Email: "Constitutionality Of The Health Care Bill"

Constitutionality Of The Health Care Bill

[note - all mistakes below are original to text of email]

From: XXXXX@gmail.com
To: XXXXXXXXXX@aol.com
Sent: Friday, September 04, 2009 3:57 AM
Subject: Constitutionality of the Health Care Bill

The Truth About the Health Care Bills - Michael Connelly, Ret.

Constitutional Attorney 08.24.09

Mon at 10:51am

The Truth About the Health Care Bills - Michael Connelly, Ret.

Constitutional Attorney 08.24.09

Well, I have done it! I have read the entire text of proposed House Bill

3200: The Affordable Health Care Choices Act of 2009. I studied it with particular emphasis from my area of expertise, constitutional law. I was frankly concerned that parts of the proposed law that were being discussed might be unconstitutional. What I found was far worse than what I had heard or expected.

To begin with, much of what has been said about the law and its implications is in fact true, despite what the Democrats and the media are saying. The law does provide for rationing of health care, particularly where senior citizens and other classes of citizens are involved, free health care for illegal immigrants, free abortion services, and probably forced participation in abortions by members of the medical profession.

The Bill will also eventually force private insurance companies out of business and put everyone into a government run system. All decisions about personal health care will ultimately be made by federal bureaucrats and most of them will not be health care professionals. Hospital admissions, payments to physicians, and allocations of necessary medical devices will be strictly controlled.

However, as scary as all of that is, it just scratches the surface. In fact, I have concluded that this legislation really has no intention of providing affordable health care choices. Instead it is a convenient cover for the most massive transfer of power to the Executive Branch of government that has ever occurred, or even been contemplated. If this law or a similar one is adopted, major portions of the Constitution of the United States will effectively have been destroyed.

The first thing to go will be the masterfully crafted balance of power between the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of the U.S. Government. The Congress will be transferring to the Obama Administration authority in a number of different areas over the lives of the American people and the businesses they own. The irony is that the Congress doesn't have any authority to legislate in most of those areas to begin with. I defy anyone to read the text of the U.S. Constitution and find any authority granted to the members of Congress to regulate health care.

This legislation also provides for access by the appointees of the Obama administration of all of your personal healthcare information, your personal financial information, and the information of your employer, physician, and hospital. All of this is a direct violation of the specific provisions of the 4th Amendment to the Constitution protecting against unreasonable searches and seizures. You can also forget about the right to privacy. That will have been legislated into oblivion regardless of what the 3rd and 4th Amendments may provide.

If you decide not to have healthcare insurance or if you have private insurance that is not deemed "acceptable" to the "Health Choices Administrator" appointed by Obama there will be a tax imposed on you. It is called a "tax" instead of a fine because of the intent to avoid application of the due process clause of the 5th Amendment. However, that doesn't work because since there is nothing in the law that allows you to contest or appeal the imposition of the tax, it is definitely depriving someone of property without the "due process of law.

So, there are three of those pesky amendments that the far left hate so much out the original ten in the Bill of Rights that are effectively nullified by this law. It doesn't stop there though. The 9th Amendment that provides:

"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people;" The 10th Amendment states: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are preserved to the States respectively, or to the people." Under the provisions of this piece of Congressional handiwork neither the people nor the states are going to have any rights or powers at all in many areas that once were theirs to control.

I could write many more pages about this legislation, but I think you get the idea. This is not about health care; it is about seizing power and limiting rights. Article 6 of the Constitution requires the members of both houses of Congress to "be bound by oath or affirmation" to support the Constitution. If I was a member of Congress I would not be able to vote for this legislation or anything like it without feeling I was violating that sacred oath or affirmation. If I voted for it anyway I would hope the American people would hold me accountable.

For those who might doubt the nature of this threat I suggest they consult the source. Here is a link to the Constitution: http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_transcript.html

And another to the Bill of Rights: http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/bill_of_rights_transcript.html

There you can see exactly what we are about to have taken from us.

Michael Connelly

Retired attorney,

Constitutional Law Instructor

Response

Hey, thanks for sending that email my way. 

It's nuts how many rumors are swirling around out there about the health bills.  It's hard to know which ones are true and which ones are just crazy internet rumors.

If this one were true, I'd be pretty upset - so I decided to see if I could find out for myself.

It seems the email originated as a blog post by Michael Connolly, who claims to be a "Constitutional Law Instructor." That's very misleading.  Mr. Connolly doesn't actually work at a university or law school, but gives lessons online at www.ed2go.com whose motto is: "Learn it on Tuesday, Use it on Wednesday!" I don't know about you, but that sounds pretty shady to me.

That's like me claiming to be a pro football coach because I have a fantasy football team.

Check out his page: http://www.ed2go.com/cgi-bin/oic3/newcrsdes.cgi?name=firstclass&aw=yyy&course=cl1

As for the content of his blog post, it seems as if the fake professor is using fake information.

The email claimed health reform would lead to rationing of health services, especially for seniors.  That's not true.  I came across a well-researched article in Newsweek that calls this a "lie" simply intended to scare people into opposing reform.  You can read it yourself: http://www.newsweek.com/id/212131/page/2

The email also says the bills would provide free health care for illegal immigrants. Again, this is a blatant lie. The bill itself even states "No Federal Payment for Undocumented Aliens." You can see for yourself on page 143 http://edlabor.house.gov/documents/111/pdf/publications/AAHCA-BillText-071409.pdf

The email also says reform would result in a "government takeover" of health care. That's not true either. I found a website called FactCheck.org that looks at this assertion & flat out debunks it.  The government would not make medical decisions or force American patients to do anything they didn't want to - it would just give people to option to purchase a reasonably priced health insurance plan.  That's it.

The website wrote that "Obama has long said he would allow individuals or small businesses to buy insurance through a public plan - like the one now available to members of Congress. But nobody would be forced to drop his or her current insurance, and private plans would exist as they do now." You can read more at http://www.factcheck.org/2009/04/government-run-health-care/

As for "Professor" Connolly's claim that health care reform is unconstitutional, that's also wrong.  This interpretation of the 10^th amendment is an extremist view held by people who believe almost everything is unconstitutional. They think the same thing about Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the federal highway system, rules regulating airplane safety and anti-discrimination laws.

In reality, the Constitution gives congress the power to "lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises" and to "provide for....the general welfare of the United States." It also allows Congress "to regulate commerce... among the several states." Health care is a huge part of our nation's economy, and definitely falls under the interstate commerce clause of the constitution. 

If you want to find more information on this, I found some great websites:

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/08/19/bachmann-unconstitutional/

http://prospect.org/cs/articles?article=rally_round_the_true_constitution

I think by now you can see that pretty much every part of this email is a lie.  So hopefully that helps put your mind at ease.

Have a good week.