Micah Clark’s Weekly Update
More States Challenging Health Care Mandate, But Some Opposition Emerges
As I reported in the AFAIN e-mail last week, Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller became the 14th State AG to join others challenging the mandates and state sovereignty questions surrounding Obamacare.
As you might have been able to predict, supporters of the health care legislation have dismissed this as merely a partisan Republican attack in an attempt to downplay what still seems to be a legitimate constitutional question. Never before in American history has legislation gone this far under the guise of the Commerce Clause of the Constitution to force people to engage in government orchestrated commerce rather than regulating commerce in which people have freely chosen to engage.
Yet, not all local Republicans are happy about Attorney General Zoeller’s decision. At a recent TEA Party sponsored candidate’s debate in Huntington, Tom Wall, who is running for State Senate against his primary opponent (Jim Banks), told the audience that the lawsuit was a waste of time and money for the Indiana Attorney General to even attempt. That is an interesting opinion for one hoping to take an oath of office next January that requires him to defend the Indiana and US Constitutions as a State Senator regardless of his feelings about it, the cost, or the perceived odds of success. It is the same oath I watched Greg Zoeller take in January of 2009 at a Statehouse ceremony and many could say he is now fulfilling it with this challenge.
Another development surrounding state challenges has occurred in two other states this week. Governor Jan Brewer announced that Arizona was joining the suit on Tuesday night after she signed a bill giving her the authority to go around their attorney general, Terry Goddard (D) who refused to sue on the state’s behalf. Similarly in Nevada, Governor Jim Gibbons signed an executive order to join the other state lawsuits using private sector attorneys after Nevada’s Democrat Attorney GeneralCatherine Cortez Masto refused to challenge the new health care law.
The Political Ramifications of the Health Care Vote Start in Indiana
The Susan B. Anthony List has launched a $150,000 radio advertisement campaign aimed at four members of Congress who broke their pro-life campaign promises when they voted for the health care reform legislation. Included in this target list is Indiana Congressman Brad Ellsworth who will be running to fill the Senate seat currently held by Senator Evan Bayh who is not seeking re-election.
The radio ad has appeared on several large talk radio stations in Indiana this week. It is bold and direct leaving no question that this group sees Ellsworth’s vote as a betrayal of the Right to Life movement. It will be interesting to see if Rep. Ellsworth responds to this, or if a pro-abortion group defends him with a counter response or campaign support. (Some have questioned if the $1 million Senator Bayh gave to help the Ellsworth Senate campaign was connected to this vote since it came just two days after the hold out congressman cast his vote in support of the health care package.)
You can hear the Susan B. Anthony List radio ad at this link:
http://www.sba-list.org/site/apps/nlnet/content.aspx?c=ddJBKJNsFqG&b=4186739&ct=8156471¬oc=1
Doctors Warn Schools Not to Misinform their Students
The American College of Pediatricians is sending a letter to public school superintendents asking that they not tell students who may experience same-sex attractions to simply accept that they are homosexual or destined to be caught up in the dangerous lifestyle. The group has also launched a web site called Facts About Youth, which discusses sexual development to provide facts for parents, school leaders and policy makers on the issue.
The letter points out that, while at various times as many as one-in-four pre or early teens may report being uncertain of their sexual orientation, only between 2 and 3 percent of adults actually identify as homosexual. Therefore, the vast majority of youth with questions about sexuality choose heterosexuality. Many schools, however, are encouraging these youth to pursue and embrace homosexuality or bisexuality in spite of its significant physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual dangers.
Tom Benton, president of the ACP, said even children with Gender Identity Disorder, will “typically lose this desire…if the behavior is not reinforced.” “It is clear that when well-intentioned but misinformed school personnel encourage students to ‘come out as gay’ and be ‘affirmed,’” he explained, “there is a serious risk of erroneously labeling students who may merely be experiencing transient sexual confusion and/or engaging in sexual experimentation. Premature labeling may then lead some adolescents into harmful homosexual behaviors that they otherwise would not pursue.”
Stop By and See AFA-IN at the Cincy Home School Convention
If you are attending the Midwest Home School Convention in Cincinnati tomorrow, Friday or Saturday, come by the vendor hall, stop by our booth and say “hello.”
Tax Rally at State Capitol Just Before President’s Appearance
This is just a reminder that there will be a rally at the Indiana State House on April 15th featuring popular radio talk show hosts, Greg Garrison (Indianapolis – WIBC) and Peter Heck (Kokomo – WIOU). By the way, Peter Heck was recently featured in the national AFA Journal with a glowing review of his radio show and regular columns appearing on AFA’s One News Now national web site. The event will take place at 5 p.m. and will conclude at 6:30 p.m.
The TEA Party organizers are committed to this timeline because they do not want to prevent anyone from attending the Life Centers event at the Conseco Field House at 7 PM featuring FormerPresident George W. Bush and Indiana’s most famous Christian recording artist, Sandi Patti.
A Long Forgotten Warning From One of America’s Founders
Founding father James Madison has been called “the Chief Architect of the Constitution” because of his significant role in its development. For example, Madison spoke 161 times as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, second only to Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania. By the way, almost nobody knows who Morris is today, even though he spoke 173 times during the convention. Perhaps Morris is forgotten because he never became a US President and he said things like this: “Religion is the solid basis of good morals; therefore education should teach the precepts of religion, and the duties of man toward God.”
Or this: “Americans need never fear their government because of the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation.”
Wallbuilders has an interesting e-mail this week about the meaning of the “General Welfare” clause of the Constitution and its implications surrounding the legal debate over the new health care law. Here is an interesting perspective from James Madison. It is worth reading and observing how far our nation has gone in our effort to “help” people beyond the limited government parameters that our founders envisioned for us.
On February 7, 1792 James Madison wrote in regard to Congressional regulation, preservation and subsidizing of the cod fishing industry:
“There are consequences, sir, still more extensive . . . If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the “general welfare,” and are the sole and supreme judges of the “general welfare,” then they may take the care of religion into their own hands; they may appoint teachers in every state, county, and parish and pay them out of their public treasury; they may take into their own hands the education of children, establishing in like manner schools throughout the United States; they may assume the provision for the poor; they may undertake the regulation of all roads other than post-roads; in short, everything from the highest object of state legislation down to the most minute object of police would be thrown under the power of Congress, for every object I have mentioned would admit the application of money, and might be called, if Congress pleased, provisions for the “general welfare.”
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