Not Depending on the Courts: Health Care Compact Alliance
Jack Kemp
“If we only had free healthcare at the beginning of this country, we would have free leeches now.”
Eric O’Keefe of the www.healthcarecompact.org was addressing a breakout session at the Right Online Conference in Minneapolis last week. It was called “Healthcare: Obamacare vs. Patient Freedom.” O’Keefe had been preceded Dr. Betsy McCaughey, the patient healthcare advocate president of www.DefendYourHealthcare.com who had pointed out that ObamaCare adds $16 Billion to healthcare costs and “shreds your Constitutional Rights.”
Passionately – and factually - Dr. McCaughey further argued, “Women’s groups have fought for privacy and abortions. The government now shreds this. ObamaCare expands Medicaid by evisceration Medicare. It is Robbing Grandma to pay Paul. The government that has the power to grant a waiver (from ObamaCare) has the power to withhold a waiver and destroy a business.”
The next panelist, Jennifer Grossman, Senior Vice President at the Dole (Foods) Nutrition Institute http://www.dole.com made a case eating healthy being as low cost and lower for poor people as convenience foods, thus avoiding a number of illnesses by increasing personal responsibility for one’s health.
But before Virginia Atty. Gen. Ken Cuccinelli spoke of his court case against ObamaCare http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/cuccinelli-lawsuit-obama-liberty/2010/12/14/id/379960 , a case he predicts will go to the US Supreme Court just before the 2012 election (“States checking the Federal Government is another aspect of Checks and Balances”), Mr. O’Keefe first presented his less widely known alternative to the Obama healthcare plan.
Calling for an interstate compact – somewhat like the laws that allow reciprocity in recognition of out-of-state drivers’ licenses, O’Keefe said he would tell Washington “to keep their regulations and send us our money.” The US Constitution, in the Compact Clause, Article One, Section 10 states:
No State shall, without the Consent of Congress… enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State.
END
In short, a Republican controlled Congress – which we may well have fairly soon – can approve a regional or multi-regional Healthcare Compact to be regulated by the states that are party to it. In fact, such a Compact would not legally require the signature of the President of the United States – although that may well be possible after January 20th, 2013. Although I am no legal scholar, this appears to be a highly realistic plan – and method of pressuring the Federal government. A fine a legal scholar as the Attorney General of Virginia being willing to share a panel with Mr. O’Keefe – and not attempt to blunt the argument of the Health Care Compact speaks volumes.
I don't see how the Obama administration or any Democrats can go to the US Supreme or any other Court and raise the question of constitutionality without making a major issue of the question of constitutionality of the ObamaCare bill itself. There's a lot of brinksmanship here, a game of chicken, as it were.
Even now, the Democrats are trying to create a Northeast version of Cap and Trade (Gov. Christie just blocked it in New Jersey) – why can’t conservatives create their own version of an alternative to ObamaCare? There answer is there is no legal barrier, just one of effort to create what most Americans have said in polls they want: an alternative to the ObamaCare monstrosity. This compact would become, the website states, a de facto statewide (in states that adapt it) repeal of ObamaCare. The Compact’s website states that there is no method for revoking a compact between states, i.e., it would take a Constitutional Amendment to do that - which would have a very slim chance of passing, in my opinion. Indeed, a Compact between States can also be used to remove from the control of the Federal Government other non-enumerated powers such as the States deem fit. This includes EPA regulations on carbon dioxide and Right to Work Laws as the Obama administration is attempting to nullify in Boeing’s move to South Carolina. As Atty. Gen. Cuccinelli stated, previously States Rights were used in an attempt to deny blacks their full US Citizenship Rights, however now States Rights are being invoked for legitimate ends to limit the overreaching of the Federal Government in areas not allowed in the US Constitution.
There are provisions for states opting out of ObamaCare. They are complex and Senators on both sides of the aisle have moved to have them go into effect earlier.
http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/Brown-States-Quit-Obamacare/2010/11/22/id/377781 It is partially in connection with such opt outs that the Health Care Compact would be made viable. Also, if money were denied the federal government in taxes supporting ObamaCare from Compact member states, it would be more difficult on a practical level to implement this monstrosity.
