The following was excerpted from the Georgia First.org website and reflects Ray McBerry's movement for state sovereignty rights for the citizens of Georgia (Ray is the candidate for Governor of Georgia). This article was written by Dr. Donald W. Livingston, Professor at Emory University:
The State Sovereignty Movement by Dr. Donald W. Livingston
For the first time in 144 years State interposition (Madison) and State nullification and secession (Jefferson) have entered public discourse as remedies to usurpations by the central government of rights reserved to the people of the sovereign States by the Constitution. Since Americans are not in the habit of exercising these policy options, it is worthwhile to ask just what State legislators and governors can do to protect their citizens from usurpations by the central government. First, they can begin by passing resolutions (as a number have done), declaring in no uncertain terms that all powers not delegated to the central government nor prohibited to the States by the Constitution are reserved by them; and that the States themselves have the authority to judge what is reserved and what is delegated--Supreme Court case law notwithstanding. To deny this is to say that the central government can define the limits of its own power which flatly contradicts the Constitution’s language of State delegated and reserved powers.
Second, the States can insist that an office be set up in Congress to receive and respond to these resolutions. Resolutions are words. They cost little to produce, but words have power. As the Scottish philosopher David Hume observed, political authority is based primarily on opinion not force. It is not merely iron bars that confine you to prison, it is also the guard’s opinion not to let you out. If you could change his mind, the bars could not restrain you. A continuous flood of resolutions from the States about the constitutionality of this or that issue (and widely publicized), would serve to educate the public (and their rulers) about constitutional limits and alter the mind-set of politics in a decentralist direction. Further, State legislators and governors should revive, where appropriate, the Jeffersonian discourse of State interposition, nullification, and secession as policy options. To deny this is to say that an American State is not a genuine political society at all, but a mere aggregate of individuals under control of a central government that alone can define the limits of its powers. To hear such discourse in public speech can strengthen civic virtue and revive the long slumbering disposition of self-government that has been suppressed by a century of runaway centralization. Lincoln understood the power of words, and advanced the cause of centralization by refusing to describe the States as sovereign political societies. He described them as mere counties authorized by central authority. He asked incredulously: “What is this particular sacredness of a State? If a State, in one instance, and a county in another should be equal in extent of territory, and equal in number of people, wherein is that State any better than a county?” Lincoln was not describing the federative America that Jefferson and Madison founded, but an imagined and wished for centralized, unitary American state. It is time that the Lincolnian inversion of political discourse be inverted.
Third, In addition to changing the terms of discourse, State legislators and governors should engage in 10th amendment acts of recovering usurped authority. The least controversial of these acts would be simply to not accept federal money for projects that are judged unconstitutional, such as federal involvement in education. Refuse the money, and begin restoring state and local control over education or whatever the issue might be.
Fourth, in order to restore usurped constitutional authority, a State must be prepared, at some point, to resist federal intrusion. There is a long history of States doing just that. Georgia nullified the Supreme Court’s ruling in Chisholm vs. Georgia (1793); New England States nullified fugitive slave laws; and earlier New England townships nullified Jefferson’s embargo and the war of 1812 declared under Madison’s administration. Jefferson said “he felt the foundations of the government shaken under my feet by the New England townships.” Wisconsin was nullifying what it declared to be usurpations by the Supreme Court into the 1850s. There was a time when the States kept the central government under control.
Can this be done today? Before it is attempted a clarification is necessary. We must understand that any such constitutional challenge is a political one based on the States’ sovereign authority and not a matter justiciable by the courts. Genuine federalism in America can be recovered only by political action in the name of the State’s own authority and not by Supreme Court legalism. Indeed, legalism only affirms that the Court has the final say over what powers the States have. When States interposed to block the Supreme Court’s orders to desegregate public schools in the South on the ground that such orders were unconstitutional, the move failed but only because racial segregation was not a popular issue. Many scholars then and now thought that Brown v. Board of Education was bad constitutional law, i.e., that the court had abandoned its proper role of policing the Constitution in favor of social engineering. Most, however, approved of the engineering, and paid little regard to the constitutional cost.
But the process can be reversed. States can recover usurped authority by carefully choosing the right issue, at the right time, in the right circumstances, and for the right reasons. Such an act, of course, would require considerable political prudence and skill, and should not be attempted without a reasonable chance of support from public opinion. In such an act of lawful and constitutional resistance, the State would be answerable only to her other sister states. The action might spark a constitutional amendment as happened when Georgia nullified the Supreme Court’s ruling in Chisholm v. Georgia (1793) that an individual could sue a state in federal court without the State’s permission. The States agreed with Georgia’s nullification and promptly passed the 11th amendment that prohibited such suits. That is how American federalism was supposed to work. The three branches of the central government would check each other, but it would be up to the sovereign States to keep the central government itself in check. The Constitution was to be enforced through political action of the States not by the legalism of nine unelected Supreme Court justices.
