And you wonder why we get unconstitutional legislation?

It's because we have legislators like Phil Hare,(D)-IL, who admits that he doesn't care about the U.S. Constitution then tries to quote it and shows that he doesn't know the difference between that document and the Declaration of Independence.


Hare is backpedaling now and trying to rewrite history on this episode, but a few things are undeniable. Hare, when asked how he could support such an unconstitutional bill, cuts the man off and says "I don't worry about the Constitution on this to be honest..."

"I care more about the people that are dying every day that don't have health insurance," Rep. Hare goes on to say.

"You care more about that than the Constitution you swore to uphold?" the man asks him.

"I believe it says we have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," Rep. Hare tells him, quoting not the Constitution but the preamble of the Declaration of Independence.

To quote one of my earliest role models: "What a Maroon."

Now granted, some of Hare's questioners were a bit rude and disrespectful, but Hare didn't exactly rise above it as one might expect a Congressman to be able to do. And even I have to question his claim of having read the Obamacare bill "three times" in the limited time that it was even available in final form. At 2,700 pages, that would actually be 8,100 pages read, as the one questioner states. I would not personally have called Hare a liar to his face--that's just crass and not appropriate when you're trying to have an actual discussion--but I'd have loved to draw him out on that extremely unlikely claim a bit more.

But Hare loses the most points when he just up and walks out. Like it or not, Congressman, you work for those people and had an obligation to try to talk to them instead of sinking to their rather juvenile level and then going even lower.

If you ever need more proof that elections are important, or that we get the government that we deserve, you have only to watch people like Congressman Phil Hare in action. Granted, Illinois' 17th Congressional District appears to be heavily Gerrymandered, undoubtedly to ensure that a Democrat retains the seat, but it's still pathetic that out of that whole area, Hare was the most educated, conversant and diplomatic man that the Democrats and local voters could find for the job.

In sum, we got Obamacare because legislators like Hare are currently in the majority, and we have legislators like Hare because better people decline to run or are rejected by the apathetic and/or ignorant voters who actually show up on election day.

What's that you say? You didn't vote? Well then this mess is partly your fault, too. When smart people shirk their duty to vote, the dim bulbs who show up and the interests that push them to the polls get to decide who makes the laws and appoints the judges.