United Liberty

Following up on a move by the Virginia Senate last month, today the Virginia House of Delegates passed a bill that would make it illegal to force any resident of the Commonwealth to purchase health insurance:

RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia’s General Assembly is the first in the nation to approve legislation that bucks any attempt by President Barack Obama and Congress to implement the national health care overhaul in states like Virginia.

Without debate, the House of Delegates voted 80-17 Wednesday to accept Senate amendments to a bill that supporters say preserves Virginia’s prerogatives as a state.

Thirty-four other legislatures have filed or proposed similar measures rejecting health insurance mandates.

But Virginia’s legislature, scheduled to adjourn Saturday, is the first to finish work on a bill. The measure goes to Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell, who plans to sign it.

While I still have doubts about the Constitutionality of a law like this given the Supremacy Clause, it is nonetheless a fairly powerful indication of the voter disdain for a plan that, inexplicably, the Democrats continue to try to push through Congress.

Legislators in 34 states are fighting back over the individual mandate by proposing bills or constitutional amendments to outright ban or that would allow residents to opt-out of ObamaCare:

Lawmakers in 34 states now have filed or proposed amendments to their state constitutions or statutes rejecting health insurance mandates, according to the American Legislative Exchange Council, a nonprofit group that promotes limited government that is helping coordinate the efforts. Many of those proposals are targeted for the November ballot, assuring that health care remains a hot topic as hundreds of federal and state lawmakers face reelection.

Legislative committees in Idaho and Virginia endorsed their measures this past week. Supporters held a rally at the Pennsylvania Capitol. And hearings on the proposed constitutional amendments were held in Georgia and Missouri. The Missouri hearing drew overflow crowds the day after Obama urged federal lawmakers during his State of the Union address to keep pressing to pass a health care bill. The Nebraska Legislature plans a hearing on a measure this coming week.

The legal effect of any state measures may be questionable, because courts generally have held that federal laws trump those in states.

Yet supporters of the state measures portray them as a way of defending individual rights and state sovereignty, asserting that the federal government has no authority to tell states and their citizens to buy health insurance.

This morning on my ride into work, I noticed something on the sign for a project in Stockbridge (Henry County, Georgia). It looks like someone had a little fun with the  project sign for a local project funded by federal “stimulus” dollars, which was entirely funded on the backs of future taxpayers.

You can click on the pics to get a better view.

Over at The Liberty Papers, Stephen Gordon has the story of what seems to be a report from the Department of Homeland Security entitled, Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Environment Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment, that targets some conservatives and most libertarians.

The report says (emphasis mine):

I believed, long before election day, that Barack Obama would be our next President, but I didn’t despair as many other Republicans did.  In fact, I often said that he would be the best thing that could happen to the Republican Party (providing, of course, that our country survives his socialist agenda), because I believe his presidency will provide the impetus we need to once again become the fiscally conservative party.

One thing I did not foresee, however, is how Obama would spur states into affirming the sovereignty guaranteed to them by the Tenth Amendment.  The recently passed “spendulous bill”, full of unfunded mandates that will ultimately demand funds from already beleaguered state budgets, has caused state governments across the nation to finally say, “Enough!”.

The Tenth Amendment states: