Despite Will of Voters, Missouri Lawmakers Move to Implement ObamaCare Exchanges
by Patrick TuoheyMissouri state representative Chris Molendorp filed a bill last session to set up a health insurance exchange. HB 609 was passed unanimously by the House and by the Senate committee it was assigned to. It was never brought to the floor of the Senate. Why? Sen. Jane Cunningham said it was because she actually read the bill and was shocked at what it contained.
In 2010, Sen. Cunningham sponsored the Health Care Freedom Act, a referendum that sought to protect Missourians from the now infamous ‘individual mandate.’ The Act was placed on the ballot in August 2010 as Proposition C; the first time any Americans got to vote on the measure and they passed it with 71% of the vote. (Full disclosure: I managed the campaign to pass Prop C.)
Cunningham read HB 609 to basically gut everything passed by the voters of Missouri in Prop C. Specifically, it yielded authority to the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, DC 46 different times. Beverly Gossage provides a substantive case against insurance exchanges in The Missouri Record, and in it she draws attention to a statement by Micheal Cannon of the CATO Institute:
I am continually surprised by how many people around the country mistakenly believe the new law requires states to create an Exchange. The authors of the law knew full well that such a requirement would be unconstitutional. Instead, the law asks states to do the heavy lifting of creating these bureaucracies, offers them considerable sums of money, and as a fallback position allows the federal government to create an Exchange if a state declines to do so.
Appearing before the Senate Interim Committee on Health Insurance Exchanges, Director of the Missouri Department of Insurance, John Huff, testified several times that problems with the federal exchanges could be fixed if Missouri took the initiative (and the federal grant money) and just designed its own exchange. Otherwise, he feared, Washington would just force us into a one-size-fits-all exchange.
Or not.
We learn from POLITICO that,
A quirk in the Affordable Care Act is that while it gives HHS the authority to create a federal exchange for states that don’t set up their own, it doesn’t actually provide any funding to do so. By contrast, the law appropriates essentially unlimited sums for helping states create their own exchanges.
In other words, if states do not set up their own exchange, the feds have no money to do it themselves.
Already Kansas and Oklahoma have given back their federal grants intended for state based exchanges. Florida and Louisiana have stated they will not set up an exchange at all.
Given the overwhelming vote that Prop C received last year, Missouri legislators would be well advised to tread lightly around paving the way for an individual mandate that was flatly rejected at the polls. The specter of a federal exchange if we fail to act doesn’t seem so scary anymore.
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44 Comments
The far-left never lets pesky little things like laws or voters get in the way of their desire to install a Eurpoean style nanny state.
Proposition C won by a ratio of nearly 3 to 1. I have a feeling the Democrats in the Missouri House will lose their next election by the same margin.
D-rats in Missouri will be getting to examine their own backsides from a new angle since they're going to have them handed to them come next elections.
Tyranny at every level…….
So you have to pass a bill to know what is in it. But who among the general population can read any of these damn bills? HB 1764 (Health Care Freedom Act) is pretty easy to read. But HB 609 is like a tornado. It is so twisted it will take a whole flock of lawyers to understand what is in it. Having no law and no exchange is better than HB 609. Good luck Missouri.
Somebody read the bill….. consider me shocked!!! And whats more its full of tricks and misleading policies (go figure). Our courts had better smash the mandate that requires Americans to participate in this disaster. If they don't we will have our government next telling us what type of pets we can own. If they (government) can force you to buy something there will be no end to the bureaucracy!!! Next thing you know the EPA will be regulating dust on farmers….wait their already doing that.
vote 'em out. Let 'em get a real job, and be subjected to this bill.
So now, Missouri has to pass a bill to be shown what's in it?
What happened to common sense in Missouri? I mean, you are right next door to the POS I live in, but do you have to act like it?
C'mon.
Do you really want these people to turn you into Chicago?
What I would like to know is: How does something like this pass unanimously?
all politicians should be subject to the laws they pass for two years before anyone else.
If you find out get back to me…… I wanna know too?
Just a short column that was reprinted recently from the Orlando Sentinel. The original date was 1984 but it is still pertinent today.
545 people are responsible for the mess, but they unite in a common con
July 30, 2011|By Charley Reese
This column was originally published in the Orlando Sentinel on Feb. 3, 1984.)
Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.
Have you ever wondered why, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, we have deficits? Have you ever wondered why, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, we have inflation and high taxes?
You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does. You and I don't have the constitutional authority to vote n appropriations. The House of Representatives does. You and I don't write the tax code. The Congress does. You and I don't set fiscal policy. the Congress does. You and I don't control monetary policy. The Federal Reserve Bank does.
One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices – 545 human beings out of 238 million- are directly, legally, morally and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.
I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Bank because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered but private central bank.
I exclude all of the special interest and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it.
No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.
Don't you see now the con game that is played on the people by the politicians? Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. they cooperate in this common con regardless of party.
