The Northwest Technate – 1946

OK-SAFE, Inc. – One can sometimes find interesting things at estate sales. One such find was the recent discovery of a slim magazine entitled The Northwest Technocrat, NO. 119, Vol. X, which originally sold for 15 cents.

Here was history.  This was actual evidence of the Technocracy movement that swept across the U.S. in the early part of the 20th century, before mysteriously dying off in the late 1940’s or so.  (Maybe it just went into the universities, to percolate there, instead.)

Published in 1946 by Technocracy Inc., and showing an address of 9108 Woodward Ave., Detroit 2, MICH., the cover of this edition features a black and white photo of a fire truck – apparently evidence of the advancements in the design of fire truck technology.

Featuring such articles as Why Not Eat Cake?, Here’s to Health!, Fire!, Science for Sale, and Developing Trends, the magazine included a A Letter to Manchester Boddy. 

This short letter-to-the-editor piece questioned why articles about Technocracy had ceased to appear in Boddy’s Los Angeles paper, The Daily News, after that paper had been such a strong advocate earlier?

Excerpt from a Letter to Manchester Boddy (p. 21):

“Now, Mr. Boddy, since you once publicly proclaimed that Technocracy has the answers and that it was ‘little less than treason’ for the ‘men on the inside’ to withhold information on Technocracy, and since you, yourself, for several months used material on Technocracy as front page stuff, why then is Technocracy no longer mentioned in your paper?  Can you tell me why a scientific balance between production and distribution, as long proposed by Technocracy Inc., is any less correct and necessary today than you openly admitted it was in 1932 and 1933?

In view of the fact that your paper claims to be the outstanding liberal newspaper in Los Angeles, I expect your prompt reply, editorially and otherwise.

Yours very sincerely,

Wm. J. Winchester, 11833-2* (see endnote for explanation of this number)

Los Angeles, Jan. 21, 1946″

Page 23 featured the graphic “Schematic Administration Chart of the American Technate”, the chart detailing the structure for the Administrative control over the “functional sequences” associated with with all the physical equipment of the Continent, (industrial production, consumption and distribution) and the service functions (public health, education and recreation).  This administrative structure was to be overseen by a Continental Control, who reported to a Continental Director.

Schematic Administration Chart of the America Technate

This chart defines the structure for a proposed “new social organization for North America.”  Most people would clearly see this as a set up for tyranny, but not the Technocrats.

These rational “science-based” technocrats believed that if experts – i.e. non-political experts such as themselves – oversaw all the functions of  production and distribution, if they managed to efficiently regulate and control energy usage across the entire North American Continent, if they oversaw the entire social order, matching worker to task and providing the basic necessities of life (and threw in some recreation and entertainment) – there would balance in the world and everyone would be happy, satisfied and content.

Technocrats believed that these rational “science-based” experts would not  abuse their authority or tyrannize the people.

In the real world this is referred to as “fantasy.”

Reading any of the material put forth by Technocracy Inc. one senses foreshawdowing of that political agenda known as sustainable development, aka Agenda 21.

See our prior post entitled What is Technocracy? and click on the Technocracy Study Course text to see evidence of this idea.

It is entirely possible that the social organization as envisioned by these early technocrats laid the groundwork for future sustainable development policies.

At the very least, technocratic ideas helped pave the way for an agenda based on ‘scarcity’, an agenda that is orchestrating a systematic reduction in standards of living here and elsewhere.  Technocracy Inc. made it clear that as the advancements in technology occurred, and the means of production became more streamlined, fewer and fewer people would be needed to do the work.  (People being replaced by machines or by computers).  This means an increase in unemployment virtually everywhere.

A reduced need for workers translates into an overall reduction in the need for people in general.

So how to deal with the excess population? How about promoting the idea that the world is over-populated, and that man has caused global warming?  Eliminate God and God’s plan for people from public discussion, and develop schemes and policies that favor single lifestyles, childless marriage and smaller families.  Make abortion legal and readily available. Plan densely packed communities, and squeeze people into smaller and smaller dwellings, making it harder for them to have a family. Make it more difficult and expensive to own property or have a car.   Promote a culture of death by creating a health care system that can unplug the elderly or infirm because they are no longer productive, cost too much or are using too many resources, etc.

