The debt ceiling deal may gut Obamacare, but is it worth it?

  I have been critical of the debt ceiling deal based primarily on the notion of the “super Congress” and the fact that the House has given away its power of the purse strings. I feel as if the House willingly gave up its greatest tool in fighting the Obama regime’s spending by deferring this issue to a bipartisan committee consisting of an equal number of Democrats and Republicans split evenly between the House and the Senate–the House has surrendered the mandate the American people gave them in 2010.

  This “super Congress” will have the authority to make legislation which would then head to the two chambers for an up or down vote without the chance for debate or amending the legislation; this in and of itself takes the power of the whole Congress away from the full body and hands it over to a select few. If this committee cannot come to a consensus triggers will be initiated which would automatically cut spending from certain programs, and if the Congress does not vote to implement the “super Congress” legislation the same result will occur. Either way the result is the same; too much power has been handed over to the members who are selected to serve on this committee, and too much power has been taken away from those that were chosen by the people to represent them.

  It was widely believed that during these negotiations Barack Obama was able to assure that no cuts would be made to Obamacare as part of the triggers which would go into effect if the “super Congress” became deadlocked, but it now appears as if the president wasn’t able to negotiate a guarantee that his signature legislation would be left untouched. It is now being reported in this story that if the “super Congress” cannot come to an agreement that billions of dollars could be stripped from Obamacare.

There are at least 15 provisions of the Obama health care law that will find themselves subject to this trigger if the committee is not able to come up with other cuts,” said Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.). “When I look at these, I think it gives a huge incentive to the Democrats to find cuts. What would be triggered if we can’t find other cuts would cut right into the Obama health care law.”

   This is certainly good news and is evidence that Barack Obama’s influence is waning in his party and support for Obamacare is dwindling, for if this were not the case the House and Senate Democrats never would have gone along with this proposal.

  Nobody wants to see Obamacare repealed more than I, but I have to ask the question; is it worth it?

  What do I mean by this? Of course it is worth it, right? I am not so sure because I still hold the belief that this “super Congress” is most likely unconstitutional. And while I also hold the belief that Obamcare is unconstitutional, I cannot support an unconstitutional body being used to partially repeal an unconstitutional law.

  After having railed against this “super Congress” as being unconstitutional, I can’t simply decide to back it now that a law I disagree with might be targeted–to do so would be hypocritical. I can justify the end, but not the means–and that is the difference between conservatives and liberals. 

  The House has already passed legislation which would repeal Obamacare, but it died in the Senate; if the American people want Obamacare repealed they can easily do so by electing people to the Senate who vow to repeal the legislation–that is the way the American system works, and while I may not always agree with the end results of the system, I support the system.

  Barring a repeal of Obamacare, the Supreme Court will now decide if Obamacare is constitutional and that is how it should be. This “super Congress” sets up a dangerous precedent, and while I personally might rejoice in a partial repeal of Obamacare, I will mourn the loss of a government based on the representation of the people, for our elected officials will have given away the responsibility we entrusted them to and handed it over to a small selected few–if this is not  unconstitutional, it is anti or extra constitutional.

   We would do well to remember that the next target in the sights of this “super Congress” might be an issue that we would rather not see targeted, but what will we be able to do once the precedent has been set? It is better to nip this in the bud now, rather than trying to stop it later.