The States Compact movement also does not exist in a political vacuum: it is part and parcel of the court cases against ObamaCare. As for those who would say that the Health Care Compact wouldn't directly negate ObamaCare, the Constitution has already directly negated ObamaCare, yet this legal fiction marches forward, as does the legal fiction of abortion being a "privacy right." If the Supreme Court would let ObamaCare stand with its violations of the Commerce Clause of the Constitution, then we are at a point in American History where political will trumps much of the Constitution and we had best use this or any tactic to negate this socialist strong arm takeover. Such a Compact would be a lot less extralegal than an open, armed rebellion against federal authority attempting to redefine Commerce, Healthcare and the Rule of Law via non-Constitutional means. If the Supreme Court passively allows ObamaCare to stand, then we no longer have a country with a working Constitution but a mass of legal fictions used for the convenience of a ruling elite. Negating the right to not buy health insurance would make us all serfs of a federal feudal lord – but probably not for long.
Ironically, the authors of this Healthcare Compact movement believe even liberal governors would be in favor of moving money and control away from distant Washington and into their own direct management. Human nature – and politics - being what they are, they are probably correct. The Healthcare Compact legislation is currently being brought up in ten states.
The Healthcare Compact would create:
http://www.healthcarecompact.com/compact
The Health Care Compact does not conflict with the efforts by state attorneys general, state legislators and members of congress to repeal or modify the health care bill.
The Elements of the Health Care Compact
Pledge: Member states agree to work together to pass this Compact, and to improve the health care in their respective states.
Legislative Power: Member states have primary responsibility for regulation of all non-military health care goods and services in their state.
State Control: In member states, states can suspend federal health care regulations. Federal and state health care laws remain in force in a state until states enact superseding regulations.
Funding: Member states get an amount of money from the federal government each year to pay for health care. The funding is mandatory spending, and not subject to annual appropriations. Each state’s funding is based on the federal funds spent in their state on health care in 2010. Each state will confirm their funding before joining this Compact. This funding level will be adjusted annually for changes in population and inflation.
END OF QUOTE
Virginia Attorney General Cuccinelli, in this breakout session, stated that when the ObamaCare bill was passed near midnight, he and his staff stayed up for hours writing a legal challenge to it. The next morning, they filed the papers several city blocks away – but on the very same street – where Patrick Henry declared in St. John’s Church in Richmond, “Give me Liberty or give me Death!” Perhaps today this Founding Father would have added the word “Panels” to the end of his historic statement.
“If we only had free healthcare at the beginning of this country, we would have free leeches now.”
Eric O’Keefe of the www.healthcarecompact.org was addressing a breakout session at the Right Online Conference in Minneapolis last week. It was called “Healthcare: Obamacare vs. Patient Freedom.” O’Keefe had been preceded Dr. Betsy McCaughey, the patient healthcare advocate president of www.DefendYourHealthcare.com who had pointed out that ObamaCare adds $16 Billion to healthcare costs and “shreds your Constitutional Rights.”
Passionately – and factually - Dr. McCaughey further argued, “Women’s groups have fought for privacy and abortions. The government now shreds this. ObamaCare expands Medicaid by evisceration Medicare. It is Robbing Grandma to pay Paul. The government that has the power to grant a waiver (from ObamaCare) has the power to withhold a waiver and destroy a business.”
The next panelist, Jennifer Grossman, Senior Vice President at the Dole (Foods) Nutrition Institute http://www.dole.com made a case eating healthy being as low cost and lower for poor people as convenience foods, thus avoiding a number of illnesses by increasing personal responsibility for one’s health.
But before Virginia Atty. Gen. Ken Cuccinelli spoke of his court case against ObamaCare http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/cuccinelli-lawsuit-obama-liberty/2010/12/14/id/379960 , a case he predicts will go to the US Supreme Court just before the 2012 election (“States checking the Federal Government is another aspect of Checks and Balances”), Mr. O’Keefe first presented his less widely known alternative to the Obama healthcare plan.
Calling for an interstate compact – somewhat like the laws that allow reciprocity in recognition of out-of-state drivers’ licenses, O’Keefe said he would tell Washington “to keep their regulations and send us our money.” The US Constitution, in the Compact Clause, Article One, Section 10 states:
No State shall, without the Consent of Congress… enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State.
END
In short, a Republican controlled Congress – which we may well have fairly soon – can approve a regional or multi-regional Healthcare Compact to be regulated by the states that are party to it. In fact, such a Compact would not legally require the signature of the President of the United States – although that may well be possible after January 20th, 2013. Although I am no legal scholar, this appears to be a highly realistic plan – and method of pressuring the Federal government. A fine a legal scholar as the Attorney General of Virginia being willing to share a panel with Mr. O’Keefe – and not attempt to blunt the argument of the Health Care Compact speaks volumes.
