By FITSNews || Three of South Carolina’s most fiscally conservative lawmakers – all GOP Congressional candidates in 2010 – are joining forces in an effort “to protect individual South Carolinians from the dire consequences of the federal government’s unconstitutional health care takeover.”
State Representatives Jeff Duncan, Tim Scott and State Senator Mick Mulvaney said Tuesday they will consolidate three existing bills into one piece of legislation that will serve as a vehicle for putting a rebuke of “Obamacare” on the statewide ballot in 2010. Such a ballot question will give South Carolina voters an opportunity to amend the State Constitution to protect their individual rights regarding health care. The amendment is also likely to dramatically increase conservative voter turnout in the 2010 election – a Godsend to Republicans.
Duncan, Scott and Mulvaney have each preemptively filed separate legislation that would block various components of this unconstitutional big government power grab – which was passed Sunday by the U.S. House of Representatives and signed into law by President Barack Obama on Tuesday at a White House signing ceremony. Now they will join with other lawmakers – like Upstate Rep. Eric Bedingfield – in promoting a single bill that a source tells FITS will “incorporate the most effective statutory protections and ballot language.”
“If elected officials in Washington are going to trample over our rights as citizens, then we have an obligation to reassert our rights at the state level,” Mulvaney said. “This is an unprecedented government power grab that makes a mockery of the principles this nation was founded upon, and we need to resist it using every tool at our disposal – including the statewide ballot.”
Mulvaney is running for South Carolina’s Fifth Congressional District against House Budget Chairman John Spratt, the primary legislative sponsor of “Obamacare.”
Tim Scott – who is the GOP front-runner in a ten-way race for the S.C. First Congressional District – said Tuesday that South Carolinians “deserve the right to have their say on this unconstitutional health care takeover that puts government between them and their doctors.”
“(We) know that higher taxes, more spending, higher insurance premiums and more government control are a recipe for disaster – particularly in this economic climate,” Scott said. “Sadly, our voices – and the voices of millions of other Americans – were ignored in this debate.”
Scott, incidentally, was endorsed on Tuesday by the national Club for Growth – which is fighting Obamacare via a “Repeal It” pledge. As of this writing, 57 lawmakers, 206 Congressional candidates and over 14,000 citizens had signed the pledge.
Duncan, who has also been endorsed by the national Club for Growth, said that South Carolinians “cannot stay silent on this issue – we have to stand up against such a grave threat to our freedoms.”
“Fixing health care starts with empowering individual choices and empowering the free market, not ramming socialist takeovers through Congress,” Duncan said. “The last five decades have proven conclusively that government’s involvement has only made our health care situation worse, but now Washington wants to dramatically and unconstitutionally expand its control over the system. Worst of all, it’s doing so at the expense of our liberties, our financial security and the quality of our care.”
Needless to say, the Republican Party was pleased at the prospect of a ballot referendum bashing Obamacare.
“South Carolina Republicans have really risen to the occasion to fight this federal health care debacle,” said SCGOP Executive Director Joel Sawyer. “Our Congressional Republicans have been united against it, our Republican Attorney General Henry McMaster is pursing legal action against it, and these and other conservative leaders in the State House are making a strong push to prevent its implementation here. South Carolinians have been crystal clear that they don’t want the federal government intruding in our lives in this way and taking our health care decisions from us, and we would welcome any protections at the state level to ensure that doesn’t happen.”
By MOHANNA March 24, 2010 at 10:07 am
Why bother asking South Carolina Citizens for their opinion (you never have before). I was talking to some people who voted for McCain (rural) and when they realized their (SC Repub) congressman wanted to take away their and their children’s chances at getting Healthcare Coverage they went apes**t. When I told them they were paying for these same Repubs health insurance they said they were going for their guns. Get a clue.
By countryboy March 24, 2010 at 10:15 am
Doesn’t matter if Republicans take control of both houses of Congress after November’s election, they won’t have the votes to overide Obama’s veto. We will then have two years of Congressional gridlock, when nothing gets done. By November 2012 the country will be so totally f’d that voters will be totally disgusted with all politicians, period. The voter turnout will be a historical low. Due to vote buying and “hauling” Obama will win again and guess what, Democrats once again control congress. The country spirals into a deep depression followed by a global depression. And if history teaches us anything, the result is a world war. How do you liberal f’ers like that little scenario?
