States' Rights advocates on a roll these days

Florida proposal challenges federal health care plan
(ASSOCIATED PRESS, March 22, 2010)


TALLAHASSEE " Floridians could opt out of the federal health care overhaul plan under a ballot proposal being considered by the Republican-controlled state Legislature.

The proposed state constitutional amendment (HJR 37) is going before a House committee Monday. It would need 60 percent voter approval if it gets on the November ballot.

The amendment would prohibit anyone including employers from being forced to participate in the federal system President Barack Obama is expected to sign into law.

The U.S. House passed the legislation Sunday over unanimous opposition from Republicans. It would extend coverage to 32 million uninsured Americans, reduce deficits and ban insurers from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.

This prompts 2 questions:
1. Why are we called the United States?

2. If a Federal Law is passed, what's the point if certain residents don't follow the law?

There is a popular belief that, because everyone can read the constitution, everyone is therefore capable of interpreting the constitution. I do not subscribe to such lamentably Protestant notions.

"Guapo's Mexican Cantina."

There is a popular belief that, because everyone can read the constitution, everyone is therefore capable of interpreting the constitution. I do not subscribe to such lamentably Protestant notions.

I identified it as a "lamentably Protestant notion" because it was the Protestants who came up with the idea that everyone was capable of interpreting the bible on their own, in contrast to the Catholics, who rather sensibly left that task to the experts.

joefromchicago wrote:

There is a popular belief that, because everyone can read the constitution, everyone is therefore capable of interpreting the constitution. I do not subscribe to such lamentably Protestant notions.

It's not just a Protestant notion, it's an Enlightenment notion too. Remember the Enlightenment? Immanuel Kant once described its maxim as follows: "Have courage to use your own reason without instructions from others".

This notion is not the problem. The problem is that some people, having found the courage to decline instructions from others, then forget that the next step is to use reason, let alone reading comprehension.

Reason is the Devil's greatest whore; by nature and manner of being she is a noxious whore; she is a prostitute, the Devil's appointed whore; whore eaten by scab and leprosy who ought to be trodden under foot and destroyed, she and her wisdom ... Throw dung in her face to make her ugly. She is and she ought to be drowned in baptism... She would deserve, the wretch, to be banished to the filthiest place in the house, to the closets.
Martin Luther, Erlangen Edition v. 16, pp. 142-148

Hoyer: Virginia Can’t Skirt Health Mandate
(By Naftali Bendavid, The Wall Street Journal, March 16, 2010)

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer doesn’t think much of Virginia’s move to block Congress from requiring individuals to buy health insurance.

The requirement for individual coverage is central to the Democrats’ health overhaul. Expanding the pool of insured people in this way"sweeping in healthy people who don’t need much coverage"is necessary to get costs down and impose new rules on insurance companies, supporters say.

But opposition to the “individual mandate” has become a rallying cry of the overhaul’s critics, who say it’s wrong and possibly unconstitutional for the government to order its citizens to buy something. Virginia recently became the first state to enact a statute saying its residents would not have to obey such a law.

Hoyer said today that a state cannot overrule a legitimate federal statute. “What if Virginia passes a law saying you don’t have to obey the antitrust laws?” the Maryland Democrat said. “I think it’s the same proposition, and we’ll have to see whether they can do that…They could pass laws saying you don’t have to do a lot of things, not just this.”

He added, “If that premise were correct, what would be the effectiveness of having a federal government? We’re a federal government because the federal government does certain things to make sure that America works well. Virginia’s responsibility is to make sure Virginia works well.”

The debate over the individual mandate has raged for some time. Supporters say the government has the constitutional authority to regulate areas related to interstate commerce, including the health care industry. Others compare it to states requiring their citizens to buy auto insurance.

As for health care, Hoyer said broadening the population of those who are insured is a key part of reducing the nation’s medical expenses. “Clearly, if you’re going to bring down costs, the only way you bring down costs in an insurance program is to spread the risks,” he said.

It's not just a Protestant notion, it's an Enlightenment notion too. Remember the Enlightenment? Immanuel Kant once described its maxim as follows: "Have courage to use your own reason without instructions from others".

Quote:

"Guapo's Mexican Cantina."

now Joe that's just plain silly, everyone knows what is now called the United States was called VespucciLand.