Learning From Our Past, Repealing Healthcare Reform & Balancing The Budget: We've Been Here Before

A clear line was drawn in the political sand last year when Congress passed the Health Care Bill. Elections in November were a clear indication from the American population that the act of legislation was neither appreciated nor wanted. Now as the 112th U.S. Congress convenes with a Republican House majority its clear that the agenda is repealing the health care bill and balancing the budget. This isn't the first time we've faced legislation passed by Congress that the general public disapproved of and thought to be unconstitutional. Looking back through our past we may find a road map that leads to a repeal through the democratic process.

In 1798 John Adams signed the Alien and Sedition acts. Racially motivated the Alien acts made it extremely difficult for foreigners (particularly Catholics from France) to gain entrance and citizenship into the United States. They also gave the president the authority to removed anyone he so desired from the country if he "thought" them to be dangerous.

With such an controversial law in place (many people were fleeing to the U.S. to escape from France's revolution) and the public outcry rising up against it the Sedition act allowed for anyone to be imprisoned for speaking out against the government. There would be no exception to this law either as journalists, the grandson of Benjamin Franklin and even a U.S. Congressman were all locked up for being violators.

Thomas Jefferson had these laws in mind when he wrote, "I know not which mortifies most, that I should fear to write what I think, or my country bear such a state of things."

The Alien and Sedition acts are no longer laws of our country because they were in direct violation of Constitution of the United States. In the same way the new health care law violates the Constitution in two ways.

1. imposing a new mandate on individuals to obtain health insurance or face a penalty and
2. imposing on the states new costs by expanding Medicaid, which is a federal-state program.

So, how will the bill be reformed? We'll get to that in future posts but these two unconstitutional acts of Congress provide the road map we need.