Obamacare Faces A New Legal Challenge

I'm not sure what has taken so long, but US Representative Trent Franks of Arizona has gotten together with other members of the House and filed an amicus brief challenging Obamacare.  Their suit is based on the origination clause in the Constitution.  That's the clause that says all bills imposing taxation must originate in the people's House of Representatives.  You probably recall that the US Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act by redefining the fines intended to force folks to buy insurance as taxes.  If that is truly the case and Obamacare imposes taxes on us, then the bill must have originated in the House.  That is a big problem for the PPACA.  It originated in the Senate.

This may be our last hope to kill this MessAPolitico, before it starts to kill Americans.  I know that Obama would like to use the website problems as an excuse to delay implementation until after the elections next November.  He knows that the more we see about the PPACA, the more we will want to avoid Democrats in the voting booth.  The Democrats might have underestimated how Americans feel about the government messing around in something as important as our health care.  If the President lets this MessAPolitico continue flailing along, it will stay in the news.  The possibility certainly exists that the website will still be a mess next fall.  The possibility exists that more people will either have their premiums raised dramatically or their policies cancelled over the next 12 months.  The Democrats desperately need to get this thing out of the news long before the next election, or they are toast.  If America has a longer memory about something as important as health care, they may be toast anyway.  In fact, paying that higher premium every month may just be all the reminder we need.

The PPACA is unconstitutional.  It is the government forcing us to buy a product.  It is the government telling us what features and benefits the product must have.  Politicians decide for us what we need and what we want.

It is also unconstitutional for the President to stand up and defy the stipulations in the implementation of the PPACA or any other law.  Somehow, the President believes that he can change the timeline laid out very explicitly in the bill as passed.  If the thing isn't working right, then Congress has the option of repealing it or amending it.  The President can ask for that.  The President cannot legislate.  The Constitution specifically created a separation of powers.  Legislation is done in Congress and only in Congress.  The President can sign a law or veto it, but he cannot write it or amend it or repeal it.

It will be interesting to see if the media picks up on this new congressional challenge to the PPACA.  Is this a story that warrants any media reports?  Will they present stories educating the American people about the origination clause of the Constitution?  Will they tell us about the dangers of giving up our freedoms to the federal government?  Do you expect them to report on the possible long term ramifications of government intervention in health care?  Let's watch and see.