By Checking in March 24, 2010 at 11:43 am
talk about wasting taxpayer dollars and pure grandstanding…sheez, this is politics at it’s worst
By SC Native March 24, 2010 at 12:14 pm
MOHANNA,
All your story does is show that people love a good government freebie. I think the liberals have played this perfectly. At some point, all of the people who don’t pay federal income taxes, don’t pay for health insurance, don’t produce anything will outnumber those of us who do. When that happens, they can vote themselves more from the public treasury. Wait, that point has already happened.
Oh well.
By Rick March 24, 2010 at 2:43 pm
And the result SC Native….all the producers quit producing and everyone starves together.
By Liberty For Me March 24, 2010 at 2:49 pm
If this healthcare bill is not a sign at how much we need to restore the peoples(states) power.Then there is no sign that will do it.We are lost to being the sheep we have become.We let a minority of people pull us around and shit on the Constitution.It is shameful.
You people who can not understand how the 17th amendment has screwed this country will soon learn to understand…but it will be the hard way
By Elwood March 24, 2010 at 2:51 pm
Yeah, keep that dang government away from the VA and Medicare while you’re at it. The very idea of more people getting health care, especially those who didn’t have the foresight to have a full time job (two part-timers don’t count) or be healthy enough to merit it in the first place is just infuriating–and probably bad for America.
By lars March 24, 2010 at 2:56 pm
Mohanna,
I guess I should just quit my job. Why bother working? After all, Obama’s gonna take care of my bills, by taxing all those “rich” people, right?
By Susan March 24, 2010 at 4:01 pm
Republicans are nothing but obstructionists and are going to ruin this country yet. They are acting like naughty children, in an adult world. Do they realize how bad they look? Too bad, in SC, the politicians are mirroring the people which is even worse.
By Joe March 24, 2010 at 4:25 pm
Well, well, well…..all you folks sitting on your frontporch waiting for the magical healthcare fairy to deliever “free” healthcare for your sick kids….well…gee whiz….come to find out, you may not get it in this bill after all.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Gap-in-health-care-laws-apf-4272209396.html?x=0&.v=1
I truly hate it for children who really need coverage that the Dems didn’t include insurance portability, HSA’s, and most of all – Tort reform – in their socialistic montrosity of a bill….that they clearly didn’t proofread before trotting out kids as props and rushing it to Pres Obama for his signature.
Wonder if the big media will report THIS?
By Reginald March 24, 2010 at 8:21 pm
Well, FITS has shown that he is without any further doubt, a product of the SC education system. The “bill” is not a “takeover”, “socialist” or any other of the “gotcha” cliches attributed to it. Yes, 30M more citizens will have access to health insurance. So, that’s a bad thing? Flawed, yes, but the present bill is hardly worth the demonizing that the repubicans and their hangers-on have claimed. Of course, they could have participated – I mean really participated, not just waved blank pieces of paper – in the process and we may have gotten a better result. Instaed they opted to follow the lead of SC’s junior sentator Dimwitt and “just say no.” So now it’s time for the voters to say NO to those who only work to preserve their power and not deal with the issues we face as a country.
By Lancaster Liberal March 24, 2010 at 11:19 pm
I understand the Health Care Reform Law has a provision that will allow states that can come up with a better plan to opt out of the Federal program. The states, as I understand it, will not have to require mandatory coverage. May I suggest that if this is true that Mulvaney and his rag tag band of Mark Sanford groupies try to do something positive, that is, have an original idea and propose an alternative.
Of course they won’t because they don’t really have ideas, just some BS about letting the “free market” work its magic. So since this publicity stunt, on our dime, is designed to bring the true believers to the polls why don’t they just go whole hog and include a ballot intiative to re-affirm the Confederate flag’s location but with the stipulation to make the flag bigger and they may also wish to include include a few words about designating the Hunley the official SC State Submarine. INDEED!
By lance March 24, 2010 at 11:59 pm
Fascinating that the most vulnerable members of society–children–were somehow overlooked by Obamacare…I suppose Obamacare is all about CONTROL instead of actually improving healthcare…
By NunYah March 25, 2010 at 12:21 am
Lancaster Lib,
How’s that new Job?? ;o)