Sunday, March 20, 2011

At least 2 Republican governors (Okla. and SC) have accepted cash from Obama to kick start ObamaCare

.
It doesn't matter what Michele Bachmann or anyone in the Beltway says about ObamaCare because the states--filled with new Republicans--are eagerly enacting it on their own with cash from Obama.

3/17/11, "Health Insurance Exchanges and Federal Funding," OPCA blog

"Following (Oklahoma Republican) Gov. Mary Fallin’s announcement a few weeks ago that Oklahoma would accept more than $54 million in federal funds
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3/19/11, "Oklahoma House passes ObamaCare implementation measure amid false claims," RedState.com poster jamisonfaught

"The Oklahoma House of Representatives voted 51-34 to pass a bill that begins the implementation of a key portion of ObamaCare - an Oklahoma health insurance exchange. HB2130 is authored by House Speaker Kris Steele (R-Shawnee) and Senate President Brian Bingman (R-Sapulpa), but was run on the House floor
  • by freshman Rep. Glen Mulready (R-Tulsa)....
The measure is funded using a $54 million grant from the federal government (HHS) given as part of the
  • implementation of the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act (aka ObamaCare) passed by Congress almost one year ago.

Keep in mind that Oklahoma voters overwhelmingly passed SQ756 last November, which was aimed at opposing ObamaCare, and that Attorney General Scott Pruitt has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the state

  • against the federal health care law....

I was particularly disappointed that eleven freshmen Republicans voted for the bill, while

  • only three voted against it....
It did come out during the presentation that a “secondary” reason for this measure was to comply with the PPACA legislation (ObamaCare). In fact, Rep. Mark McCullough (R-Sapulpa) said,

It could be considered pretty darn aggressive or clever for Oklahoma to take federal money to build an exchange built in opposition to the PPACA,
  • while simultaneously suing the feds, telling them ‘we don’t want this.’
That certainly is a creative, albeit flawed, method of action....

Rep. Faught closed debate in opposition to the bill. I can’t believe I heard this. ‘Take their money… let’s sue them over it… then say we really don’t want it.’ Sounds like a word we ought to say: hypocrisy! Hypocrisy. [...]
  • This money comes with strings attached. Rep. Paul Wesselhoft (R-Moore) asked Faught if he agreed
that Oklahoma should send the $54 million back to the federal government, and Faught replied,
  • I think we should throw it back in their face.”"...
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Commenter on the issue to a RedState post:

"runner12 Sunday, March 20th at 2:28PM EDT (link)


"The problem is that in Oklahoma our

previous Dem. Governor applied for a grant of 54 million dollars. Our current Republican Governor could have turned it down, but she did not. She took the money.

Now the State Senate has to vote on whether to use some of the money to create health care exchanges (it already passed in the House). They think that if they start the ball rolling before the federal government does, then they can control the exchanges and make them more free-market based. Gov. Fallin insists that she did her homework and that the grant does

  • not have any federal mandates attached to it.

Fallin’s reasoning on this is extremely flawed on so many levels, it is hard to know where to begin. But I assume that these other states are using the same flawed reasoning."

========================================

Then we have new Republican South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley who really fooled us with those exciting media appearances asking Obama to stop ObamaCare. Now she's going along with it, doing nothing to stop it. Named a 'commission' to study it while SC legislators are busy getting "health exchange" deals done.

  • Gov. Haley took $1 million to begin implementing ObamaCare in her state.

3/18/11, "Why set up an exchange plan for a law that is unconstitutional?" RedState.com poster karenmartin

"Were South Carolina Republican leaders not listening last November? Did they not get the message that the people of the Palmetto state are fed up with the direction in which Barack Obama and his socialist allies in Washington are taking our country?

Across our state and our country, conservatives and tea party members rallied against “Obamacare” last year – and the Republican Party seized upon our righteous indignation by promising to repeal the law

  • and block its implementation at the state level.

These promises were among the main reasons Republicans were swept into office at the state and national level. Why, then, are Palmetto “Republicans” now

  • actively seeking to implement Obamacare here in South Carolina?

Why is a bill “to provide for the establishment of the South Carolina Health Benefit Exchange pursuant to the federal health care act” receiving considerable Republican support in the S.C. House of Representatives?

In fact not only are efforts underway to move this bill through the “GOP-controlled” Ways and Means committee, but the legislation – which would set up a taxpayer-funded panel to implement the exchange in South Carolina – is being sponsored by numerous Republican lawmakers. Needless to say supporting the implementation of Obamacare is not the sort of leadership that tea party members are expecting from our leaders in Columbia. In fact this duplicity seems to be a repeat of the fight over Obama’s so-called “stimulus,” which saw many Republican leaders object to this bureaucratic bailout

  • only to turn around and greedily lap up its federal largess.

A similar effort to slip Obamacare into state law in Georgia was recently exposed by tea party members, which resulted in a complete collapse of support for the legislation. Tea party efforts also led to Gov. Nathan Deal becoming the latest chief executive to go on the record stating

“The governor understands Georgians’ suspicions about any legislation associated with Obamacare,” Deal’s spokesman said. “He shares their opposition to the federal takeover of health care.”

Florida Gov. Rick Scott is also taking a principled stand against implementing the Obamacare exchanges in his state – instructing his insurance commissioner to return a $1 million federal grant requested by former Gov. Charlie Crist that

  • would have provided a blueprint for setting up the exchange.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is also blocking efforts to implement a health care exchange in his state.

This is the kind of leadership we need to see in South Carolina. The establishment of Obamacare exchanges is the first step in the implementation of this radical socialized medicine scheme. Accordingly, the battle over these exchanges represents the front-line of the broader fight

  • to repeal, defund and do away with this unconstitutional abomination.

In that battle there is no middle ground – lawmakers are either working to implement the legislation or they are working to keep it from being implemented.

South Carolinians have made it perfectly clear on which side of the fence we expect our leaders to be - so why are so many “Republicans” on the wrong side of the fence? Tea party supporters will not stand idly by while this legislation is shoved down our throats. In fact they may aggressively campaign against any Republican who supports the implementation of the Obamacare exchanges. The Republican party scored huge victories in November promising to protect our liberties and our tax dollars from Obama’s socialist assaults.

It is now time for them to honor that commitment - or prepare to be replaced by lawmakers who will."

"Cross post from Spartanburg Tea Party"


via RedState.com



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