Obama Breeds Rebellion Among the States
By Alan
Caruba
The
resistance to Obamacare is writing a new chapter in U.S. history. It may well
become the most unpopular law since Prohibition became an Amendment to the
Constitution in 1919. By 1933, another Amendment repealed it.
Obamacare
passed by a straight Democratic party vote on Christmas Eve in 2009. No
Republican voted for it and, as one poll recently revealed, a third of
Americans are still unaware it is the law of the land. A divided Supreme Court
gave it a pass, calling it a tax, but it is a profoundly unconstitutional law
insofar as the federal government may not pass a law that requires Americans to
purchase something and to fine them
if they do not. It is also playing havoc with the economy, delaying recovery as
it deters hiring and encourages firing.
Nonetheless,
a number of states have gone on record seeking to nullify its enforcement and
some are doing the same as regards gun control. Arizona became famous when it
passed its own immigration law in response to the federal government’s failure
to protect its border with Mexico. The proposed “Gang of Eight” immigration law is facing
stiff opposition for its various provisions, most of which do not address the
central issue of security on the southern border.
How out of
touch is the President? He went to Mexico and blamed the violence arising from
its drug cartels on America, saying “Most of the guns used here to commit
violence came from America.” He made no mention of the scandalous “Fast and
Furious” scheme in which the ATF actually ran guns into Mexico, claiming they
would track them. It took an executive order to throw a blanket of silence over
it and a compliant media to ignore that scandal.
It is,
however, Obamacare that poses the greatest threat to the nation, intruding on
the patient-doctor relationship, robbing billions from Medicare to pay for it, requiring
states to fund more Medicaid when many are strapped to meet other needs, and putting
16% of the nation’s economy under federal control.
A total of
twenty-seven states have filed suit against Obamacare. Two federal judges have
upheld its individual mandate to purchase health insurance and two others have
ruled that it is unconstitutional.
Twelve
states have introduced versions of the Federal Health Care Nullification Act
that was drafted by the Tenth Amendment Center. They include Texas, Montana,
Wyoming, Oregon, Alabama, and Maine. All declare that Obamacare is “hereby
declared to be invalid, shall not be recognized, is specifically rejected, and
shall be considered null and void and of no effect.”
In South Carolina, on May 1st, the state House passed a bill that declares
the bill null and void and goes a step further, criminalizing its
implementation. Earlier Governor Nikki Haley, in her state of the state
address, said that South Carolina does not want and cannot afford Obamacare,
saying of the President’s namesake, “not now, not ever.”
The
following day, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback sent a letter in response to
Attorney General Eric Holder’s opposition to its Second Amendment Protection
Act, declaring it unconstitutional; essentially tell him to piss off. “The
people of Kansas,” said the Governor, “have clearly expressed their sovereign
will.” The same day, Missouri passed a comparable law protecting the Second
Amendment.
Not since
the years leading up to the Civil War was kicked off on December 20, 1860 when
South Carolina voted for secession, has there been such open resistance to the
mandates of the federal government by the states on a range of issues. Earlier,
in 1832, President Andrew Jackson had threatened to send troops to South
Carolina to enforce federal laws.
Nullification,
however, will not succeed as a means to rid the nation of Obamacare. To Obama’s
dismay, his gun control law failed in Congress when even members of his party
joined in voting against it. The fate of immigration reform remains unknown but
it will come to a vote soon enough.
The reason why nullification will fail
is embedded in the Constitution. The Supremacy Clause states “This
Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in
Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the
Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the land; and the
judges in every State shall be found thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or
Laws of any State to the Contrary, notwithstanding.”
That has
not discouraged the legislatures of many states from expressing their
opposition to Obamacare, intrusions on the Second Amendment right of citizens
to bear arms, and to demand the federal government enforce the laws regarding
its borders.
There
isn’t a constitutional scholar that does not support the Supremacy Clause. The
Heritage Foundation has a policy paper on the subject of nullification that says
“there is no clause or implied power in either the national or the various
state constitutions that enables states to veto federal laws unilaterally.”
The
states, though, can express their displeasure and their opposition to federal
laws and that is what lies at the heart of the spate of nullification laws that
have been passed. As sovereign republics, the states can and do express
themselves and, through their elected Senators and Representatives, have the
power in concert to repeal obnoxious and injurious federal laws.
That will
be the fate of Obamacare.
© Alan
Caruba, 2013
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