Another outcome might be a political settlement that would allow a State, or a number of States, to opt out of a class of federal acts judged to be unconstitutional or fundamentally repugnant. Other federal systems allow this possibility. For instance, the Canadian Constitution has institutionalized federal nullification. Any Province can nullify acts of the central government in the area of civil rights within its own borders, even though other Provinces may enforce the act in theirs.
The States can also try to restrict unconstitutional acts of the central government through amending the Constitution, but that is virtually impossible. Two thirds of both Houses of Congress are required to pass an amendment which must then be ratified by three quarters of the States. Since 1790, over 10,000 amendments have been proposed to Congress. Only 30 have passed the Congressional gate-keepers, and 27 have been ratified. The other path is that two thirds of the States can compel Congress to call a constitutional convention–a very high bar to meet. It is, therefore, virtually impossible to limit the central government’s power by constitutional amendment. It is worth noting that the framers of the Confederate Constitution sought to overcome this barrier to self-government in Article 1, Section 1 which enacted that if only three States concurred on a constitutional amendment, Congress would have to call a constitutional convention. And only two thirds of the States would be needed to ratify the amendment.
To all of this it is often said that State interposition, nullification, and secession were eliminated as policy options by the Civil War. Brute force, however, cannot settle moral and constitutional questions. Lincoln’s claim that the Union is older than the States; that it created the States; that a State is merely an administrative unit (like a county in a unitary state), are historical and moral claims that must stand on their own. They cannot be settled by superior firepower but only by reasons that persuade. The problems of limiting central power in a federal system of State delegated and reserved powers, which brought forth the doctrines of State interposition, nullification, and secession as remedies, are as topical today as they were when first broached in the 1790s.
Or it will be said that, even so, too much water has gone over the dam. Institutions of the central government are so entrenched, so entangled with powerful interests, and this system has gone on for so long that people have lost any sense of civic virtue on the State and local level. It is certainly true that the central government has intruded into nearly every aspect of life, and disentanglement will not occur overnight. But centralization in America is not as intense and debilitating as it was in the former Soviet Union, from which, nevertheless, 15 States recovered civic virtue and seceded. Moreover, the current State sovereignty movement suggests that State and local civic virtue are not dead in America. But as mentioned above, a shift in the decentralist direction will require a long course of political re-education. And the sort of education required is not academic but practical–one exemplified in the conduct and civic virtue of State legislators and governors who take to heart Madison’s admonition in the Virginia Resolutions (1798) that State governments not only have the constitutional right of “interposition” to protect their citizens against usurpations by the central government but the “duty” to do so.
Finally, there is the objection that the primacy of State political action over Supreme Court legalism could work when there were fewer States, but now that there are 50 States interposition and nullification have become impractical. But If true that means the Union has simply grown too large for the purposes of self-government; in which case the obvious response is that it should be divided through secession into smaller political units that make self-government viable. Consider how dull our notion of self-government has become. Congress has capped the number of representatives in the House at 435, a majority of which is only 218 representatives. A majority in the Senate is 51. A majority of both Houses is a mere 269 people. This small number, with concurrence of the President, rules over 300 million people. But worse. Congress has long ago alienated much of its legislative responsibility to the Executive and Judicial branch. Its main interest is in distributing its vast revenue (which now is nearly 3 trillion dollars) to its clients. The President and the Supreme Court are the dominant rulers. The Executive office makes war, and its bureaucracy makes laws. The Supreme Court, with only 9 unelected judges, has become the most important social policy making body in the Union, and makes claim to be the final authority on interpreting the Constitution. Never in history have so many been ruled by so few.
As the American empire grows in population and as the ratchet of centralization tightens with each turn, talk of self-government becomes increasingly meaningless. The ratio of representatives to population in the House of Representatives today is one representative for every 690,000 people–a vacuous ratio for representation. When the population reaches 435 million, there will be one “representative” for every million persons. What to do? Expand the size of the House? No; it is about the right size for a legislative body. The only remedy is territorial division of the Union through secession into a number of different and independent political units. Such a division can spring only from political action by the States, each acting in its sovereign capacity. And what form the new order might take (whether a number of federal unions, a number of independent states, whether these will be large or small states like Singapore, etc.) can only be determined by political action of the States themselves.
The central government of the United States (that is, 9 unelected judges, a congressional majority of only 269, and 1 CEO) cannot manage the bloated and unwieldy empire that a century of ritualistic centralization has produced; nor will it ever relinquish power. George Kennan thought that a discourse on how to divide the Union was bound to develop out of pressure generated by the sheer oversized character of the regime. It is too early to say that the current State sovereignty movement is the beginning of that discourse, but it might well be the beginning of the beginning.
