GOP Governors & States Say ‘No’ To ObamaTax

Twenty-six states are standing up to the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Affordable Care Act. Though Obamacare has been deemed Constitutional under the authority that Congress has to tax, though that was not how the law was even written, many states are declaring that they will not implement insurance exchanges or expand Medicare under Obamacare.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker said that he is not in a hurry to implement the mandate. “We’ll look to the fall and if there is a new president and a new Senate that’s part of a Congress willing to change, that’s the next step — political,” Walker said.

Thonline reports,

Gov. Scott Walker pledged again Thursday not to phase in any parts of President Barack Obama’s signature health care reform law ahead of November’s elections even though the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it is constitutional.
Walker, a Republican, has said he holds out hope the GOP will recapture the White House and gain full control of Congress and repeal the legislation. He reiterated his stance Thursday minutes after the court released its ruling.
“While the court said it was legal, that doesn’t make it right,” Walker said at a news conference. “For us to put time and effort and resources into that doesn’t make a lot of sense.”
erestingly enough, Fox News points out that even if states wanted to implement the provision in the AFfordable Care Act, they couldn’t and here’s why:

The provisions require staffing levels that do not exist and do not have funding, the lobbyist said, adding it would take years to iron out the specifics needed to put the law into action. “It can’t work the way it’s on the books right now. Part of that is that there is so much haze within the act,” said Robert Slayton of the Illinois Association of Health Care Underwriters.
The “haze” comes from 2,700 pages of legal language in the act. Those pages contain provisions that have yet to see the light of day. When the public and the health care industry learn the requirements of those provisions, inevitably they may conflict with the interests of the states. That means new legal challenges are sure to follow. “You’ll see a dozen more battles in the coming years … and some of them will be in the Supreme Court,” said Anup Malani, health law expert at the University of Chicago.
Slayton said the Affordable Care Act does not live up to its name and only addresses one of the problems with health care — access.

Florida Governor Rick Scott echoes Scott Walker as Fox News reports,

Gov. Rick Scott tells Fox News that he and his Attorney General, Pam Bondi, will work tirelessly to make sure the law is repealed. He feels that can be done by electing officials, like Mitt Romney, who have vowed to fight the law before 2014, when most of its provisions kick in.
If that doesn’t happen, Scott insists he still won’t “implement these exchanges that will increase the cost of health and make Medicaid worse.”
Scott claims Medicaid has been growing in Florida at three-and-half times the state’s general revenue. He calls the law the “biggest job killer ever” and says Floridians cannot afford the $1.9 billion dollar increase he believes the law will cost.
Gov. Scott doesn’t believe the law will go into effect in 2014. As a result, he’s also not expanding his state’s Medicaid program. And he says Florida can do without the federal money it will lose.

Even Governor Bobby Jindal will not be implementing Obamacare.

Bobby Jindal, the Governor of Louisiana is one of the possible running mates for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. He said that even though the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act last week, he was not going to implement it in Louisiana. Jindal said the health care law was a blow to the freedoms of Americans and the President forced that it on the American public.
Jindal said the law means what next will be allowable in the future. He said taxes on people who are refusing to drive a particular car or eat a particular tofu are on the horizon if the law is implemented. Jindal promised that Louisiana would not set up any exchanges.

This is just about right. States are going to have to stand up together, not individually against a tyrannical president and a completely “out to lunch” Supreme Court ruling in order to stop this madness. I say kudos to each of these governors for upholding the Tenth Amendment.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012