Equal Protection from the Obamacare bill

This is what I have been thinking since I first heard of any waivers from the law for certain states, then for certain people.  That is definitely not equal protection.  Dedroy Murdock addresses that issue in an article in National Review.

Unequal Protection You Can
Believe In
Obamacare waivers violate the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection.

Twenty-eight of these United States — encompassing 164 million people, 53 percent of America’s population, and 285 Electoral College votes — are suing the federal government to stop Obamacare. This litigation challenges the constitutionality of Obamacare’s mandate that individuals purchase health insurance. The U.S. Supreme Court is likely to decide, once and for all, whether the Constitution’s Commerce Clause empowers Congress to force Americans to conduct commerce.

Shattering the Obamacare Death Star, however, may require slamming it from multiple directions. Hence, an additional legal strategy should address this law’s apparent violation of the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause — which explicitly applies to the states, but which the Supreme Court has more or less hitched onto the federal government as well.

Obamacare is not being enforced equally at all. As of February 9, the Obama administration had granted 915 waivers, mainly to influential organizations, major companies, and pro-Democratic labor unions. Those less lucky or less well connected have a different option: Obey Obamacare.

Read the whole article.

Obama takes care of his friends

This is the opening quote from an article in the Washington Times:

If you would like to know what the White House really thinks of Obamacare, there’s an easy way. Look past its press releases. Ignore its promises. Forget its talking points. Instead, simply witness for yourself the outrageous way the White House protects its best friends from Obamacare.

Last year, we learned that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had granted 111 waivers to protect a lucky few from the onerous regulations of the new national health care overhaul. That number quickly and quietly climbed to 222, and last week we learned that the number of Obamacare privileged escapes has skyrocketed to 733.

Go read it all.

Waivers, Waivers, Who Got the Waivers?

So far we've got two big groups who have waivers.  We first heard that McDonald's was seeking a waiver for their workers.  This was immediately denied by the White House spokespeople.  Then we got this from Investors Business Daily:

The Unraveling Of ObamaCare
So now McDonald's has its waiver, for 115,000 workers, not just 30,000. Jack in the Box also has a waiver, as do 28 other companies and organizations. The largest waiver, for 351,000 people, is for, appropriately enough, a union — specifically the United Federation of Teachers Welfare Fund, a New York brotherhood that covers teachers.

The United Agricultural Benefit Trust, a California-based cooperative that provides such low-cost minimal coverage to farmworkers, was allowed to exempt 17,347 workers. Even what has been dubbed RomneyCare gets a waiver, with Massachusetts' universal health coverage bureaucracy getting an exemption for about 5,000 people.

Remember the days of sharing the burden and spreading the wealth? These 30 waivers exempt coverage for around a million workers, teachers, farmers and young people who can now go to the polls with a little less angst. The rest of us working for other companies and small businesses who got no waivers aren't so lucky.

The irony here is that most of these million workers are on the lower end of the income scale, the very people ObamaCare was supposed to help by getting them the insurance they couldn't afford on their own. They nearly got priced out of the market.

Then on the heels of that announcement comes this:

Union Pushes for ObamaCare Then Is Granted Waiver
by Kyle Olson
The irony would be humorous if it weren’t so sad: The United Federation of Teachers, the New York City branch of the American Federation of Teachers, which pushed ardently for ObamaCare has now requested – and received – a waiver from its mandates.

The UFT is a member of New York State United Teachers (NYSUT). In September 2009, the NYSUT’s website published “Health care reform: facts vs. myths.” Here’s an excerpt:

* Myth: Health care reform will force you out of your current insurance plan or force you to change doctors.
* Fact: You can keep your existing insurance; reform will expand your medical options, not eliminate them.

ObamaCare was such a great idea at the time - the AFT gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to Healthcare for America Now, the leading organization pushing for the government takeover of health care.

It was announced Thursday that the UFT has requested and received an Obamacare-waiver after it discovered their members would end up losing their health insurance plans. Uh oh.

Be sure to go to the IBD site and Big Government to read these articles and others. Very interesting.