Spreading the Technocratic idea – Units and Members

If the papers had quit publishing information about Technocracy,  how were the ideas and concepts of Technocracy being spread around the country? Apparently by means of magazines such as The Northwest Technocrat and the establishment of chartered Sections of “units and members” all across the country.

This is reminiscent of how so many Rotary Clubs, America Legions and Masonic Lodges were established in small towns across the U.S. in the early 20th century.

Page 21, (22 of the pdf) reads in part, “The basic unit of Technocracy is the chartered Section consisting of a minimum of 25 members and running up to several hundred….There are units and members of Technocracy in almost every state in the U.S. and in all provinces in Canada, and in addition there are members in Alaska, Hawaii, Panama, Puerto Rico and in numerous other places with the Armed Forces.  Members of Technocracy are glad to travel many miles to discuss Technocracy’s Program with any interested people and Continental Headquarters will be please to inform anyone of the location of the nearest Technocracy unit.”

Membership was open to almost anyone in North America – except “Aliens, Asiatics and politicians are not eligible.”  Oh, those rascally politicians.

There is evidence to suggest that there is a rising technocracy of sorts, here in the U.S. and elsewhere.

If so, this means the end of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, meaning property; the end of country, home and hearth. A Technate recognizes no borders or boundaries, and seeks to have global control of all the earth’s natural resources and  people.  It aims to dictate how we people live and where, and how many of us there should be; a technate does not acknowledge God’s plans for His people.

This is tyranny.

For more information on this subject visitthe August Forecast & Review website or see posting on the OK-SAFE website.

________________________________

*ENDNOTE: Most of the articles featured in The Northwest Technocrat were signed by individuals, who followed their names with a six-digit number (five number, hyphen, single number).

In the Technocracy Study course, the Continent was to broken up into Regional Divisions, determined not by country or state boundaries, but by latitude and longitude.  An individual’s Regional Division number was determined by adding up the bisecting points of the southeast corner – i.e. 11833-2.  Think of it as early GEO tagging.

Excerpt from the Technocracy Study Course, (p. 245 of the pdf)

“It is the latter system of subdividing the Continent on the basis of latitude and longitude that we shall adopt. By this system we shall define a Regional Division to be a quadrangle bounded by two successive degrees of longitude and two successive degrees of latitude. The number assigned to each Regional Division will be that of the combined longitude and latitude of the point at the southeast corner of the quadrangle. Thus the Regional Division in which New York City is located is 7340; Cleveland, 8141; St. Louis, 9038; Chicago, 8741; Los Angeles, 11834; Mexico City, 9919; Edmonton, 11353, etc. In this manner all the present political boundaries are dispensed with. The whole area is blocked off into a completely rational and simple system of Regional Divisions the number for each of which not only designates it but also locates it. It is these Regional Divisions that form the connecting link between the present provisional organization of Technocracy and the proposed operating one depicted in the foregoing chart. In the process of starting an organization the membership of a particular unit is much more likely to be united by geographic proximity than as members of any particular functional sequence.” 

Obama expands NAFTA Superhighways, signs MAP-21 into law

OK-SAFE, Inc. – See the post below from our friend Terri Hall of Texas TURF.

At issue is the resurgence of the Trans-Texas Corridor, sometimes referred to as the NAFTA Superhighway, and the promotion of triple P’s – Public-Private Partnerships.

Click here to read the entire article by Terri Hall.  Click here to read OK-SAFE’ s position paper on PPPs.

Obama expands NAFTA Superhighways, signs MAP-21 into law

By Terri Hall

July 13, 2012

Some have tried to convince the public that the Trans Texas Corridor and NAFTA Superhighways are dead. But Congress recently passed a new, two-year federal highway bill, Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (or MAP-21), that not only gives priority funding to these ‘high priority’ trade corridors, it also makes it easier to hand them over to private corporations using controversial public private partnership (P3) toll contracts.

On July 6, President Barack Obama signed MAP-21 into law. As with most bills these days, Congress had to pass it in order for us to know what’s in it. Only the committee members, conferees, and lobbyists had the access to know precisely what was in it, and big business, big energy, and various and sundry special interests got just what they wanted — including state highway departments that got the environmental rules so relaxed, they can literally add toll lanes to any highway without so much as a public hearing or ANY study of the impacts, so long as it’s within the existing right of way.

