Pursue Conservative Health Care Reform: Fighting Predatory Federalism

November 16, 2012 in Ed Willing, Federal Taxation, Health Care, Restoring Country, Restoring Family

By Ed Willing Since the Supreme Court’s infamous 4-1-4 ruling on the Affordable Care Act in June, nearly two dozen states have grappled with whether or not to comply with the first of many forthcoming deadlines found in the rules written (and still being written) by the functionally unconstitutional entity known as the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). November 16th is the deadline, and a flurry of letters are finding their way to Kathleen Sebelius’ desk this afternoon telling her they will not comply with the requirement to set up an exchange. The great debate has been over the enticement written into the law: Either states create the exchanges, and the Feds will not only pay for the administrative costs but also the cost increases of expanding Medicare and Medicaid, or… The Federal government will set one up for them and not give states the authority to direct [...]

Federalism Isn’t Dead, and it’s Progressives Who Are Defending it

November 11, 2012 in Ed Willing, Restoring Country, Restoring Family, Restoring God

By Ed Willing Constitutionalists were far from confident that either result of the recent Presidential election would help restore the Founders’ intentions, but many were hoping that an Obama loss would at least slow the extinction. Especially in regard to Obamacare, Conservatives have put a lot of weight on winning federal elections to save what is left of our waning Republic. After a frustrating, suspect and humiliating loss, few noticed the victories for Federalism made across the country – by Progressives. While Obamacare looks to be intact, and in light of the Supreme Court ruling in June, the battles of Tuesday seemed to be the primary battlefield for Conservative reform. But consider something else, for a moment. The states of Colorado and Washington each approved the recreational use of marijuana, as a product to be regulated and taxed. This is in direct opposition to Federal statute (the Controlled Substances Act) [...]

Chains You Can Believe In

October 28, 2012 in Contributors, Ed Willing

By Ed Willing “We have nothing to fear but fear itself” – President Franklin Roosevelt, March 4, 1933 The world has designed itself to create many fears for today’s culture, whether by design, or by nature. Wars and rumors of wars, TV series about sleeper cells living next door, bird flu in your schools or on planes and murder in your neighborhoods wreak havoc on our collective psyche and have driven us to Prozac, counseling, or for some, video games. Anything to get our minds off the dangers that lie around us. Yet, we were promised a progressive society without fear, weren’t we? Most of us have been raised to not fear anything, and face obstacles. Yet, our culture is more afraid today than ever before. That is, afraid of anything but failure; fearing failure is not an option. Our society has made us wear seat belts, forbidden smoking, drinking [...]

Repeal and Repeat: A Brief History Lesson

July 16, 2012 in Monica Frede

By Monica Frede I will never forget what my dad told me the night my high school basketball team won the Wisconsin Division I State Championship: “you’ll appreciate this more as time goes on.” At the time, I didn’t think that was possible, but thirteen years later, he was right (as usual). Today I marvel at what my team accomplished because I understand what a rare opportunity it was to play with such talented female athletes, but also because we overcame so many obstacles in order to cut down those nets. Such victories grow sweeter with time. And over time we will marvel about what took place in Wisconsin on June 5, 2012. Sure, we reelected Scott Walker in a heated recall election, and I don’t intend to re-hash the significance of this victory here, but it’s worth noting what the fiscally-responsible voters overcame, because we will need the same [...]

Direct Corruption: The Seventeeth Amendment

July 5, 2012 in Ed Willing, Uncategorized

By Ed Willing No doubt, the last several years in America have been challenging to everyone, on all sides. It has both challenged those on the left as they see so many millions question their policies and principles, and has infuriated said millions on the right because they cannot believe how quickly America has turned away from its founding principles. Both sides agree there’s problems in education, costs of health care and national security – they differ widely in how to address them. Interestingly, their differences are not usually as wide as they think. In policy, yes; in principle, no. Experiments in government benevolence are nothing new, and neither are the poor and needy. Jesus of Nazareth said, “you will always have the poor among you,” and Apostle Paul said “your plenty will supply what they need.” So we as Americans, an overwhelmingly religious people have invented many ways to [...]

One Fish, Two Fish, Government Fish…. Adieu Fish

June 10, 2012 in Monica Frede, Uncategorized

By Monica Frede   “Small businesses have always been the engine of our economy, creating 65% of all new jobs in America, and they must be at the forefront of our recovery. That’s why the recovery act was designed to help small businesses expand and create jobs.” – Pres. Obama in 2009 “Instead of giving tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas, we want to give tax breaks to small business owners who are creating jobs right here in America. Already, we’ve given small businesses 8 new tax cuts and have expanded lending to more than 60,000 small business owners.” – Pres. Obama on July 24, 2010 “As a part of health reform, 4 million small business owners could be eligible this year for a health care tax credit worth perhaps tens of thousands of dollars. “ – Pres. Obama on Sept 27, 2010 President Obama and his administration [...]

Wisconsin’s Revolt on Democracy

June 5, 2012 in Ed Willing, Uncategorized

By Ed Willing   DEMOCRACY: FREEDOM, OR COLLECTIVE SUICIDE? Almost 198 years ago to the month, April 1814, in a letter to John Taylor, the second President of the United States, John Adams made an astute observation amidst calls for more democratic reform: “Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There was never a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” Our nation was merely 25 yrs old at this point, and yet he was terrified of lessons history taught him about the so-called virtues of mass democracy. He worked his entire political life arguing for the true virtue of a Democratic Republic; a system in which the people created their government, but the minority and majority were both protected from the feverish winds of hysterical whim and epidemic-like, collective voices.” GROUND-ZERO Today, I sit in Wisconsin, a marvel of a state that has had [...]

A (Pesky) Constitution

April 9, 2012 in Contributors, Monica Frede, Restoring Country

By Monica Frede It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of [...]

An Anniversary and A Funeral: ObamaCare

March 26, 2012 in Charitable Social Services, Contributors, Health Care, Monica Frede, Restoring Family, Restoring God

By Monica Frede House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) gave a celebratory speech to Congress on Wednesday, the same week as the two-year anniversary of the Affordable Health Care Act, evoking the core principles of the Declaration of Independence— life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. She could hardly contain her glee:   Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is exactly what the Affordable Health Care Act helps to guarantee. A healthier life, the liberty to pursue happiness, free of the constraints that a lack of health care might provide to a family. If you want to be a photographer, a writer, an artist, a musician, you can do so. If you want to start a business, if you want to change jobs, under the Affordable Care Act, you have that liberty to pursue your happiness. And that is why I am so pleased that this week we can [...]

The Immoral Government and Our Moral Opportunity

March 12, 2012 in Charitable Social Services, Contributors, Health Care, Monica Frede, Restoring Family, Restoring God, Separation of Church and Culture

By Monica Frede Earlier this week, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, penned a letter in response to recent visits by White House officials to the group of Catholic Bishops. In an effort to soothe the fiery debate ignited in recent weeks due to the Obama Administration’s mandate on private insurers providing its customers contraception coverage, the church leaders and White House staff discussed “the options.” Dolan’s letter, addressed to his Conference of Catholic Bishops, reaffirms the unapologetic position by the White House: How fortunate that we as a body have had opportunities during our past plenary assemblies to manifest our strong unity in defense of religious freedom. We rely on that unity now more than ever as HHS [Department of Health and Human Services] seeks to define what constitutes church ministry and how it can be exercised. The HHS seeks to constitute church ministry and [...]