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Abuse of Power WSJ: Abuse of Power
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704625004575089362731862750.html ^

Posted on 03/03/2010 6:53:11 AM PST by cycle of discernment

The Wallstreet Journal

March 3, 2010

Abuse of Power

An undemocratic disservice to our people and to the Senate's institutional role.

A string of electoral defeats and the great unpopularity of ObamaCare can't stop Democrats from their self-appointed rendezvous with liberal destiny—ramming a bill through Congress on a narrow partisan vote. What we are about to witness is an extraordinary abuse of traditional Senate rules to pass a bill merely because they think it's good for the rest of us, and because they fear their chance to build a European welfare state may never come again.

*** The vehicle is "reconciliation," a parliamentary process that fast-tracks budget measures and was created in 1974 as a deficit-reduction tool. Limited to 20 hours of debate, reconciliation bills need a mere 50 votes in the Senate, with the Vice President as tie-breaker, thus circumventing the filibuster. Both Democrats and Republicans have frequently used reconciliation on budget bills, so Democrats are now claiming that using it to pass ObamaCare is no big deal.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: 111th; abuseofpower; cultureofcorruption; deathcare; democratcorruption; democrats; liberalfascism; lping; obamacare; reconciliation; senate; wsj
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To: cycle of discernment

Here is an interesting link concerning the last time the Feds rode roughshod over the people...

http://www.givemeliberty.org/features/taxes/notratified.htm


41 posted on 03/03/2010 10:46:09 AM PST by mo
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To: Springfield Reformer

If Obamacare passes it’s really moot about repeal, because the country is already bankrupt and can’t even afford Social Security - Thus the passage of Obamacare will cause one of two things to happen (1) Bloody civil war ending with the triumph of Patriotism. (2) The collapse of the United States and the division of the country into regional nations...In the case, the South Will Rise Again.


42 posted on 03/03/2010 10:53:19 AM PST by Ronbo1948
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To: Ronbo1948

“I hope Obama and his Leftard lackeys understand that passage of Obamacare is tantamount to a declaration of civil war against the Republic and they had better be prepared for its horrors such as massive physical destruction of life and property....”

Be careful of what you wish...I fervently believe this is PRECISELY what they desire....


43 posted on 03/03/2010 10:53:25 AM PST by mo
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To: Springfield Reformer
While I don’t disagree with Bunning’s stand in the abstract, what he did is get drawn into a skirmish set up as a distraction from the real location of the fight.

I don't particularly agree that a clear violation of the PAYGO law is so easily dismissed. The Rs could easily have turned the tide, if they hung the lawbreaking on the Pelosi and Reid hooks.

Nevertheless, if lawbreaking is OK when it's "just a distraction", then we've already lost the fight - and the republic.

44 posted on 03/03/2010 10:54:00 AM PST by MortMan (Viscous rumors are thickening.)
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To: norton

Your two examples are the exception, not the rule.

They are also fine examples of class warfare.


45 posted on 03/03/2010 10:55:50 AM PST by MortMan (Viscous rumors are thickening.)
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To: mo

I don’t wish for civil war; I only recognize the reality that the opposition has already decided on civil war.

Yes, this has been the plan of the Left for decades and like the Confederates of old they think they can win it in a short campaign, but I am of the opinion that when the Left opens the Gates of Hell, they will find themselves crispy critters.

Therefore, since civil war seems inevitable, I believe Patriots should “embrace the suck” and do what’s necessary to win.

I wonder if the Congress will pass Obamacare on March 15th - “The Ides of March?”

BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH!


46 posted on 03/03/2010 11:17:09 AM PST by Ronbo1948
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To: Ronbo1948

None of sane mind wish for civil war...but the idjits on the left..in their contempt of all that is not them...are blinded by their own brilliance here, and refuse to acknowledge the primacy of We the People over their Marxist ideology.

King George had a similar issue with his seeing straight aver 200 years. ago. Some of my ancestors were privileged then, to help him set that right.


47 posted on 03/03/2010 11:20:47 AM PST by mo
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To: cycle of discernment
What we are about to witness is an extraordinary abuse of traditional Senate rules

What we are seeing is a coup d'état.

48 posted on 03/03/2010 11:22:14 AM PST by itsahoot (Each generation takes to excess, what the previous generation accepted in moderation.)
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To: USCG SimTech
After they’re thrown out in November, the very next bill is to repeal the whole thing.

Not without two thirds majority in the Senate, it won't.

49 posted on 03/03/2010 11:23:00 AM PST by itsahoot (Each generation takes to excess, what the previous generation accepted in moderation.)
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To: norton

I’m very sorry you had such bad experiences with a few bad idiots.

One bad experience should not effect the entire retired Miliary. Not all of them made brass rank. Not all of them have huge retirements. People who worked 2 careers earned the right to their retirements.

If you join at 18 retire at 38 after 20 years. They should go out and get another career for the next 20-30 years, thereby contributing to the economy and country. You’d be more upset if after 20 years and at age 38 they just sat on their butts and lived off their Military retirement.

I went for years with no health ins at all. And when I did have it, there were no such things as co-pays, or dr visits, just for in hospital care, and hospital care. With big deductibles. I paid payments when it was necessary for years to pay off what was not a covered medical care for me and my 3 boys.

TRL is an entitlement that our Military earned.

If it truly bothers you then don’t do a thing about it.

That is the wonderful thing about the USA, it is your right to not participate.


50 posted on 03/03/2010 11:28:31 AM PST by GailA (obamacare paid for by cuts & taxes on most vulnerable Veterans, disabled,seniors & retired Military)
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To: MortMan

It’s not that its OK. It’s that this law was invoked as a weapon in the image war. It’s a catch-22 for precisely the reason you observe. There is no way to win. It’s like a fork in chess. You’re going to lose one piece. You have to choose which piece you’re going to lose, and you had better be sure it’s a loss you can live with later in the game.