Does it have-ta be NAFTA?
Americans have seen their jobs exported for two decades, and many argue NAFTA is what started the downward spiral. Though most high tech jobs have gone to Asia, U.S. manufacturing got outsourced to Mexico, and eventually to China, too. Even American agriculture is feeling the effects of NAFTA. You can drive through the San Joaquin Valley in California even now and see signs along what used to be a booming farm community criticizing Senator Barbara Boxer for using arcane environmental policy to destroy farmers’ ability to grow food in order to quietly enforce NAFTA’s import/export mandates.

Ditto for the Mexican trucking program that drew loud U.S. protests during the Bush Administration from truckers and those concerned with  non-English reading drivers, smuggling, and illegal immigration, which Obama quietly approved in March 2011.

In June 2011, the Texas Legislature repealed the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC), a 4,000 mile network of multi-modal toll roads, toll rail, toll  truck lanes, as well as tolled utilities, telecommunications, and pipelines of all sorts — that would all fall under the control of a private, foreign corporation for a half century. It was the most ambitious plan proposed of the NAFTA superhighways. The TTC would be gigantic, 1,200 feet wide, which is like four football fields end to end. Dubbed the biggest land grab in Texas history, it would be near impossible to traverse across or drive cattle or school buses under it, since the developer only had to build overpasses where it intersected existing interstates.

On the first leg, there would have been only 4 exits through the entire state of Texas and it would have displaced one million Texans. Since the developer also got the exclusive rights to the land surrounding the toll and railways, it would be granted a state-sanctioned monopoly and the ability to charge concession fees and choose all the gas stations, hotels, and restaurants on this captive audience revenue-generating corridor. So the TTC would have effectively bisected whole communities, crushed economic development along the remaining private property adjacent to the tollway, as well as cut-off access to huge parcels of farmers and ranchers’ land, rendering the parcels virtually useless.

The driving force behind Texas Governor Rick Perry’s ambitious plan was foreign trade — to accommodate the influx of what was initially thought to be goods from Mexico, but that soon got supplanted by even cheaper goods from China. The TTC’s primary purpose was to facilitate the free flow of people and goods across the border from the deep water port, Lazaro Cardenas, in Mexico into the interior of the U.S. and up into Canada.

Threat to sovereignty and freedom to travel
Texans immediately realized the threat to state sovereignty and property rights. They had a visceral reaction to having their land forcibly seized through eminent domain and handed to a foreign entity, Spain-based toll giant, Cintra. The more they learned, the less there was to like.

A fairly new financing and development agreement for the time, a P3, would be the primary procurement method for the TTC, and it was all negotiated in secret. Neither the press nor the Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott were allowed to see it. Abbott had to sue the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) just to get it released.

The financial guts of the contract were still withheld until the eleventh hour prior to Perry’s re-election in 2006, under threat of yet another lawsuit — this time by property rights advocates. Texans discovered these P3 contracts included profit guarantees and non-compete agreements as well as financial incentives to manipulate speed limits to slow down the free routes and enhance speeds on the tollway. The non-compete clauses prohibit or penalize the state for the expansion of free alternative routes in order to ensure congestion on the free lanes and force more drivers to pay the toll.

Rest of article Examiner dot com.

Texans Fight Back: March on the Capitol Against Smart Meters

More evidence of the push back against those invasive Smart Meters – from the Stop Smart Meters website, July 12, 2012:

Texans Fight Back: March on the Capitol Tomorrow – Posted on July 12, 2012 by onthelevelblog

This just in:

AUSTIN, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Texans are gathering tomorrow for their freedom to choose to have “Smart Meters” installed or removed on the steps of the Austin’s capital tomorrow from 9:00 a.m. until the state takes up item 14 on Project 40404. Over 1 million Smart Meters were installed in Texas by a silent force. Now Texans are fighting. Consumers never had a right to choose and were smacked with additional fees. The electric monopolies like Oncor Energy and Centerpoint Energy used scare tactics, such as threatening to shut off power and fines for tampering if customers did not succumb, according to Ban Texas Smart Meters. The Austin protest today is in response to Devvy Kid, Journalist and Activist getting repeatedly refused a trial by the PUC because of technicalities. This is just another instance of Texans standing up for their freedoms.

