"Hugo Chavez Isn't Dead,"

"Hugo Chavez isn't dead. He's in the White House."

That's the dry observation of constitutional attorney Mark R. Levin, referencing another breach of federal law by this administration:

Obamavote: Health care application registers voters too

The 61-page online Obamacare draft application for health care includes asking if the applicant wants to register to vote, raising the specter that pro-Obama groups being tapped to help Americans sign up for the program will also steer them to register with the Democratic Party.

On page 59, after numerous questions about the applicant's identity and qualification for Obamacare, comes the question: "Would you like to register to vote?" The placement of the question could lead some to believe they have to register to vote to get health care.

In the introduction of the document, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services declare: "This document -- the 'questionnaire' -- represents each possible item that may need to be asked for successful eligibility determinations."

In a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius Monday, Rep. Charles Boustany Jr., chairman of the House Ways and Means Oversight subcommittee, said HHS is overstepping its bounds by a mile... "The position of the question could lead some to think voter registration is somehow tied to subsidy eligibility..."

...What does HHS plan to do with all the information it collects on each applicant, and will pro-Obama groups like AARP and Families USA -- which might be tapped as "navigators" to sign people up to Obamacare -- steer them to register as Democrats...

...He added that the Affordable Care Act does not let HHS probe into an applicant's choice to vote. What's more, he said the Paperwork Reduction Act requires that federal agencies seek only information needed to do their job.

This is the kind of thing you see in Banana Republics. It's the kind of thing in which tinpot dictators engage.

To paraphrase Dr. Levin, we no longer live in a Constitutional Republic. We are living in a society so removed from our history, traditions and laws, that our nation's founders wouldn't recognize it. Not because of modern conveniences or the luxuries their creation facilitated, but because of our politicians' infidelity to the Constitution, whether because of greed, malevolence or Utopianism.