Comments on y-intercept blog: The Senate Should Not Proceed with an Unconstituti...

The 10th Amendment reads "The powers not delegated...

2009-11-30T16:23:22.739-07:00

The 10th Amendment reads "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 last bit about "reserved to the states...OR to the people" (emphasis mine)means the people can exercise their power through their representatives and grant the government power to act on their behalf on issues provided it is not explicitly prohibited from acting by another section of the Constitution. What other section prohibits regulation of health care?

The cynical me notes that politicians only quote f...

2009-11-18T20:46:34.065-07:00

The cynical me notes that politicians only quote from the Constitution when its in their favor.

I wrote the post because the upcoming procedural vote offers the best chance to stop this health care power grab fiasco.

So, I asked myself the question: What would I say to a Senator who is opposed to the bill but is scared about the politics of dropping the bill in a procedural vote.

The way to justify voting against the bill in procedure is to say that states currently regulate health care.

There has been no justification made as to why the Feds must take this power away from the states.

The whole debate appears to be outside the framework for the Constitution.

As the constitutionality of the debate is question, the debate itself should be stopped in procedure.

I actually sent this post to Senators.

Putting it another way: In good parliamentary order legislators should discuss the Constitutionality of a bill before it ever goes to vote.

In a well run legislature, Unconstitutional bills should never go before the body for a vote.

There is not even a single U.S. senator that has a...

2009-11-18T19:58:49.933-07:00

There is not even a single U.S. senator that has authentic concern for the Constitution as anything other than a debating tool. Why is true constitutional concern so rare in the Senate? There is not even a single state that would elect such an individual to that body nowadays.