(video) How School Choice Benefits Students:

read the corresponding article concerning school choice and it’s benefits.

If you are a parent, how do you choose to educate your child/ren? Comment below!

Judge  Roger Vinson, a Senior United States District Judge for the Northern District of Florida, has determined that ―The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act‖ (―the Act‖) is unconstitutional.1  Judge Vinson begins his opinion by reiterating the importance of the federalist system.  In framing the question before the  court, Vinson emphasized that this question is not necessarily about the health care system, but about the  federalist system and the ―very important issues regarding the Constitutional role of the Federal government.‖2Supporting this thesis, Vinson quotes Federalist 51 and the 10th Amendment, articulating the Framers intent of a limited federal government.3Vinson states:  ―Rather than being the mere historic relic of a bygone era, the principle behind a central government with limited power has ‗never been more relevant than in this day, when accretion, if not actual accession, of power to the federal government seems not only unavoidable, but even expedient.‘‖4  After motions to dismiss, two issues remained:   (1) whether the individual mandate violates the Commerce Clause (Count I) and (2)  ―[whether] [t]he expansion of Medicaid violates the Spending Clause and principles of federalism protected under the 9th and 10th Amendments‖ (Count IV).5

(read the entire memo)

There’s going to have to be a serious discussion among those 54 and younger concerning the future of benefits, the State of the Union speech, YouCut Ends Unnecessary Government Spending Program (the Presidential Election Campaign Fund) …

Representative Heath Shuler and Representative Jim Cooper introduced two bills aimed at reforming the Congressional redistricting process to lessen the divisive, partisan tone in Washington.

Shuler introduced the Fairness and Independence in Redistricting Act, H.R. 453, which requires states to establish an independent, bipartisan commission to redraw congressional district lines every 10 years following the decennial census. An equal number of commissioners would be appointed by the minority and majority floor leaders in each state’s legislatures. The appointed commissioners would then elect, by majority vote, the commission chairperson. This legislation requires the commission to use geographical contiguity and compactness of district, rather than political affiliations and the impact redistricting will have on incumbent representatives, as criteria for redrawing district lines. If passed H.R. 453 would go into effect for the 2020 redistricting, not 2010.

“The American people should choose their representatives—not the other way around,” Rep. Shuler said. “The current system of gerrymandered districts has left a patchwork of highly-partisan, ideologically skewed Congressional districts, where Representatives are more beholden to their political party than the constituents they were elected to serve. While most Americans identify with the ideological center, too many of our congressional districts don’t reflect that. These gerrymandered districts often result in representatives from both extremes of the political spectrum being elected to Congress who cannot or will not work together for the benefit of all.”

Rep. Cooper introduced companion legislation to H.R. 453, the Redistricting Transparency Act, which requires all proposed redistricting plans to be available online for review and public comment prior to their adoption. This legislation will increase public participation and accountability in the redistricting process, set to begin in most states within in the next week.

“Together, these two pieces of legislation take steps to create a culture of bipartisanship that has been absent in Washington in recent years,” Rep. Shuler said. “If we are to work together in Washington to find solutions to the challenges facing our country, bipartisanship must start at home with the way our congressional districts are drawn. The result will be a system where the American people—not political parties—have the advantage in our political process.”

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Living in severely gerrymandered districts myself- NC12 and State NC32, I am the first one to raise my hand in support of redistricting reform. However, I’m not so sure this is the best way to go about it. What are your thoughts?

– Wendy
Find me on Facebook and Twitter

RALEIGH — Newly elected Republican House Speaker Thom Tillis of Cornelius sat down with Carolina Journal reporters on Tuesday for a wide-ranging interview on the 2011-2012 legislative session. Excerpts from the interview are below:

On cooperation between the House and Senate on budgeting:

On when the session will wrap up:

On how the first week will pan out legislatively:

On legalizing video poker and having the government run it:

On eliminating the charter school cap:

On reducing the number of government-run boards and commissions:

On addressing underfunding of the state pension system:

On abortion-related bills:

On a marriage amendment:

• On cooperation between the House and Senate on budgeting: “We are inviting the Senate to be actively engaged in all of our deliberations. We think that by doing that we can minimize the amount of time that will be required once the Senate ultimately gets [the budget], and virtually eliminate the need for conference.”

• On when the session will wrap up:
“I was told as a speaker you need to be careful and not stake yourself out. There are a lot of things I’m going to stake myself out on, and one of them is that we need to get out of here sooner. We’re starting a month earlier than we normally have, so as far as I’m concerned we’ve gained a month just by organizing as quickly and starting … We want to get done and get out of here.”

• On how the first week will pan out legislatively: “We have a 100-day agenda. We intend to fulfill the promises that were made in that 100-day agenda. Now, whether that is legislation that is filed and moved over the next two weeks, or begins to move in the 90th day of that agenda, with the goal of getting it introduced and moved, we’ll work that out as our legislative agenda takes shape, as we get a real understanding for what we need to do with the budget, what we need to do with redistricting, the capacity that we have to move the other bills and in what sequence. We’ve had people come out there and say, ‘You ran on jobs and the economy and redistricting, and now you’re going and talking about another agenda item.’ Although I want to be lean, the expectation that we would only pass two bills this cycle is probably not right. We will pass several hundred bills, and there will be far fewer introduced than in past sessions.”

• On legalizing video poker and having the government run it: “We’ve got to take a look at it. We have a number of members in our caucus that are uncomfortable with it. We have a fair number of members who think that this is at least on the fringe of the whole idea of limited government and free market principles. So we’re going to have to have those very valid arguments weighed in the caucus and then in the committee process.”

• On eliminating the charter school cap: “We will send a very clear message that we believe public charter schools are an important part of the options we provide families to get our kids educated, and to be in combination with continuing to make progress on our traditional public schools.”

• On reducing the number of government-run boards and commissions: “I think that it is wise to reduce the number of boards and commissions, and it is intuitively obvious that we have too many of them. We’ve just grown. Some of them have a difficult time getting members, I understand … I haven’t seen the governor’s proposal. We applaud her for the thought process. But if we see boards and commissions that are more likely to promote free enterprise, business-friendly policy, we’ll have to take a look at that, because we may see that there are suggested for elimination that may have a real value.”

• On addressing underfunding of the state pension system: “It’s part of our overall fiscal strategy. It is just bad management to leave that out there and to not fund it. The other question is, long term, how do we manage those decisions? To what extent do we have to look at alternatives to the current pension system? We’ll have people look at that.”

• On abortion-related bills: “We have members in our caucus who have very strong feelings about those bills. We’re going to look at them and give them serious consideration. Again, it all has to be in balance … Those sorts of bills that we believe, first, will be of value to the expectant mother, and may also save a few lives, I don’t think that’s limiting abortion. We can’t, by law, limit abortions. What we can do is provide expectant mothers additional information that may cause them to exercise a choice that is beyond the only choice some people want or expect a mother to have.”

• On a marriage amendment: “The marriage amendment is something else we’re looking at. We’re conferring with the Senate. It will be a product of our caucus, and I have encouraged all of our members to sit down and talk about our legislative agenda, make recommendations. You’ll see those recommendations come out over the next several weeks.”

David N. Bass is an associate editor of Carolina Journal. Find him on Twitter and Facebook.
Article originally posted January 28, 2011 on Carolina Journal.

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NC TEA Party takes no credit whatsoever for the writing of this article.