What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of Tip O'Neill, who stood up and criticized Ronald Reagan for creating deficits.
The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept. it. The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating appropriations and taxes. O'Neill is speaker of the House. He is the leader of the majority party. He and his fellow Democrats, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto.
Just 545 Americans have fouled up this great nation.
It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 235 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted – by present facts – of incompetence and irresponsibility.
I can't think of a single domestic problem, from an unfair tax code to defense overruns, that is not traceable directly to those people.
When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise complete power over the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.
If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair. If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red. If the Marines are in Lebanon, it's because they want them in Lebanon.
There are no insoluble government problems. Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take it.
Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exist disembodied mystical force like "the economy," "inflation" or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.
Those 545 people and they alone are responsible. They and they alone have the power. they and they alone should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses – provided they have the gumption to manage their own employees.
"a referendum that sought to protect Missourians from the now infamous ‘individual mandate'… was passed … with 71% of the vote"
HB 609 to basically gut everything passed by the voters of Missouri in Prop C
Back door politics at it's best
It's a mob. No one wants to take personal responsibility either way, and they're hoping for some HopenChange money from The Won next election. I guess they didn't get the memo from November last year, or the one from Wisconsin this year, or the one from Prop C. I wonder if they'll have to be carried out of the House in January '13 by the boys in white?
Good on you, Sen Cunningham. And don't let the salamanders slide it under the Senate door in some other form, either.
The "Euthanize Granny Law" is a crime against humanity, just as all forms of socialism, communism and statism are crimes against humanity.
President Downgrade is a mass murderer…
Scumbag democrats think We the People are just plain stupid. Well maybe their supporters are, but the rest of us won't have any of that BS. We see the dirty tricks they're trying to pull and will push back hard. We don't have to be told to vote we watch the stinking scumbags and will be out in force on election day.
Only if the vote on HB609 is publicized, ceaselessly and mercilessly. Make sure the representatives who voted for it are not allowed to hide in the shadows during their re-election campaigns, either.
Freedom HAHAHAHAHAHA! The irony is liberals love tyrants, they yearn for leaders to ignore the little folk and do whatever they want to. Law? Votes? Phft. That's for the little people, the ones too ignorant and stupid to know what's good for them. Laws are meant to keep them in line – not us!
"There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power government has is the power to crack down on criminals. When there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws." Atlas Shrugged
So Missouri, you know who you have to get rid of!
In the big picture, this is all the result of a concert among communists worldwide, with the Obama Admin. This is when we use our Sovereign State Powers, while neutralizing & firing our Congress & President, and all attached to them.
Other Countries cannot do this because they don't have our Constitution. What should we do? Start by PASSING MICHELE BACHMANN'S LAW! to kill ObamaKare if possible. Otherwise kill the Bill State by State, and:
1- Keep Issa and Grassley working steadily on their aggressive investigations into the DOJ and Fast & Furious. Also investigate every single transaction done by the Obama Admin. Where did 4Trillion of our tax dollars go in 2 years? Accounting please!
2- Every Attorney General in every State needs to go on the offense against this oppressive Obama Fed Govt.
3- Every Governor of every State needs to fight back with State laws, like Gov Walker, and Gov McDonnell,W.V. did.
4- Until otherwise proven, view Dems as Anti-American Socialists who will do anything to steal our Freedoms!
5- The Obama Plan to 'Fundamentally Transform America' goes full steam ahead. Act accordingly!
6- Use all of our American laws to prosecute anyone who breaks even the smallest law.
7- Rigidly enforce our EXISTING Fed Immigration Law!
8- Obama knows the Muslim Brotherhood and the Middle East leaders & who is friendly to U.S. & he will get rid of them.
Caveat Emptor! We're fighting the enemy within. We need to spread out and fight back with the courage and determination of Gov Walker, Gov Bentley, and Gov Kasich.
Well…I guess you voters in Missouri have only one choice…get rid of the cockroaches that are passing this through without YOUR approval!
~~~
OBAMA IS JUST ONE OF THEIR PUPPETS THERE ARE MORE…NEXT ONE IS NAMED BILDERBERG PERRY!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAaQNACwaLw
~~~
If you don't stand up and fight for the future of your children, who will? It is up to you…get informed and get involved…it is the only way to take back our government from those who seek to destroy her from within!
Its going to be an interesting year. The rhetoric is already out of control a year from now the left will be pulling themselves to peices…. If they need to be escorted out in Jan. I'm free that day and would be happy to help!!!!
What we learn from all this is LAWYERS are demons possessed, who loathe and hate the non-lawyer bal-
ance of the population, and never run out of reasons to try to LIE, CHEAT & STEAL from WE THE PEOPLE!
BAN LAWYERS FROM SERVING IN STATE LEGISLATURES & THE U.S. CONGRESS!!!
.
