Obama’s Constitutional Crisis (Constitution allows states to nullify Obamacare)

CFP ^ | 7/2/2012 | Allan Caruba

[Signalman]

In 1832, the threat of nullification by States that opposed tariffs on imported goods came close to bringing about a civil war. Thirty years later as cries for the abolition of slavery reached a fever pitch the War Between the States would begin.

Today, in the wake of the Supreme Court decision that found that the Affordable Health Care Act—Obamacare— is constitutional and thereby the law of the land. Republican Governors are lining up to say they will not obey it.

Not only has President Obama and the Democrat Party imposed an enormously unpopular law on the nation, they have initiated a huge constitutional crisis.

Nullification is a constitutional theory that gives an individual state the right to declare null and void any law passed by the United States Congress which the State deems unacceptable and unconstitutional. In a debate in the late 1700s, both James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, in the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions (1798) came down on the side of nullification if a State concluded that the federal government had overstepped its limits of jurisprudence.

In ruling that Obamacare cannot use the Commerce Clause as its justification, the Supreme Court kicked the Act back to Congress, ruling that it is a tax and that Congress has the right to place such taxes on the citizens of the nation. The Obama administration maintained that Obamacare was not a tax until the case was argued before the Court. It then conceded that it was.

[ClearCase_guy]

Choosing between Roger Taney and John Roberts would be difficult. Mistakes like this are very hard to fix.

Some folks say that "the people" can fix this mess -- and that's true. But will they? We got here basically because the mob wanted something like this: "Take care of me! Give me stuff!" I'm not sure the mob will change its mind.

I think the states might undo this. If Senators were still chosen by the states, this never would have happened. If governors and stat elegislatures can see that this is not in their best interest, then nullification may be a viable way out of the mess.

But if the feds resist state nullification, then we are back in the days of Chief Justice Taney. Very messy indeed.

[GailA]

If senators were still chosen by governors mine would have been demonRATS forever. TN just went GOP since reconstruction last year.

Health law’s heavy impact by Paul Guppy (Taxes) (tax on home sales)
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/mar/28/health-laws-heavy-impact/

[skinkinthegrass]

?

[Parmy]

Ping.

[txrangerette]

Republican governors are lining up to say they won't obey it, until AFTER the election.

What will impress me is if they say they won't obey it, PERIOD.

[murron]

The problem with Republican governors saying they will ignore the law is that they will not be the governors forever. Some states will probably have a Republican governor for a good while, maybe like Texas. But if a Democrat replaces the current Republican governor, the law will just go back into place.

Same thing with defunding or Romney saying he would issue an executive order to nullify the law. These remedies are only temporary until another Congress or President is seated.

[Ratman83]

While your Senators may have been Dems they would not voted like Dems. When Senators were sent to the Senate by the States they had to listen to the States. No Senator would say that a state had to do something (clean water act, highway funding, health care, etc) if it was going to cost a state money that id did not have. The Senators were supposed to be the states voice at the fed level, now the states have no say. The Federal government says states pay this/pass this or else. We are so sunk.

[FirstFlaBn]

Even without direct election of US Senators, the combination of the creation of the Federal Reserve with US economic power making the dollar the world’s reserve currency would have gotten us to the same point.

Since the Fed can print money, state legislatures would have sold out the sovereignty preserved for them in the Constitution in exchange for free money to spend on buying votes. The result would be even fewer conservative state legislatures and it would have happened even sooner.

[haroldeveryman]

Obamacare would have no support if members of our top tier of government were subjected to the same “affordable health care” as the rest of us. So why not resurrect the long abandoned principle of equal treatment under the law ? The gold plated Health Care plans enjoyed by our government elites at tax payer expense would have to go. In order to get quality care our rulers would be compelled to support a cap on malpractice law suits. Smart people would start going to medical school again, and doctors would stop retiring at age 45.