Tag: HB4111

I was not at all surprised to find the [quite correct] position Senator Patrick Colbeck (R-7th) had taken on the issue of 4111.  His office confirmed his decision to oppose the legislation, and offered exactly what should be the next step in the effort to ensure we have not completely destroyed our ability to provide coverage for employees and families.  Especially considering the grotesque horror of Obamacare and its destructive path towards failure. They say:

"The Senator is exploring other options with regard to potential legislative action that would offer free-market alternatives to a federal or state-federal partnership exchange so the state will have something to fall back on should the provisions of Obamacare be unmanageable or unenforceable."

Its likely that without the state capitulating, there is NO way the federal exchanges can work. The infrastructure would have to be built completely from scratch, and would be unworkable for many years. This allows the weight of such an effort to fall on itself, and no state money or resources need to be involved.  Expanding freedoms (as that statement suggests) for the insurance offerings in Michigan could do wonders.  De-regulating with safety devices built in can make a better product available and cut free some of the innovation as yet unseen.

But until the state is willing to exercise it's 10th amendment authority, its won't happen.  All of the best efforts would make it even harder for Obamacare to work, and by "work" I mean destroy health care as we know it.

And there are people who want that .. badly.

Rick, forgot to clearly state his main premise of the Big C - crony capitalism.

Answer: "the performance by a public official of an act that is legally unjustified, harmful, or contrary to law"

...  Think think think

Question: What is malfeasance?

.. Cha-ching!

I wonder if our state senators are as willing to face primaries and an angered base like our reps?

As for Reagan's "The person who agrees with you 80 percent of the time is a friend and an ally -- not a 20 percent traitor", allow this image to put the proper perspective on it.

We've been here before, except our Republicans were actually fighting the unknown aspects of the new socialism coming from Washington.  Now our governor is acting as a conduit of liberties being taken from us, and there are even willing accomplices which we had not expected. This never should have been allowed out of committee, and it it wasn't for the compromised position that Jase Bolger put himself in (Roy Schmidt), it wouldn't even be coming up for a vote.

This was posted on Facebook.  It is reportedly a discussion between Norm Hughes and Michigan State Representative Martin Howrylak:

Martin Howrylak: Norm - I voted against this in committee today and intend to vote against it on the floor tomorrow.

Norm Hughes: Thank you for voting against it, Martin. You are a patriot! The Governor will go across the aisle and get his votes from Democrats. Please work on your colleagues. Thanks

Martin Howrylak: Norm - This thing is going to pass big time. I am standing up for principle on this one. Also, the feds will not let the legislature review the grant document. They say it is classified. My congressman is working to help us get the document released. Can you imagine this? We are supposed to vote on accepting a grant that nobody has had access to. I am flabbergasted that I am the only one asking for this. Quite frustrating.

Norm Hughes: Mike Shirkey is in the same boat. Unbelievable. Gotta pass it to see what is in it? Martin I held highly classified positions in the Federal Government and I cannot imagine WHAT in a health care grant could possibly be classified. Maybe a fillibuster is in order.

How can a grant be classified?  And how could ANYONE even think of voting for something without reviewing it completely?

If this is true, we have a bigger problem than just this one item of malfeasance. Every damned one of those legislators better have a grasp on what they are loading up on Michiganders.  As it is, we will spend the next year recruiting candidates up and down the state especially for primaries of non term limited cretins who vote for this thing without understanding what you are actually taking from us.

I have independently verified there is a communication rift between the feds and our legislators with regard to this.  This from one who will likely vote FOR the measure:

"We have requested from HHS a copy of the federal docs for review and our requests have been ignored."