It is Still We the People

As many of us watched the health care reform debates over the past year, we likely sat dumbfounded by the disregard of the will of the people and the Constitution by members of Congress. The will of the people has been ignored and the fabric of our already tattered Constitution (metaphorically-speaking) has been torn even further. However, even though our government has effectively ignored its Constitutional limits, that does not mean that we should ignore our Constitutional rights.

The Preamble to our Constitution begins with the words, “We the People”. It is We the People who established this nation, and it is We the People who are prepared to tenaciously do what we must to help to restore it. The Founding Fathers, in crafting our Bill of Rights, first highlighted several of our freedoms:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

What does this mean for us? It means that we can continue to speak and to educate our fellow Americans. Although Jefferson Smith in the movie “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” was a fictional character, his words speak volumes to us today. “Liberty is too precious a thing to be buried in books.” Liberty is too precious for us not to share it with our families, our friends, and even our elected officials! Let us exercise our freedom of speech to share the liberty that we have vested in both our inalienable and vested rights. Our Constitution also grants us the right to “petition the Government for a redress of grievances” . What does this mean? We have the right to express our grievances to our elected officials, some of whom have perhaps acted like self-servants rather than public servants.

What is the next step? The President still has to sign this bill, and the Senate will have to vote on the reconciliation bill that was also passed on Sunday. Additionally, thirty-seven states have passed legislation or are in the process of passing legislation that will enable them to sue the federal government on the grounds that federally mandated insurance coverage oversteps the bounds of the federal government and usurps the power of the states. Additionally, the executive order that President Obama has promised to sign in order to, in essence, repeal federally funded abortion is being challenged by claims that an executive order cannot trump the law.

While this bill has cleared the majority of the necessary hurdles, it is not yet over. While perhaps our country and our government have transformed into a nearly unrecognizable shadow of what our Founding Fathers intended for it to be, it is not over yet. Upon leaving the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin was asked what kind of government the men at the convention had crafted for the American people. His reply was, “a republic – if you can keep it.” Let us remember it was We the People who founded this country, and it is We the People who will peacefully, yet boldly, do all that we can to keep our republic.

Crossposted here.

Kill the Bill

At my request, a very talented friend of mine was willing to do some photo editing for me:

Molly Pitcher--Revolutionary Woman!

March marks the celebration of women's history month.Understanding our history is an important aspect of the 912 Project. Part of the mission of the Central Illinois 912 Project is as follows:

It is our belief that as Americans educate themselves by studying and learning the truth about this nation’s past, the Founding Fathers’ Principles and Values, and the Constitution – and then relate what they have learned to America’s current state of affairs – they will recognize and practice the duties and responsibilities of citizenship in a free nation.

One of the earliest prominent woman in American history is Molly Pitcher. Historians have debated whether or not such a woman ever existed or if she was merely a woman of myths--a persona attributed to all women who fought or assisted in the War of Independence in some way. Some historians, however, believe that Molly Pitcher is really Mary Ludwig Hays, wife of John Hays. She enlisted in the Pennsylvania artillery in 1778, 2 years after her husband enlisted . During the heat soaked Battle of Monmouth on June 28, 1787, Mary tirelessly provided water to the fighting soldiers, earning her the nickname Molly Pitcher. When her husband could no longer fight due to heat stroke, Mary (Molly) took his place at the cannon. This battle proved to be a strategical victory for the Continental army as it showed that the informal trained Continental army could hold their ground against the British army and was the last major battle in the northern theater. Two places at this battle site have since been deemed "Molly Pitcher Spring". She would later receive recognition from General George Washington.

However, there are other women who may be considered to be Molly Pitcher, namely Margaret Corbin and Deborah Sampson. Corbin also fought for the Pennsylvania artillery, taking her husband's place after he was killed and was even captured by the British at one point. She is the only Revolutionary War soldier buried at the Military Academy at West Point. Sampson fought with the Fourth Massachusetts regiment, disguising herself as a man in order to enlist.Corbin and Sampson were the only women of the Revolutionary War who later would receive military pensions.

While we are forever indebted to our Founding Fathers for establishing our nation's founding documents and our revolutionary men for fighting against tyranny so that we may have liberty, honor is also due to women who fought to provide our freedoms and establish our nation.

For more information about Molly Pitcher, see here.

Rules of Reconciliation

One word that has been swirling around the health care reform debate of late is “reconciliation.” Much debate has occurred over whether or not certain Democrats in Congress will use this as a means to pass health care reform measures. Despite the fact that the majority of Americans do not wish for reconciliation to be used, Congress may need to use such an approach in order to have a sufficient number of votes for the bill to pass. Reconciliation doesn’t deal with the actual legislative policy but with the procedure by which the such a bill may pass through the Senate. It entails having only a simple majority of 51 votes needed to pass a bill as – opposed to the normal 60 votes:

According to the OpenCongress website:

The budget reconciliation process allows for any legislation with an impact on the budget deficit to come to a final vote after a maximum of 20 hours of debate. That means that the minority party cannot filibuster beyond 20 hours, and that the legislation would need a simple majority of 51 votes in favor to pass (not the 60 that it takes to break a filibuster). This procedure was established in federal law, which was approved by Congress and signed by President Richard Nixon. It has been used 21 times, by both Democratic and Republican Congress’, since its establishment in 1974.

This essentially would render the minority party unable to filibuster a bill to prevent its passage. This differs from the “nuclear” option that prevents filibusters by parliamentary procedure (i.e., a change in Senate rules), making only a simple majority necessary to pass bills.

Reconciliation was established in 1974 as a means of passing budgetary and taxation measures in order to “reconcile” them with previously approved measures. For example, if in the process of crafting a budget, Congress recognizes that deficits are growing too much, reconciliation procedures allow for spending cuts or tax increases to compensate. The House rules state, ” the reconciliation process is utilized when Congress issues directives to legislate policy changes in mandatory spending (entitlements) or revenue programs (tax laws) to achieve the goals in spending and revenue contemplated by the budget resolution.” In 1984, the Senate adopted what became known at the “Byrd rule” which re-emphasized that reconciliation cannot be used for “extraneous” issues outside of budgetary or tax issues.

Congress has utilized reconciliation 21 times since 1980. Seventeen of these bills were signed into law. With the exception of two bills, reconciliation has been used solely for budgetary measures. In 1986, the Consolidated Omnibus Reconciliation Act (COBRA) was passed, and it contained some health care reforms. In 2007, the College Cost Reduction Access Act was passed using reconciliation.

It can argued that components of the health care bill such as various mandates for health insurance and coverage of abortion would not be allowed to be contained in the bill if reconciliation is the method of passage, as these aspects of the bill are not budgetary in nature. The question we must ask ourselves in any situation when reconciliation is proposed is this: Is it being used properly? This isn’t an issue of political ideology or Right or Left; it is an issue of Congress obeying its own rules and ensuring that our representatives are truly representing us.

Crossposted here.