and they’re lying low, in case work on health care carries over into the recess.

Watching Obama trying to get his seizure of the health care industry through Congress is like watching a six year old child try to do something he knows he shouldn’t. He tries to get it past the parents (the American People) with little or no explanation and before anyone knows what’s going on. He knows that if the parents catch on to what he’s doing, he’s done for. In this case, so are most of his friends.

This guy’s arrogance is appalling, and should be reason enough for his electoral defeat in 2012. With luck, a Republican-controlled Congress will be able to rollback any of the “reforms” he is able to get passed, and all of this will be just a bad dream.

So, essentially, we have a lot of voters who are dumber than rocks. That is the problem with democracies I guess. Lots of poorly informed, ignorant and, in some cases, downright stupid, people marching off to the polls and voting contrary to their interests.

Of course! Those stupid, stupid voters. You know, the people who magically become educated and well-informed when they vote for liberal policies, but suddenly become brain-dead when they vote against them. After all, liberals are so much more enlightened and intelligent than everyone else. If only the American public would allow them to make all of the decisions for them. Then, they would be much better off!

The arrogance of the liberal mind never fails to astound me. It is the one weakness they have which practically guarantees eventual failure at the ballot box.

Does Tuesday’s Republican victory in the deepest blue state in the country foreshadow what is in store for the Democrat Party in the fall elections? I would love to state unequivocally “YES”, however at best it only remains a distinct possibility. It all depends on how committed the Tea Party folks are come election time.

If the Tea Party can get people motivated enough to show up at the polls in November, something akin to the 1994 shift in Congressional power will happen again and Barack Obama’s quasi-socialist political agenda will come to an end. People like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, if not removed from their positions in Congress altogether, will be so marginalized as to render them immaterial. Finally, it will become a very real possibility that Obama will serve only one term of office, and be relegated to the dustbin of history right next to Jimmy Carter.

For now, I intend to savor the flavor of this victory of common sense over liberal entitlement. I know that the story from the Democrats is that Coakley lost the election because she was a bad candidate and ran a bad campaign. In truth, Coakley ran the type of campaign that liberals in that part of the country have run for decades. Campaigns in which Democrats took the voting public for granted, turned a deaf ear to what the voters were saying, and counted on Union support to win the election. It didn’t work this time. Hell, even The One© himself flew into the middle of the fray and failed to raise even an eyebrow.

That’s gonna leave a mark.

Republicans, if they are smart and learn from what has happened, will immediately start planning their fall campaigns around the simple, common sense themes of Brown’s campaign. Killing Health Care Reform as currently proposed, tax cuts for business and individuals, spending cuts throughout the government, smaller more efficient government and pro-small business economic policies would be a great place to start. Cutting taxes for small businesses will lead to job growth, and killing the tax burden which ObamaCare will force on small business owners and individuals will free up money for investment. These are simple, common sense measures which will not bloat the budget deficit or the national debt, while putting the private sector back in control of job growth.

Democrats, I’m going to take a minute here to say something as sincerely as I can. What you take from the results of this election will help determine the trajectory of your Party over the next 10 – 20 years. If you take the time to really listen to what the Democrats and Independents in Massachusetts are telling you about why they voted for Brown, you may have a chance to turn the tide which is heading your way. If you turn a deaf ear to them, you do so at your own peril.

So, as I go to sleep tonight, I do so knowing that short of the Democrat Party committing political suicide and trying to pass ObamaCare in the middle of the night using some sort of procedural trickery, that ObamaCare is dead and I now have a chance to receive all the medical care I’ll need in the years to come.

Yet, they want to have something passed by the end of the year, if not sooner. Why? Some on the left have suggested that it has to be passed because it is “historic” and may not survive to be passed later. Seeing as this is Obama’s big issue, Democrats also want it passed so that Obama doesn’t look weak. Obama has said that if it isn’t passed, the country will go bankrupt:

The president laid out a dire scenario of what will happen if his health care reform effort fails.

“If we don’t pass it, here’s the guarantee….your premiums will go up, your employers are going to load up more costs on you,” he said. “Potentially they’re going to drop your coverage, because they just can’t afford an increase of 25 percent, 30 percent in terms of the costs of providing health care to employees each and every year.“

The president said that the costs of Medicare and Medicaid are on an “unsustainable” trajectory and if there is no action taken to bring them down, “the federal government will go bankrupt.”

Now Obama is worried about the country going bankrupt — after spending trillions of dollars we don’t have on government spending which will not create jobs or grow the economy. After tripling the national debt and spending tax revenue which won’t be collected for decades to come.

The problem with the Democrats’ proposals is that they do not incorporate common-sense approaches to reducing costs and increasing coverage. Instead, they use government-mandated purchase provisions to force people, whether they want it or not, to buy coverage, while driving private-sector insurance providers out of business by forcing them to compete with a government-subsidized government plan.

Before doing anything as drastic as has been proposed, the Congress should do three things to reform health care:

1. Eradicate government regulations which prevent private insurance companies from selling on a national basis.
2. Institute tort-reform to reduce the skyrocketing cost of litigation.
3. Increase efforts to find and eliminate Medicare fraud.

Allowing insurance companies to operate nationally will quickly bring down the cost of insurance to consumers by increasing choice in the marketplace. Lowering the cost of insurance premiums is the key to increasing coverage of the uninsured. Tort-reform will also reduce the cost of insurance premiums by placing limits on the cash settlements and attorney’s fees that can be won in litigation. Finally, eliminating fraud is just a good idea all around. These three ideas could eliminate billions of dollars in costs without costing the taxpayer anywhere near what is currently proposed.

Once these three steps are taken, then we can look at other, more drastic options as are currently being proposed by the Democrats in Congress.

With all of these things going on, our President has chosen to start a media war with the Fox News Channel.

It has already taken the President weeks to deliberate about whether or not to follow the commander-in-the-field’s recommendation to send more troops to Afghanistan, and it will likely be a few more before he actually does make a decision. Yet, let Glenn Beck or Bill O’Reilly express their views on the President’s policies, and the President is capable of putting together an entire staff of people to discredit an entire news organization.

Troops are dying every day overseas, and the only attack the President can lead is against a television network. How many more troops will pay the ultimate price while their thin-skinned Commander-in-Chief  acts like a 6 year old child?

Out of all the major news organizations which cover what he does, the Fox News Network is the only one who is not totally in the bag for the President, and apparently this is too much for him to handle. This media war is the equivalent of a child’s temper-tantrum, and it not only embarrasses the President, it also embarrasses the country and diminishes the Office. It makes Obama look petty.

The fact is, this media war has done nothing to hurt Fox News. In fact, their ratings continue to increase and solidify Fox News’ position as the number one cable news organization in the country. The President is driving viewers to Fox News in droves, which I am sure is the exact opposite of what he wants. Worse for him, these viewers are staying tuned to Fox News after they have sampled it.

The White House’s main goal with all of this is to make sure if Fox News breaks a story which isn’t to the President’s liking, that the other news networks ignore it. Of course, the other news networks have pretty much been doing that already (the ACORN and Van Jones scandals come to mind), relenting only when what they were doing became obvious. This President has gotten the kid-gloves treatment from the entire news corps except Fox, and he wants more.

Seems to me that the American people are paying a steep price for the President’s inability to take criticism of any type. Can we afford to wait until he grows up?