________________
Dr. Donald Livingston, professor at Emory University in Atlanta, has been called the preeminent political philosopher of our day in Georgia.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Saturday, August 22, 2009
SUBTERFUGE OF TOWN HALL MEETINGS BY THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH
AN IMPORTANT EXAMPLE OF EXECUTIVE POWER ABUSE THAT EVERYONE SHOULD BE AWARE OF
I received this thru Facebook yesterday. The names and email addresses have been removed to protect the senders’ privacy. This email originated with a woman who was at the “townhall” meeting with Obama in Montana. Another example of the non-reporting by the media. This was sent to Glenn Beck’s Constitutional Watchdogs by another individual from Montana. This is an issue that everyone needs to be aware of. Though this discussion may not directly reflect the Education, Unification and Election philosophy (of which I am a strong believer in), it is something that has been confirmed and can be used in the Education process to show how the First Amendment right to peacful assembly was subterfuged by the current president's team. This is an excellent example of how peaceful assembly to redress ones' grievances can be subterfuged when desired by someone of higher authority. This can then be used to educate the people on keeping them aware of such subterfuge and discuss how to peacefully work around it in preparation.
NEWS FROM MONTANA
“Things are not always what they seem”
Hello All. By now you have probably heard that President Obama came to Montana last Friday. However, there are many things that the major news has not covered. I feel that since Joe and I live here and we were at the airport on Friday I should share some facts with you. Whatever you decide to do with the information is up to you. If you chose to share this email with others I do ask that you DELETE my email address before you forward this on.On Wednesday, August 5th it was announced locally that the President would be coming here. There are many groups here that are against his healthcare and huge spending so those groups began talking and deciding on what they were going to do.. The White House would not release ANY details other than the date.On about Tuesday Joe found out that they would be holding the “Town Hall” at the airport. (This is only because Joe knows EVERYONE at the airport) Our airport is actually located outside of Belgrade (tiny town) in a very remote location. Nothing is around there. They chose to use a hangar that is the most remotely located hangar. You could not pick a more remote location, and you cannot get to it easily. It is totally secluded from the public. FYI: We have many areas in Belgrade and Bozeman which could have held a large amount of folks with sufficient parking. (gymnasiums/auditoriums).. All of which have chairs and tables, and would not have to be SHIPPED IN!! $$$$$During the week, cargo by the TONS was being shipped in constantly. Airport employees could not believe how it just kept coming. Though it was our President coming several expressed how excessive it was, especially during a recession.
Late Tuesday/early Wednesday the 12th, they said that tickets would be handed out on Thursday 9am at two locations and the president would be arriving around 12:30 Friday. Thursday morning about 600 tickets were passed out. However, 1500 were printed at a Local printing shop per White House request. Hmmmm……900 tickets just DISAPPEARED.
This same morning someone called into the radio from the local UPS branch and said that THOUSANDS of Dollars of Lobster were shipped in for Obama. Montana has some of the best beef in the nation!!! And it would have been really wonderful to help out the local economy. Anyone heard of the Recession?? Just think…with all of the traveling the White House is doing. $$$$$ One can only imagine what else we are paying for.On Friday Joe and I got out to the airport about 10:45am. The groups that wanted to protest Obama’s spending and healthcare had gotten a permit to protest and that area was roped off. But that was not to be. A large bus carrying SEIU (Service Employees International Union) members drove up onto the area (illegal)and unloaded right there. It was quite a commotion and there were specifically 2 SEIU men trying to make trouble and start a fight. Police did get involved and arrested the one man but they said they did not have the manpower to remove the SEIU crowd.The SEIU crowd was very organized and young. About 99% were under the age of 30 and they were not locals! They had bullhorns and PROFESSIONALLY made signs. Some even wore preprinted T-shirts. Oh, and Planned Parenthood folks were with them…..professing abortion rights with their T-shirts and preprinted signs. (BTW, all these folks did have a permit to protest in ANOTHER area)Those against healthcare/spending moved away from the SEIU crowd to avoid confrontation. They were orderly and respectful. Even though SEIU kept coming over and walking through, continuing to be very intimidating and aggressive at the direction of the one SEIU man.So we had Montana folks from ALL OVER the state with their homemade signs and their DOGS with homemade signs. We had cowboys, nurses, doctors you name it. There was even a guy from Texas who had been driving through. He found out about the occasion, went to the store, made a sign, and came to protest.If you are wondering about the press…..Well, all of the major networks were over by that remote hangar I mentioned. They were conveniently parked on the other side of the buildings FAR away. None of these crowds were even visible to them. I have my doubts that they knew anything about the crowds. We did have some local news media around us from this state and Idaho.Speaking of the local media…they were invited. However, all questions were to be turned into the White House in advance of the event. Wouldn’t want anyone to have to think off the top of their head.It was very obvious that it was meant to be totally controlled by the White House. Everything was orchestrated down to the last detail to make it appear that Montana is just crazy for Obama and government healthcare. Even those people that talked about their insurance woes……..the White House called our local HRDC (Human Resource and Development Committee) and asked for names. Then the White House asked those folks to come.
Smoke and mirrors…EVERYTHING was staged!!!!!!!!!!! I am very dismayed about what I learned about our current White House. The amount of control and manipulation was unbelievable. I felt I was not living in the United States of America, more like the USSR!! I was physically nauseous. Joe and I have been around when Presidents or Heads of State visit. It has NEVER been like this. I am truly very frightened for our country. America needs your prayers and your voices. If you care about our country please get involved. Know the issues. And let Congress hear your voices again and again!! If they are willing to put forth so much effort to BULLY a small town one can only imagine what is going on in Washington DC. Scary!!
