"If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. Period."

"If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan. Period."

As reported by NBC News, these statements by President Barack Obama are out-and-out lies — and he knew they were.

These false statements are likely the most important in politics since "The era of big government is over," or "Read my lips: No new taxes."

But these promises go beyond the pale. Obamacare is the crowning achievement of this president. His entire legacy rests on the shoulders of Healthcare.gov and its accompanying legislation. Americans have seen the disaster that is the federal healthcare exchanges: error messages akin to hieroglyphics, miscalculations that jack up premium costs, security gaps that open the gates to fraud.

And that's if you can get past the sign-up portal.

Since the failed rollout of the Affordable Care Act began, many exposés have been written on how the law cannot function without an operational federal exchange and the individual mandate. The law rests on the lynchpin of a sizable, healthy, young pool of insureds paying for the larger, less healthy, older pools of insureds. Without these people — Health and Human Services estimates this pool to be around

Lincoln Steffens was an early Twentieth Century reporter and journalist who, among other things, was an unapologetic advocate of the Soviet Union and the world-wide revolution towards an era of collectivism.  Upon his return from a journalistic visit to the USSR in 1919, Steffens famously wrote: “I have seen the future, and it works.” 

He was speaking of the collectivist efforts toward socialized medicine, public works, and labor reforms. To say that the American (and European) media during that era was not swept by the utopian visions of socialist paradise would be a lie.  Of course, some members of the media and “educrats” throughout society still love these things, but, since the atrocities of “Red Russia” and its fall in the 80’s, they would have to be more careful about how they pushed a socialist agenda.

Steffens saw “the future” and loved every bit of it.  If socialism is the future, I want no part in it.  For I too have seen it, experienced it firsthand.  In fact, I just got back from London, where my sick wife was subject to the full wrath of a collectivist medical system, against both her will and mine.  For those who have been through our increasingly bureaucratic medical system and are already disgusted by its development, I must make myself plain: “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”

Because she was not allowed to continue on the plane from London back to the United States, without doctor’s approval, we were forced to stay in London for the night.  She needed rest.  More than anything, she needed a good night’s sleep if she was to continue on the long flight home.  But rest was not to come.  No, rather, we took a taxi to the “better of the two hospitals nearby” so that we could “pick-up” a note from the doctor.

And we thus entered one of the most painstaking and frustrating experiences of our life: State-sponsored medical services.

In a good news-bad news scenario for lawyers challenging the individual mandate provision of Obamacare, the 11th circuit court in Atlanta ruled the provision unconstitutional by a 2-1 margain, while the 9th circuit court in San Francisco dismissed the case for lack of standing, even though it agreed to hear the case.

In the 11th, the judges ruled that the individual mandate was unconstitutional because it represented a broad interpretation of the Commerce Clause of the Constitution, which is the clause that gives Congress the power to keep commerce regular. The individual mandate, though, is an "unbounded assertion of congressional authority" inconsistent with that clause, which would require individuals to purchase health insurance for fear of penalty. The two judges that ruled in the majority were Judge Joel Dubina, a George H.W. Bush appointee, and Judge Frank Hull, a Bill Clinton appointee.

The 9th circuit, however, was a different matter entirely. The case was dismissed due to "lack of standing" on the part of the prosecutors, with Judge Dana Sabraw handing down the decision. This came after the case was turned down by the Supreme Court for expediated judgement. This ruling was not a shock to many people due to the left-leaning nature of this branch, which has often been called the "Nutty Ninth" for those reasons.

So far, three branches of the US Court of Appeals have ruled on the individual mandate, and only the 11th ruled it unconstitutional thus far. The third branch, the 6th up in Ohio, upheld it by a 2-1 vote, which would all but ensure that the fate of the individual mandate will not be decided until it reaches the Supreme Court once it is done working its way through the lower courts.

Originally published at www.silverunderground.com.

Recently, we’ve blogged about YAL chapters in Ohio helping out with The Ohio Project, which is a grassroots ballot initiative to nullify the federal healthcare mandate in Ohio. 385,000 signatures had to be gathered for the initiative to appear on the ballot this fall. On Thursday, about 550,000 signatures were turned in to the secretary of state (440,000 by the Ohio Project, and another 110,000 by a paid effort, Ohioans for Healthcare Freedom). 

Now, this might seem like the end of the story. However, following this event, the Ohio Democrat Party sent out a press release addressing the initiative. Usually, I ignore messages sent out by the two parties, but this one was so hideous that I felt it had to be addressed. 

The message from Seth Bringman, the ODP’s communication director, is below.

After over a year of paying petition circulators and collecting a modest amount of signatures, the Tea Party is patting itself on the back today. What the Tea Party won't tell you is that they are fighting against something that was a Republican invention championed by that Party's presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney. Their initiative is a waste of time and taxpayer money, and it doesn't come close to passing constitutional muster.