Will Florida Ban National Health Care?

Posted on 29 July 2009

by Michael Boldin

On the heels of a successful state-level resistance to the 2005 Real ID Act, activists and state legislators alike are focusing their efforts on state governments as a way to resist new federal programs.

The latest? Health Care.

In response to what some opponents see as a Congress that doesn’t represent their interests, State Legislators are looking to the nearly-forgotten American political tradition of nullification as a way to reject any potential national health care program that may be coming from Washington.

The most recent effort comes from Florida State Senator Carey Baker and State Representative Scott Plakon, who this week filed a proposed State Constitutional Amendment (HJR37) as a means to prevent Floridians from being affected by any Federal Health Care Legislation. If approved by the legislature, Florida residents could be voting on it as early as 2010.

HJR37 would deny the ability of any new law to impose demands, restrictions or penalties on health care choices on Floridians. Versions of proposed federal health care reform legislation have included insurance coverage mandates, and certain penalties on employers who fail to provide employee health insurance.

It states, in part:

(1) A law or rule shall not compel, directly or indirectly, any person, employer, or health care provider to participate in any health care system

(2) A person or employer may pay directly for lawful health care services and shall not be required to pay penalties or fines for paying directly for lawful health care services. A health care provider may accept direct payment for lawful health care services and shall not be required to pay penalties or fines for accepting direct payment from a person or employer for lawful health care services.

A similar measure, called the Health Care Freedom Act, has already passed in Arizona, and residents of that state will have the opportunity to vote on it in 2010. Sources close to the Tenth Amendment Center say that more than ten other states may see such proposals introduced in the coming session.

Some say that a federal program would raise serious constitutional concerns. They cite the Tenth Amendment as limiting the Federal Government to those powers delegated to it by the People in the Constitution.

Nullification

When a state ‘nullifies’ a federal law, it is proclaiming that the law in question is void and inoperative, or ‘non-effective,’ within the boundaries of that state; or, in other words, not a law as far as the state is concerned.

Nullification has a long and interesting history in American politics, and originates in the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798. These resolutions, secretly authored by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, asserted that the people of the states, as sovereign entities, could judge for themselves whether the federal government had overstepped its constitutional bounds - to the point of ignoring federal laws.

Virginia and Kentucky passed the resolutions in response to the federal Alien and Sedition Acts, which provided, in part, for the prosecution of anyone who criticized Congress or the President of the United States.

Nullification was regularly called upon by states all over the country in response to everything from higher taxes to the fugitive slave law of 1850.

Real ID as the Blueprint?

Supporters of modern nullification efforts look to the successful rebellion by states against the Bush-era Real ID Act.

In early 2007, Maine and then Utah passed resolutions refusing to implement the federal Real ID act on grounds that the law was unconstitutional. Well-over a dozen other states followed suit in passing legislation opposing Real ID.

Instead of attempting to force the law to implementation, the federal government delayed implementation not once, but twice. And in June of this year, the Obama administration, recognizing the insurmountable task of enforcing a law in the face of such broad resistance, announced that it was looking to “repeal and replace” the controversial law.

Supporters see this as a blueprint to resist various federal laws that they see as outside the scope of the Constitution. Some say that each successful state-level resistance to federal programs will only embolden others to try the same – resulting in an eventual shift of power from the federal government to the States and the People themselves.

News Source

Florida State Senate Bill

and .........

Firearms Freedom Act Introduced in Florida

Posted on 10 July 2009

Introduced in the Florida House on July 6, 2009, the “Firearms Freedom Act” (HB-21) seeks to provide “that specified firearms, firearm accessories, and ammunition for personal use manufactured in state are not subject to federal law or regulation” in the State of Florida.

The bill is sponsored by Florida State Reps O’Toole and Plakon. They follow in the path of Montana, and Tennessee who have already passed such legislation. And they join with Utah, Texas, South Carolina and others who are considering it in an effort to limit federal regulation of guns, and specifically invoke the 9th and 10th Amendments as restrictions on federal power:

“the regulation of intrastate commerce is vested in the states under the ninth and tenth amendments to the United States Constitution, particularly if not expressly preempted by federal law. Congress has not expressly preempted state regulation of intrastate commerce pertaining to the manufacture on an intrastate basis of firearms, firearms accessories, and ammunition”

Read the full text of the legislation below:

A bill to be entitled An act relating to regulation of firearms; creating s. 790.34, F.S.; creating the Florida Firearms Freedom Act; providing a short title; providing legislative findings; providing definitions; providing that specified firearms, firearm accessories, and ammunition for personal use manufactured in the state are not subject to federal law or regulation; providing that the importation into the state of specified parts and the incorporation of such parts into a firearm, firearm accessory, or ammunition manufactured in the state does not subject the firearm, firearm accessory, or ammunition to federal regulation; providing that certain basic materials are not subject to federal regulation of firearms, firearm accessories, or ammunition under interstate commerce; providing that specified firearm accessories imported into the state from another state do not subject a firearm to federal regulation under interstate commerce; providing legislative findings with respect thereto; providing exceptions; providing applicability; requiring that firearms manufactured and sold in the state must bear an indicia of manufacture by a specified date; providing an effective date.

News Source

Florida State Senate Bill

If it works in Florida, it can be a model for many other states as well.
Here's hoping that it's actually going to be a viable solution.

If at first you don't secede, try try again.

Honestly, how many of these bills actually pass?

Wait, so they haven't been passed yet?

Both are currently up for vote in the State Congress.

Also many states have passed the firearm freedom act bill. Florida is the first to create a anti-Obama Medicare Bill.

With the high numbers of elderly in FL, I have my doubts that the medicl bill will pass.
The other bill I think will fly.

Originally Posted by tomtom22

With the high numbers of elderly in FL, I have my doubts that the medicl bill will pass.
The other bill I think will fly.

Most of the old folks are in Palm Beach County..... they couldn't even fill our a ballot back in 2000.... Remember the butterfly ballot....



Not hard to understand.... but anyways.

Florida is not God's Waiting Room.... Palm Beach County is. Florida has a population of 18,328,340... Palm Beach is 1,351,236... so that's 16,977,104 that outnumber the old folks.....

Also for Florida to have two bills like this alone tells the Federal Government to back off.... Remember Florida is the fourth most populous state in the U.S.

HEY! I remember that picture, it on the news, thats the election when everybody said chad who?