Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Under Siege at the Legislature: Tea Partiers Howl Over Health Care Reform
Posted by Jeff Woods on Wed, Mar 24, 2010 at 11:46 AM
We're under siege here at the Legislative Plaza. Pith has retreated into the pressroom, a.k.a. the bunker, to file this dispatch. Outside, tea party protesters are jamming the hallway, bursting into occasional howls of anger, as a House subcommittee delays voting on various pieces of legislation to free Tennessee from the socialist takeover of our health care system.
Wait, it sounds like they're finally dispersing. We hear they're marching across the street to yell at the building that holds the state attorney general's office.
These teabaggers--who number maybe 100 by our count--converged on the legislature to demand the adoption of the so-called Health Freedom Act, among other bills. It supposedly would let liberty-loving Tennesseans disobey the new federal mandate to buy health insurance and compel the attorney general to defend these people in court if necessary.
We were afraid to mention this while they were outside screaming in the hallway, but we think their legislative strategy might run into a little problem--namely the U.S. court system.
When House Democratic caucus chairman Mike Turner was asked about this bill this week, he said: "I have one thing to say about that: Appomattox."
"We went through that fight once before," he said. He was referring, of course, to the Virginia town where Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses Grant in 1865. But actually, this issue was settled even earlier during Andy Jackson's presidency when the states' right doctrine of nullification was rejected. Congress's powers to regulate interstate commerce have been expanded and repeatedly upheld.
Wacky right-wing legal theories notwithstanding, health care and health insurance obviously impact interstate commerce. That gives Congress the clear power to regulate the health insurance industry. As this article explains, conservatives would have a case if all Congress was doing was mandating that people buy insurance and imposing a penalty against those who don't. But this legislation is part of a sweeping new regulation, and the individual mandate is a critical part of it. It's necessary to ensure affordable premiums.
The Health Freedom Act might make outraged conservatives feel better, but it's pointless otherwise.
Comments (33)
Showing 1-33 of 33
I'm stunned the committee is rolling this stuff! Could there be a vestigial backbone somewhere in there?
Wasn't sure how to spell it, so looked it up. The definition is great: "a bodily part or organ that is small and degenerate or imperfectly developed in comparison to one more fully developed in an earlier stage of the individual, or in a past generation."
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The subcommittee rolled the bill for a week after it was amended! Just like they do every bill that is amended!!!!! It's tyranny!!!
Where is dumbass Ben Cunningham to bellow, "This is OUTRAGEOUS!!!!"
At the very same time, over 100 Tennesseans gathered at Rep. Bart Gordon's office to thank him for his vote in favor of health care reform.
"Wacky right-wing legal theories notwithstanding, health care and health insurance obviously impact interstate commerce"
Woods is never funnier that when he's trying to pretend he knows something about the Constitution.
Wrong again, Gil. Woods was even funnier when he was smirking at how totally unaware the ragtag band in the hallway was of the process, even after their heroes in the legislature assured them that a week's delay after an amendment is automatic.
After all, these ARE the same people who demanded "Read the Bill!"
Guess that only applies if it's a bill they oppose.
This morning NewsChannel5 had a camera crew out there to film THREE people.
Guess a few more showed up to rally behind the winning message of pre-existing conditions and being dumped from health insurance that you've paid your own money for.
At the very same time, over 100 Tennesseans gathered at Rep. Bart Gordon's office to thank him for his vote in favor of health care reform.
Wonder how many of our illustrious news media showed up to cover that? If it's anything like any other liberal protests/rallies I've attended, the answer will be a big fat ZERO.
I had the best vantage point from my office window overlooking the Plaza: there were no more than 80 teabaggers there -- and I made that count after the baggers inside came back out to get instructions for their "march" on the AG's building.
And those a--holes were wearing UT-orange t-shirts with teapots on them desecrated the Orange as far as I'm concerned. From the looks of 'em, not a one ever set foot inside a college classroom.
And I'm only elitist when I see aggressive ignorance in action.
