Sunday March 10 Nashville, Tennessee, speakers from all around brought attention to Tennessee the faults and troubles of the Obamacare Medicaid Expansion.

Sparking off the rally was host, Michael Lofti, Secretary of the Tennessee Libertarian Party and owner the thelibertypaper.org. He started off by saying, Tennessee is a red state. So how are we up here? You can blame Obama and the democrats, but why are we up here. We are up here because even the Tennessee Republicans have been swept up into the bribes that the federal government is promising in the expansion of Medicaid. It is up to the people of Tennessee, through House Bill 937 and Senate Bill 804 to stop it!

House Rep Jeremy Durham spoke next. Representative Durham is the sponsor of HB 937. HB 937 states,

Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, the state shall not establish, facilitate, implement, or participate in any new expansion of the medical assistance program, also known as the Medicaid program, pursuant to the Patient – 3 – 002738 Protection and Affordable Care Act, Public Law 111-148, as amended, as interpreted by the United States Supreme Court in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, to be unconstitutional when applied to states as a mandatory expansion. The state is prohibited from amending the state plan or any federal waiver under title XIX of the federal Social Security Act in order to effectuate any such expansion of the Medicaid or TennCare program in this state.

In his speech, Rep. Durham said, the implementing Obamacare will put is right back in that same fiscal crisis Tenncare put Tennessee in 8 years ago. Many people had to be cut from the rolls to make the program solvent. Currently, under the new Medicaid plan 47,000 people are already eligible. “It’s not at the 90% or 100% matching rate (the amount the state has to match the cost to the federal government). This is at the regular matching rate. In first fiscal year we’d be on the hook for 137 and half million we’d be on the hook for and we cannot do anything about. I’m sure everyone will be shocked if you don’t already know, there is also a federal exize tax associated with Obamacare. Basically, all the insurance premiums and revenue generated across the country even state run programs have to pay a pro-rated tax. It basically would cost 50 million dollars in Tennessee. So if we grow Tenncare, that tax goes up. It’s just another reason not to expand Medicaid.”

He continued, “Hospitals and other interest groups are talking to legislators trying to convince them of all the horrible things will happen if we don’t expand Medicaid. They are good at what they do. There are always well intended reasons and well intended groups that will suggesting us to abandon our principles contrary to sound conservative judgement. That’s how we got in the fiscal straights we are in today. It is extremely important that we stop using that mindset and we say no.”

US Congressman Scott Desjarlais was up next to speak. “We are on a slipper slope and it’s putting us in the wrong direction. The health care act in general, lets just go back about four years, about 64% of us didn’t want it, we didn’t ask for it, and we can’t afford it. This bill is about one of the poorest pieces of legislation written in a long, long time. It’s almost as if they passed it without reading it. There are a lot of mistakes in this bill, and they knew it. They had to rush this bill through in the middle of the night, the day before Christmas.

He continued, “It has some fundamental flaws. One of which is the federal and state exchanges. I applaud the governor for making the first step in helping strike down a bad health care law by refusing to set up a state exchange, and I’ll tell you why that is important. When they started rolling out Obamacare, or the Affordable Health Care Act, or let’s just call it for what it is, the Socialization of our healthcare. This was not very popular among the states. It was because it was a federal takeover of our health care system. So when they start pushing the federal exchanges there was a lot of pushback from the people.”

Congressman Desjarlais continued, “So they tried to emphasize state exchanges in the bill. The fact is, the two are not created equal.The state exchanges do have the authority to tax businesses. It used to be penalize but the Supreme Court called it what it was. A tax. So 2 to 3 thousand dollars depending on the size of your business per employee unless the employees get insurance from the state run exchanges. But the problem was the President thought the states would be excited about this by incentivizing them to sign up for the state exchanges. But there are 26 along with Tennessee decided not to do that.”

He further explained, “When the President saw this problem, he recruited the IRS to circumvent congress, and re-write the language of the law. The IRS literally came in and re-wrote the bill. There’s a problem with that, congress has the sole authority to write bills and change the language. The IRS added the language to make the federal exchange equal to state exchange and allow them to have those same principles. Well that is unconstitutional. My good friend, Darrel Isa, chairman of the Oversight Committee and I have held a hearing on this and we had the IRS there. They can’t answer these questions. ”

He continued, “We have sent letters, and I’ve introduced legislation to HJ112 which would have made this ruling unconstitutional. And if that is the case, the federal exchanges are not able to tax businesses and not able to subsidize members who apply through the exchanges. So bottom line is, with President Obama’s legislation, the repeal of Obamacare looks less likely. Even though I think this legislation would pass (HJ112) in the House, our pal Harry Reid in the Senate is unlikely to do the same. This battle is likely to play out in the courts…if this is ruled as unconstitutional, then Tennessee will look very attractive to big businesses when they find out this health care law doesn’t apply to them.”

