We need to set priorities!

Glenn Beck likes to compare President Obama to a magician by saying that we always have to watch what his other hand is doing. The powers that be have thrown so much at the liberty movement in the last year, that it is hard to know where to direct our efforts. This could be intentional. If we split ourselves into many different directions, none of us will be effective. 

One of my most persistent critics likens me to a "gerbil in a wheel, spitting out worthless posts about secession-is-just-around-the-corner almost daily," a comparison I find laughable, but one which could become apt if we fail to focus on priorities. 

As a business analyst, I have to recognize that there are three constraints to every project: time, cost, and people. You cannot cut all three at the same time. If you want something done faster, you need more people, more money, or both. If you cut costs or people, you will probably need more time. 

Applying this to Ohio's liberty movement, we need to ask – among the many urgent needs we have to regain our freedom, which should we tackle first?

I observe that we can express most of our requirements as pairs -- actions needed in Congress that can be complemented or replaced by state actions. I list these pairs below. Note that I am ignoring the state budget and SB 5 because both are certain to pass in some form, most likely in a way that will work in the direction of smaller government.

My question to my readers is, which of the following should we be pursuing first, second, and third? Please comment; even if it is nothing more than "1.x, 2.y, 3.z."

	Actions by Congress	Actions by the State of Ohio
a	Refuse appropriations for the Libyan war.	Governor Kasich to refuse deployment of Ohio National Guard to Libya.
b	Repeal national health care, or "Obamacare."	Nullify mandatory health care in Ohio (legislation).
c	Abolish the Federal Reserve Bank.	Authorize state and local tax payments in gold or silver: "Honest Money."
d	Balance the budget.	Intercept federal taxes (through the Ohio Department of Taxation) pending a state board or legislative ruling on the constitutionality of federal expenses.
e	Repeal the USA PATRIOT Act.	Nullify the use of body scanners and aggressive patdowns in Ohio airports.
f	Modify or repeal federal gun control laws.	Nullify gun control for weapons both made and sold in Ohio (intrastate commerce). (Note: link is to bill in previous General Assembly)
g	Repeal federal drug laws, particularly those related to marijuana.	Nullify federal prohibitions on the use of marijuana as a prescription drug.
h	Repeal federal food laws that affect intrastate commerce in farm produce.	Nullify federal regulation of farm produce both grown and sold in Ohio (Manna Storehouse – but note that Manna Storehouse was an abuse of state power).

Another health care nullification proposal introduced in Ohio House

State Representatives Terry Boose (R-Norwalk) and Barbara Sears (R-Sylvania) introduced HB 489 on Wednesday, April 14. The purpose of the bill is to nullify any effort by the federal government to make health care insurance mandatory. It is virtually identical to SB 244, introduced March 23 in the Ohio Senate.



This is the fifth legislative proposal brought forth to achieve this object. HB 489 and SB 244, if passed, will result in simple statutes. The other three would result in an amendment to the Ohio Constitution. This array of proposals is likely to get confusing for most people, so I shall try to sort it out here:



The first proposals made were joint resolutions HJR 3 and SJR 7, to place an amendment to the Ohio Constitution to prohibit mandatory participation in the health care system. They were introduced last August and September, before the House Democratic leadership made it generally known that Ohio House Speaker Armond Budish does not support putting forth symbolic resolutions to the federal government on any subject. Essentially, it appears that he finds such resolutions to be a waste of time.



Neither HB 489 and SB 244 have yet been assigned to a committee. Both bills are apparently intended to work around Speaker Budish's objection to resolutions. However, some may view this approach as problematic because it does not amend the Ohio Constitution to protect a fundamental right.



All of the other bills have been assigned to committee, but none of them have been reported out as yet.



This leaves us with the initiative petition offered by the Ohio Liberty Council, which would also amend the Ohio Constitution. The petition was submitted to Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner with the required number of signatures in March, and was certified as to form by Attorney General Richard Cordray April 1.



