“What our founders put forth in our founding documents, which is life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And that is exactly what the Affordable Care Act helps to guarantee.”

Those were the words, last night, of Nancy Pelosi.

Somewhere, on the Montpelier Estate, James Madison, the Father of our Constitution just rolled over in his grave…and extended a middle finger in the general direction of Nancy Pelosi.

Along with being a brilliant political theorist and statesman, Madison was a keen judge of character.

Just as Madison was a great American, another such man of renown, Noah Webster, provided a definition with which, one must suspect, Nancy Pelosi has no known relationship.

LIBERTY, n. 1: [Noun] Freedom from restraint, in a general sense, and applicable to the body, or to the will or mind. The body is at liberty, when not confined; the will or mind is at liberty, when not checked or controlled. A man enjoys liberty, when no physical force operates to restrain his actions or volitions..   2: [Noun] Natural liberty, consists in the power of acting as one thinks fit, without any restraint or control, except from the laws of nature. It is a state of exemption from the control of others, and from positive laws and the institutions of social life. This liberty is abridged by the establishment of government..   3: [Noun] Civil liberty, is the liberty of men in a state of society, or natural liberty, so far only abridged and restrained, as is necessary and expedient for the safety and interest of the society, state or nation. A restraint of natural liberty, not necessary or expedient for the public, is tyranny or oppression. civil liberty is an exemption from the arbitrary will of others, which exemption is secured by established laws, which restrain every man from injuring or controlling another. Hence the restraints of law are essential to civil liberty. The liberty of one depends not so much on the removal of all restraint from him, as on the due restraint upon the liberty of others. In this sentence, the latter word liberty denotes natural liberty..

When Madison wrote of Life…LIBERTY…and the Pursuit of Happiness…One can quickly see that Mr. Webster had a much greater idea of what was meant by…”Liberty.”

There is, however, a great deal more going on here than the obvious stupidity of Pelosi’s statement and to cull it out, one must look at what exactly Obamacare or “The Affordable Care Act” actually is.

Obamacare is the extensive intrusion of government into the lives of Americans. It expands government to regulate inactivity and forces Americans to purchase a good or service they may well not wish to purchase and penalizes those who don’t do it.

Within Pelosi’s absurd statement, we find 3 key provisions.

1)      Life.

In the liberal/socialist world where Pelosi and others dwell, life is something which the government controls. It is the government which decides who lives and to what lengths one’s life can extend. In a perfect liberal/socialist world, every aspect of a person’s life would be controlled or regulated by the government and the needs for life would be doled out to people by the government. Obamacare, in the liberal/socialist world, is a huge step in that direction.

2)      Liberty

In the liberal/socialist world, a person’s liberty is whatever the government says it is. Never mind that when the government dictates the terms of liberty, liberty itself ceases to exist. Obamacare establishes that Americans liberty to make their own choices is limited to what choices are offered them by the liberal/socialist government. The liberty NOT to partake of ANY of the choices offered by the government is removed.

3)      Pursuit of Happiness

Happiness is subjective. When I was a kid and my mother served Brussels Sprouts, happiness was not what I felt. I was told there were starving children in India who would be happy to have them to which I responded, “They would be happier with green beans.” This did not make my mother happy. While there ARE those to whom happiness is inspired by Brussels Sprouts, there are others to whom Brussels Sprouts inspire barfing. In Pelosi’s world, Obamacare equals Brussels Sprouts. Those to whom happiness is achieved by swallowing them have no problem while the rest are at liberty to pursue happiness through the barfing of them.

Next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, the United States Supreme Court will hear an unprecedented 6 hours of arguments regarding just how much control over YOUR Life, your Liberty and YOUR Pursuit of Happiness the government should be allowed.

The liberal/socialist attorneys will argue that happiness cannot be fulfilled unless government controls your life and your liberty. They will argue that government should and CAN control not only your individual activity but can also control your inactivity and assess penalties upon you FOR your inactivity.

This is, of course, as far removed from the intent of the framers as it could possibly be.

James Madison, in Federalist 45, described the powers granted to the federal government as, “Few and defined… to be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce.”

Remember, Pelosi told us, “But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of controversy.” That was 2 years ago and should be directly contrasted to James Madison’s statement from Federalist 41, “The idea of an enumeration of particulars which neither explain nor qualify the general meaning, and can have no other effect than to confuse or to mislead, is an absurdity.”

Last night, Nancy Pelosi’s attempt to channel the framers by stating, “What our founders put forth in our founding documents, which is life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And that is exactly what the Affordable Care Act helps to guarantee,” provides a great deal of insight, not into the intent of the framers rather, into the inner workings of the minds of liberal/socialists.

Consider, if you will, a small furry rodent producing a rattling squeaky noise, running at top speed while gaining no ground.

In the grand scheme of things, lemmings are little more than free range hamsters and life, outside the confines of their cages allows them, and liberal/socialists, the liberty to pursue their own happiness, up to and over the edge of the government mandated cliff.

As conservatives, guided by the constitution, we will adhere to the true intent of the framers and choose our own path in life and our own form of happiness.

We have the constitutional liberty to do so.