I received this thru Facebook yesterday. The names and email addresses have been removed to protect the senders’ privacy. This email originated with a woman who was at the “townhall” meeting with Obama in Montana. Another example of the non-reporting by the media. This was sent to Glenn Beck’s Constitutional Watchdogs by another individual from Montana. This is an issue that everyone needs to be aware of. Though this discussion may not directly reflect the Education, Unification and Election philosophy (of which I am a strong believer in), it is something that has been confirmed and can be used in the Education process to show how the First Amendment right to peacful assembly was subterfuged by the current president's team. This is an excellent example of how peaceful assembly to redress ones' grievances can be subterfuged when desired by someone of higher authority. This can then be used to educate the people on keeping them aware of such subterfuge and discuss how to peacefully work around it in preparation.
NEWS FROM MONTANA
“Things are not always what they seem”
Hello All. By now you have probably heard that President Obama came to Montana last Friday. However, there are many things that the major news has not covered. I feel that since Joe and I live here and we were at the airport on Friday I should share some facts with you. Whatever you decide to do with the information is up to you. If you chose to share this email with others I do ask that you DELETE my email address before you forward this on.On Wednesday, August 5th it was announced locally that the President would be coming here. There are many groups here that are against his healthcare and huge spending so those groups began talking and deciding on what they were going to do.. The White House would not release ANY details other than the date.On about Tuesday Joe found out that they would be holding the “Town Hall” at the airport. (This is only because Joe knows EVERYONE at the airport) Our airport is actually located outside of Belgrade (tiny town) in a very remote location. Nothing is around there. They chose to use a hangar that is the most remotely located hangar. You could not pick a more remote location, and you cannot get to it easily. It is totally secluded from the public. FYI: We have many areas in Belgrade and Bozeman which could have held a large amount of folks with sufficient parking. (gymnasiums/auditoriums).. All of which have chairs and tables, and would not have to be SHIPPED IN!! $$$$$During the week, cargo by the TONS was being shipped in constantly. Airport employees could not believe how it just kept coming. Though it was our President coming several expressed how excessive it was, especially during a recession.
Late Tuesday/early Wednesday the 12th, they said that tickets would be handed out on Thursday 9am at two locations and the president would be arriving around 12:30 Friday. Thursday morning about 600 tickets were passed out. However, 1500 were printed at a Local printing shop per White House request. Hmmmm……900 tickets just DISAPPEARED.
This same morning someone called into the radio from the local UPS branch and said that THOUSANDS of Dollars of Lobster were shipped in for Obama. Montana has some of the best beef in the nation!!! And it would have been really wonderful to help out the local economy. Anyone heard of the Recession?? Just think…with all of the traveling the White House is doing. $$$$$ One can only imagine what else we are paying for.On Friday Joe and I got out to the airport about 10:45am. The groups that wanted to protest Obama’s spending and healthcare had gotten a permit to protest and that area was roped off. But that was not to be. A large bus carrying SEIU (Service Employees International Union) members drove up onto the area (illegal)and unloaded right there. It was quite a commotion and there were specifically 2 SEIU men trying to make trouble and start a fight. Police did get involved and arrested the one man but they said they did not have the manpower to remove the SEIU crowd.The SEIU crowd was very organized and young. About 99% were under the age of 30 and they were not locals! They had bullhorns and PROFESSIONALLY made signs. Some even wore preprinted T-shirts. Oh, and Planned Parenthood folks were with them…..professing abortion rights with their T-shirts and preprinted signs. (BTW, all these folks did have a permit to protest in ANOTHER area)Those against healthcare/spending moved away from the SEIU crowd to avoid confrontation. They were orderly and respectful. Even though SEIU kept coming over and walking through, continuing to be very intimidating and aggressive at the direction of the one SEIU man.So we had Montana folks from ALL OVER the state with their homemade signs and their DOGS with homemade signs. We had cowboys, nurses, doctors you name it. There was even a guy from Texas who had been driving through. He found out about the occasion, went to the store, made a sign, and came to protest.If you are wondering about the press…..Well, all of the major networks were over by that remote hangar I mentioned. They were conveniently parked on the other side of the buildings FAR away. None of these crowds were even visible to them. I have my doubts that they knew anything about the crowds. We did have some local news media around us from this state and Idaho.Speaking of the local media…they were invited. However, all questions were to be turned into the White House in advance of the event. Wouldn’t want anyone to have to think off the top of their head.It was very obvious that it was meant to be totally controlled by the White House. Everything was orchestrated down to the last detail to make it appear that Montana is just crazy for Obama and government healthcare. Even those people that talked about their insurance woes……..the White House called our local HRDC (Human Resource and Development Committee) and asked for names. Then the White House asked those folks to come.
