I don't need to preach to you about the sins of the Affordable Care Act. How it was pitched. How it was passed. And how it has been propped up. It is in my opinion one of the very worst political atrocities in American history. A point of shame for the grand government of our great country. I was hopeful that we would win a majority in 2010 and be able to repeal it. I was hopeful it would be struck down by the Supreme Court. I was hopeful that Governor Romney would win and dismantle it. I am still hopeful for something to happen and undo that grand folly of good intentions bringing unintended (and perfectly predictable) consequences; but we are quickly running out of options.
I solve problems for a living. When I see something like this happen I try to get to the root causes and figure out how to prevent it from happening again. Short of taking the vote away from stupid people I don't see a cure for the real root cause. When you cannot remove a root cause the next thing you do is find a counter measure. And my idea is a counter measure to the failures that led us to the situation we are in with the Affordable Care Act.
The problem we had here was a temporary super majority held by the Democrats which allowed them to act unilaterally to pass the ACA into law. Once it became law we saw one of the largest political backlashes in history as the American people stood up and shouted NO! at the tops of their collective tea-party voices. But it was too late. The damage was done. And the same political gridlock that should have prevented a law this horrific from ever passing is now what is standing in the way of undoing it. What we need is a new power; a new limitation of government; a new process than insures that the people of the United States through their elected Representatives have the power to say NO! and undo insanity done by our elected government such as the ACA. And the only way to create such a new power for the people, such a new limitation to the power of government, is by Constitutional Amendment.
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Constitutional Amendment:
During the first 30 days of a new Congress house members may petition for any act signed into law during the previous Congress be given a re-vote. Any such act receiving a number of requests equal to half the number of house members plus one must be submitted for a re-vote in the House during the second 30 days of the new Congress. No House rules may prevent the re-vote once the requisite number of requests have been submitted. For the law to be overturned the House votes to undo the law must exceed the House votes that previously passed the law, and must be a majority vote.
Any legislation signed into law after October 16th of an election year may be extended one additional Congress under the same rules.
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I have submitted that to the White House petition board to try and get the word out and discussion happening. I am very interested to hear your opinion on the idea. The basic idea is that the House is the only chamber that can reflect the current political will of the people after every election. They are the body where the electorate can decide to change direction with every election. I am not proposing any changes to how laws are passed. I am only looking for a plausible way to let the people stop the government when they stop listening to the people who cast the votes.
For clarification, the ACA passed with 219 votes in the house. Under this Amendment the next congress could have repealed it with 220 votes. If it had passed with 300 votes it would have taken 301 votes to undo it. If a law was passed with less than 50% of the votes then it takes at least 50% + 1 representatives to undo it. If a bill is signed into law on or before October 16th of an election year then the only opportunity to use this power lies with the next congress. A bill signed into law after the 17th and before the next Congress can be stopped with the next Congress or the following one. That prevents a lame duck congress from bypassing the safety net that this provides.
What are your thoughts on this? I think this would be a valuable addition to our Constitution.
I have posted this on the White House petition site in hopes of garnering some attention to the ides. The signatures it has recieved are a testament to the power of that mechanism. If you want to endorse it there you can find it at this link.... http://wh.gov/SHwt Unfortunately you have to create a profile to vote, which in light of this administration's actions toward political opponents is a risky affair.
by William Benton
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