I've got to say this: I'm a supporter of the federal bill. I'm a supporter of health reform. But there's a part of me that finds these attacks on these folks who oppose it a little distasteful. Are they sophisticated? Probably not. Would they benefit from the changes? Definitely. Do they know the legislative rulebook? Probably not. Are their tactics -- particularly the ugly ones on display in Washington over the weekend -- lousy? Yes.
But if somebody doesn't protest once in a while, we might forget how its done. And someday, we might find ourselves like the lone Chinese student standing down the tank.
"The truth is this is a Republican idea," said Linda Quick, president of the South Florida Hospital and Healthcare Association. She said she first heard the concept of the "individual mandate" in a Miami speech in the early 1990s by Sen. John McCain, a conservative Republican from Arizona, to counter the "Hillarycare" the Clintons were proposing."
"The lawsuit against the health care overhaul is focused on a provision that has long been advocated by conservatives, big business and the insurance industry.
"Among the other Republicans who had embraced the idea was Mitt Romney, who as governor of Massachusetts crafted a huge reform by requiring almost all citizens to have coverage."
"Some of my libertarian friends balk at what looks like an individual mandate," Romney wrote in The Wall Street Journal in 2006. "But remember, someone has to pay for the health care that must, by law, be provided: Either the individual pays or the taxpayers pay. A free ride on government is not libertarian."
"Without an individual mandate requiring them to get insurance, Americans could wait until they got sick and then sign up for insurance — a trend that would mean only sick people would be paying premiums while running up huge bills."
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/03/23/90948/that-health-mandate-gop-is-suing.html
Anon, I'd agree with you except that we have this little process called elections. In the last election, folks who wanted health reform outnumbered folks who don't want health reform.
That pix of the bunker explains why most of you guys in the press corps are so pasty white. You need to get out in the sun once in a while.
" Would they benefit from the changes? Definitely"
Really.
Explain to me how a healthy person who has a high deductable, low premium cost plan coupled with a health savings account for routine expenses is going to "benefit" from the premium increases that will be coming their way to cover the costs of all the sick pre-existing condition folks who the insurance companies now have to take.
Or the person who has a cheaper catastrophic coverage only plan (because they have enough income and/or wealth) to cover the rest themselves is going to "benefit" from being forced into a more expensive plan with additional coverages that they don't want or need.
"Wrong again, Gil. Woods was even funnier ..."
Nope.
The only humor that ever applies to Woods is the unintential type.
Ditto for you being his butt licker.
If anyone other than you were asking the question, Gil, I'd answer.
But what the heck, I'll give you a hint: my remarks were referring to the protesters I saw today, and from the massive guts hanging off two-thirds of them, I'd say they either have or are close to having such chronic conditions as hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, etc. When those ailments surface, the insurance companies won't be able to kick them out of coverage.
That's one answer. There are others but, frankly, I won't waste my time on you because -- unlike you -- I don't have time to waste.
"Unintential?" Gonna create a new word like you created a new definition of monopoly on here last night?
And because they had the luxury of being unempoyed and free to come down there and raise hell during the daytime hours, I'd suspect a lot of them are probably on those other two horrible governmental socialistic programs, Social Security and Medicare.
But honestly! I heard this little old lady say yesterday, frothing at the mouth, that she hoped Obama (epithit, epithit!) falls over dead while he's up there signing the bill! And then in the next breath, saying, "Ive got to go, got to run by church on the way home!"
Frankly, when the government dragged us into Iraq,("They're fighting for YOUR freedom!") I felt like doing something like this. But I didn't, and I'm not going to go over there to the state legislature and cut a shine just to oppose those idiots, I've got better things to do. Like work! But I sure do thank my legislators if they kill this whole stupid "secession" deal and ignore the tea partiers.
" I'll give you a hint: my remarks were referring to the protesters I saw today, and from the massive guts hanging off two-thirds of them, I'd say they either have or are close to having such chronic conditions as hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, etc. When those ailments surface, the insurance companies won't be able to kick them out of coverage."
So - you counted 80 people looking out your window and divined not only their medical conditions but the complete financial situaltion of each and every one of them to make a determination of whether they would be net economic winners or losers under the new legislation all at one glance. Such powers of observation you have!
