You Couldn't Vote, Laura -- But Barack Could Still Be President

The ineffable Laura Skaer, who runs the Northwest Mining Association, is upset that Interior Secretary Salazar thinks it's past time to reform the The General Mining Act of 1872. She doesn't want to pay royalties on gold, silver, and other valuable minerals taken by mining conglomerates from the public lands because, she now claims, it would create a dependence on foreign sources of minerals like copper, zinc, and titanium. (Note to Ms. Skaer: The foreign countries from which we might get these minerals (unless they are kleptocracies like the Congo) do extract mineral royalties, and even in the Congo the warlords get their share of the take. Royalties do not equate to no mining. Oil, gas, and coal all pay royalties on the public lands. We certainly produce a lot of those commodities.)

But it's Ms. Skaer's logic that takes my breath away. We shouldn't hurry to amend the 1872 Act, she says, because, "The U.S. Constitution is about 100 years older than the mining law. And I don't hear anyone calling it out of date."

Actually, since we passed the mining law, the U.S. Constitution has been amended not once but 12 times.

If we hadn't updated the Constitution, Laura Skaer wouldn't be eligible to vote or serve in public office. Barack Obama could, though, since the 15th Amendment guaranteeing the right to vote for all races was ratified in 1870, just two years before the General Mining Act. Members of the Senate would still be elected by state legislatures, 18-year-olds would not be able to vote, poll taxes would be permissible, there would be no federal income tax, and President Obama could serve as many terms as he and the American people chose.

Since the General Mining Act was passed, we have tried -- and abandoned -- Prohibition, moved the President's swearing in date from March to January, created a succession path if the Vice-President dies or is removed from office, established Social Security and the Federal Reserve Bank, and invented the automobile, airplane, telephone, and Internet.

In various forms, this absurd argument that the General Mining Act is inviolable simply because it's old pops up all over the Internet. It appears to be a serious part of the mining industry's efforts to stop reform.

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Comments

[demigod]

You hear all kinds of idiocy like this from the Health Care reform crazies - they know they sound like maniacs so they try to link their arguments to the "Founding Fathers" and to the ideals of some early American utopia when people were "self-sufficient" - translation, women took care of everything and never got paid. Then you ask them if they would give up their Medicare, and they turn colors. The craziest of them say YES. But most know damned well that their mother or father died some terrible lingering death and if it weren't for Medicare, they would have lost everything they owned making payments to doctors and hospitals. When my mother was slowly dying I learned the critical value of Medicare. We always swore we'd never put her in a home, but then she had a stroke and there was nothing else we could do. It was over $6,000 per month just for the old gal's room, and I had to bring in a TV. God bless the Democrats for passing Medicare. The Republicans just want to leave us to the mercies of the profit hungry insurance companies. These screamers truly are insane.

[Rhetticent]

Demi, I hate to confuse you with the facts, but Medicaid, not Medicare, pays for nursing home care.

It's a lot easier to dismiss those who oppose your position by calling them names.... but if you study the conservative position, you might learn that they don't oppose Medicare and Medicaid, they just want the government to make them solvent before they add 40-50 million uninsured to the existing problem.

Conservatives see the thoughtful approach as eliminating the government regulations that restrict health insurance companies to only one state, and by eliminating the mandates that every policy cover a myriad of problems that most people don't need. Our state mandates 27 different kinds of coverage: I cannot buy a policy without them, even though I'll never use them. That's what has increased the cost of health care premiums, but the media won't tell you that. Let the insurance companies compete nationally, eliminating the administrative expense of, for example, Blue Cross having to run 50 different companies. Allow them to sell a simple, catastrophic, high deductible policy at a very low rate and then require everyone to be insured. It works very well for car insurance, and we don't need government involvement or higher taxes. Continue to attack waste and fraud in Medicare and Medicaid, and means-test Medicare the same way we do Medicaid.

If these approaches do not work, then let's take another look at it. Does this really sound so crazy to you?