“Is any of this Constitutional?  No.  It certainly is far from it.  There is not a word in our Constitution that says the Federal Government should have any power to make any adjustments to our health care plans.  In fact, the 9^th Amendment of the Constitution says, “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”    This means that even if something is mentioned in the Constitution (which health care is NOT)  people still have all their rights.   And the 10^th Amendment tells the Federal Government “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”   This means that if the Founding Fathers forgot anything about what the Federal Government CAN’T do, well, they can’t do that either. 

I am angry with them in Washington for breaking Constitutional Law.  I hope you are, too.”

D o w n s i z e r – D i s p a t c h

________________________________________

Quote of the Day: “Increasingly, we are seeing consumers join forces with farmers in letting the USDA know that NAIS is not a solution for animal health, food safety or food security.” – Judith McGeary

SUBJECT: Time to slaughter NAIS

The National Animal Identification System (NAIS) is the sickly runt of the Big Government’s herd of programs. It’s time to put it out of its misery.

NAIS was a bad idea from the start . . .

• it addresses a “problem” of animal disease control that current laws and agencies already cover

• it forces small family farms to put ID tags on each animal at their own expense, something factory farms are not required to do

• even though factory farms are at greater risk of disease outbreaks than are smaller farms, and most contamination occurs at the slaughterhouse

• it would raise the price of food

• through computer hacking and counterfeit RFID tags, NAIS actually makes our food supply more vulnerable to terrorists and other criminals

No wonder, then, that NAIS has faced substantial resistance, especially since the program has already wasted $142 million since 2004 . . .

• initial plans to make it mandatory were scrapped (although the USDA encouraged states to make it mandatory, and a few have)

• the USDA has fiddled with numbers to suggest that 35% of farms and homes with livestock have been registered. The real number is probably closer to 10%

• registrations increased by just 3% last year

• on a nationwide “listening tour” about NAIS, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is hearing 90% of farmers demand that NAIS should be killed

Congress is angry about this lack of progress. The good news is that the House Agriculture Appropriations subcomittee has de-funded NAIS for 2010.

The bad news is that Congress is angry for the wrong reasons. Their real purpose is to inject the NAIS runt with growth hormones by making the program mandatory – despite the overwhelming opposition. Both subcommittee chair Rosa DeLauro and House Ag Committee Chair Clint Peterson view zeroing-out NAIS as a lever to force the USDA to make NAIS mandatory.

Please notice the disturbing fact that an Executive Branch bureaucracy has the power to make something mandatory. This is the tale wagging the dog. Only Congress should have the power to make anything mandatory. This is more evidence that we need DownsizeDC.org’s Write the Laws Act (WTLA).

In any case, the subcommittee’s ruling is not final. NAIS funding could be reinstated at a later stage of the budget process.

Now is the time to overwhelm Congress and the USDA demanding that they slaughter the NAIS program, not only for this year, but for all time. Please send Congress a message telling them that.

In your personal comments, mention the reasons expressed above about why NAIS is a bad idea. Also tell them:

• We the people believe family farmers know better how to run their own businesses than do either Congress or the USDA

• The American people stand with the family farmers, who overwhelmingly oppose NAIS

To surpass last month’s mark of 36,512 messages to Congress, we must pass 1,473 messages today.

The USDA is also accepting comments on NAIS. Please help convince them that NAIS is bad for America and that the American people, not just farmers, are against it. You can do so by going to regulations.gov’s NAIS page and clicking a comment balloon. To see how we’re growing, please see our Keeping Score section below my signature.

Thank you for being a DC Downsizer.

James Wilson

Assistant to the President

DownsizeDC.org

D o w n s i z e r – D i s p a t c h

is the official email list of DownsizeDC.org, Inc. & Downsize DC Foundation

Normally published 3 – 6 times per week.

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http://www.DownsizeDC.org is sponsored by DownsizeDC.org, Inc. — a non-profit educational organization promoting the ideas of individual liberty, personal responsibility, free markets, and small government. Operations office: 1931 15th St. Cuyahoga Falls, OH 44223, 202.521.1200

 A rough rationale for the Constitution, such as may have energized the Founders, is articulated by philosopher Frederic Bastiat:

 ”It is not true that the legislator has an absolute power over our persons and our property since they pre-exist him, and his task is to surround them with guarantees.

It is not true that the function of the law is to regulate our consciences, our ideas, our wills, our education, our opinions, our work, our trade, our talents, our recreation.

Its function is to prevent the rights of one person from interfering with rights of another in any of these matters.”

— Frédéric Bastiat, “The Law” [1850]

The Enumerated Powers Act

HB1180 passes both Houses, heading to Governor’s Desk

Sen. Greg Brophy (R-Wray)

is the sponsor of HB1180,

the Brady Bypass bill.

5/04/2009 – The Brady Bypass bill, HB1180 by Rep. Steve King and Senator Greg Brophy, has passed the House and Senate, and is heading for Governor Ritter’s desk.

The bill survived a battle in the Senate, where anti-gun lobbyists and legislators tried to amend the bill to require a statewide database of permit holders.

Due to the heroic defense of the bill by Sen. Greg Brophy — who called the legislation a mere pre-approval, since concealed carry permit holders have already undergone an extensive background check — the bill stayed true to the intent of the original bill.

Senate Democrats did manage to change the bill with two amendments:

1. Standardizing the look of an actual permit. Though this is not something we wanted, it’s not a deal killer.

2. Requiring a second form of ID to utilize the Brady Bypass feature. Again, no reason to kill the bill.

The process for buying a firearm would not change for a non-permit holder: to buy a new firearm through a dealer (or even a privately sold firearm at a gun show) the purchaser would still be required to undergo an illegal Brady Registration Check (don’t think that’s unconstitutional? Read Article II Section 13 of the Colorado Constitution, which says the “…right of no person to keep and bear arms….shall be called into question…”).

For a valid Colorado Concealed Carry Permit Holder who is buying a firearm, the process is quite a bit streamlined, though permit holders will be required to have a permit issued after January 2010 (with the new “standardized” look). They will simply present their CCW permit (again, only Colorado permits allow you to bypass) to a dealer, and they’ll skip the wait of a Brady Check (though there are still requirements to fill out the BATFE’s 4473 form).

What you can do:

Call Governor Ritter’s office at (303) 866-2471 and urge him to sign HB1180. If you prefer e-mail, click here to demand Bill Ritter sign HB-1180, the Brady Bypass Bill. Want to help even more? Become a Force Multiplier!

Our office has literally tens of thousands of phone numbers for Colorado gun owners and freedom activists.

We’d like to contact them all — and give them the opportunity to be connected (on our dime) to Governor Ritter’s office to urge him to allow HB1180 to become law.

But we simply can’t afford it — unless you help, today!

You can donate to this project and become a Force Multiplier by clicking here:

https://rmgo.ejoinme.org/MyPages/SignHB1180/tabid/142529/Default.aspx

But you must do it quickly. It takes time to set up this kind of program, and we can’t afford to do it unless we get a lot of help.

Any amount you can donate — whether it’s $50, $500 or just $5 — will be used to contact more gun owners to get this bill passed.