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Obamacare's Passage: A Full-Scale Retreat - by Stephen Lendman
After eight years under George Bush, people demanded change. Obama and congressional Democrats promised it, then disappointed by accomplishing the impossible - governing worse than skeptics feared, worse than Republicans across the board on both domestic and foreign policies.
They looted the nation's wealth, wrecked the economy, consigned millions to impoverishment without jobs, homes, savings, social services, or futures while expanding global militarism through imperial wars, occupations, and stepped up aggression on new fronts with the largest ever "war" budget in history - way over $1 trillion dollars annually plus supplementals and secret add-ons, greater than the rest of the world combined when America has no enemies.
Now the latest. March 21 will be remembered as a day of infamy, the day House Democrat leaders bullied, bribed, cajoled, muscled, and jerry-rigged Obamacare to pass, despite most Americans opposing it with good reason.
HR 4872: Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010 passed on March 21 - 219 - 212. Along with the October 8, 2009-passed HR 3590: Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the Senate-passed bill, December 24, 2009), Obama's signature made "health reform" law. House - Senate HR 4872 reconciliation follows that may or may not resolve all fixes. No matter. Legislation, signed March 23, is the law of the land unless the Supreme Court declares it unconstitutional - a process called "judicial review."
Briefly, it works like this. The High Court doesn't review federal legislation unless challenged in district court and reaches the appellate level. However, if a clear constitutional violation exists, it may bypass the appellate process and accept a case directly. If it rules the law unconstitutional, it's nullified, and all actions under it may be reversed, but it doesn't happen often, easily, or quickly, especially against federal laws.
Also, the High Court may defer a challenge hearing until major provisions take effect - in this case 2014 under a new Congress, and perhaps new president, Court, and political climate.
In the end, it could come down to federal power v. states rights or corporate v. peoples' rights under the Constitution's "general welfare" clause - Article I, Section 8 stating:
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