Thoughts Before The Alarm Sounds

As I write this, the shutdown blame game continues in Washington. According to the GOP, the Democrats refuse to compromise. The argument is, “We need more time to analyze this 2,500-page train wreck.” My question is: Given that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was passed three years ago, how much time do you need? The Republican answer: Eternity. If that’s true, you must have stupid analysts. Another GOP argument is that the individual purchase requirement in the law is unconstitutional. The law was duly passed by the Congress, signed by the President, and upheld by the Supreme Court. Unconstitutional? I think not. Next argument: The President has broken the law by postponing the health care employer mandate. October 1 st was specified in the law – he is overstepping his power by deferring the requirement. But wait – the implementation of all laws is prescribed by the agencies charged with enforcing them. Federal agencies have almost unlimited powers concerning the rules c...

       It's pretty clear – if Obama wins the election, the Affordable Healthcare Act is here to stay. If he loses, its future is dependent upon the makeup of Congress.         Despite the claims of its friends and foes, it is almost impossible to see how it will play out, good or bad, until we try it for awhile.         The problem is that people like most of its provisions, but the foes have managed to cloud the overall discussion. It is now up to Obama to clarify the discussion in a way that people understand.         Can he do it? His job for the next four years may depend on it. ******        My books, “There Are Only Seven Jokes” and “The Spirit Runs Through It” are available in paperback , or at the Kindle Store.

     On October 24, 2011, I wrote about the ridiculous decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission , “In January 2010, using a logic that defied common sense, in the case of Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission five Supreme Court Justices suddenly transformed corporations into human beings, with a power that flesh and blood humans do not have: they can spend unlimited amounts of money in order to buy elections.”      Although most of the comments I have received have been favorable, I have been taken to task by “Pennsylvania's #1 Conservative Jungle Cat,” Phil Gruber. According to him, “American law has long held that corporations should be treated as people in the eyes of the law. After all, a corporation is just a group of people who use shared capital to make a profit. Grunenberger simply feels broadsided by facts he did not know.”      While it is true that from...

Since medieval times, corporations have been legal formats created by the government, such as the Crown, Governor, Legislature, etc., to enable citizens to do business as a group. As the American colonies developed and won their independence, corporations for the most part remained in the background. (The Boston Tea Party, wherein the Sons of Liberty dumped 342 crates of British East India Company tea into the ocean, was a notable exception.) The vast majority of Americans at the time lived and worked on small family farms. The real threat was the unilateral, unaccountable power of King George III, and the founders of a new nation, skeptical of that kind of power, formed a government of checks and balances to prevent any one branch from getting too powerful. Although corporations were not mentioned in the Constitution, Thomas Jefferson famously noted that representative government’s purpose was “to curb the excesses of the monied interests.” After the American Revolution, corporatio...

     ...but it is going to last a long time for the rest of us. In order to speed up the flow of assets from the bottom of the economic pyramid to the top, the rich have acquired the services of a powerful ally: the U.S. Supreme Court. Observe the following: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce       According to its web site, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce “...is the world's largest business federation representing the interests of more than 3 million businesses of all sizes, sectors, and regions, as well as state and local chambers and industry associations...As the voice of business, the Chamber's core purpose is to fight for free enterprise before Congress, the White House, regulatory agencies, the courts, the court of public opinion, and governments around the world.”      In view of that declaration, note the following from the Daily Kos of March 14, 2011: Carter G. Phillips, who often represents the chamber and has argu...

      The day after winning the Republican Senate primary in Kentucky, Libertarian Rand Paul suffered an attack of foot-in-mouth disease. In an interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Wednesday, he was asked whether he believed businesses should have the right to refuse service to African-Americans.       Yes,” Paul said. “I’m not in favor of any discrimination of any form. … But I think what’s important about this debate is not written into any specific ‘gotcha’ on this, but asking the question: what about freedom of speech? Should we limit speech from people we find abhorrent? Should we limit racists from speaking?”       Paul has previously gone on record as favoring the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in the public domain , but believes that the government has overstepped its powers by extending non-discrimination to the private sector. In other words, government can require non-discrimination in organizations tha...