Smoke and mirrors…EVERYTHING was staged!!!!!!!!!!! I am very dismayed about what I learned about our current White House. The amount of control and manipulation was unbelievable. I felt I was not living in the United States of America, more like the USSR!! I was physically nauseous. Joe and I have been around when Presidents or Heads of State visit. It has NEVER been like this. I am truly very frightened for our country. America needs your prayers and your voices. If you care about our country please get involved. Know the issues. And let Congress hear your voices again and again!! If they are willing to put forth so much effort to BULLY a small town one can only imagine what is going on in Washington DC. Scary!!
Monday, August 17, 2009
CAUSE AND EFFECT IN THE POLITICAL ARENA
In the ever-changing world of politics, We, the People, are constantly finding ourselves standing up for our God-given rights as provided by the U.S. Constitution. We find ourselves fighting issues created by our governments on all levels which infringe on our personal liberties. And we should always stand up for our rights and work together to correct the wrongs bestowed upon us. From fighting our county commissioners on increasing millage rates, standing up for our states’ sovereign rights (as granted by the Constitution) when our state legislatures are negligent in working for those rights, to standing up to our federal government and judicial system usurping their delegated powers to their own advantage, We, the People are fighting to resolve the “EFFECTS” of movements which have been ongoing in our country for over 100 years. In this situation, I am referring to the Progressive/Socialist movement that has grown in strength over this time period. As citizens of this great country, we have the right to petition our different levels of government and redress our grievances. By organizing and speaking out to address any infringements, we can make a significant difference in changing the “EFFECTS” that we face as a local community and as a nation. The latest grievance that has captured the national spotlight is reform of our national health care system. By bringing our elected officials (on all levels of government) to listen and address our grievances, We, the People can make a difference. However, the difference we make in changing ongoing policies (hopefully successful) only deals with the “EFFECTS” that were “CAUSED” by a larger influence; the Progressive/Socialist movement. This “CAUSE”, inspired by Saul Alinsky, Henry Wallace, and Robert LaFollette (to name a few), has steadily grown in strength and influenced such notable American politicians as Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and Barack Obama. This CAUSE (the Progressive/Socialist movement) has brought us the 17th Amendment, which contrarily changed the intent of the position of Senator as designed by the Founders, the isolationism movement during the mid 1900’s which kept the USA out of the war activities in Europe until we were attacked in 1941, and Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, which started grassroots political organizing designed to promote that the most effective means are whatever will achieve the desired ends. Rules for Radicals promotes that any revolutionary change within society must be preceded by non-challenging attitudes toward change among the mass of our people, resulting in disillusion by the middle class leading to a radical movement that is focused on democracy (not a republic) because of its relative ease to work within to achieve other ends of social justice, as determined by the radicals of the Progressive movement. This “CAUSE” has effectively changed our very society, from our methods of educating our youth, promoting civil liberties to illegal immigrants, and changing the method of how stockholders vote in public corporations in the name of social justice, to name a few.Now we come to a decision as to how to restore our republic from the Progressive/Socialist views back to the intent of the U.S. Constitution. By the very rights granted by the Constitution, We, the People should continue to redress our grievances to our elected officials and peacefully work towards restoring our rights and making our elected officials aware that We, the People are watching them. Again, however, I submit that we are only dealing with the “EFFECTS”, which does not address how to defeat the “CAUSE”. So our decision must be to deal with both “cause and effect”. Education is our first step in understanding the “CAUSE” and how our republic, as designed by the Founding Fathers, can defeat the “CAUSE”. We must continue to organize on the local level, but we must not forget that education of our Constitution, which includes understanding the philosophies and views that influenced our Founding Fathers, is essential in organizing within our local communities and counties so that we can recognize the effects of the cause and work to replace any discrepancies with “common sense” to restore the republic beliefs. We, the People, must understand and work together towards a “common sense cause” on a local, county, state and national platform. Only thru this unification will We, the People establish a coordinated effort to remove the “CAUSE” of our problems, the Progressive/Socialist movement. With this unification on the local and state levels, We, the People will find honest, virtuous citizens who believe in the same “common sense cause” and support them in order to be electable candidates for our local communities and soon within our states. With this principle practiced across our country, We, the People will then find “common sense cause” candidates who will be viable servants to our country on the federal level. With this “common sense cause”, our local, county, state and federal governments will be infused with servants who follow the principles and values of our local and county charters (making changes as necessary to remove the influence the Progressive “CAUSE”), along with identical servants within our states’ and federal governments who will make the same type of changes to bring our republic back to a “common sense” form of government.By following this logic, We, the People will be successful in stopping the “EFFECTS” we are experiencing, while still focusing on the long-term movement to defeat the “CAUSE” of Progressivism. The long term movement, which must be pursued to it’s end in order to eliminate the “EFFECTS” we are constantly fighting, depends on three principles alluded to: Education of our American patriots, unification of the same principles and values across our local, state and national pictures, and elections of honest, virtuous citizens who share the same principles and values reflected by our U.S. Constitution are the keys to defeating the “CAUSE”, the Progressive/Socialist movement.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Layman's interpretation of HR 3200
Along with my blogspot, I'll also posting these interpretations of the first 498 pages of HR 3200 on other websites for discussion. In addition, I also sent these comments to flag@whitehouse.gov about a week and a half ago, in response to the call from the White House to report any "fishy" statements made about the ongoing health care reform movement. Well, he asked for it and he got it. Read at your pleasure and note the final paragraph.
