Being the statists that they are, it’s only natural Congress and the president should think simply passing and signing a bill makes it reality. But, in reality, a law with implications as vast as ObamaCare requires wholehearted state cooperation to implement. Cooperation unlikely to be soon forthcoming.
Upwards of 30 states currently have plans to oppose the so-called “reform” bill (along with other myriad federal actions) in some manner, and as Armstrong Williams notes this week in the Washington Times:
the actions of the states speak to a larger political dilemma for the Obama administration and any future initiatives it pursues. You can’t keep jamming unwanted and unpopular national measures [like a VAT, for instance] through Congress, hoping it’ll get sorted out later. The White House is slated next to consider reauthorizing federal education programs. Does it honestly believe states should sit this one out, let alone acquiesce on that important 10th Amendment prerogative?
Sooner or later the looming choice will have to be made. Will the states continue to abet their own slide into political irrelevance, accepting along with ObamaCare, and countless other unfunded mandates, their permanent status as mere administrative arms of the federal government?
Or will they stand up for their citizens, and for the system of dual sovereignty established and ratified by the independent states when they formed the federal government to act as their common agent?
It’s possible, even likely, that most states will eventually roll over for (increasingly worthless) federal fiat dollars, but it only takes one state, like Virginia, with an Attorney General like Ken Cuccinelli, to keep stirring the pot, and before too long, the whole damn country will be reading, understanding, and expecting fidelity to our Constitution.
Which may lead to an even bigger set of problems for Democrats (and Big Government Republicans) than this November’s mid-term elections.
Williams continues
In the Democrats’ blind zeal to pass their leftist policies, they are by default writing checks they know they can’t cash. That massive bout of irresponsibility doesn’t just end with aimless numbers on a congressional budget page. Contrary to what the president and party Democrats believe, our nation’s debt is “not all on paper…”
Every statewide elected official… woke up last Monday morning with the stark realization that they now have to pay for the mess Congress has created. And I guarantee you every one of them began the thought process with similar words, “Unlike Washington, we have to balance our budgets. What are we going to do?”
What, indeed?
Crossposted from Tertium Quids.