Perhaps the foregoing analogy is wrong, but it is what I believe is going on with the GOP thinking. I do not believe the narrative that Bunning is the only guy in the GOP who believes in the rule of law, or that the rest of the GOP avoided the issue out of craven fear. Maybe I’m wrong, but this looks strategic to me. Ugly, but strategic

Try another analogy. Barney Fife, anxious to write a speeding ticket, whips up a technically legal speed sign of 30 MPH just as a Mack truck passes by at 60 MPH. Yes, it is a violation of the law, but the reality is that what Barney did was the greater wrong because he knowingly and intentionally put the driver in a position where he would have a very difficult time acting within the law. What does the driver do? Slam on the brakes and hope for the best? Or accept the ticket as the cost of having to deal with a misguided officer? What would you do?


51 posted on 03/03/2010 11:34:32 AM PST by Springfield Reformer (Winston Churchill: No Peace Till Victory!)
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To: mo

Yes, there are ominous parallels in the mindset of our contemporary American Leftists and the 18th century elites, who saw their quiet little aristocratic world much changed by the American & French revolutions, and themselves bums on the run from the revolutionists.

Like I said before, they’ll see their prayers for revolution/civil war answered, but I don’t think they’ll like the answer.


52 posted on 03/03/2010 11:39:47 AM PST by Ronbo1948
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To: mo; Ronbo1948
Be careful of what you wish...I fervently believe this is PRECISELY what they desire....

And despite the Patriots passion, they are no match for our modern military, and no matter how we feel, the military will obey orders.

53 posted on 03/03/2010 11:42:00 AM PST by itsahoot (Each generation takes to excess, what the previous generation accepted in moderation.)
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To: Springfield Reformer

Your analogies are not working for me.

In the case of the speed limit sign, Fife puts up a legal speed limit sign. he then gets in his personal car and blows past the sign at 100mph over the posted limit, with no siren or lights going. In order to avoid a ticket from Andy, he claims he had to go that fast (but without citing avalid reason).

Does Andy give him a ticket, or does he “let it slide”?

An HONEST Andy gives the ticket.

The PAYGO violation is a distraction only to the extent that repubs allow it to be trated that way. If this lawbreaking were trumpeted loudly all around as just another example of UNETHICAL DEMOCRATS!


54 posted on 03/03/2010 11:46:57 AM PST by MortMan (Viscous rumors are thickening.)
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To: itsahoot

Will they?

With 80% of the active duty military card carrying Republicans, do you think they’ll open fire on the mostly Republican militias?

I think not.

Ditto the police forces and National Guard.


55 posted on 03/03/2010 11:47:08 AM PST by Ronbo1948
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To: MortMan

That’s a nice reuse of the analogy, but I think it actually helps me make my case a little better. In your version, Barney voluntarily and arbitrarily chooses to break his own law. He is not driving a truck, therefore there is no issue with massive momentum or the risk of serious harm through an accident. And there is no element of surprise. Barney can therefore not qualify as a victim of the wrongdoing of another. He is the victim of his own malfeasance. Ticket away.

By contrast, in Congress, we now have two distinct parties struggling with each other in what amounts to the political equivalent of mortal combat. One party will eventually emerge from this seriously, perhaps fatally, damaged. The dominant party, the party of lawlessness, imposed a rule on the party of law in order to produce the risk of real harm to private citizens, who have developed an admittedly unhealthy dependency on the continuity of government funding. Bad as that dependency is, disrupting the continuity with no warning whatsoever could have harmful effects on otherwise innocent third parties. This is by design, which is what makes Barney’s capriciousness particularly evil. It is entrapment, and a court adjudicating in Mayberry, or even Mount Pilot, might well and rightly toss that ticket.


56 posted on 03/03/2010 12:11:38 PM PST by Springfield Reformer (Winston Churchill: No Peace Till Victory!)
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To: Springfield Reformer
Seems plausible. It would be inspiring to see if does turn out to be the case that there is that much thought behind all of this. DeMint’s comment about Obama’s Waterloo fits with the possibility that such a strategy exists. Still, it's difficult to imagine Republican’s being chased into elevators by ABC news next year being pilloried with asinine questions about why they're not funding health care, and them not caving. I like your confidence, though.
57 posted on 03/03/2010 12:12:56 PM PST by throwback
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To: Ronbo1948
I think not.

Having fired a Quad 50 cal before I was 17, I can assure you I voted for one Democrat in my life, but I hold no such faith in our military. We are over run with political Generals, just witness the Jihad dance they are doing in reaction to all the Muslim terrorism in the ranks.

58 posted on 03/03/2010 12:45:54 PM PST by itsahoot (Each generation takes to excess, what the previous generation accepted in moderation.)
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To: USCG SimTech

Lets pray they do this!


59 posted on 03/03/2010 12:47:11 PM PST by Deb (Beat him, strip him and bring him to my tent!)
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To: FlingWingFlyer
Just think what the Kenyan is trying to accomplish here:

1) The socialist transformation of healthcare in the United States;

2) The corruption of the Senate into a body that no longer functions as an institution of representative government;

3) Putting the Democratic Party on suicide watch;

4) Embittering citizens as to the responsiveness and democratic functioning of our government.

Those would be mighty impressive achievements if your goal was to undermine the institutional fabric of this nation and our diminish the authority of the Constitution.

Is there any doubt left that Obama is a Marxist?

60 posted on 03/03/2010 1:03:34 PM PST by mojito
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