Rest of post here.

Maine Public Utlities Commission Didn’t Address Smart Meter Safety, Court Says

This from the Bangor Daily News, July 12, 2012: (bold, italics added)

Maine Public Utilities Commission didn’t address smart meter safety, court says

By DAVID SHARP, The Associated Press, July 12, 2012

PORTLAND, Maine — Maine’s highest court ruled Thursday that state regulators failed to adequately address safety concerns about Central Maine Power’s smart meters but the ruling had no immediate impact on more than 600,000 smart meters already installed in homes and businesses across the state.

The Supreme Judicial Court ordered the Maine Public Utilities Commission to reconsider a complaint that raised health concerns, and lead plaintiff, Ed Friedman of Bowdoinham, urged the panel to use the opportunity “to hold full evidentiary hearings on this and look at it under the bright lights.”

“We understand that the horse is out of the barn in terms of the meters being in, but they should’ve vetted these smart meters for safety before they were deployed instead of waiting until they’re deployed to see that there’s well-known biological effects,” Friedman said.

The Maine Public Utilities Commission issued a brief statement saying the panel is considering how best to comply with the supreme court’s unanimous ruling.

“The commission is reviewing the order to determine what steps must be taken to comply with the court’s decision. We have not reached a decision on what process will be required to do so. Any decision about process will be determined by commissioners in a public session,” the statement said.  [End of excerpt.]

Rest of article here.

The List of Injuries and Usurpations – Speech at Rally for Healthcare Independence, 7-7-12

OK-SAFE, Inc. – The people of Oklahoma held a Rally for Healthcare Independence on Saturday, July 7, 2012 on the steps of the Oklahoma Capitol in response to the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA, aka “ObamaCare”).  Organized by the OK Tenth Amendment Center and several other grassroots organizations, the people in attendance made it abundantly clear – regardless of the Supreme Court’s decision, the people of Oklahoma want no part of ObamaCare.  Nor do they want any part of the health insurance exchanges.  (Video of the seven speakers at the rally is available here.)

Declaration of Independence excerpt, read by Reid Mullins:  “The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.  He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.  He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.  He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.  He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.  He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people…  He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.  He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.  He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.”

What follows is the transcript of the speech given by Amanda Teegarden, Executive Director of OK-SAFE, Inc., in response to the above reading by Reid Mullins.

Rally Speech Transcript:

“Thank you, Reid.  Good morning.  What follow is a partial list, and only a partial list, of injuries and usurpations suffered by the people of Oklahoma:

1. We have experienced the refusal by our elected officials to hear and advance legislation requested by “We the People” of their own home districts.  Instead, these same officials have chosen to ridicule the people of their districts, manipulate the legislative process, make false statements about time constraints, ignore their own House rules, all the while justifying their actions.

2. Our Elected officials have advanced only that legislation which is advantageous to the interests of an elite group of corporations and organizations, particularly the members of the Chambers of Commerce and the Business Roundtable. These agents are actively engaged in directing the focus and intention of the state legislature, and it has become evident that the outcome of the legislative session is determined before the session even begins.

3. Our Elected officials, while claiming to be for limited government and reduced taxation, have worked to increase the size and scope of state government by implementation of something called Public-Private Partnerships.  This corrupt ménage-a-trois is the model for the so-called New Economy – it marries Government with Industry and Academia.  This European model is exclusionary in practice and is funded by the backs of the people in the form increased government spending and taxes, bonds, and tax credits for the government partners.

4. Our Elected officials have increased the financial burden of the people of Oklahoma by approving ever-increasing state budgets – now at a whopping $6.8 billion for 2012.

5. Our Elected officials have levied taxes in a stealth manner – calling them fees instead.  One such fee increased by 300% in one fell swoop. Officials justified this action by stating that “the fee had not been increased in a while”.

6. Our Elected officials have continued to grow government by the establishment of an ever increasing number of A, B, Cs – Authorities, Boards, Commissions, and Trusts.