I don't see how the Obama administration or any Democrats can go to the US Supreme or any other Court and raise the question of constitutionality without making a major issue of the question of constitutionality of the ObamaCare bill itself. There's a lot of brinksmanship here, a game of chicken, as it were.
Even now, the Democrats are trying to create a Northeast version of Cap and Trade (Gov. Christie just blocked it in New Jersey) – why can’t conservatives create their own version of an alternative to ObamaCare? There answer is there is no legal barrier, just one of effort to create what most Americans have said in polls they want: an alternative to the ObamaCare monstrosity. This compact would become, the website states, a de facto statewide (in states that adapt it) repeal of ObamaCare. The Compact’s website states that there is no method for revoking a compact between states, i.e., it would take a Constitutional Amendment to do that - which would have a very slim chance of passing, in my opinion. Indeed, a Compact between States can also be used to remove from the control of the Federal Government other non-enumerated powers such as the States deem fit. This includes EPA regulations on carbon dioxide and Right to Work Laws as the Obama administration is attempting to nullify in Boeing’s move to South Carolina. As Atty. Gen. Cuccinelli stated, previously States Rights were used in an attempt to deny blacks their full US Citizenship Rights, however now States Rights are being invoked for legitimate ends to limit the overreaching of the Federal Government in areas not allowed in the US Constitution.
There are provisions for states opting out of ObamaCare. They are complex and Senators on both sides of the aisle have moved to have them go into effect earlier.
http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/Brown-States-Quit-Obamacare/2010/11/22/id/377781 It is partially in connection with such opt outs that the Health Care Compact would be made viable. Also, if money were denied the federal government in taxes supporting ObamaCare from Compact member states, it would be more difficult on a practical level to implement this monstrosity.
The States Compact movement also does not exist in a political vacuum: it is part and parcel of the court cases against ObamaCare. As for those who would say that the Health Care Compact wouldn't directly negate ObamaCare, the Constitution has already directly negated ObamaCare, yet this legal fiction marches forward, as does the legal fiction of abortion being a "privacy right." If the Supreme Court would let ObamaCare stand with its violations of the Commerce Clause of the Constitution, then we are at a point in American History where political will trumps much of the Constitution and we had best use this or any tactic to negate this socialist strong arm takeover. Such a Compact would be a lot less extralegal than an open, armed rebellion against federal authority attempting to redefine Commerce, Healthcare and the Rule of Law via non-Constitutional means. If the Supreme Court passively allows ObamaCare to stand, then we no longer have a country with a working Constitution but a mass of legal fictions used for the convenience of a ruling elite. Negating the right to not buy health insurance would make us all serfs of a federal feudal lord – but probably not for long.
Ironically, the authors of this Healthcare Compact movement believe even liberal governors would be in favor of moving money and control away from distant Washington and into their own direct management. Human nature – and politics - being what they are, they are probably correct. The Healthcare Compact legislation is currently being brought up in ten states.
The Healthcare Compact would create:
http://www.healthcarecompact.com/compact
The Health Care Compact does not conflict with the efforts by state attorneys general, state legislators and members of congress to repeal or modify the health care bill.
The Elements of the Health Care Compact
Pledge: Member states agree to work together to pass this Compact, and to improve the health care in their respective states.
Legislative Power: Member states have primary responsibility for regulation of all non-military health care goods and services in their state.
State Control: In member states, states can suspend federal health care regulations. Federal and state health care laws remain in force in a state until states enact superseding regulations.
Funding: Member states get an amount of money from the federal government each year to pay for health care. The funding is mandatory spending, and not subject to annual appropriations. Each state’s funding is based on the federal funds spent in their state on health care in 2010. Each state will confirm their funding before joining this Compact. This funding level will be adjusted annually for changes in population and inflation.
END OF QUOTE
Virginia Attorney General Cuccinelli, in this breakout session, stated that when the ObamaCare bill was passed near midnight, he and his staff stayed up for hours writing a legal challenge to it. The next morning, they filed the papers several city blocks away – but on the very same street – where Patrick Henry declared in St. John’s Church in Richmond, “Give me Liberty or give me Death!” Perhaps today this Founding Father would have added the word “Panels” to the end of his historic statement.
posted by Timothy Birdnow | 4:02 AM
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