"That's one answer. There are others but, frankly, I won't waste my time on you because -- unlike you -- I don't have time to waste."
No frankly you cannot come up with any answer relating to the specific circumstances I listed. And you certainly do have time to waste or you wouldn't have been on here in the first place.
"Unintential?" Gonna create a new word like you created a new definition of monopoly on here last night?"
Typos are irrelevant.
Your economic ignorance of what constitutes a monopoly is your problem - not mine.
You are great at reading things that aren't there. I COUNTED them from my office window. Since they were there over lunch, I went over and watched the hilarity up close. And my keen powers of observation also revealed to me that, in addition to internists, heart specialists and other physicians, many of them could use a few good dentists too.
You also ignored my defense of their right to protest, even if misguided.
That pix of the bunker explains why most of you guys in the press corps are so pasty white. You need to get out in the sun once in a while.
Oh, we have a tanning bed inside there.
While they were at the STATE Capital, perhaps they should have been working on repealing that pesky little auto insurance mandate.
I'd think making sure our neighbors aren't walking into us carrying untreated communicable diseases is as important as making sure they can pay for auto accident damages.
"After all, these ARE the same people who demanded "Read the Bill!"
That's good advice since it turned out today that the man-child president and the rest of his idiotic Congressional minions actually don't know what is in the bill.
The have all been blathering ad nauseam about how it was oh so terrific that the children (the old lefty "we must do it for the childrenz" meme) with pre-existing conditions would be covered immediatly by the bill.
Wrong.
No provision for that is in there and now they are all scrambling around to get an amendment passed to fix it.
That's almost as funny as when he proclaimed that some people could see their insurance premiums decline by 3,000% in a recent speech.
While we're at it, why don't we get them to pass a law allowing parents to refuse provide education options for their children? I mean, right now you've got to enroll your kid in some sort of schooling, even if it is home-schooling. It's against the law not to do so.
But why? Aren't we just forcing Americans to buy textbooks and consume services?
*tongue firmly in cheek*
"And my keen powers of observation also revealed to me that, in addition to internists, heart specialists and other physicians, many of them could use a few good dentists too."
Well that's all very interesting and amusing but it doesn't have any bearing on your ability to empirically prove whether any of them are better off under the new legislation than they would have otherwise been.
"While they were at the STATE Capital, perhaps they should have been working on repealing that pesky little auto insurance mandate. "
Here's a little reading assigment for you Sabo.
"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people"
That is 10th Amendment to the Constitution.
The scope of things that the federal government is allowed to do is not the same as the scope of things the states are allowed to do.
And of course there is also the pesky little substantive economic fact that there is no comparison between required to purchase auto LIABILTY insurance to protect others against what you might do to them and being required to purchase health insurance as a means to force one group of citizens to subsidize the medical treatment of another group of citizens.
"Oh, we have a tanning bed inside there. "
Which you will now have to pay an extra tax on courtesy of Obamacare.
LOL
"You also ignored my defense of their right to protest, even if misguided."
I didn't ignore it. I just didn't mention it as it wasn't pertinent to what I was talking about.
It is commendable that you do acknowledge the right of protest.
With a name like Gilbert it suggests he is a man of some years, but his words here would suggest he is a 12 year old girl.
"I'm rubber you're glue....nah, nah, nah"
Life with Obamacare suddenly gets better for retirees. Would all of you with mothers and grandmothers living on fixed income retirement please explain to them how a $500 billion cut in Medicare is going to be of benefit to them. I'm sure the Tea Partiers are leaving them confused.
I'm glad the people threatening Democrats with violence and civil war are christian, patriotic terrorists, working with the approval of every elected Republican in the country, instead of some other kinds of possible terrorists. Imagine if they were people who DIDN'T love America and equal protection under the law.
Hey, I hear the health care industry loves the new law. 32 million new customers will be forced to purchase their product! Those of us who know better ways of maintaining good health without the use of palliatives will now be funding the damage done by your love of junk food and your alcohol and cigarette addictions! Since I am now a partner in your personal health care choices, would it be presumptuous of me to insist you eat a salad and go for a walk today?
