What If The Country Just Says No To Obama's Health Care Reform Bill?

Although most Americans, as measured by all major polling organizations, are against the passage of Obama's health care reform legislation, the Democrats are desperately trying to push it through anyway. The bill, as described in this blog many times and elsewhere, does not appear to address the root causes of rising health care costs. Instead, it imposes a large, unwieldy bureaucracy on the nation, levies a large set of new taxes on all Americans, requires Americans to sign up for a program that many do not want to sign up for (which will require extensive government interference into our private lives to check if we are in compliance and imposing fines and/or jail time if we are not), and does not solve the basic problem.

Worst of all, is the manner in which the health care reform may be imposed. Obama, Reid, and Pelosi are using parliamentary tricks and back room deals to pass a bill that should be able to stand the scrutiny of accepted Congressional procedures and protocols. Thus, the way this legislation may be imposed in addition to what it is imposing is becoming more and more of an issue. This led me to the thought and title of this post: What if the Democrats do indeed pass this bill and the country ignores it? Or worse yet, reacts violently to it?

Consider the following situations and events and see if I am not right:

• As a result of the 9-11 attacks, Homeland Security and Congress put together a bill called the Real ID act that would require all of the states to issue standardized, high tech id cards to all Americans in an attempt to prevent other attacks. However, the act has met fierce resistance from many different groups including those with a libertarian/small government philosophy, religious groups who liken it to a passage in Revelations and the end of the world, and other sectors of the country. These sectors include over twenty state governments that have refused and/or emphatically defied not complying with the mandate. As a result, the act has not been implemented across the country as planned with some members of Congress now pushing for its repeal. In this case, civil resistance and state governments have basically ignored a Federal mandate.
• Jump ahead to the current health care reform fiasco. Last week the state government of Idaho said that it will not comply with some parts of the current health care reform bill if it is passed as it current reads. The Associated Press article reporting on the Idaho defiance stated that upwards of 38 states have similar legislation brewing that would defy parts or all of the current legislation. What happens if Congress and Obama pass the legislation and the majority of states ignore it? The current Federal bill requires actions by those states and considerably increased state expenditures on Federally mandated health care programs, both existing and new. What if the states just say no? Will Obama's health care reform effort be ignored just like the Real ID effort? Will the country face a constitutional crisis and how long will that take to resolve?
• The current legislation mandates that all Americans purchase health care insurance. What if Americans do not do it and just say no? Is the government going to send agents to our doors and require proof of insurance coverage? Are agents going drag us off to a payment agency or jail if we defy the requirements? Just how are they going to enforce this intrusion into our lives? Do we really think that the Bloods and Crips in LA are going to call a truce for a day in order to sign up for health care insurance? Do we really think that mountain folks in Appalachia are coming down off the mountain and into town to sign up for health care insurance? Do we really think that really rich people that can afford both the fines for not carrying insurance and the cost of medical care if they need it are going to sign up for health care insurance? If the states defy the legislation and millions of individual Americans defy the legislation, where does that leave us relative to the Federal government? A similar situation existed once before in our nation's history (state defiance, states' rights, individual defiance, economic resistance) and it turned into the Civil War.
• Even if a second civil war does not break out, what about individual acts of violence in defiance of the Federal government? Earlier this year a disgruntled American flew his private plane into the Federal offices housing IRS personnel in Texas. Earlier this month a sole individual approached the Pentagon entrance with two guns and who knows what intentions before he was shot and killed after wounding two security personnel. Both violent men left rants about how they hated the Federal government. What if these attacks are just the tip of the iceberg relative to civil disobedience and where will that iceberg hit next if the flawed health care bill and the process used to pass it become a reality?

I certainly hope that violence does not become the disobedience manner of choice for individual Americans that are against the passage of the current health care reform bill. However, it is disturbing to think what might happen if the majority of states and the majority of Americans take action to defy Obama, Reid, and Pelosi relative to the current legislation. You know that if the bill passes, the protesting law suits will come quickly and frequently shorty thereafter. This will lock the country and the Federal government in a legal battle for years to come, taking attention, resources and efforts off of other pressing national issues. Once the Republicans regain control of the Congress and the White House sometime in the future, they will probably have no qualms in using the same underhanded tactics that Obama is using to get his health care plan passed (e.g. reconciliation vs. traditional/standard legislation passage protocols, so-called "Slaughter" rules, back room deals, etc.). Thus, issues that Democrats favor such as abortion rights, gay rights, high taxes on the rich, etc. will likely get short shrift since the Republicans will ram through legislation using the same blue print Obama is using today.

All of these actions, state government and individual defiance, drawn out lawsuits protesting the current health care reform bill, and Republicans adopting Obama's despicable tactics once they are in power, will further divide the country and further delay any meaningful action by the political class in solving the nation's problems. How far and how nasty the situation becomes is up for debate but it is only a matter how much and not if. All because the Obama administration and the Democrats in Congress did not do a good job identifying the root causes of rising health care costs and develop rational, bipartisan legislation to address those root causes. The country is about to "Just Say No" at the state government and individual American level and "saying no" usually does not result in positive progress.


Our new book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.