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I saw no references to arming or giving police style powers to said medical professionals.
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LTG Boykin does describe this as a constabulary forces which by definition, suggest an armed police force. Therefore I agree with you that without specific requirements to arm this corps of medical professionals, your point is valid.
The point I do agree with Boykin on though is that by creating such a corps, with a chain of command, rank structure, pay scale and alert system similar to the military in order to respond to natural disasters at home and abroad, is pernicious at best. It's not a far cry away from creating a truly constabulary force, by definition and I'd suggest that it perhaps wouldn't be in the "too hard to do category" to expand the role of such an organization either. The ramifications of this would truly be huge. Also, the bigger question for me would be why would we create such a force along these militarily similar lines? Shouldn’t our media be asking these questions as they would have if Bush had proposed such a sceme?
So, I for one do find these authorizations written into the HC bill to be quite disturbing, especially without further explanation. That said though, I think that any such organization is much less probable with the results of the last election having changed the political landscape. And of course, the Supreme Court under Roberts is still a conservative court. The unconstitutionality of such a far reaching corps, as Boykin suggest, may still be a saving grace as well. That and of course, hope springs eternal that sanity would prevail in the end.....jd
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