Missouri smack-down signals mounting troubles for Obama

August 4, 2010 Conservative Examiner Anthony G. Martin

By a decisive 3-to-1 margin the citizens of Missouri yesterday delivered the nation's first referendum on ObamaCare. Voters overwhelmingly rejected the federal mandate to purchase health insurance--a key provision of the plan of Obama and the Democrats to nationalize the U.S. healthcare system.

The vote is widely viewed as a major Republican victory...and as a stinging blow to the efforts of the Obama Administration and Democrats in Congress to get their massive takeover of healthcare off the ground.

Detractors who site the Constitution's 'supremacy clause,' which holds that in disputes between the federal government and the states, the federal government holds sway, argue that if the Feds sue Missouri the initiative will not survive in court.

However, a new mood is sweeping America.

(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images).

When the people themselves overwhelmingly and persistently display their vehement opposition to Federal Government intrusion, and when it is obvious that this government has overstepped its Constitutional boundaries on many fronts, the courts may well issue some surprises with regard to the 'supremacy clause.'

In short, the states have rights under the Constitution that trump the federal government, and the people have a right to demand that the Feds respect their preference for 'local government' under the 10th Amendment.

The mounting troubles for Obama in the courts cannot be overstated. Scores of states have joined in a lawsuit against the federal government concerning ObamaCare's unconstitutional mandate that citizens purchase health insurance.

In a deft, but not so subtle sleight-of-hand maneuver, the Obama Administration is now claiming that there is no such federal mandate to purchase insurance, but that the mandate amounts to a 'tax' which cannot be challenged in court.

The tactic is likely to fail due to the fact that it is quite obvious that unless ObamaCare is significantly changed to strip from the bill the mandate for the purchase of private health insurance and replaced with a direct tax on all citizens that will fund a single-payer government insurance entity, then the current plan as it now stands in no way amounts to a 'tax.'

Compounding the mounting troubles for Obama are 2 major decisions issued by the court and by the Attorney-General in Virginia this week, which gave the go-ahead to the commonwealth of Virginia to sue the federal government over ObamaCare and which also gave approval for law enforcement in the state to inquire about the citizenship status of suspected illegal aliens.

The Obama Administration has picked its battles very poorly in an election year. It has now pitted itself against the states and the citizens, at the very least giving the impression to voters that the federal government is the enemy of the people.