Independence: A Product of Liberty

State Senator Steve Martin released the following statement on the Obama Administration delay of the employer mandate:

"I hope that you all enjoyed a safe and wonderful Independence Day. As we were celebrating our nation's freedom and independence this past Thursday, my mind consistently drifted to the reasons why Egyptians stepped out last week, to remove a duly-elected president. They did so because he was operating outside the law; he controlled the courts, leaving the citizens no remedy, and they had enough of it.

As much as I appreciate the implementation of the employer mandate being delayed here in our own country, our administration's action demonstrates President Obama's willingness to ignore and/or make law as they wish. Historically, we have always called that lawlessness. It is the administration's job to execute and administrate the law. Instead, they are conducting themselves without regard for to the law.

The law mandates the offering of coverage through employers by a certain date. If they, like most Americans, don't like that law, they are to go to Congress to seek changes to the law. But our President -- and his associates -- do not care what the law says. They have instead been gradually creating closer to what they originally wanted to pass Congress, through regulation - ignoring specifics of the law that actually did pass.

The Supreme Court was supposed to protect us from being forced to purchase an intangible product from a third party, just because we refuse to stop breathing. We were fighting those efforts here at home in Virginia, too, and that legislation that I was able to get passed in the General Assembly helped our Attorney General challenge the mandated coverage before the SCOTUS. Instead, the court redefined the Administration's action as a "tax" that the federal government has the power to enact. (Despite the President's own televised claim that the mandate was definitely not a tax.)

The legislation was titled "The Affordable Care Act." The only two accurate words in that title are "The" and "Act." It is neither "Affordable," nor a provider of greater "Care." The exchange concept is designed to assure that the greater your Care needs are, the more difficult the process of receiving the Care will be. And, no matter how successful the mandate is in covering people, there will always be over 30 million Americans uninsured. Do I really need to argue the already proven case that this care will not be more affordable than the coverage and products in place under the previous law?

You may recall the Democrats' comments in the final days before passage of The Act..."This is a good first step," and "It moves us in the right direction," were the common themes. That's because they knew they could get to a single payer system via this plan. Why? It was designed to self-destruct. Joining the requirements of coverage for pre-existing conditions with community rating results in an ever-increasing adverse selection of insureds. Ever-increasing adverse selection results in ever-increasing cost of insureds and thus spiraling premiums. Final result? The liberty-hating progressives (they don't want to be called "socialists") will say, "See, we told you only Single Payer will work."

In this update, I focused primarily on this Administration's lawlessness only as it relates to "The Affordable Care Act," but it is present in so many other areas of law. The President's closest advisors and cabinet members have no problem with lying to Congress and the American people at every turn. We really do need to raise our voices to express our disdain for the way the Administration is treating the American people, the truth, and our nation's laws.

Our independence is a product of our liberty. And our liberty is greatly at risk with an Administration that has no respect for law or for truth.

Please, do your part to get involved. November elections are not as far off as they seem, and it will take our every effort to help ensure that here in Virginia we elect leaders who share our concern and will work to push back against the intrusions we continue to experience."