• These unelected bodies consist of people appointed from a small pool of political insiders. These entities meet in private, make rules that govern the rest of us, favor their friends with contracts.  They are accountable to no one, and do not represent or serve the People of Oklahoma.
• These unelected bodies can solicit and receive federal grants, award contracts, issue bonds, and incur debt that the rest of us have to guarantee.
• One such entity is the Oklahoma Health Information Exchange Trust, or OHIET. Have you ever heard of the OHIET?   They’re busy laying the foundation for “ObamaCare” in the state of OK, using Stimulus money and federal grants to do so, awarding contracts to companies their members have vested interests in.
• Authorities, Boards, Commissions, and Trusts are the unelected “fourth branch of government” – advancing the interests of the rich and powerful, not the people of Oklahoma. 

7.   Agents and Agencies of our State Government are busy Reinventing that traditional institution – transforming the state of Oklahoma from a representative Republic -a government of, for, and by the people – toward a “Governance” model.  The state and its agencies are to be managed by a “technocratic elite” for the use and benefit of certain corporations and the progressives in both parties.

• This reinvention is being spearheaded by at least one recently instituted cabinet position – namely the Office of the Chief Information Officer. This agency is busy consolidating and concentrating power into the hands of a very few agents. Welcome to Government 2.0!  Welcome to Technocracy! Governance by “Experts”!

8. This state has entered into information-sharing compacts that allow the transmittal of highly personal information about you – your health, school, and work, your life and lifestyle choices, how many fruits and vegetables you eat and whether or not you exercise.  This information is being shared across jurisdictions, across state lines, with the federal government, and with others unknown to us.  All without the people’s informed consent.

The assaults on Liberty continue with:

9. The stealth implementation of the REAL ID Act, creating a de-facto national – no,  international -identification card, one that requires:

• The collection of personally identifiable biometric information
• Facial recognition quality photos on our drivers licenses and IDs
• And by refusing to pass the legislation that would have prohibited RFID tags in the OK drivers licenses!

10. The forced installation of Smart Meters on our homes, in furtherance of the global Smart Grid

• These meters serve to monitor every activity inside our homes.

11. Oklahoma State officials have now allowed DRONEs to fly over Oklahoma – for surveillance of its own people.  This is an inappropriate use of the military’s war fighting surveillance technologies.  We are not the enemy! Those same officials are praising the deployment of drones on U.S. soil as evidence of “job creation! “

12. Our Elected officials just this year put a cap on the use of freshwater in this state.  Called the Water for 2060 Act, this law says that “the public policy of this state is to establish and work toward a goal of consuming no more fresh water in the year 2060 than is consumed statewide in the year 2012”;   How are we to live, grow and prosper with such an egregious and arbitrary cap on freshwater usage?

13. Finally, our elected officials have been implementing, while denying that they are doing so, all the provisions of “ObamaCare” in the state of Oklahoma.

• They have allowed for the creation and advancement of an electronic health record on every single person, whether they wanted one or not.
• This electronic health record begins at birth with an electronic birth certificate, tracks us through school, into our work, and makes record of our lifestyle choices – virtually our every activity.  This record continues until we’re dead, making “health care reform” truly cradle-to-grave.
• Health care reform allows for “human subject research” without the knowledge or the informed consent of the person.
• These electronic health records link the patient, the provider and the payer together – in a nationwide – correction! In a global health information network.
• Our Elected officials have continued to work to establish an “ObamaCare” insurance exchange in Oklahoma.  These insurance exchanges completely redesign the insurance industry market and insert a middle man into the traditional business model.  The end result will be increased costs for all of us.
• Our Elected officials have claimed that they can establish a “state-based exchange”, one that is different from the federal government’s version.  What they are not telling the people is that there is only one way an exchange will work – and that is the federal way.  Oklahoma has been laying the groundwork for this for years – is it likely they’ll abandon that now?
• Despite the people saying NO to the exchanges, there are still those who continue to press for their establishment in this state.

Conclusion – The burdens on the people of Oklahoma are already great – we can carry no more.  Whether by Compact or by Tax we must not implement ObamaCare!”

Guest Hosting on Republic Broadcasting Network – Monday and Tuesday, July 9 & 10, 2012

OK-SAFE, Inc. – Amanda Teegarden, Executive Director of OK-SAFE and host of America in the Balance, will the fill-in host for Maggie Roddin on Republic Broadcasting Network, on Monday and Tuesday, July 9 & 10, from 9 am to 11 am (Central). Maggie’s show is entitled The Unsolicited Opinion.

