America needs serious health care reform ... total overhaul of how it's paid for, how services are delivered, serious cost control, and care for all. That takes 2,000 pages?

Obama was a constitutional professor at the university of chicago, yet he said that "the constitution is a charter of NEGATIVE liberties" I don't know, it seems to me that the liberties that the constitution protects are positive, not negative...wouldn't you agree?

Besides, this "living document" theory didn't come around until approximately the 1930's. That's why congress couldn't just ban alcohol, they needed a constitutional amendment to do that. It's also why congress taxed, and not banned machine guns in 1934...because they knew a ban wouldn't stand a constitutional challenge.

Why would we need to pass constitutional amendments if we could get everything done by passing general laws?

So apparently, the guys who wrote the constitution, and their intent on what it was designed to be hold no weight to you.

So, if my income is low enough that I can't afford to buy into the governments "affordable" health care plan (which is currently the case), I'm going to be fined by the government. Since I'll be unable to pay that fine, I'm going to be sent to prison.....nice work. I guess the Democrats (and 1 republican) are really fighting for the little man!

Secs. 1158-1160 (pp. 499-520) initiates programs to reduce payments for patient care to what it costs in the lowest cost regions of the country. This will reduce payments for care (and by implication the standard of care) for hospital patients in higher cost areas such as New York and Florida.

Sec. 1161 (pp. 520-545) cuts payments to Medicare Advantage plans (used by 20% of seniors). Advantage plans have warned this will result in reductions in optional benefits such as vision and dental care.

The medical home is this decade's version of HMO-restrictions on care. A primary-care provider manages access to costly specialists and diagnostic tests for a flat monthly fee. The bill specifies that patients may have to settle for a nurse practitioner rather than a physician as the primary-care provider. Medical homes begin with demonstration projects, but the HHS secretary is authorized to "disseminate this approach rapidly on a national basis

Sec. 202 (p. 91-92) of the bill requires you to enroll in a "qualified plan." If you get your insurance at work, your employer will have a "grace period" to switch you to a "qualified plan," meaning a plan designed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. If you buy your own insurance, there's no grace period. You'll have to enroll in a qualified plan as soon as any term in your contract changes, such as the co-pay, deductible or benefit.

Now, show me where they intended for it to be a "living document" that you claim it to be.

“Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, BUT ONLY THOSE SPECIFICALLY ENUMERATED.” -Thomas Jefferson

“With respect to the two words ‘general welfare,’ I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators.” -- James Madison

“To take from one, because it is thought his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to everyone the free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.” -- Thomas Jefferson

We have such a hodge-podge mess of health care financing in this country -- both capitalist and socialist. The VA is socialist as ironic as that sounds.

Of all the world's developed democracies, the USA has the highest health care costs per person yet we rank below all the others in care for all. We are the ONLY country that allows corporations to make a profit off the pain of others. We do not have the finest health care system in the world. Japan, France, Germany, Austria, Canada, and Britain beat us.

The current bill from what I've learned is not the answer either. We need health care for all with all paying as they are able. No one should go bankrupt because they get sick.

What this bill clearly is, is UNCONSTITUTIONAL. Article 1 sec 8 of the CONSTITUTION tells us what the federal government CAN do. Nowhere does it say to imprison people and fine them if they don't have health insurance, in order to give others health care coverage.

Read what the founding fathers intended, including about the "general welfare" clause. You will see that this monstrosity that is the U.S. Federal government is NOT what they intended.