Government Agents are Coming to Check on Your Children

Botox-riddled Democratic Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi is infamous for saying in 2009 that Congress needed to pass Obamacare so that we, the people, could see what’s in it. The phrase sounded idiotic when it was uttered, but Pelosi is smarter than she often appears. What she really meant to say was that the bill needed to pass before we could see what’s in it … and with good reason.

This week we learned that buried deep within what is quickly becoming the Unaffordable Care Act is a neat little section called the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program. In practice, MIECHV authorizes state agencies to send government inspectors to your house if a “home visit” is seen as appropriate per U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) guidelines – the ones meant to “create social and physical environments that promote good health for all.”

So no longer are suspicions of child abuse or neglect the proper criteria to justify government agents examining private residences. We’ve now reached a point where parents can expect a visit if their home doesn’t meet the government’s definition of an environment conducive to “good health for all.”

I’m not making this stuff up, folks. In fact, HHS has allocated $224 million to the state agents who will be carrying out the home invasions ... I mean visits. Home visits.

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is on record stating: “Home visiting programs play a critical role in the nation’s efforts to help children get off to a strong start. Parenting is a tough job, and helping parents succeed pays big dividends in a child’s well-being and healthy development.”

Well, Ms. Sebelius, I’d like to introduce you to something called the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution. It states that: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated …,” and it supersedes your Orwellian blather about the right of government bureaucrats to supervise the lawful raising on one’s own children.

It’s only a matter of time before the MIECHV program produces additional constitutional challenges to Obamacare … and they won’t be just related to the Fourth Amendment. Is it too far-fetched to envision a day when HHS demands to inspect the homes of registered gun owners to make sure firearms are stored according to its definition of “child safety”? Are we to think that is beyond possible for an administration that brought us (and lied to us about) a massive, unlawful domestic spying operation and political targeting by the IRS?

Jim Signorile
Managing Editor, The Sovereign Investor