By Dr. Harold Pease
Does the Health Care Bill set up an Obama only approved domestic army of dedicated followers? Buried deep, page 1313, in the very controversial bill of 2700 pages is the establishment of a Ready Reserve Corps for immediate service in time of national emergency. No definition of national emergency is given in relationship to the creation of this group. No explanation of why the National Guard or the fire and police departments already in place are not enough. Nor is there a sentence limiting this new force to health care functions only.
What is clear is that over 320 million is appropriated for the fiscal year 2010, suggesting immediate employment. This will be raised by at least 125 million each year until the total amount for fiscal year 2015 is over 1.1 billion. The money to fund the Ready Reserve Corps is to come “out of any funds in the Treasury.” Of course that actually means from the taxpayer. These amounts suggest the employment of thousands.
This bill already increases the number of IRS employees by 16,000 in order to enforce that everyone gets and pays for healthcare whether they want it or not. So what will the Ready Reserve Corps do? They are to be on short notice “to meet both routine public health and emergency response missions.” But there is no language restricting their use in these cases, nor is there a definition of “public health” or “national emergency.”
Disturbing is that commissioned officers “shall be appointed without regard to the civil-service laws and compensated without regard to the Classification Act of 1923.” Civil service laws are in place to ensure one can be screened for employment with no regard to his or her political views, and classification laws define compensations by classification. Obviously such will be waived.
More disturbing is that “commissioned officers of the Ready Reserve Corp shall be appointed by the President” alone. The “advice and consent of the Senate” is excluded in making the appointment. Since no qualifications are specifically noted (instead noticeably waved) it seems any goon will do. With 30 years experience in studying the rise and fall of great nations, this is especially disturbing to me. It is reminiscent of the Brown Shirts in NAZI Germany, where dissention was hunted and punished.
Especially unsettling in light of the above is candidate Obama’s July 2, 2008 statement. “We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.” Is this the beginning of such a force? The U.S. army has nearly 500,000 troops excluding the National Guard. In 2007 our U.S. Defense budget was 439 billion dollars. Why would we need a domestic security force even larger? And what would it do, pick on dissenters like Tea Party participants? Is this the civilian national security force of which he spoke? Sounds like thug-ocracy and a potential threat to our freedom.