Senate Votes Down Obamacare Repeal!

The Senate on Wednesday voted against repealing the health-care overhaul. It was a strict party line vote, 51-47 with Democrat Mark Warner of Virginia and independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut absent for the vote.

51 Democrats once again voted against the will of the American Public. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows 55 percent of likely voters favor repeal of the health care law, while 40% oppose repeal. Not only did the Democrats go against public opinion, they completely disregarded the Florida Court ruling earlier this week declaring the bill unconstitutional.

One good thing did come of this, however. The Senate voted 81-17 to remove a piece of the law that calls for businesses to file a 1099 tax form when they pay a vendor more than $600 in a year.Such a form would have plagued businesses with unnecessary paperwork. 

Now that the repeal is voted on, we know who the targets for 2012. Every Democrat Senator up for reelections needs to go!

Florida Judge says: NOBAMACARE!

Before today, there were 3 court rulings on the Federal Healthcare reform package. Two had rule in favor and one struck down the section of the bill requiring the purchase of healthcare. However, the biggest case of them all involving 26 states had finally been decided earlier today. In the words of Justice Roger Vinson of the U.S. District Court in Pensacola, “A declaratory judgment shall be entered separately, declaring ‘The Patient Protection and Affordable Health Act’ unconstitutional.”

After reading the 78 page judicial opinion on Obamacare, Justice Vinson hit this legislation on two fronts. First, he declared the individual mandate to purchase insurance unconstitutional. The Commerce Clause has been used to regulate activities like growing marijuana, navigating waterways, and the like - but had never been used to force someone to do something they weren’t already doing. “It would be a radical departure from existing case law to hold that Congress can regulate inactivity under the Commerce Clause,” he writes.

Secondly, he had to declare the severability of the individual mandate. In legal terms severability decides if a piece of legislation can survive without its unconstitutional language. In this complex bill, Justice Vinson declared that the individual mandate was not severable. Hence, the entire bill was declared VOID. The next step for this lawsuit is the Supreme Court, pending an appeal from the U.S. Justice Department of course.

Finally, a small sigh of relief for small businesses and Americans everywhere – but so much damage is already being done and it’s not even 2014, when this bill comes into full effect. Restrictions on insurers are causing smaller insurance firms to exit the market, thereby, reducing competition. Principle Financial dropped all of their 840,000 health insurance customers last fall. In 2014, small businesses with more than 25 employees to must offer health coverage (as opposed to the current threshold of 50) or pay a $750 penalty per employee and an increased Medicare payroll tax of 3.8% to take effect in 2013. During this unending recession when we need small businesses to start hiring, they are NOW preparing for an onslaught of fees and regulations! While all this is occurring, the Federal Government has begun drafting what Health benefits to dictate to insurance companies.

Justice Vinson has just taken us one step closer to repealing this bill. For the government to dictate what to purchase and for how much is nothing short of tyrannical. What’s next? A government mandate to buy California wine because it’s good for our countries winegrowers or a mandated apple-a-day to keep Obamacare away?

Bravo Justice Vinson for your gavel heard 'round the world proclaiming “NOBAMACARE!”