Hatch’s $6 Billion “Volunteer” Bill

In March 2009, the House & Senate overwhelmingly passed the “The Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, an Act to reauthorize and reform the national service laws.” The bill was introduced by Senators Kennedy & Hatch and will cost an estimated $5.7 billion over 5 years.

Since when does “volunteering” cost billions of dollars? This is another example of our representatives in Washington thinking that nothing good will happen in this country unless they make it happen.

Some of the money will go toward expanding Americorps from 75,000 positions to 250,000. Americorps gives grants to individuals and organizations that engage in service. I did a lot of hours of volunteer service while attending Snow College. Someone told me about the Americorps service grants given to those who did a certain number of hours of community service. I did the math and it would have amounted to less than $3 per hour not counting all the paperwork I would’ve had to do. I chose not to participate in the program, YET I SOMEHOW CONTINUED TO DO COMMUNITY SERVICE ON MY OWN!

Senators Hatch and Bennett and Rep. Matheson voted in favor of the bill, Reps Bishop and Chaffetz against it.

Additional Reading:
Heritage Foundation calls the bill “The Death of Public Service”
New York Times Article
Deseret News Article
Sen. Hatch’s Statement

Obamacare: Makes Choosing Easy

The current house health care bill (h.r. 3200) which President Obama is promoting with full force is an all-out attack on our freedom. Click here to read the full bill (I hope you have a fast internet connection).

CNN Money ran an article outlining five freedoms we would lose under this plan (in reality we would lose a lot more, but these are big ones): Freedom to choose what’s in your plan, Freedom to be rewarded for healthy living, or pay your real costs, Freedom to choose high-deductible coverage, Freedom to keep your existing plan, and Freedom to choose your doctors.

As the bill stands right now, all of Utah’s congressmen oppose the bill.  Read their statements here: Hatch, Bennett, Bishop, Matheson, Chaffetz.

How the 17th Amendment Killed the 10th

The 10th amendment says “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” (Italics added)

The Legislative branch was set up with two separate bodies. The House of Representatives was designed to represent the people and they were elected by the people. The Senate was to represent the states and they were elected by the legislature of each respective state. This way the Senate could defend the rights of the states and hold the federal government’s power in check.

The 17th amendment (ratified in 1913) stipulates the Senate to be voted in by the people instead of by the state legislatures.  Since then we have seen the powers of the federal government grow tremendously, leaving the states weaker and weaker.  The federal government has created huge bureaucracies to deal with issues they are not constitutionally authorized to and therefore should be reserved to the states.  The Departments of Health & Human Services (1953), Energy (1977), Education (1979), and Housing & Urban Development (1965) were all created after the ratification of the 17th amendment and are all unconstitutional according to the 10th amendment. The combined annual budget of these 4 departments is $762 BILLION.

The reason I did this post is because I believe the vetting question at the top of the list for our candidates for Senate should be Are you committed to restoring states’ rights as guaranteed in the 10th amendment and what are you going to do to accomplish it?

The Republicans running against Senator Bennett for his seat are: Mark Shurtleff, Cherilyn Eagar, Tim Bridgewater, and James Russell Williams.  The only Democrat I know of so far is Sam Granato.