More form Dr. Tim Nerenz, including some feedback on the killed puppy story

Now this is a blogger. The best, Tim Nerenz. MOMENT OF CLARITY Do Your Job Posted: 28 Mar 2012 It is fitting that President Obama’s term of office will both start and end with health care. With control of both houses of Congress, the President had the opportunity in 2009 to impose national health care on an unwilling nation and he took it. He bet his second term that once people understood the benefits of his signature piece of legislation – Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) - they would love him for it. That’s why they call it a bet. In the last year of his term, PPACA has done exactly the opposite of everything he promised us it would do. It has increased health care costs, caused providers to leave practice, increased premiums by 3-4 times the rate of inflation, changed every employer’s plan, and increased the number of uninsured – the root problem it promised to solve - to over 17% of the population. We were told it would cost $800 billion; it turns out to be $1.7 trillion and climbing every time CBO takes another look at it. Is there anyone who did not see that one coming? The flaws – to put it nicely - in the administration’s representations to CBO were obvious to any freshman econ major or any working mother who pays bills after Christmas - you can’t give more things to more people and spend less. Many of us spoke out against government-run health care; numerous market-driven alternatives were offered to address the problems of access, cost, and quality of care. Objections were raised to both the content of PPACA and the process by which it was passed. When I cautioned in 2010 that employers would elect to drop coverage as their default setting, many called that idea outrageous; now that polls show anywhere between 30 to 50% of employers expect to drop, that opinion is not so extreme. Objections to PPACA ranged from pragmatic concerns about the Bill’s incentives to a host of questions about the practicality of implementation details to the overriding concern of libertarians and conservatives that the Bill seemed to be clearly unconstitutional. Nancy Pelosi famously responded to the practical concerns with, “we must pass the bill to find out what is in the bill”, and to the constitutional question, “are you serious?” Well, we know quite a bit more about the Bill now, and this week the U.S. Supreme Court got very serious, hearing oral arguments for and against its Constitutionality. One of the gauges of how far we have strayed from the path of the Founders’ Intent is the near certainty that this will be another in a long series of split decisions from the Supreme Court. One person could decide the trajectory of a nation. The Constitution is not a terribly difficult or mysterious document to read and comprehend; most 9th graders with a reasonable understanding of American History can digest it. It is a mystery how nine very smart people can disagree over whether or not a particular law or executive action is authorized by it, which is the job – the essential job – of the Supreme Court. It’s actually not such a mystery. You have some justices who compare a law or action against what the Constitution says, and you have others who compare it to what they wish it would have said. That’s how you get 5-4 on everything. The framers had a simple and brilliant idea to divide government and balance its powers between three separate branches with three different missions: Congress represents the people and decides what laws we need to be enacted, while the President enforces those laws and the Supreme Court rules on whether or not the actions of Congress and the President are Constitutionally authorized. Think of how many important recent decisions of the Supreme Court have come down with those head-scratching 5-4 decisions; it is frightening to think that the entire legal framework of our nation is at the mercy of who happens to be the President when one of the Supremes dies or retires for health reasons. To those of us who took mandatory civics class in high school, the current state of our government is twisted almost beyond recognition. Congress has not passed a budget – their job - in over 1,000 days; the President makes law daily – not his job – through executive orders; and the Supreme Court is listening to arguments about the wisdom of nationalized health care – not their job – instead of limiting their scope of inquiry to the question of Constitutional authorization – their job. The President’s argument for authority is an interpretation of the commerce clause that is truly stunning in scope. It expands the definition of interstate commerce from every thing that is done (itself mind-boggling) to everything that is done and plus everything not done (mind numbing). He argues that the state holds inherent power over the people to compel action of its choosing. While most discussion of Constitutionality has focused on the individual mandate, the other key issues of mandated coverage and allocation of price to cost are just as troubling. The idea that the state can dictate price, content, and cost of a product or service to a private concern is pure anti-capitalism, and the impact of the precedent that will be set if this thing goes 5-4 the wrong way is hard to even comprehend. I will leave it to Constitutional scholars to handicap the decision that the Supremes will make concerning the President’s PPACA legislation, pointing out only that their decision will define his legacy and decide the future course of our nation in this century. The Constitution will either be upheld or it will be discarded permanently. Those who advocate a post-Constitutional, post-Capitalist America should get very serious about figuring out how they will run such a beast, because the capitalists and patriots will not help them. It’s not that we will pout about losing a political battle; it is that we have no idea how to operate that machinery and no desire to learn. It is tempting to hope that nine smart and wise men and women contemplate the fate of the nation as they deliberate, but the fate of the nation is our job, not theirs. Their job is to look for the authority in the Constitution to nationalize health care, and that is their only job. What we should hope for is that they heed the words of Patriot (ironically) coach Bill Belichick: “just do your job”. And if they do, everything will be fine. “Moment Of Clarity” is a weekly commentary by Libertarian writer and speaker Tim Nerenz, Ph.D. Visit Tim’s website www.timnerenz.com to find your moment and order Tim’s new book, “BRING IT!" Dog Lovers Posted: 28 Mar 2012 09:30 AM PDT Since I posted an opinion yesterday about a story of a family pet being killed over a political difference of opinion, the comments have been fast and furious. I feel compelled to add an amendment to that post "Farm Animals". First of all, the story of the dog was posted by a friend of the family, and other friends of the family have confirmed the events as she described them. I trust the people who I know who have corroborated the account that I commented on, and have no reason to believe the story is fabricated or embellished. If anyone knows this story to be a fabrication, please contact me with the specific information (not speculation) that you have - I will publish a complete retraction and a sincere apology. Second, anyone with thoughts of retaliation is no friend of mine and misses the whole point of the piece. The only call to action to be found in that entire post is for the person(s) who did it to identify themselves. The outrageous behavior has got to stop, not escalate. Consider this a plea. This sort of action is deplorable - whether it is done by the right, the left, or independent crazies. Someone's political opinions are never justification to hurt them and their families or to destroy their property and reputation. I don't agree with publishing the names of recall signators for this very reason: it invites retaliation and recrimination. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and their vote, and no one is entitled to intimidate. Tim