“FISHY” ANALYSES ABOUT HR 3200
The following are "fishy comments" found on the Internet (review of HR 3200 word by word):
1. Page 280, Sec 1151: The Government will determine what are “preventable re-admissions” and penalize the medical facility/doctor as it deems appropriate
2. Page 298, Lines 9-11: Doctors treat a patient during initial admission that results in a readmission; the Government will reduce payment to the doctor in this situation.
3. Page 317, Lines 13-20: PROHIBITION on ownership/investment. Government tells Doctors what and how much they can own/invest in medical facilities.
4. Pages 317-318, Lines 21-25,1-3: PROHIBITION on expansion- Government is mandating that hospitals/medical facilities cannot expand.
5. Pages 321, Lines 2-13: Hospitals have opportunity to apply for exception from the prohibition of expanding their medical facility BUT community input required.
6. Page 335, Lines 16-25, Pg 336-339: Government mandates establishment of outcome based measures, including grading of Healthcare and needs for “rationing”.
7. Pages 341, Lines 3-9: Government will grade Medicare Advantage plans and has authority to disqualify Medicare Adv Plans, HMOs, etc. This would force people into the new Government plan.
8. Page 354, Sec 1177: Government will RESTRICT enrollment of Special needs people by analyzing circumstances and the Secretary of CMMS submitting a report detailing analyses and recommending type of treatment as the Secretary deems appropriate.
9. Page 379, Sec 1191: Government creates more bureaucracy - “Telehealth Advisory Committee.”
10. Page 425, Lines 4-12: Government mandates “Advanced Care Planning Consultations.”
11. Page 425, Line 18: Government will require EVERYONE who is on Social Security to undergo a counseling session.
12. Page 425, Lines 17-19: Government will instruct & consult regarding living wills, durable powers of attorney.
13. Page 425, Lines 22-25, Page 426. Lines 1-3: Government provides approved list of “end of life” resources, guiding you in death.
14. Page 427, Lines 15-24: Government mandates program for orders for “end of life”. The Government has a say in how your life ends.
15. Page 429, Lines 1-9: An “advanced care planning consult” will be used frequently as patients health deteriorates.
16. PG 429, Lines 10-12: “Advanced care consultation” may include an ORDER for “end of life” plans. (AN ORDER from the Government?)
17. Page 429, Lines 13-25: The Government will specify which Doctors can write an “end of life” order.
18. Page 430, Lines 11-15: The Secretary for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services will decide what level of treatment you will have at end of life?
19. Page 472 Lines 14-17: PAYMENT TO COMMUNITY-BASED ORG. 1 monthly payment to a community-based org. (MAYBE ACORN?). The most disturbing part of this section is where the Secretary for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services determines who qualifies as a Community Based Medical Home (as opposed to the state and local levels of government who are currently making those decisions).
20. Pages 494-498: The Secretary for the Center of Medicare and Medicaid Services will cover Mental Health Services including defining, creating, rationing and how much to pay for those services.
And I still have almost 2/3 of HR3200 to review and analyze. So far, this is
government control over health care decisions. Just how stupid does the House
of Representatives and/or President Obama think we are? President Obama, I pray
that you have not read this proposal and are just not aware of the outrageous
controls that would be implemented. Government control of the Health Care
Process is not the answer to health care reform (which is needed, but not this
way). Try tort reform and forcing the respective House and Senate committees to
do their job of oversight and calling forth those health care insurers and
disreputable health care providers to appear in committee hearings and explain
their actions (as examples). This is the lawful way that was approved by Constitutional means
(you do remember what Constitutional means is referring to; you swore to uphold
the Constitution of the United States; now please live up to your promise).
My next set of "fishy statements" will be in regards to DIVISION C—PUBLIC HEALTH AND WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT of HR 3200 and where the appropriations are to be dedicated to on a year-by-year basis (from fiscal year 2010 @ 4.6 trillion dollars up to fiscal year 2019 @ 12.7 trillion dollars). The Federal Reserve is now printing money that has negligible financial backing; and Congress expects us to be able to have an increasing amount of appropriations (for public health and workforce development) available as each year increases to 2019??!! Please, let’s get serious.
“FISHY” ANALYSES ABOUT HR 3200
The following are "fishy comments" found on the Internet (review of HR 3200 word by word):
1. Page 280, Sec 1151: The Government will determine what are “preventable re-admissions” and penalize the medical facility/doctor as it deems appropriate
2. Page 298, Lines 9-11: Doctors treat a patient during initial admission that results in a readmission; the Government will reduce payment to the doctor in this situation.
3. Page 317, Lines 13-20: PROHIBITION on ownership/investment. Government tells Doctors what and how much they can own/invest in medical facilities.
