LETTERS: ObamaCare worthy of defunding
To the editor:
I urge my fellow Nevadans to call Sens. Harry Reid and Dean Heller, and tell them to support a continuing resolution that funds government, but doesn’t fund ObamaCare. Poll after poll shows a strong majority of Americans don’t want ObamaCare. Yet President Obama, Sen. Reid and his Democratic colleagues are hell-bent on forcing this monstrosity upon us.
Knowing how ObamaCare came into law is essential in understanding why it needs to be defunded. First, there is the question of constitutionality. The Constitution provides that all bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives. Harry Reid and his liberal colleagues in the Senate used shady political maneuvers to take House Bill 3590, entitled “Service Members Home Ownership Act of 2009,” and turn it into the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Sen. Reid submitted an amendment which struck out everything in the bill (which had nothing to do with health care or raising revenue) and replaced it with what became the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts ruled that the individual mandate in the bill was indeed a tax. The Pacific Legal Foundation is fighting the constitutionality of ObamaCare in federal courts based on the origination clause.
Second, the 60th vote needed to pass ObamaCare in the Senate came only after Al Franken was seated as the senator from Minnesota on July 7, 2009 (seven months after a contested election). Political observers will recall Mr. Franken narrowly defeated Republican Norm Coleman by 312 votes. After Mr. Franken was declared the victor, it was discovered a number of convicted felons voted in Minnesota’s two largest counties — these votes exceeded Mr. Franken’s margin of victory.
Third, Sen. Reid’s Senate passed this legislation on Christmas Eve 2009, with no bipartisan support and no debate. Not one member of Congress who voted for the 2,000-plus-page bill read it before voting on it. That is dereliction of duty.
President Obama, Sen. Reid and their media lapdogs are trying to place the blame on Republicans for a government shutdown if ObamaCare is not funded in the continuing resolution. In reality, the blame for a government shutdown will fall squarely on the shoulders of Sen. Reid, the Senate Democrats and President Obama. Sen. Reid should allow a vote in the Senate on the House resolution and let the chips fall where they may.
LINDA SHOOK
NORTH LAS VEGAS
Mexican celebrations
To the editor:
Regarding Robert Owens’ letter (“Mexican celebrations,” Thursday Review-Journal), the Spanish were some of the original settlers of the southwestern United States, and this part of the country has many landmarks and locations that have Spanish names (Las Vegas, Mount Diablo, etc.). The U.S. took this territory from them through war and negotiation. The Southwest has a deep link to the Spanish, along with American Indian tribes which in some cases mixed Spanish words with their own native languages.
The fact that Spanish is a choice on phone automated answering menus is because it was mandated by the federal government.
The U.S. is a nation of immigrants, and celebrating Mexican Independence Day is not without some precedent. We celebrate St. Patrick’s Day (for an Irish saint) and the San Gennaro Feast (for an Italian saint), to name a couple of more such events. I’m sure there are many more regional ones of which I’m not aware.
Claims about the need for assimilation are made from ignorance. The Spanish-speaking people in our country are no different from my grandparents, who immigrated here at the turn of the 20th century. They spoke no English. My parents spoke both Italian and English, and I speak only English. Assimilation takes time.
ART GISI
LAS VEGAS
