Folks have asked for my reaction to Delegate Kilili\u2019s recent report to the Legislature. The issues are miniscule or negligible. No wonder it never really registered on my radar screen.<\/p>\n
What I find of substance, though, is the emergence of what\u2019s known as the Fourth Estate or Branch\u2014federal bureaucracies\u2014that craft and dish out tons of federal rules and regulations annually. This is most troubling given Kilili\u2019s seeming ignorance of the legal relationship of the NMI and Washington under the Covenant. <\/p>\n
Is the CNMI a \u201cterritory\u201d of the United States, sir? Do you realize the implication if you succumb to the definition of \u201cterritory\u201d? Is this an issue so difficult to understand and promote given that it is U.S. law? It boggles the mind how many times\u2014via vital legislation\u2014have you acquiesced the use of the term \u201cterritory\u201d that slams the NMI into a legal definition that compromises the agreement?<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve challenged Kilili to explain his obvious lack of interest to seek exemption of the NMI from Obamacare. He and the Inos administration have remained deaf, mute, and servile on this score. The Guam Legislature has begun working up a storm to delink the territory from it. <\/p>\n
Obamacare isn\u2019t what Obama promoted and openly promised of a cut in healthcare cost per family of some $2,500. In fact, it has forced health premiums to increase beyond the reach of millions of Americans, the very people it\u2019s supposed to help. The same happened here where retirees and regular employees have opted out of their health insurance because it has gone up by 40 percent!<\/p>\n
George F. Will, a columnist with The Washington Post and a Pulitzer Prize winner in 1977 for commentary, wrote how the U.S. Supreme Court has reined in government bullies on contraceptives. Asked he: \u201cWhy did Congress, having enacted Religious Freedom Restoration Act, write this clearly incompatible birth control mandate? Congress didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the ACA, Congress simply required health plans to provide \u2018preventive care\u2019 for women. An Executive Branch agency decided this meant the full menu of 20 technologies. So, during oral argument in March, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy asked: \u2018What kind of constitutional structure do we have if Congress can give an agency the power to grant or not grant a religious exemption based on what the agency determined?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThe answer is: The constitutional structure we have is the kind progressives prefer, wherein more and more decisions are made by unelected and unaccountable executive-branch \u2018experts\u2019 exercising vast discretion.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday\u2019s court\u2014nine fine minds producing written explanations of their reasoning about important principles\u2014has its own discord. It is, nevertheless, a lagoon of logic in the forest primeval of today\u2019s overheated politics and overbearing government. Twice this week the court played its indispensable role as constable, policing portions of this forest where progressivism has produced government guilty of gratuitous bullying.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sorry, Kilili, you\u2019ve failed us on this score. We elected you as the CNMI\u2019s representative, not federal loonies whom we\u2019ve never met nor elected who draft rules and regulations by the tons annually! Have you any sensible answer, sir? Don\u2019t attempt articulating an issue you don\u2019t understand for you\u2019d certainly sound like what a young scholar once said listening to your garbled speech\u2014\u201can abecedarian.\u201d <\/p>\n
Scouting for competency<\/strong> I\u2019m tickled by the academic and professional competence under their belts or whose views I\u2019ve read in the papers demonstrating common sense and vision that are a scarcity among incumbent legislators. Call it a pleasant surprise! Yes, indeed, I\u2019m pleasantly pleased what the new group would bring to the table.<\/p>\n We can begin by throwing the bums out so we start anew with a slate of poised folks equipped with superior academic and professional competence. The tired bunch has been panting for air in the lagoon of illogic and disconnection. There\u2019s a tidal shift (low tide) slowly draining out the various channels here. The old exhausted guards are inching their way through the crowd ready to board their canoes into the sunset. One fond adios and, if this isn\u2019t enough, how about, \u201cNo mas!\u201d<\/p>\n Days of yore<\/strong> Occasionally, I\u2019d quiz myself if going to church were the only thing that the old folks do? Nah! But this is the spiritual group that makes it every break of dawn. In fact, I used to ask if that was the next best thing people do when we reach their golden years. Tried to deny it but here we are navigating our canoes on the same waters since days of yore. Well, live each day to the fullest and spend time with loved ones.<\/p>\n Your grandchildren are your chosen roses, growing and glowing brightly in the beautiful garden of your heart. They too will remember your old face and fragility \u201cWhen I\u2019m 64!\u201d <\/p>\n The words of wisdom conveyed with the virtue of patience by our elderly reminds us that they\u2019ve been up that alley and know what the playground looks like. Often it pays to listen for in those words of wisdom we could draw lasting lessons. If you\u2019ve plundered friends, does it bother your conscience that your new forte has turned you queen or king of deception? Is this something you\u2019d like to leave behind as your snail-like trail of accomplishment?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Folks have asked for my reaction to Delegate Kilili\u2019s recent report to the Legislature. The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[54,26,55,67],"class_list":["post-41368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","tag-agency","tag-cnmi","tag-health-2","tag-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41368\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nBillboards have bloomed all over the island of fully suited new candidates challenging seats currently occupied by exhausted and irrelevant incumbents.<\/p>\n
\nAs an altar boy more than 55 years ago, I\u2019d look at the faces of the old folks who frequent the early morning Mass daily. I literally memorized their faces and specific seat among pews.<\/p>\n
\nThe wrinkled humble faces, the dispensation of well-intended blessings to the young, reduced agility as they age or going to church daily and their eventual departure seems a pattern I\u2019ve seen over the years.<\/p>\n