Amanda’s guests for Monday will be Chuck Untersee, producer of the recently released film entitled Behold a Pale Horse – America’s Last Chance. Chuck will talk about how and why this film was made and where we are as a country.   Chuck will be followed by the award-winning journalist Vince Wade, who will be discussing the Chinafication of the U.S., how GM is becoming China Motors, and how our military technology is being hijacked.

Tuesday’s guest will be Vicky Davis, former computer systems analyst, and independent researcher. (Unless she has jury duty!).

RBN radio link: http://www.republicbroadcasting.org/index.php?cmd=listenlive

Tune in and listen live.  Call-in number is on their website.

Letter To Governors – Don’t Build An Exchange!

OK-SAFE, Inc. – This was forwarded by a friend in Idaho.  A few key legislators have signed a letter urging the state Governor’s to reject Obamacare State Exchanges.  Twelve Senators and 61 Legislators have signed the letter already – don’t you think OK Governor Mary Fallin should sign this letter, too?

See below for details and a link to the letter.

DeMint, Bachmann, Jordan Urge Governors to Reject Obamacare State Exchanges.

Twelve Senators, 61 Representatives join them in sending a letter to all 50 governors

(Washington, D.C.) Senator Jim DeMint (SC), Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (MN-06) and Congressman Jim Jordan (OH-04) sent a letter to all 50 governors urging them to oppose the implementation of the state health care exchanges mandated under President Obama’s health care law.  Twelve Senators and 61 Representatives joined them in writing in opposition to these exchanges, which could cost businesses up to $3,000 per employee.

“Now that we know the courts will not save us from this harmful and unsustainable law, we urge all governors to join our fight full repeal by stopping its implementation,” said DeMint. “Americans have loudly rejected this law because it raises costs, lowers quality of care, and hikes taxes. The President’s health care law will not reform anything, but will hurt state budgets, destroy jobs, and reduce patient choices. States should reject these complex and costly exchanges. We cannot build a free market health care system on this flawed structure of centralized government control, we must repeal all of it and start over with commonsense solutions that make health care more affordable and accessible for every American.”

“While Republicans in Congress will continue to push for a full repeal of Obamacare, the states can take immediate action to reject these exchanges that will increase health care costs and add more layers of bureaucratic red tape. I encourage all 50 governors to do what’s best for the American people. They should refuse to implement an exchange and instead work towards common sense solutions that lower costs and return important health care decisions to patients and their doctors,” said Bachmann.

“The harmful impact on jobs is just one of many reasons we remain committed to fully repealing this law. If governors want to raise the cost of hiring people in their states, they should create an Obamacare exchange. If they want more jobs in their state, they should not. It’s that simple,” said Jordan.

The text of the letter is included below, and a list of signers is available here.

Dear Governors:

The Supreme Court has ruled significant parts of the Medicaid expansion of the President’s health care law unconstitutional as well as ruling that the individual mandate violated the Commerce Clause and will therefore be implemented as a punitive tax on the middle class. This presents us with a critical choice: Do we allow this reprehensible law to move forward or do we fully repeal it and start over with commonsense solutions? The American people have made it clear that they want us to throw this law out in its entirety. 

As members of the U.S. Congress, we are dedicated to the full repeal of this government takeover of healthcare and we ask you to join us to oppose its implementation. 

Most importantly, we encourage you to oppose any creation of a state health care exchange mandated under the President’s discredited health care law. 

These expensive, complex, and intrusive exchanges impose a threat to the financial stability of our already-fragile state economies with no certainty of a limit to total enrollment numbers. Resisting the implementation of exchanges is good for hiring and investment. The law’s employer mandate assesses penalties – up to $3,000 per employee – only to businesses who don’t satisfy federally-approved health insurance standards and whose employees receive “premium assistance” through the exchanges.  The clear language of the statute only permits federal premium assistance to citizens of states who create a state-based exchange. However, the IRS recently finalized a regulation that contradicts the law by allowing the federal government to provide premium assistance to citizens in those states that have not created exchanges. The IRS had no authority to finalize

such a regulation. By refusing to create an exchange, you will assist us in Congress to repeal this violation which will help lower the costs of doing business in your state, relative to other states that keep these financially draining exchanges in place.  

