Saturday, May 1, 2010

Florida Moves Toward Nullification of ObamaCare

Florida will put ObamaCare to the voters this November. The Personal Liberty News Desk reports that Florida's legislature has voted to allow its citizens to send a message to Washington this November.

In an effort to blunt the impact of the sweeping healthcare reform passed by Congress and signed by President Obama late last month, the Florida legislature has passed an act that aims to protect the state’s healthcare system from interference.

Florida’s Healthcare Freedom Act (HJR 37/SJR 72), sponsored by Florida Representative Scott Plakon and Florida Senator Carey Baker, passed the House and Senate and will appear on the November ballot.

The legislation, which was inspired by the American Legislative Exchange Council’s Freedom of Choice in Healthcare Act, blocks a state or federal requirement for individuals to purchase health insurance.

"Protecting the individual freedom for people to make their own healthcare decisions is a priority," said ALEC health task force director Christie Herrera.

She added that "the amount of support from state legislators and policy makers for this legislation has been tremendous."

ALEC’s Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act has now been introduced or proposed in 42 states.


The Left has been slowly nudging the United States toward a combination of socialism and fascism for over a century. They have done so in small doses, usually masked as a heroic effort to avert some crisis. Liberty-loving Americans should have stood up more quickly, but they are standing now. The Obama administration mistook his carefully crafted electoral victory for an endorsement of a full-fledged move toward unquestioned statism. He was wrong.

Leftists can engage in all the name-calling and demonization they want. Bring it on! The stakes have never been higher. Individual liberty has never been more threatened by any American administration. The American people get it. The Statists are now experiencing the blow back. This November is shaping up as not only a major loss for the Obamacrats, but also a renewal of America's love of individual liberty and limited government.

The text of the Florida Healthcare Freedom Act (HJR37)

Bob McDonnell's Strange Reaction To Arizona Immigration Measure

I'm really not sure what to make of Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell's comments about Arizona's controversial new anti-illegal immigration law. From Tertium Quids:

For those Virginians hoping the Commonwealth might adopt its own version of
Arizona's recent legislation designed to curb illegal immigration, Governor Bob McDonnell had some carefully chosen words on WTOP this past week.

I'm concerned about the whole idea of carrying papers and always having to be able to prove your citizenship. That brings up some shades of some other regimes that weren't necessarily helpful to democracy.

Leaving aside the fact that comparing one's political or ideological opponents (obliquely or not) to totalitarians is the most cliched of political tropes, the governor does raise an important question. What's the point of solving America's illegal immigration problem if it comes at the price of Gestapo-like squads of armed bureaucrats roaming the streets demanding "Papers, please" from every person in sight?

Of course, the problem with such an analogy is that Arizona's law only allows police to request proof of citizenship from people already involved in committing a crime.
But try explaining that to Al Sharpton. The governor went on to muse that

There's a divide, I'm finding, between Republicans who are ready to accept Rasmussen poll results as validation that the bill is a winner for them, and Republicans who see long-term damage in Arizona.

It's unclear what "long-term damage" Gov. McDonnell is referring to, unless he means Republican political fortunes in Arizona. In which case, he might be encouraged to note the law's effectiveness at helping illegal immigrants choose to accept the hospitality and public services of other states.

In other words, Arizona taxpayers are already seeing a benefit, and the law hasn't even gone into effect yet.

Meanwhile, Virginia taxpayers shell out $1.7 billion per year to provide for the needs of illegal immigrants here. Costs which our governor helps to cover by hiking taxes during a recession and cleverly calling them "fees."

Much like his temerity and failure to act with regard to repealing Virginia's corporate income tax, while unemployment sits at record levels and the budget drowns in red ink, Gov. McDonnell is once again so concerned with not rocking the boat that he can't be bothered to admit it may be sinking.



It is one thing to run as a Conservative and cultivate such a reputation in a heavily-Conservative state, especially one that has a serious case of buyer's remorse for its 2008 electoral vote for Barry Vladimir Hussein Soetoro Obama. It sounds as if McDonnell is channeling John McCain and Lindsey Graham in the land of the RINOs. Is McDonnell now trying to prove that he isn't TOO conservative? This bears monitoring.