It’s Up to the States

 

Luis Miguel at The New American is looking beyond the DC swamp – in order to drain the swamp:

Congress Won’t Drain the Swamp — It’s Up to the States

No politician at the federal level is going to drain the swamp, because the federal government is the swamp.

It’s human nature. No one with great power is going to strip himself of that power. That’s like expecting Genghis Khan to step down from the throne. It’s not going to happen.

. . .

The United States began as a federation of sovereign states unified for mutual defense. But eventually, the capital they created — Washington, D.C. — became its own political entity and usurped control over the states that had created it. The state-created federal government, seated in Washington, D.C., now operates on its own independent of the states and opposed to their interests.

. . .

Furthermore, Washington is a city-state in which the ruling dynasty is the globalist cabal. Everything else is a facade. All the congressmen, senators, bureaucrats, intelligence officers, and generals who live and work there are servants of the globalist oligarchy, not representatives of the people. The entire system in D.C. is designed to protect the interests of the cabal — Congress can’t completely reform it from within.

“Everything else is a façade”.  Again, that fits right in with Sundance’s scenario that all of the DC political construct is a “Potemkin Village”, maintained to provide us plebes with the “Illusion of Choice.”  Mr. Miguel concludes:

This is why it is up to the states, through nullification and an aggressive reasserting of their states’ rights, to rein in the federal government. For if D.C. is the swamp, then the city must be drained — and only the states have the power to do it.

Read the full column here.

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How To Steal An Election

image credit: iowalabornews.com

The Electoral College is one of our guardians of states’ rights. J. Christian Adams reported on another priority of the Democrat-majority House of Representatives:

If you thought the midterm elections had problems, wait until you learn about Nancy Pelosi’s plan to terminate state control over American elections.

Democrats in Congress have announced their top legislative priority, and it isn’t health care, immigration, or taxes. Instead, they want to centralize power over elections in Washington, D.C. H.R. 1 is number one on the legislative agenda because it is the number one priority of House Democrats, leftist groups, deep-pocketed dark money, and those who use election process rules to help win elections -- or at least to cause chaos.

The bill is a 571-page dreamscape of wild wishes and federal mandates on states. The Constitution decentralizes power over American elections and puts states in charge. H.R. 1 would undo that.

Decentralization promotes individual liberty. When power over elections is centralized, it is easier for that power to be abused. When power over elections is decentralized, no single malevolent actor can exert improper control over the process. That is precisely why Democrats are so eager for Washington, D.C., to have more power over our elections.

H.R. 1 has 218 cosponsors. It forces states to implement mandatory voter registration. If someone is on a government list -- such as receiving welfare benefits or rental subsidies -- then they would be automatically registered to vote.

Few states have enacted these systems because Americans still view civic participation as a voluntary choice. Moreover, aggregated government lists always contain duplicates and errors that states, even without mandatory voter registration, frequently fail to catch and fix.

H.R. 1 also mandates that states allow all felons to vote. . . .

H.R. 1 would also force states to have extended periods of early voting, and mandates that early voting sites be near bus or subway routes. . . .

H.R. 1 mandates same-day voter registration and would obliterate state registration procedures. 

The full report is at PJ Media here. I doubt this will ever pass, but it certainly exposes the Progressive Left’s agenda.

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The Health Care Compact: Moving to the front burner?

art credit: before it's news

Richard Fernandez (Wretchard’s Belmont Club, posting at PJ Media) speculates that the Health Care Compact may be one of the best options available to dismantle and repeal Obamacare. Rep. Tom Price, the nominee to head Health and Human Services, is a long-time advocate of the Health Care Compact. Here are a few extracts from Fernandez’s report:

According to the Congressional record the HCC [Health Care Compact]  would give "primary responsibility for regulation of health care to the state. Federal and state laws remain in effect in a member state until suspended by the state.  A member state is responsible for federal funding obligations that remain in effect in the state. Each year, a member state is entitled to federal funds equal to the total federal spending on health care in the state during FY2010, adjusted for inflation and population."  It turns federal funds into what amounts to a block grant, leaving states free to create, cooperate and compete.

The HCC specifically does not affect the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Food and Drug Administration. "The compact establishes the Interstate Advisory Health Care Commission to collect information and data to assist member states in their regulation of health care. The commission may make non-binding recommendations to the member states."

That would ironically make it an ideal vehicle for states like Vermont or California whose voters are largely opposed to the Trump administration to roll their own health care and effort in which other like-minded liberal states can join them.  HHS nominee Tom Price's rhetoric suggests he would have no objections in principle to  taking Washington out of the picture. In a quote cited by the Wall Street Journal Price said:  “We think it’s important that Washington not be in charge of health care,” the six-term congressman said in an interview this summer. “The problem that I have with Obamacare is that its premise is that Washington knows best.”

The general tenor of an Obamacare replacement plans emphasize giving consumers money to pick and choose policies instead of forcing them to consume Federally prescribed products.

. . .

The HCC like so many other dark horses in this year of unexpected upsets is now a real player.  Too many impossible things have taken place for anyone to easily dismiss anything out of hand now.  The next few weeks will give a clearer indication of where health care policy is trending.  But one thing is for sure.  The long shot's not such a long shot any more.

The article includes a key quote from (gasp) the New York Times. Read it and the rest of Fernandez’s article here.

The last time Cleveland Tea Party reported on the Ohio Health Care Compact was October 2015, when the House in Columbus passed the bill.  At that time, it was headed for the Senate. Perhaps the time has come.

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