Patient Power

Health care bill, arbitrary power & dictatorship

From Duke Visiting Professor John David Lewis in Pajamas Media:

The essence of a dictator’s method is not to write harsh laws and enforce them rigidly. The world’s most destructive thugs have wanted something different. They have wanted to impose their wills on a compliant populace using arbitrary power — power not limited by laws or constitution, but power that was open-ended, ill-defined, and could be expanded based on the whims of the moment. …

Does a law or a bill constrain the power of officials — both elected and appointed — by the principles of the law? Or does it empower the officials to define the meaning of the law as they wish, to apply it in an open-ended manner, and to write regulations in order to expand their power?

Professor Lewis explains how the House health bill, HR 3962, is open-ended and expands power. Surely the Senate health bill, HR 3590, does the same.  Read the article: Arbitrary Power, Dictatorship, and Health Care.

(via FIRM)

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• Will House pass Senate health-care bill without voting on it?
• AP on health bills: “meaningful negotiations occur behind closed doors”