It’s primary season! Yippie! And with primary season every numbskull is out vying for political office. And believe me, here in Pittsburgh we have our fair share of numbskulls!

I was listening Thursday afternoon to the local “progressive” radio station here in town as I often do to see what the “progressives” are feeling. The regular host was on vacation but her stand in was having interviews with some locals vying for the nomination to run against Republican Melissa Hart for her seat in the United States House of Representatives. Needless to say they were pretty liberal and even more needless to say the interview was poor at best filled with softballs and no serious follow-up to the answers given.

And as usual when you start asking liberals about what they want to do you eventually hear how they want some socialist, fascist or communist program or government control over your life. Usually today this means promoting the idea of “national health care” since they already have Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare and a myriad of others left wing and unconstitutional programs already engrained into our society.

So as the hostess is sitting there asking questions and getting the typical canned “socialized healthcare” response the next logical step would be to ask the question “And under what Constitutional authority would you justify that?” But since the left is rarely logical no such follow-up was even attempted.

I dare say it was because the hostess herself doesn’t know enough about the Constitution to even think of the question which begs the another question - how someone thought she was qualified to be on the radio asking questions of political candidates which will be swearing to uphold the Constitution if elected. And if on the off chance that she was smart enough to have actually read and understood the Constitution it is probably fair to say neither of the candidates could have given an answer rooted in fact.

Sometimes you actually find a liberal who if actually asked the above hard question by an intrepid interview tries to be smart. They’ll say “Well the Constitution says we are supposed to promote the ‘general Welfare’”.

Now, at that point you’ll be even luckier if you have our intrepid interviewer do a follow-up to the follow-up which would be “Interesting interpretation considering James Madison explained in Federalist #41 that such an interpretation of the general Welfare clause was unfounded.”

“But what color can the objection have, when a specification of the objects alluded to by these general terms immediately follows, and is not even separated by a longer pause than a semicolon? If the different parts of the same instrument ought to be so expounded, as to give meaning to every part which will bear it, shall one part of the same sentence be excluded altogether from a share in the meaning; and shall the more doubtful and indefinite terms be retained in their full extent, and the clear and precise expressions be denied any signification whatsoever? For what purpose could the enumeration of particular powers be inserted, if these and all others were meant to be included in the preceding general power? Nothing is more natural nor common than first to use a general phrase, and then to explain and qualify it by a recital of particulars. But the idea of an enumeration of particulars which neither explain nor qualify the general meaning, and can have no other effect than to confound and mislead, is an absurdity, which, as we are reduced to the dilemma of charging either on the authors of the objection or on the authors of the Constitution, we must take the liberty of supposing, had not its origin with the latter. - James Madison”

And those functions that fall under the term of “general Welfare” are clearly defined as such:

“To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;

To establish Post Offices and post Roads;

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;

To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations;

To declare War, grant Letters of Marquee and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

To provide and maintain a Navy;

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;–And

To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.”

Any mention of health care in there? Heck no. There isn’t even a mention of any other left wing, big government programs like Social Security, Welfare, etc!

So again I ask all these budding left wing Marxists where their support for such grandiose plans comes from? Show me and the American public how you can justify even campaigning on these issues and still claim to believe in the Constitution!

I’m still waiting …

J.J. Jackson is the owner and Lead Editor of American Conservative Politics - The Land of the Free (http://www.thelandofthefree.net) and American Conservative Daily (http://www.americanconservativedaily.com). He is also the owner of American Infidel T-shirts (http://www.cafepress.com/americaneagle04).

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California this week took a bold step. Not into the great unknown mind you, but rather into the great already known. Their Assembly approved yet another experiment to once again show the failures of top down, socialist bureaucracies when it approved a bill that would mandate state issued health insurance for everyone man woman and child in the state. Yes, as though we need another failed social experiment stemming from modern liberalism’s embrace of centralized authority and government control. Sure it could be an excellent lesson for not only the liberals of California but the entire nation as well but not one that is necessary.

These elected officials have shown that history and economics certainly are not their strong suits and that serious attention to these subjects must be added to the curriculum of California schools.

But in a state that already knows the pain that letting people have “free” access to their healthcare system this maneuver is a stunning display of colossal ignorance. Hospitals, in parts of the state, are already under the stress of providing “free” healthcare for innumerable illegal aliens who don’t pay their bills.

And on even a national scale have we not seen what happens when money is confiscated from workers to pay the bills or others? Social Security and Medicare, both of which are on the fast track to insolvency, that were to be glittering gems of the socialist welfare state are perfect lessons. And heck, let’s not forget about Welfare itself which actually needed to be “reformed” in order to start getting slackers off the rolls and is still highly abused.

And let us not forget that such power grabs raise serious Constitutional issues. Two I can think of off the top of my head are the law’s restriction on the freedom to contract (prohibited under Article I, Section 10) and also the prohibition on the restriction of liberty without “due process” (Amendment XIV).

In fact this entire law smacks of a case called Allgeyer v. Louisiana (1897) in which the State of Louisiana attempted to pass a law to restrict whom their citizens could contract with for - you guessed it! Insurance!

That law was struck down.

Here we have another case where the liberty of citizens and their right to contract is clearly being infringed. And there certainly should be a legal case brought against the State for this egregious offense.

Oh, but it gets better. Proponents of the measure claim that covering all Californians would cost no more than it currently costs to cover only a portion of them. Isn’t that what they always claim? Uh, hello! How about addressing the Constitutionality of this plan first! So much for Stare decisis if it were to be upheld!

After that then maybe we can address how the plan also means increasing taxes to the tune of an 8% payroll tax on workers and another 3% in actual personal income taxes in order to make sure people pay in and the fund has money according to the Lewin Group. In essence they are looking at slapping working Californians with an effective 11% tax increase! Wow! 11% of a working Californian’s income would be required to pay for health insurance under this great state run plan? My wife and I pay roughly half that rate for our top-notch private insurance!

But that’s ok. Let’s see how long this asinine attempt at communal living lasts before the system bankrupts itself, politicians enter full hyper-whine mode about how taxes have to be raised (again) to cover the costs and send the state of California even further down the road to destruction.

Maybe we should start bussing in all the homeless and poor people from around the country just to expedite the process. Right now California is basically begging the nation’s poor, destitute and homeless to flock across their borders for a freebie that they will never see a bill for. Who could resist that deal! As people seeking the perks of being a citizen of the People’s Republic of California flood in, and the productive flee we will be left to watch what happens and point and laugh at the silliness.

So I say GO WEST! There’s gold once again in them thar hills! Except this time the “gold” is more of the same from the liberal left - government handouts of other people’s money. You know, what they often refer to a “free” [insert program here] that liberals and their constituents salivate over.

We can only wonder if this plan actually becomes law, how long it will be before Californians are flocking to Mexico or, God forbid, Canada to receive healthcare.

J.J. Jackson is the owner and Lead Editor of American Conservative Politics - The Land of the Free (http://www.thelandofthefree.net) and American Conservative Daily (http://www.americanconservativedaily.com) He is also the owner of American Infidel T-shirts (http://www.cafepress.com/americaneagle04)

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