Stuff My Brain Says #83

A law isn’t a law unless it is enforced.

No matter the topic -  gun control, taxes, even jaw walking - laws are completely meaningless if not enforced.

So, if you are mad about a nineteen year-old being able to purchase a firearm to use in a killing spree in a gun-free school zone, or whether or not President Trump paid his “fair share” of taxes, and you think the solution is more laws, look first at what laws are ALREADY on the books and are not enforced.

You’ll realize that we either need less and more effective laws, or increased enforcement of those that already exist.

Sometimes Congress does its best work when on vacation.

© Emittravel 2018

Socialized Medicine. Here?

Received a card from my employer. On one side it states, with a graphic: The Law: Health Care Reform, and a list of websites: Healthcare.gov, Whitehouse.gov/healthreform, and Ahcancal.org/advocacy/healthcarereform. On the reverse side it tells you to start planning for the law; a statement telling you that all U.S. Citizens, residents and their dependents are required to have qualifying health coverage; our company's open enrollment period; and a list of our options. Here is where the hair stands up on my arms (I shave my head, so there isn't any on the back of my neck).

Here are the options AS LISTED:

 • A government sponsored program
 • An eligible employer-sponsored plan
 • A health plan offered in the individual market within a state
 • Other coverage which is approved by the regulatory authorities
 • Shared responsibility payment/penalty payable to the IRS

Did you notice the first one? Why, of all of those, is that the FIRST option? Get a government-sponsored program. Maybe it's just me, but I would think that for those trying to suppress the idea that we have taken one small step for health care, and one giant step for socialism, that you would NOT put government ANYTHING first. I'm thinking it would be the fourth, followed by the bitch-slap of the IRS.

Whether or not you agree that we need a better healthcare system in the United States, you SHOULD be concerned that we are moving more and more toward a FAILED system of government. Failed? Oh yes. For all of my liberal we-need-equality-for-true-fairness folks, you must agree, that true fairness is not based on the big government leaders and the small people (people who are all equal - just not with the leaders), a.k.a. "socialism", but where the people are equal in OPPORTUNITY to PURSUE "happiness". The differences in the people are then based on how they did or did not TAKE the opportunity. Fairness  is based on effort, not on results.

The United States is an experiment in government. You cannot truly have a solid experiment where the experiment is constantly being changed while the experiment is in process. How does one know where success and failure lie? The farther we've gone from the founders' intentions when this government was "birthed", the less you can truthfully state that democracy is a failure.  And THAT you can list first!

© Emittravel 2013

It's broke. Time to fix it. Article #6

It's been awhile since the last time I posted one of these, so you may want to go back and at least catch the intro.

It's broke . . . 

There has been a desire that Congress must prove the constitutionality of any bill they bring up for a vote. Congress, of course, has ignored this desire and have fought against such a "mandate". Why? Such a mandate would force them to have to read the Constitution and would tie their hands when it comes to attacks upon our liberty.

When it comes to a socially-emphasized agenda, any restrictions against such an agenda must be ignored at all costs. Of course, once a bill has become law, lawyers are brought in (happily lining their pockets) as lawsuits are filed against such laws. While those lawsuits are in process, the new law is considered "good" until proven otherwise. The longer the process, the more entrenched those laws become - forming judicial "precedents" that are often viewed as more legally binding than the very Constitution our system is based upon.

Why not force Congress to prove that the bill they are proposing IS constitutional to begin with? Would we have to worry about attacks against the 2nd Amendment that take away our liberty - empowering those who desire to harm us (not just criminals - a.k.a. "lawbreakers", but the very government that oversteps its bounds), or our 1st Amendment rights to voice opinions such as these, and to worship anywhere we so desire (including "public" property)?

I think it is time for those very politicians who have taken an OATH to serve and protect the Constitution of the United States to accept that they are not our gods, but our servants. And that we the people should not have to provide the leg work to prove when they are out of line to prove a law is unconstitutional.

. . . time to fix it!

© Emittravel 2013