By David Nace
Adams, Franklin and Jefferson made it very clear when they wrote the Declaration of Independence. Governments derive their just power from the consent of the governed. On March 23, 2010, when the President signed the healthcare reform bill, the United States government lost its just power to govern.
Our republic is founded on the principle that every individual has certain inalienable rights and the purpose of the government is to protect those rights against the infringement by others. This insures the individual is insulated against actions from a majority or even a mob that threatens to take away those rights. However the government is given no such protection. It only exists because it represents the consent of the governed.
Regardless of what poll you look at, it is abundantly clear that the Obama Administration did not have the support of the American people when it forced its version of health care reform upon the American public. In poll after poll, 60% of the American public opposed Obamacare. This was made abundantly clear to legislators during the August recess and in the millions of letters, telephone calls and emails that were sent since then. However, the Obama administration, in conjunction with a group of special interests that would benefit from the legislation, including ; organized labor, pharmaceutical manufacturers, hospital associations and trial lawyers choose to proceed with the legislation over the objections of the American public. These objections were so strong that Obama, Pelosi and Reed had to resort to the reconciliation process reserved for budget bills and bribes to individual legislators to obtain its passage.
In a country where the government exists to protect the rights of the people, why would the Internal Revenue Service be enlisted to force people to participate in a program or face fines for nonparticipation? Clearly this violates the concept that inalienable rights belong to the people not to the government.
Americans, our government no longer enjoys the consent of the governed. Just as 2009 was the year that Americans rediscovered the Boston Tea Party, will 2010 be the year that Americans rediscover the words of the Declaration of Independence and again assert their independence from a government that no longer derives its just power from the consent of the governed?
David Nace, an Executive Vice President of a Pennsylvania construction and engineering company, is a Liberty Features Syndicated writer for Americans for Limited Government.