4. Pages 317-318, Lines 21-25,1-3: PROHIBITION on expansion- Government is mandating that hospitals/medical facilities cannot expand.
5. Pages 321, Lines 2-13: Hospitals have opportunity to apply for exception from the prohibition of expanding their medical facility BUT community input required.
6. Page 335, Lines 16-25, Pg 336-339: Government mandates establishment of outcome based measures, including grading of Healthcare and needs for “rationing”.
7. Pages 341, Lines 3-9: Government will grade Medicare Advantage plans and has authority to disqualify Medicare Adv Plans, HMOs, etc. This would force people into the new Government plan.
8. Page 354, Sec 1177: Government will RESTRICT enrollment of Special needs people by analyzing circumstances and the Secretary of CMMS submitting a report detailing analyses and recommending type of treatment as the Secretary deems appropriate.
9. Page 379, Sec 1191: Government creates more bureaucracy - “Telehealth Advisory Committee.”
10. Page 425, Lines 4-12: Government mandates “Advanced Care Planning Consultations.”
11. Page 425, Line 18: Government will require EVERYONE who is on Social Security to undergo a counseling session.
12. Page 425, Lines 17-19: Government will instruct & consult regarding living wills, durable powers of attorney.
13. Page 425, Lines 22-25, Page 426. Lines 1-3: Government provides approved list of “end of life” resources, guiding you in death.
14. Page 427, Lines 15-24: Government mandates program for orders for “end of life”. The Government has a say in how your life ends.
15. Page 429, Lines 1-9: An “advanced care planning consult” will be used frequently as patients health deteriorates.
16. PG 429, Lines 10-12: “Advanced care consultation” may include an ORDER for “end of life” plans. (AN ORDER from the Government?)
17. Page 429, Lines 13-25: The Government will specify which Doctors can write an “end of life” order.
18. Page 430, Lines 11-15: The Secretary for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services will decide what level of treatment you will have at end of life?
19. Page 472 Lines 14-17: PAYMENT TO COMMUNITY-BASED ORG. 1 monthly payment to a community-based org. (MAYBE ACORN?). The most disturbing part of this section is where the Secretary for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services determines who qualifies as a Community Based Medical Home (as opposed to the state and local levels of government who are currently making those decisions).
20. Pages 494-498: The Secretary for the Center of Medicare and Medicaid Services will cover Mental Health Services including defining, creating, rationing and how much to pay for those services.
And I still have almost 2/3 of HR3200 to review and analyze. So far, this is
government control over health care decisions. Just how stupid does the House
of Representatives and/or President Obama think we are? President Obama, I pray
that you have not read this proposal and are just not aware of the outrageous
controls that would be implemented. Government control of the Health Care
Process is not the answer to health care reform (which is needed, but not this
way). Try tort reform and forcing the respective House and Senate committees to
do their job of oversight and calling forth those health care insurers and
disreputable health care providers to appear in committee hearings and explain
their actions (as examples). This is the lawful way that was approved by Constitutional means
(you do remember what Constitutional means is referring to; you swore to uphold
the Constitution of the United States; now please live up to your promise).
My next set of "fishy statements" will be in regards to DIVISION C—PUBLIC HEALTH AND WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT of HR 3200 and where the appropriations are to be dedicated to on a year-by-year basis (from fiscal year 2010 @ 4.6 trillion dollars up to fiscal year 2019 @ 12.7 trillion dollars). The Federal Reserve is now printing money that has negligible financial backing; and Congress expects us to be able to have an increasing amount of appropriations (for public health and workforce development) available as each year increases to 2019??!! Please, let’s get serious.