He further stated, “Tenncare started in ’94. We have struggled with this program. It’s well intentioned but financially it just wasn’t getting it done. As Jeremy was saying, it essentially broke the state back in 2005 and they had to cut many people from the rolls just to keep it solvent. So why would we double down on a failed policy. We know what history tells us and it’s going to happen again. Here the federal government, who by the way is broke, is offering to subsidize states with this 6 and half billion dollars, in the case of Tennessee, to put people back on the Medicaid roll. Frankly, its just irresponsible. We know we can’t afford to do this. And we are going to have to find better ways. And, we have better ways. Not just in Medicaid but in health care in general. In the next 5 years it will cost Tennessee $199,000,000. Take it about 2-3 years further and that number goes to $800,000,000. That’s CBO’s doing, that’s not numbers I’m making up.”

Senator Mae Beavers was the next speaker, speaking for SB 804.

SB804 states,

Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, the state shall not establish, facilitate, implement, or participate in any new expansion of the medical assistance program, also known as the Medicaid program, pursuant to the Patient – 3 – 002738 Protection and Affordable Care Act, Public Law 111-148, as amended, as interpreted by the United States Supreme Court in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, to be unconstitutional when applied to states as a mandatory expansion. The state is prohibited from amending the state plan or any federal waiver under title XIX of the federal Social Security Act in order to effectuate any such expansion of the Medicaid or TennCare program in this state.

Senator Beavers stated, “One of the things we done on the state level back before Obamacare was passed was the Healthcare Freedom Act. That passed the Senate in 2010 before Obamacare came into being. It unfortunately did not pass the house that year and so we came back in 2011. In 2011 we passed it through Senate very quickly, and then through the house very quickly and was signed into law. It was the first law Governor Haslam signed in his administration. That bill says that if Obamacare is to come into being than as Tennesseans we want to be able to choose our healthcare. And, if the federal government comes into Tennessee and try and fine us that our Attorney General will represent us, imagine that!

Last year, also, we introduced the Healthcare compact. There’s a little known federal law that states can join together and at least 2 states pass the same resolution or law are in a compact. That we can come together as states and ask congress to let us do our own thing. And the health care compact, if Congress approves it, and we have about 5 or 6 states that have already passed it. We have others that filed it trying to pass it. We actually have some states that have passed it and the governor has vetoed it. And what governor wouldn’t want Tennesseans to have a choice in their health care and have their state run it instead of the federal government.

We hear governors complain all the time about what Washington is making them do. The mandates that they are putting on them. And yet, they would veto piece of legislation like this that we are proposing. The Health Care compact, if Congress passes it, woud allow us to draw down all of our health care money from Washington with what they spend on Tennessee and the administration cost. And I think we can administer those funds a lot cheaper than Washington could, don’t you? Mor than that, it allows us to make our own decisions on health care regulations instead of somebody out of Washington. They want to tell us what treatment we can get and what treatment we can’t.

She continued, “Now we passed it last year, as I told you. Many in the House sat on their hands and wouldn’t vote for it. Because the AARP had come to them and said to them, we don’t want you managing our Medicare. I never in my wildest imaginations would have thought that Tennesseans, that the Tennessee legislature would want to do Medicare. It’s a broke system already. There are a lot of cuts from the federal government already. That we could benefit on being able to make our decisions on Medicaid. You have heard the figures of what it is going to cost Tennesseans in 5 years.

We need to approve this legislation this year. We have it (SB407) ready tomorrow at 2:30 in the House Committee (on Health and Welfare). In the House however, they have a tie vote in the health committee. I think we have the votes there, you need to call your representative and make sure…call somebody that voted against it. Go to the legislative website. Go to the general assembly website. Pull up the health committee. See what the vote was on that bill (companion bill to SB407, HB 536). Call your legislators. And tell them to make the motion to bring that bill back up? Is it the answer to Obamacare? Probably not. But, at least it will be an option. I don’t want the federal government telling me what kind of treatment I can have. I want my family making those decisions for me. Thank you for being here today. Thank you for being able to push back against the federal government.

Many other speakers joined in. They brought all of us to this rally to bring Tennesseans together to Nullify the Medicaid expansion and bring awareness to the states fight against the federal take over of our health.

Kelli Sladick

The 10th Amendment

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

LEARN MORE

01

Featured Articles

On the Constitution, history, the founders, and analysis of current events.

featured articles

02

Tenther Blog and News

Nullification news, quick takes, history, interviews, podcasts and much more.

tenther blog

03

State of the Nullification Movement

232 pages. History, constitutionality, and application today.

get the report

01

Path to Liberty

Our flagship podcast. Michael Boldin on the constitution, history, and strategy for liberty today

path to liberty

02

Maharrey Minute

The title says it all. Mike Maharrey with a 1 minute take on issues under a 10th Amendment lens. maharrey minute

Tenther Essentials

2-4 minute videos on key Constitutional issues - history, and application today

TENTHER ESSENTIALS

Join TAC, Support Liberty!

Nothing helps us get the job done more than the financial support of our members, from just $2/month!

JOIN TAC

01

The 10th Amendment

History, meaning, and purpose - the "Foundation of the Constitution."

10th Amendment

03

Nullification

Get an overview of the principles, background, and application in history - and today.

nullification