Obama has declared the H1N1 virus to be an official national emergency, a move that will allegedly make it easier for medical centers to handle large amounts of flu patients by “allowing the waiver of some requirements of Medicare, Medicaid and other federal health insurance programs.” However, the CDC and other “experts” are maintaining that there is still “no cause for alarm,” stating that it’s “not a suggestion that things have deteriorated in any way. In no way is the virus more severe or more difficult to manage.”

Reports Reuters:

“It’s important to note that this is a proactive measure — not a response to a new development,” an administration official said. “H1N1 is moving rapidly, as expected. By the time regions or healthcare systems recognize they are becoming overburdened, they need to implement disaster plans quickly,” he said.

Declaring a “national emergency” is just a preparedness measure with no cause for alarm? Well, which is it? H1N1 still is not a large-scale pandemic; the CDC has reported that infections may have peaked in mid-October. There have been no alarming escalations in the numbers of people seeking treatment. So what’s the emergency? The real question is, is that what we should even be asking?

Of course, the media is not filling in the gaps for the public and informing them on what an official state of emergency actually means. It is unclear if this emergency falls under the provisions of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601–1651) of 1976, which allows for:

A federal emergency declaration allows the United States Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to exercise its power to deal with emergency situations … Typically, a state of emergency empowers the executive to name coordinating officials to deal with the emergency and to override normal administrative processes regarding the passage of administrative rules.

The NEA has been extended six times. In 2007, the declaration was strengthened with the issuance of National Security Presidential Directive 51 (NSPD-51), granting the president the authority to take whatever actions necessary in a vaguely defined “catastrophic emergency” including everything from canceling elections to suspending the Constitution, which itself is not “catastrophe-proof.” NSPD-51 was a presidential directive which bypassed all of Congress and was signed by President Bush. It contains provisions for the continuity of the federal government in the event of a “catastrophic emergency.”

Such an emergency is construed as “any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions.” On May 10, 2007, The Washington Post characterized NSPD-51 is a “shadow government” directive. But those were the Bush days; Obama surely isn’t capable of operating some “shadow government” - heavens no.

As if that wasn’t enough, The John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007 states that the military may be used during a “national emergency.” Section 1076 is particularly explicit, and potentially provides for the “mass arrest of political dissidents without trial.”  NDAA specifically mentions an epidemic as a pretext to deploy the military inside the United States.

Government actions have consequences, and are not perpetrated without a degree of foresight. Exploiting this “crisis” (however too-good-to-waste Rahm Emanuel might think it is) could be a dangerously ugly path to begin heading down. Mandatory vaccinations? Quarantine? Involuntary transport? Travel restrictions? The loss of due process? The First Amendment? All of them could be called into question, as a result of the legal groundwork, the seeds of tyranny planted by George W. Bush - and if Bush could do it, Obama can do it. Don’t forget that.

Oh, and in the interest of full disclosure, despite their own father’s declaration of a “national emergency,” the Obama children will not be getting an H1N1 vaccine.

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