The actual vote on ObamaKare comes Nov5, 2012, when we the people will reject it thumbs down and
cancelling the tickets of ALL who voted for it, except Nancy "queen of the drones" Pelosi, of course,
Ann
Let Freedom Ring..!!
That's a ban I can support !
Sebelius is an deceitful crone, angry and upset that Dear Leader's centerpiece boondoggle, O'care, isn't getting the good press she thinks it deserves. "If only people knew what was good for them" she mutters. Oh, we know and more importantly, we won't forget.
' Nancy queen of the drones' and mini-me Deb Wasserman Schultz both need to be put out of the people's business for un-American Activities, Failure to uphold the Constitution per their Oath of Office, Dereliction of Duty and Abuse of Power.
Wasserman Schultz attacked Col. Allen West on the floor of Congress, right AFTER he left the chamber. Typical of Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the coward. Attack when the person isn't there to defend themself.
Also I heard that she published Col West's and his wife's SS numbers in Fla. Is that upholding her Oath of Office as an elected Official? Pelosi is an outright traitor and Wasserman Schultz is her clone. Both have to go.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CV8Xt2VWvc&fe....
New World Order approved and brought to you by……………Barack Obama!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CV8Xt2VWvc&fe....
New World Order approved and brought to you by……………Barack Obama!
I have given up on California politics and was planning on moving to Missouri to escape. Now, I wonder. If the general population can pass Prop C by a 71% margin, only to have the state legislature effectively void the results, I can't help but wonder if the only difference between California's and Missouri's legislators is a matter of scale.
The authors of the law knew full well that such a requirement would be unconstitutional
Look, I don't mean to be rude, but why did that stop them? It's not like the Individual Mandate is the least bit constitutional, or that the Dems give a rip about the constitution (except for the part that gives them the right to murder unborn children).
We have Claire McCaskill to get rid of and start a tidal wave for the rest of these idiots to ride out on.
Debbie "blabbermouth" Schultz pulling double traitorous duties against "We the People" and the Constitution thru her dual roles as DNC chair and super-corrupt, union-owned CongressCritter
un-extraordinaire..
Ann
Pelosi stays because of the insurmountable drone factor in SF..
LETS MAKE SURE WE WRITE DOWN THE DATE WE CAN START VOTING ABSENTEE.
IT WILL MAKE YOUR HEAD SPIN HOW MANY PEOPLE WHO LIKE THEIR ENTITLEMENTS VOTE EARLY.
(and probably often).. ha JK (just kidding)
We are being run by a group of National Socialists who use the US and state constitutions as diapers.
Who elects these pieces of floating scum?
So eventually, if we can't stop it, the same government that ran the The Tuskegee Experiment is going to have control of every persons healthcare, and 90% of black people support this?! I guess this means we can stop hearing about how bad that was, considering much much worse than that is coming our way.
Oh, and let's not forget the government that created HIV to wipe out black people, like Maobama's preacher says. Hey, he's a Preacher, a Preacher wouldn't lie, right? Or to be even more specific, a black Preacher, funded in large part by the government, wouldn't lie to a black Congregation, to manipulate them to support the government that enslaves them, while always blaming their suffering on "those people", right?
Still think I'm crazy for saying it's not the people that our government works for? That the US is not a country but a corporation (as defined by our Federal code)? Digesting that bit of information makes a lot of things clearer, such as this.
This just in: Big Brother…oops, I mean Uncle Sam is going to control your body…oh sorry, 'health care', whether you and the entire country like it or not.
Excellent! And far truer today than it was in 1984.
Thank you for reminding us. The Congress has reached new heights of irresponsibility since the election of Obama, allowing him to run over Americans by fiat (executive order). This absolves them of responsibility, as with the upcoming "Super Committee" which will raise taxes. Last Thursday Obama issued an executive order giving amnesty to illegal aliens because he couldn't get it through Congress in 2010 when Democrats were in control. And where's Congress? Not a word. We the people need more power to get rid of elected officials for not only are we betrayed by Obama but by 535 members of Congress.
Patrick Tuohey omitted final paragraph
"And in conclusion, like you, I chose the path of obstruction instead of refinement. Like you, maybe not like you, I was paid handsomely to ensure that the uninsured remained uninsured. Like you, I won't rest until the poor, the downtrodden, and the needy are denied any chance at advancement. As many of you are aware Tea Partiers are a large rotund people, and therefore to keep our troughs full, we must take from the weak. And we have, just look at the number of food banks for the poor we have shut down. Chris Christie is our ideal and let's not forget what we're fighting for. 'Noli hamburger calcare.' "
See the Communists within busy themselves for the takeover of your healthcare and removal of your liberty….see them, mark them for deletion on the Death Panels of Voting Machines….they arrogantly display themselves right before your eyes making the chains they will use to enslave you to their will.
Do we REALLY need any more proof that we have a government of the cronies, for the cronies, by the cronies?
Obama is still president of the US, and it is rightful that his lawmakers implement his regulations. There is still hope for the country if they join hands and work together.
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