Upon contacting Senator Webb’s office on Friday I was told that the Senator had not decided on a course of action concerning the Health Care cloture vote. They asked for my feedback and then thanked me for my concern. I do not believe for a second that Webb told the truth to his staff, I imagine that in order for them to be believable he does not tell them how he is voting so they do not have to lie to the constituents that call. I do believe that Webb knew which way he was going to vote long before this item came to the Senate floor. I say this because I am not aware of any rumor that he was on the fence on this motion. If Webb had seriously been considering not voting for cloture Reid would have put a special provision in the bill to buy his vote similar to the The Louisiana Purchase used to buy Mary Landrieu’s vote. So despite what I was told when I called Webbs’s office he was already planning on following in the footsteps of the donkey.
As for Mark Warner at least he was honest enough to admit that he was going to vote on cloture. However as mentioned in a previous post he supposedly did not like certain aspects of the bill but wanted to be able to debate them on the floor. As I also stated earlier 97% of bills that pass this hurdle do end up being approved something which I am sure Warner is aware.
Both Senators are not completely happy with this bill but state that something needs to be done. What concerns me most about their statements that the government needs to do something is where in the constitution does it say they must provide health care to the citizens? Of course many will refer to the general welfare clause; Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution says: “The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises to pay the debts, provide for the common defense, and promote the general welfare of the United States.” In actuality the general welfare clause was supposed to limit government’s taxing and spending powers to purposes that are in the national interest. Jefferson was concerned that this clause may be misinterpreted and stated 1n 1798: “Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare but only those specifically enumerated.” Note the words specifically enumerated. General welfare means providing for national defense, post offices, coining money, the set up a federal court system and other needs of national concern. Nowhere in the enumerated powers does it mention health care, housing , providing food or education to the masses.
The general welfare provision was for the national good not the individual. Correct me if I am wrong but I do believe that at the writing of the constitution people lived in houses, there was some type of schooling, there were doctors and people needed food to survive but the writers seemed to think that these concerns were best left to the individual and the states not the Federal Government. Because of this misinterpretation of the general welfare clause our government has grown to an unmanageable size full of corruption and graft. This must be changed.
2 Comments
Good report. Our Constitution is the bedrock but it takes time to effectuate a Court challenge and decision unfortunatly only after the damaging action has been implemented.
I’m not surprise by our two so-call moderate Democrat Senators. They were voted in to rein in spending and bring transparency in our Government. Now we see, once again a Saturday-Night-Health-Control-Vote; hmm hmm hmm. We might as well move the U.S. Constitution to the Smithsonian as a relic.
This can be reversed; 2010 Clean Sweep the House of Representative with folks that believe in the U.S. Constitution and our Founding Fathers principles of limited federal government. I applaud this website! Tea Party folks need to think about their own Congressional District, the District level is the key, true grassroots!
2010 Clean Sweep the House of Representatives and reverse this Unconstitutional Congress.