State-run exchanges are subject to all of the same coverage mandates and rules as the federally-run exchange. Clearing the hurdles of crafting an exchange that complies with the 600 plus pages of federal exchange regulations will only result in wasted state resources and higher premiums for your constituents.

Implementation of this law is not inevitable and without the unconstitutional individual mandate it is improbable.  Join us in resisting a centralized government approach to health care reform and instead focus on solutions that make health care more affordable and accessible for every American. Let’s work to create a health care system of, for, and by the people, not government or special interests.

Sincerely,

(Signers include Jim DeMint, Michelle Bachmann, Tom Coburn (yes, Coburn), and more.)

Say NO to any insurance exchange in Oklahoma, whether state-based or otherwise.

Supreme Court Decision on the Affordable Care Act

OK-SAFE, Inc. – On June 28, 2012 the Supreme Court of the United States struck down the “individual mandate” contained in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, (PPACA), aka “ObamaCare”.

At least, some of the Supreme Court Justices struck down the individual mandate, others did not.

The Court’s Opinion is divided into Parts I through IV, each with a decision, with the opinions rendered via different pairing of Justices.  Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, and Alito, JJ., filed a dissenting opinion.  The dissenting opinion is where the controversial exchanges are cited.

Justice Roberts wrote that the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution cannot be used to compel an individual to purchase something, whether that something is a product or a service.  This includes health insurance.

Roberts went on to render an opinion that the “penalty” described in the Affordable Care Act is in reality a “tax”.  The Court did affirm that Congress does have taxing authority under the Constitution – and taxing us is apparently what Congress aims to do.

The opinion reads, in part, “The Affordable Care Act’s requirement that certain individuals pay a penalty for not obtaining health insurance may reasonably be characterized as a tax.  Because the Constitution permits such a tax, it is not our role to forbid it, or to pass upon its wisdom or fairness.”[1]

The U.S. Congress is now in the uncomfortable position of being caught in a very big lie about the true effect of “ObamaCare”, which was never really about caring for health.   What the Affordable Care Act has done is set out the parameters for a complex series of interconnected information technology systems; insurance exchanges (voluntary, by the way) that fundamentally redesign the insurance industry; and (apparently) set up an onerous taxing mechanism.

The Court also seems to have struck down the penalty to States that choose not to participate in the Medicaid expansion program “by taking away their existing Medicaid funding.”  The Government argued that this expansion was a modification of the existing program, but Justices Roberts, Breyer and Kagan disagreed, stating that the “expansion accomplishes a shift in kind, not merely degree. The original program was designed to cover medical services for particular categories of vulnerable individuals.  Under the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid is transformed into a program to meet the health care needs of the entire non elderly population with income below 133 percent of the poverty level. ”[2]  (Bold and italics added throughout.)

Roberts further declared, “A State could hardly anticipate that Congress’s reservation of the right to “alter” or “amend” the Medicaid program included the power to transform it so dramatically. The Medicaid expansion thus violates the Constitution by threatening States will the loss of their existing Medicaid funding if they decline to comply with the expansion.[3]

Health Insurance Exchanges and Their Federal Subsidies

The Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, and Alito dissenting opinion contains roughly 22 mentions of the insurance exchanges.[4] The dissent links the exchanges to the federal subsidies (again, voluntary) and reads, in part, “The ACA requires each State to establish a health ­insurance “exchange.” Each exchange is a one-stop mar­ketplace for individuals and small businesses to compare community-rated health insurance and purchase the policy of their choice. The exchanges cannot operate in the manner Congress intended if the Individual Mandate, Medicaid Expansion, and insurance regulations cannot remain in force. The Act’s design is to allocate billions of federal dollars to subsidize individuals’ purchases on the exchanges.”[5]

Regarding the insurance exchanges, these are intended to plug into the health information exchange “network of networks” currently being established in the states, including Oklahoma.[6]

The dissent continues, “Individuals with incomes between 100 and 400 percent of the poverty level receive tax credits to offset the cost of insurance to the individual purchaser. By 2019, 20 million of the 24 million people who will obtain insurance through an exchange are expected to receive an average federal subsidy of $6,460 per person. See CBO, Analysis of the Major Health Care Legislation Enacted in March 2010, pp. 18–19 (Mar. 30, 2011). With­out the community-rating insurance regulation, however, the average federal subsidy could be much higher; for community rating greatly lowers the enormous premiums unhealthy individuals would otherwise pay. Federal subsidies would make up much of the difference.”

