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Miller Sues Government Over Social Security Requirement
What’s wrong with this picture? The federal government is a "creature" of the States. How have we been reduced to ‘suing’ the entity which was created to perform a certain few and finitely defined functions pursuant to the Constitution for the united States of America? Who is advising Secretary of State Miller that a law-suit in a federal court – which has no jurisdiction in the several States, and which obviously is laboring under a blatant conflict of interest – could bear positive results for Michigan? The Rockefeller funded and founded Council of State Governments has been promulgating these futile lawsuits for decades. It has become habitual. State legislators are unaware of their Constitutional authority and duty to simply reject – through state legislation – the ‘encouragement, bribery and threats’ of the federal creature... the threat of withheld ‘government’ funds. Funds that have been sucked out of the State to be returned only under certain conditions of compliance by the State, and with the federal mandates attached. How has this happened? Why?.. do we continue along the road of servitude to the creature (federal government)? Revenue Sharing... that’s how and that’s why. And it will continue so long as the majority of politically active Americans continue to focus their attention on U.S. Senators and Representatives expecting a willing surrender of the power (of the purse) given over to them by the acquiescence of State legislators. It was not taken from the States, it was given by the States... and it can be reclaimed by the States. --- Jackie ---
Miller Sues Government Over Social Security Requirement
Detroit Free
Press LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Secretary of State Candice Miller filed a lawsuit on Thursday against the U.S. government over its requirement that Michigan residents give Social Security numbers to get or renew their driver's licenses. States are required under the federal Welfare Reform Act approved by Congress in 1997 to collect Social Security numbers from licensed drivers to help track deadbeat parents. Miller said the requirement, which took effect in October, violates the privacy of Michigan's 6.9 million licensed drivers. "I will not sit idly by while residents' privacy is invaded by an intrusive, ineffective and unfunded mandate," Miller said. Michigan is the only state not complying with the requirement that took effect in October, said Pam Carter of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The state could lose about $900 million annually in federal money if it fails to comply with the requirement. But Miller said Thursday that the lawsuit will not hurt the state's federal money. "There is no imminent danger of jeopardizing funds to the state," Miller said about the lawsuit. "I may be reckless, but I'm not crazy." "I am not going to put $1 billion at risk." While the state Family Independence Agency is not taking a position on the federal lawsuit, agency spokeswoman Maureen Sorbet says Social Security numbers are useful tools in collecting overdue child support payments from deadbeat parents. The Michigan Department of State's lawsuit against the U.S. Health and Human Services Department comes after the agency rejected requests from the FIA and Miller to be exempt from the Social Security requirement. Currently in the state, only commercial drivers are required to give their Social Security numbers when applying for a Michigan license. Michigan already has a database system more efficient and effective than another that would use Social Security numbers, the lawsuit says. "There isn't anybody who would come forward with a Social Security number who we don't already have in a database," Miller said. Michigan's Family Independence Agency successfully collects a large amount of the state's overdue child support from deadbeat parents with access to about 10 million names in several databases, Miller said. The addition of a database with the Social Security numbers of licensed drivers in Michigan would be redundant and costly to develop, Miller said. A database of Social Security numbers just from licensed drivers wold leave out more than 4 million people in Michigan. The lawsuit also names outgoing HHS Secretary Donna Shalala, who is scheduled to complete her term on Jan. 19. President-elect George W. Bush recently nominated Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson to take over the agency. While Thompson is known as a champion of state's rights, Miller said her lawsuit could not wait until after Thompson's appointment to HHS. Gov. John Engler does not support Miller's lawsuit, and doubts that it will be successful because other states are complying with the federal requirement, spokesman John Truscott said. Miller, who said she failed to mount any support for her opposition to the measure among other states and the Michigan congressional delegation, considers herself a "voice in the wilderness." After Miller first announced last year that she would fight the requirement, she said she has received an outpouring of support from Michigan residents for her position. "The citizens of Michigan are outraged by this," she said. |
