Political Jules for Love, Life & the Pursuit of Politics

I was sent some links of the PDF version of the House obamacare bill (HR 3200), as well as the PDF version of the Amendments that came out of the Senate HELP committee to be added to the Bill, so I could read them.  The link for both files is here.

Anyway, I was browsing the amendments to see what kind of improvements (if any) were to be included in obamacare that placated the blue dogs. 

I mostly wanted to inform myself so I could accurately defend my opposition of this bill.   I researched this on my own, and discovery is in NO WAY a of a bunch of regurgitated talking points that you sometimes see passed around these days.  However, you have my blessing to share these results with others to see what they think about it. 

I would also encourage anyone to find out the information for themselves by looking at the bill and the amendments on your own.  The table of contents can direct you to important points, but you can also search for key words using the “find” function to weed through the thousands of pages quickly.

 I came across an amendment (text included below) to the Bill that really worries me.  It talks about establishing a citizen reserve corps.  This is nowhere to be found in the original text of the Bill, but only in the amendments from the Senate committee to be added to the Bill. 

From what I can tell, this citizen corps. Army establishment will be buried in a section of the bill that has nothing to do with a citizen army.  It seems to me as if the Senate is going to stick this in the bill and hope no one notices.  I do not want to panic anyone because honestly I am unsure if it is something that ominous, but if someone can provide any additional insight, I gladly welcome all input.

Additionally, I do not know or understand what a citizen army has to do with improving or reforming health care.

 SEC. 430. ESTABLISHING A READY RESERVE CORPS.

 Section 203 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 204) is amended to read as follows:

SEC. 203. COMMISSIONED CORPS AND READY RESERVE CORPS.

(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—

(1) IN GENERAL.—There shall be in the Service a commissioned Regular Corps and a Ready Reserve Corps for service in time of national emergency.

(2) REQUIREMENT.—All commissioned officers shall be citizens of the United States and shall be appointed without regard to the civil-service laws and compensated without regard to the Classification Act of 1923, as amended.

(3) APPOINTMENT.—Commissioned officers of the Ready Reserve Corps shall be appointed by the President and commissioned officers of the Regular Corps shall be appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate.

(4) ACTIVE DUTY.—Commissioned officers of the Ready Reserve Corps shall at all times be subject to call to active duty by the Surgeon General, including active duty for the purpose of training.

(5) WARRANT OFFICERS.—Warrant officers may be appointed to the Service for the purpose of providing support to the health and delivery systems maintained by the Service and any warrant officer appointed to the Service shall be considered for purposes of this Act and title 37, United States Code, to be a commissioned officer within the Commissioned Corps of the Service.

(b) ASSIMILATING RESERVE CORP OFFICERS INTO THE REGULAR CORPS.—Effective on the date of enactment of the Affordable Health Choices Act, all individuals classified as officers in the Reserve Corps under this section (as such section existed on the day before the date of enactment of such Act) and serving on active duty shall be deemed to be commissioned officers of the Regular Corps.

(c) PURPOSE AND USE OF READY RESERVE.—

(1) PURPOSE.—The purpose of the Ready Reserve Corps is to fulfill the need to have additional Commissioned Corps personnel available on short notice (similar to the uniformed service’s reserve program) to assist regular Commissioned Corps personnel to meet both routine public health and emergency response missions.

(2) USES.—The Ready Reserve Corps shall—

(A) participate in routine training to meet the general and specific needs of the Commissioned Corps;

(B) be available and ready for involuntary calls to active duty during national emergencies and public health crises, similar to the uniformed service reserve personnel;

(C) be available for backfilling critical positions left vacant during deployment of active duty Commissioned Corps members, as well as for deployment to respond to public health emergencies, both foreign and domestic; and

(D) be available for service assignment in isolated, hardship, and medically underserved communities (as defined in section 399SS) to improve access to health services.

(d) FUNDING.—For the purpose of carrying out the duties and responsibilities of the Commissioned Corps under this section, there are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary to the Office of the Surgeon General for each of fiscal years 2010 through 2014.  Funds appropriated under this subsection shall be used for recruitment and training of Commissioned Corps Officers.