Saturday 12 September 2009

State governments trying to stop non-existent Obama programs

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_health_care_pushback

A bunch of Republican governors and state legislators are trying to pass state legislation to stop Obama from doing a bunch of stuff he was never going to do anyway –imposing single-payer care, forcing people to choose the public plan, none of which was ever in view.

First of all, fighting to stop imaginary dangers is patently insane. This is what happens when wingnuts, and the wildly irresponsible politicians who spur them on, begin believing their own lies.

Secondly, the states do not have the power to do any such thing anyhow. Congress has full power and authority to do whatever they see fit, in order to secure the general welfare of the United States, in accordance with Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution. And that applies regardless of how the wingnuts mis-interpret Amendment 10. That is how Congress built Social Security, Medicare and the VA.

States can’t unilaterally nullify federal law. Andy Jackson settled that issue during the nullification crisis, and the message was also hammered home in a little thing called the Civil War.

And third, by the same token, the states can’t secede either. We kinda settled that one too. Funny how some of our most promising Republican presidential candidates have been espousing and condoning sentiments aimed at seceding from the country they want to be president of – Pawlenty, Perry, Palin, Huckabee…?

And it’s even funnier how the people who are screeching mostly loudly about the Constitution are the Jimbobs who haven’t freakin’ read it.

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