The initiative would add Section 21 to Article I of the Ohio Constitution with the following language:

ARTICLE I
Preservation of the freedom to choose health
care and health care coverage

Section 21 (A) No federal, state, or local law or rule shall compel, directly or indirectly, any person, employer, or health care provider to participate in a health care system.

Section 21 (B) No federal, state, or local law or rule shall prohibit the purchase or sale of health care or health insurance.

Section 21 (C) No federal, state, or local law or rule shall impose a penalty or fine for the sale or purchase of health care or health insurance.

Section 21 (D) This section does not affect laws or rules in effect as of March 19, 2010; affect which services a health care provider or hospital is required to perform or provide; affect terms and conditions of government employment; or affect any laws calculated to deter fraud or punish wrongdoing in the health care industry.

Section 21 (E) As used in this Section,

(1) “Compel” includes the levying of penalties or fines.
(2) “Health care system” means any public or private entity or program whose function or purpose includes the management of, processing of, enrollment of individuals for, or payment for, in full or in part, health care services, health care data, or health care information for its participants.
(3) “Penalty or fine” means any civil or criminal penalty or fine, tax, salary or wage withholding or surcharge or any named fee established by law or rule by a government established, created, or controlled agency that is used to punish or discourage the exercise of rights protected under this section.

Despite the relatively brief, straightforward language, the Ohio Ballot Board ruled April 9 that the proposal be divided into two issues, which would force the petition backers to restart the process of collecting some 420,000 signatures, this time for two initiatives. The Ohio Ballot Board does not make clear (to me) how this division is to take place -- my guess is that Section 21 (A), (B), and (C) would be one proposal (dealing with freedom to purchase health care insurance, or not) and the remaining sections would be the other (dealing with "governance" of the health care insurance industry).

The 1851 Center for Constitutional Law has filed for a writ of mandamus in the Ohio Supreme Court to block the Ohio Ballot Board's decision.

While I dislike adding statutory law to the Ohio Constitution -- in this case, I think it is needed to minimize the likelihood of a future General Assembly taking away what should be an essential freedom. The best solution, then, would be for us to see the initiative passed, hopefully in the November election. Passage would send a statement to the nation that this comes directly from the people of Ohio, that we do not want federal interference with our health care system.

Housecleaning

You know how it is when you're busy and things just pile up.

The same thing has been true of this blog. Add a label here, a feature there, and the site starts to get cluttered. Write 700 posts in 2½ years (as of yesterday) and things can get quite messy.

Fortunately, Blogger came out with a new feature, "pages", to help organize all that static information. Here is the new arrangement:

The About page gives the purpose of this blog, some biography about me, and links to my writings, speeches, and videos.

The Legislative Action page summarizes my January 1, 2010, post giving my vision for legislation in the Ohio General Assembly and includes status links to the Buckeye Liberty Legislative update and my Ohio legislative status sheet. It also includes the link to my state sovereignty resolution status sheet.

The Links page rearranges in a (hopefully) more logical order all the links that festooned the right sidebar of the home page.

The Speaking to Your Group page is a bit of shameless self-promotion that gives information about speeches I am prepared to give your group.

If I come up with any other wild ideas, Blogger will let me create five more pages.

I hope this will make The Ohio Republic look a bit cleaner and make it easier to use.

HB 400 hearing snowed out

The hearing scheduled for tomorrow (Wed. Feb. 10) has been cancelled, due to the snowstorm that has buried Central Ohio. I'll let you know when it is rescheduled.

HB 400 Hearing Wednesday

The Ohio House Ways & Means Committee will hold a hearing on HB 400 (Income Tax Phaseout) on Wednesday, February 10, at 9:30 AM at the Statehouse. Public testimony will be accepted.

If you testify, bring 30 copies of your statement for distribution to the committee members and others present.

You can keep up to date on the status of legislation of interest to the liberty movement by linking or getting an RSS feed to the Buckeye Liberty Legislative Update, provided by the Ohio Freedom Alliance. I shall also add a link in the 2010 Ohio Republic Legislative Program section under the masthead.