Town Hall Meetings with Georgia Representatives
(originally posted on 8/08/09 on another blog site)
(The following information was obtained from the Atlanta Journal and Constitution regarding Georgia Representatives holding meetings with their constituents)District 2: Sanford Bishop (D-Columbus)Aug. 19, 8:30 a.m. at National Infantry Museum in Columbus.Aug. 19, 4 p.m. at Fort Valley State University, Fort Valley.Aug. 20, 10 a.m. at Kirbo Regional Center in Bainbridge.Aug. 20, 4 p.m. at Albany State University, Albany.District 4: Hank Johnson (D-Decatur)Monday, 7 p.m. at Georgia Perimeter College (Cole Auditorium), 555 North Indian Creek Dr., Clarkston.District 7: John Linder (R-Duluth)Thursday, 10 a.m. at Piedmont Regional Library, 189 Bell View St., Winder.Thursday, 5 p.m. at Suwanee Library, 361 Main St., Suwanee.Aug. 19, 10 a.m. at Monroe- Walton Library, 217 West Spring St., Monroe.Aug. 19, 1 p.m. at Covington Library, 7116 Floyd Road, Covington.District 10: Paul Broun (R-Athens)Monday, 6 p.m. at Columbia Co. Board of Education, Evans.Tuesday, 6 p.m. at North Georgia Technical College, Clarksville.District 13: David Scott (D-Atlanta) -- Aug. 15, 10 a.m. at Mundy’s Mill High School, 9652 Fayetteville Road, Jonesboro.Of the next two, hopefully Jack will have at least one more before the end of the month. If not, nobody can argue that he has not been doing his job. Also, don’t be misled by “meetings being planned” for Rep. Barrow. He was serving on the House committee which approved HR 3200, but voted against it and came to Georgia several times while this was being discussed (and afterwards) to get the People’s feedback.District 1: Jack Kingston (R-Savannah) -- Has held nine meetings to date. No more planned.District 12: John Barrow (D-Savannah) -- Staff says meetings being planned, but no dates yet.As for these four, the jury is still out. We will see how dedicated some of these are in talking to their constituents.District 3: Lynn Westmoreland (R-Grantville) -- Staff says meetings being planned, but no dates yet.District 8: Jim Marshall (D-Macon) -- Staff says meetings being planned, but no dates yet.District 9: Nathan Deal (R-Gainesville) -- Staff says meetings being planned, but no dates yet.District 11: Phil Gingrey (R-Marietta) -- Staff says meetings being planned, but no dates yet.For these two, pure arrogance and they will feel the pain in the next election.District 5: John Lewis (D-Atlanta) -- Has held one meeting. No more planned.District 6: Tom Price (R-Roswell) -- Has held one meeting. No more planned.Oh, one other item:If you can find where our two “illustrious” Georgian Senators, Chambliss and Isakson, are having town-hall type meetings with someone else (like We, the People) as opposed to paid donators to the Republican National Committee, please let me know by my email address wpconan1@windstream.net, or on Facebook (William P. Conant). I’ve made more phone calls, faxes and emails to their different offices and responses have been about their stand on health care reform but nothing addressing meeting with their constituents (their bosses) in Georgia. Again, arrogance and non-accessibility. We, the People in Georgia need a viable candidate to run against J. Isakson as a Republican next year.
(The following information was obtained from the Atlanta Journal and Constitution regarding Georgia Representatives holding meetings with their constituents)District 2: Sanford Bishop (D-Columbus)Aug. 19, 8:30 a.m. at National Infantry Museum in Columbus.Aug. 19, 4 p.m. at Fort Valley State University, Fort Valley.Aug. 20, 10 a.m. at Kirbo Regional Center in Bainbridge.Aug. 20, 4 p.m. at Albany State University, Albany.District 4: Hank Johnson (D-Decatur)Monday, 7 p.m. at Georgia Perimeter College (Cole Auditorium), 555 North Indian Creek Dr., Clarkston.District 7: John Linder (R-Duluth)Thursday, 10 a.m. at Piedmont Regional Library, 189 Bell View St., Winder.Thursday, 5 p.m. at Suwanee Library, 361 Main St., Suwanee.Aug. 19, 10 a.m. at Monroe- Walton Library, 217 West Spring St., Monroe.Aug. 19, 1 p.m. at Covington Library, 7116 Floyd Road, Covington.District 10: Paul Broun (R-Athens)Monday, 6 p.m. at Columbia Co. Board of Education, Evans.Tuesday, 6 p.m. at North Georgia Technical College, Clarksville.District 13: David Scott (D-Atlanta) -- Aug. 15, 10 a.m. at Mundy’s Mill High School, 9652 Fayetteville Road, Jonesboro.Of the next two, hopefully Jack will have at least one more before the end of the month. If not, nobody can argue that he has not been doing his job. Also, don’t be misled by “meetings being planned” for Rep. Barrow. He was serving on the House committee which approved HR 3200, but voted against it and came to Georgia several times while this was being discussed (and afterwards) to get the People’s feedback.District 1: Jack Kingston (R-Savannah) -- Has held nine meetings to date. No more planned.District 12: John Barrow (D-Savannah) -- Staff says meetings being planned, but no dates yet.As for these four, the jury is still out. We will see how dedicated some of these are in talking to their constituents.District 3: Lynn Westmoreland (R-Grantville) -- Staff says meetings being planned, but no dates yet.District 8: Jim Marshall (D-Macon) -- Staff says meetings being planned, but no dates yet.District 9: Nathan Deal (R-Gainesville) -- Staff says meetings being planned, but no dates yet.District 11: Phil Gingrey (R-Marietta) -- Staff says meetings being planned, but no dates yet.For these two, pure arrogance and they will feel the pain in the next election.District 5: John Lewis (D-Atlanta) -- Has held one meeting. No more planned.District 6: Tom Price (R-Roswell) -- Has held one meeting. No more planned.Oh, one other item:If you can find where our two “illustrious” Georgian Senators, Chambliss and Isakson, are having town-hall type meetings with someone else (like We, the People) as opposed to paid donators to the Republican National Committee, please let me know by my email address wpconan1@windstream.net, or on Facebook (William P. Conant). I’ve made more phone calls, faxes and emails to their different offices and responses have been about their stand on health care reform but nothing addressing meeting with their constituents (their bosses) in Georgia. Again, arrogance and non-accessibility. We, the People in Georgia need a viable candidate to run against J. Isakson as a Republican next year.
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