“The result would be an unintended boon to insurance companies, an unintended harm to the federal fisc, and a corresponding breakdown of the “shared responsibility” between the industry and the federal budget that Congress intended. Thus, the federal subsidies must be invalidated.”

Further, “Without the federal subsidies, individuals would lose the main incentive to purchase insurance inside the exchanges, and some insurers may be unwilling to offer insurance inside of exchanges. With fewer buyers and even fewer sellers, the exchanges would not operate as Congress intended and may not operate at all.”

The insurance exchanges continue to be a problem, but despite the warnings and the evidence of their failure (Utah), proponents continue to advocate for their establishment.  Perhaps this is due to the expectation that an insurance exchange would result in “an unintended boon to insurance companies”?

OK-SAFE maintains its’ position against the establishment of an insurance exchange in Oklahoma, state-based or otherwise.

Endnotes:[1]National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, page 44. Page 50 of the pdf.

[2] Ibid, page 5

[3] Ibid, page 5

[4] Ibid. pp. 52-63 of the Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, and Alito, JJ., dissenting. Pp. 178 – 189 of the pdf

[5] Ibid, page 59 of the dissent.  Page 185 of the pdf.

[6] The information exchange works via information technology (i.e. computers) systems that connect the patient, the provider and the payer, where the payer means the insurer. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or ARRA, which passed in 2009, was the real health care reform law, funding the creation of an electronic health record on everyone, and the necessary information exchanges for data sharing.  Oklahoma took $8.8 million to set up Oklahoma’s exchanges.  Created in 2010, the Oklahoma Health Information Exchange Trust, or OHIET, is busy setting this up in this state The insurance exchange detailed in PPACA fits into this “network of networks”, linking the patient, the provider, and the payer into one interconnected system.  There is only one exchange system and it i the federal system.  There is no such thing as a state-based exchange that is functionally different than the one designated in ObamaCare.  See the Model is the Message diagram at http://www.exposinghealthcareform.com

Rally at the Capitol for Health Care Independence – Oklahoma’s Response to ObamaCare

OK-SAFE, Inc. – Join Liberty Loving Oklahomans at the Oklahoma state Capitol on Saturday, July 7, 2012 from 9 am to 11 am for a Rally for Healthcare Independence.

From the Rally Press Release:

“Oklahoma City, Oklahoma- On Saturday, July 7, 2012, 9-11 am, The Oklahoma 10th Amendment Center, in conjunction with numerous other like-minded activist groups and individuals, will gather for a Rally for Healthcare Independence on the south steps of the Oklahoma State Capitol.

Following the Supreme Court’s decision last Thursday that upheld the most onerous portions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), including the individual mandate – liberty-loving Oklahomans once again find themselves at the losing end of Washington, D.C.’s continued big government policies.  Now that the Federal Government has been given the power to force individuals to buy health care insurance, into what other actions will individuals be coerced under the guise of a tax?

…….

In 2010, Oklahomans overwhelmingly supported State Question 756– The Oklahoma Health Care Freedom Amendment – which, among other things, prohibits making a person participate in a health care system.  Our state has spoken on this issue.

Last spring, Oklahoma, along with the states of Louisiana, Florida, Nebraska, Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Michigan, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin refused to implement the Health Insurance Exchange plans inherent in the PPACA.  Again, our state has spoken on the issue.

Attendees of Saturday’s rally will have an opportunity to hear speakers who can educate them in some of the many ways Oklahoma citizens and legislators can band together to continue defending individual liberties.  All Oklahoma legislators are invited to attend in order to assist and address their concerned constituents.

Please join us for this important rally on the south side of the Capitol steps, Saturday, July 7th, from 9am to 11am, and find out what you can do to prevent Oklahoma from succumbing to ObamaCare – and other unconstitutional federal overreaches.”

End of press release.

Join us, won’t you?  And invite your legislator and ask them to commit to opposing  “Obamacare” in Oklahoma.