March 25, 2012

Tea party, Herman Cain return to D.C. to slam Obamacare

WASHINGTON – Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and former GOP presidential contender Herman Cain were two keynote speakers who addressed the Road to Repeal rally organized by Jenny Beth Martin of the Tea Party Patriots in the Upper Senate Park this weekend.

Martin held up Obama’s massive health-care law and announced, “Obamacare is cancer in our government, and we are gonna rip it out, we’re gonna repeal this bill, this law!”

Despite cold and rain, a crowd of patriots warmly welcomed leaders and prayed that Obama’s health-care law will be struck down in the U.S. Supreme Court and fully repealed by Congress. All speakers noted that repeal depends on a new Senate majority and a new president.

Cuccinelli, who’s also a 2013 Republican candidate for Virginia governor, will be arguing before the Supreme Court next week.

“You know, yesterday was the second anniversary of the president signing this bill. That’s the bad news,” said Cuccinelli. “The good news is yesterday was the 237th anniversary of Patrick Henry’s ‘Give me liberty or give me death’ speech. And he gave that speech at St. John’s church in Richmond. … And two years ago yesterday, 17 blocks west on the same street, is where we filed the first lawsuit by any state that got the individual mandate declared unconstitutional.

“Now many of you remember reading about that earthquake we had in Virginia last August,” Cuccinelli continued. “We don’t have a lot of those in Virginia. That was right near Montpelier, so obviously what had happened was James Madison was turning over in [his] grave. Well, hopefully the Supreme Court will put him back right come June.

“But I will tell you here today: Whatever the outcome of that, the battle for the principles that are at stake in this case will go on in these elections this year,” he stressed. “I think I can make the case that you will never live through a more important election.”

Cuccinelli added that Obama and his administration are the “biggest set of law breakers” in American history.

Several speakers called for Justice Elena Kagan to recuse herself from the hearings.

James Christopherson from Judicial Action Group said, “We’re here to remind all the Supreme Court justices that we are watching – that we expect them to uphold their oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

He also said, “Justice Kagan has already had her turn to work on Obamacare as solicitor general. As President Obama’s top appellate lawyer, she worked, she was involved in the lawsuit since the beginning, since before the beginning. She was involved in preparing legal defenses for the president’s health-care law as early as January 2010, two full months before the mandate was even a law. Imagine that. Imagine preparing a defense for something isn’t even a law yet. I think someone was a little worried. … Title 28, Chapter 455B of the United States Code, requires the recusal of any case where a judge or justice has served in governmental employment and such capacity as participated as counsel.”

Justice Kagan knows the law and has recused herself in 25 of the first 51 cases of her tenure. So, said Christopherson, she must recuse herself now.

Representatives Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., and Steve King, R-Iowa, couldn’t attend the rally but sent statements urging the crowd to keep fighting. King authored the House repeal passed in January 2011.

Congressman Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, told the crowd, “Well, you know what the rain does – it makes things grow. So it must be that an act of God like rain wants us to grow, and I know that’s what we’re gonna do as this week goes on.”

Gohmert reminded the crowd of Obama’s 2008 campaign threat to “fundamentally change” America and urged everyone to work for the “freedom we once had.”

He said the “real tyranny of Obamacare” was “crammed down our throats” by a minority in government, who forced it on the majority of Americans. “That is a tyranny of the minority, and it has to stop!”

“If Obamacare stands,” he warned, “you will have a Big Brother such that not even Orwell could’ve seen coming.”

Gohmert said his “prescription” to cure Obamacare is to exercise your right “to vote these people out of office” and elect real conservatives who will protect our rights.

Congressman Dan Benishek, R-Mich., a surgeon, was elected to replace Democrat Bart Stupak in 2010 after Stupak betrayed his pro-life promise to vote against the bill. Like Gohmert, Benishek decried the loss of constitutional rights and urged Americans to repeal Obama’s law with their votes in November.

Dr. John Whitley, a scientist, physician and brain surgeon from North Carolina who’s also running for Congress, directed his comments to the Supreme Court justices.

“This case comes down to liberty verses tyranny – democracy versus socialism,” said Whitley.

He believes Obama’s law will drive medical doctors out of business, subject everyone to Medicaid and abolish everyone’s medical privacy by turning their records over to the government.

Dr. Marci Cook of Virginia represented thousands of physicians on behalf of Docs4PatientCare.

Cook said she’s read the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act three times and “I call tell you, the essence of this law is about losing our freedom. As a citizen, if the individual mandate is deemed constitutional, there is no limit to what the government can tell us to do.”

She said it means government will have the power to decide whether “your life is worth the cost” of health care.

Jim Martin of the 60 Plus Association dubbed the AARP “the association against retired persons” and decried its endorsement of Obamacare. Martin said he represents over seven million senior citizens and a “tsunami is on its way” to vote Obama and liberal members of Congress out of office.

Herman Cain, in his rousing preacher style, said the rally was a message to Obama and his administration: “We the people are here and want our freedom back! This is about freedom!”

Cain recalled his battle with stage-four cancer in his colon and liver with a 30 percent chance of survival: “In 2006, if Obamacare had been in full effect, I would not be here today. Many of you wouldn’t be here today.”

“The first message that I want you to take home with you – and I want you to keep it in your heart, ’cause we got a lot of work to do,” Cain said, “[is] that we the people are here, we the people are still in charge, we want our freedom back, and it starts with repeal of Obamacare, and we’re gonna repeal whole lot of other things also.”

Cain said even though his candidacy was “derailed,” he’s still on mission to send Barack Obama back home to Chicago.

The rally speakers urged Americans to attend events outside the Supreme Court as President Obama and his health-care law are on trial.

From March 25-28, a coalition of religious freedom organizations has organized Encircle the Supreme Court in Prayer, and the Tea Party Patriots will gather there as well.

Tea-party groups planned rallies around the nation this weekend – some to protest Obamacare; others, such as the rally in Carefree, Ariz., to meet candidates.

Tea-party activists also rallied in Tempe, Ariz., over the weekend to protest Obamacare before former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who was in town for a fundraiser.

http://www.wnd.com/2012/03/james-madison-is-turning-over-in-his-grave/print/