ACA attacks Constitution

Profoundly impressive, the Democrats’ newfound admiration for the rule of law, the separation of powers and the constitutionally mandated prerogatives of the Congress. Drowned in a drumbeat of insistence that the Affordable Care Act is the law of the land is the fact that it has been several times amended by executive order.

Echoing from the past are the revealing words of President Bill Clinton’s aide, Paul Begala: “Stroke of the pen; law of the land; kind of cool.” So saying, while summarizing Clinton’s plans to issue a series of executive orders in order to demonstrate that he can still be effective, Begala concisely limned the autocrat’s preferred means for establishing public policy.

In the course of enacting and fine-tuning President Barack Obama’s law of the land to bring under federal government control one-sixth or more of the nation’s wealth and the life of every citizen, our U.S. Constitution in Article I, Section 1 (All legislative powers shall be vested in Congress) and Section 7 (All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives) took a bit of a beating.

Leonard Johnson

Moscow, Idaho