Free Republic

Seeking to appease disgruntled governors, President Obama plans to announce on Monday that he supports amending the 2010 health care law to allow states to opt out of its most burdensome requirements three years earlier than currently permitted. It's significant that the president is finally acknowledging that ObamaCare is unworkable and will impose enormous burdens on the states. Or is he? A closer look shows that the president is not lifting the burdensome requirements ObamaCare imposes on states. All he's doing is proposing to move up, from 2017 to 2014, the date on which states can apply for federal permission...

The split opinion of judges all over the country continue. D.C. Federal District Judge Gladys Kessler has ruled the health care law to be constitutional. In her ruling, Kessler says: First, this Court agrees with the two other district courts which have ruled that the individuals subject to § 1501’s mandate provision are either present or future participants in the national health care market. See Liberty Univ., 2010 WL 4860299, at *15 (“Nearly everyone will require health care services at some point in their lifetimes, and it is not always possible to predict when one will be afflicted by illness...

TUESDAY MIDDAY--- BREAKING NEWS ON OBAMACARE REPEAL: The House Rules Committee has rejected Rep. Steve King's proposal to FULLY DEFUND ObamaCare, failing to agree to "protect" King's amendment when it comes to the House floor. Bottom line -- Republicans on the Rules Committee refused to play hardball to fully defund ObamaCare. By doing so, they are allowing Pelosi's "mandatory" self-funding provisions -- which many say are unconscionable if not unconstitutional -- to stand! This will force this Congress to approve most of the funding for ObamaCare. FoxNews says King's provision would "cripple all government operations devoted to executing the health...

Len Nichols, a health economist who teaches at Virginia's George Mason University, says without a requirement for coverage, Congress might have to find another way to make the consequences of not having insurance even more dramatic. For example, he says, perhaps if people don't buy insurance when it is first available, "if you ever try to buy insurance again, you'll have to pay three times the market price, and we will put a gold sticker on your forehead and say to all hospitals, 'You do not have to treat this person; this person has forfeited their right to uncompensated care.'...

Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) will push to fast-track Virginia's challenge of the federal health care overhaul to the nation's highest court. Cuccinelli said the uncertainty caused by various court rulings about the constitutionality of the health care law makes expedited review a necessity. "Currently, state governments and private businesses are being forced to expend enormous amounts of resources to prepare to implement a law that, in the end, may be declared unconstitutional," he said in a statement. "Regardless of whether you believe the law is constitutional or not, we should all agree that a prompt resolution of this issue...

Judge Declares Pro-Abortion ObamaCare Unconstitutional A federal judge in Florida has issued a new ruling in what is the largest lawsuit filed against the Obamacare health care law. U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson says the individual mandate is unconstitutional and, therefore, the entire law is as well. Leading pro-life groups have opposed the Obamcare law because it allows massive abortion funding and prompts concerns about rationing of health care. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/01/31/judge-declares-pro-abortion-obamacare-unconstitutional

FEDERAL JUDGE RULES OBAMA HEALTH CARE LAW UNCONSTITUTIONAL... DEVELOPING...

Federal Judge Roger Vinson of the Northern District of Florida, in a lawsuit by 26 state attorney generals, has held that Obamacare is unconstitutional. Judge Vinson first found that the mandate was unconstitutional, and then found that the mandate could not be severed from the rest of the law, requiring that the entire law be deemed unconstitutional. Judge Vinson found that there was no need for an injunction, since the declaratory judgment that the entire law was invalid was sufficient (in effect, there is nothing left to enjoin, since no part of the law survived). Here is the conclusion of...

"The Obama administration’s waivers to temporarily exempt certain companies, unions, and charities from rules established by the new health care law are a “perfect example of special interests” having influence in the administration and will be looked into by Congress, Sen. Charles Grassley, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee told CNSNews.com. "'You’re going to find out that by the president doing that with the secretary of HHS, he violated one of his main principles when he ran for office--and that was that special interests were not going to have an in in his administration,' said Grassley. 'And this...

