Tuesday, January 25, 2011

As Nike says, "Just DO it!"

Update Jan. 26: My good friend Teri Owens advises me that the same bill has been introduced in Texas (HB297), Montana (SB161), Indiana (SB505), Oregon (SB498), Maine (LD58), Wyoming (HB0035), and Oklahoma (HB1276). Now it's our turn.

The Hill reports that Nebraska, with some prodding from that state's Campaign for Liberty, has introduced in its State Senate* LB 515, a bill to nullify Obamacare simply and completely. Section 3 of the bill reads:

Sec. 3. (1) The Legislature declares that the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is not authorized by the Constitution of the United States and violates its true meaning and intent as given by the founders and ratifiers and is hereby declared to be invalid in this state, shall not be recognized by this state, is specifically rejected by this state, and shall be considered null and void and of no effect in this state.
Part (3) of Sec. 3 is even more interesting:
(3) Any official, agent, or employee of the United States or any employee of a corporation providing services to the United States that enforces or attempts to enforce a federal act, order, law, statute, rule, or regulation of the United States government in violation of the Federal Health Care Nullification Act is guilty of a Class IV felony.
State officials who enable the enforcement of Obamacare will be guilty of a Class I misdemeanor.

Some members of Ohio's liberty movement have expressed the concern that our HB 11 is more of an end run around nullification by implying that parts of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act are constitutional. At the same time, The Ohio Project's amendment only addresses mandatory health care. What we really need is a complete and blanket nullification of the law all in one place, as Nebraska has proposed.

* Nebraska has a one-house (unicameral) state legislature, which is known as the Senate.

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