Public opposition to the health care reform law spiked to a record high in a new poll out today — but Americans don’t necessarily want Republicans to spend time trying to dismantle it. Fifty percent of Americans have unfavorable views of the law, according to a joint survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health. Opposition to the law jumped 9 percentage points from last month and is the highest since April, when Kaiser began asking the question every month.

Three local chapters of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)--whose political action committee spent $27 million supporting Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election--have received temporary waivers from a provision in the Obamacare law. The three SEIU chapters include the Local 25 in Obama’s hometown of Chicago.The waivers allow health insurance plans to limit how much they will spend on a policy holder’s medical coverage for a given year. Under the new health care law, however, such annual limits are phased out by the year 2014. (Under HHS regulations, annual limits can be no less than $750,000 for 2011, no less than...

.....The repeal bill will now likely perish in the Democratic-controlled Senate, and in any case would almost certainly face a presidential veto if it miraculously made it that far. But House Republicans say they'll still obstruct the healthcare law by blocking funds to implement its provisions. It's hard not to think of a bunch of spoiled children throwing a tantrum because they didn't get their way. The healthcare reform law, while imperfect, is a done deal. The prudent thing to do at this point is to build on it rather than waste time with fruitless — and needlessly divisive —...

VIDEO HERE.

"“I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes,” President Obama, September 12, 2008"Beginning January 1, 2013, ObamaCare imposes a 3.8% Medicare tax on unearned income, including the sale of single family homes, townhouses, co-ops, condominiums, and even rental income. In February 2010, 5.02 million homes were sold, according to the National Association of Realtors. On any given day, the sale of a house, townhome, condominium, co-op,...

"[W]e have to pass the [Healthcare] bill so you can find out what’s in it."                                         —House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, March 9, 2010 Background Section 9006 of ObamaCare expands information reporting requirements to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for business transactions in excess of $600 in goods or services.  Starting in 2012, ObamaCare mandates that all businesses file an IRS Form-1099 for any vendor with which they have more than $600 in yearly transactions.  With an unemployment rate above nine percent for 20 consecutive months, this monstrous accounting and paperwork burden will not provide any incentive to create jobs.  To...

Obama Admin Removes Death Panels After Pro-Life Backlash Washington, DC -- After massive pro-life backlash following the publication of new rules instituting "death panels," the Obama administration has agreed to remove them from ObamaCare. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/01/05/obama-admin-removes-death-panels-after-pro-life-backlash/

Sarah Palin was excoriated for making the entirely correct observation that when a government controls health care, rationing becomes inevitable. Democrats squealed like stuck pigs, but dropped the execrable end of life counseling language from ObamaCare. Undeterred, Obama used a recess appointment to afflict us with Dr. Donald Berwick who is unabashed in his affection for the deeply dysfunctional British health care system. Comrade Berwick heads the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and his positions on government control over health care are pretty plain.

When ObamaCare passed in the partisan manner in which it did, the liberal establishment and its ever growing army of pipsqueak transcribers in the mainstream media said ObamaCare’s passage would be a boon for Democrats and mocked those like Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli who spoke out against ObamaCare and called the measure unconstitutional, particularly the individual mandate requirement that would compel citizens to buy health insurance they may not have otherwise wanted to purchase. What a difference a year makes. Fast forward to the present, and ObamaCare -- and its proponents -- are on the ropes, particularly in the...

“While we are very happy with the result, we won’t be shouting it from the rooftops because we aren’t out of the woods yet,” Mr. Blumenauer’s office said in an e-mail in early November to people working with him on the issue. “This regulation could be modified or reversed, especially if Republican leaders try to use this small provision to perpetuate the ‘death panel’ myth.” Moreover, the e-mail said: “We would ask that you not broadcast this accomplishment out to any of your lists, even if they are ‘supporters’ — e-mails can too easily be forwarded. The e-mail continued: “Thus...

WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department said Tuesday it intends to appeal to a U.S. District Court judge's ruling declaring a key part of President Obama's health care law unconstitutional.