Wisconsin Tea Partiers Want To Arrest Officials Who Implement Obamacare
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) famously said about Obamacare, “Just because a couple people on the Supreme Court declare something to be ‘Constitutional’ does not make it so.”
Except that’s exactly how the Constitution works.
Paul, as a leader of the Tea Party movement, exemplifies the spirit of self-proclaimed Constitution-lovers whom The Onion parodied with the headline “Area Man Passionate Defender Of What He Imagines Constitution To Be.”
The Department of Health and Human Services recently extended the deadline for governors to decide if they will start their own health insurance exchanges as part of the Affordable Care Act. If they don’t decide to do so by December 14, the federal government will do it for them. Tea Party groups across the country have been pressuring Republican governors not to set up the exchanges, forcing what we would have to call a “federal government takeover.” But a group of Tea Partiers in Wisconsin wants to go a step further.
Nine Wisconsin legislators are backing a bill that would call for the arrest of any official who tries to implement Obamacare — this would presumably include Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R-WI), who has not yet declared if he intends to start up his own exchange.
The legislators support the agenda of the Campaign for Liberty, which also is proposing laws that would make Wisconsin — the birthplace of the progressive movement — a “right to work” state, prohibiting businesses that have workforces that are entirely unionized. Other bills on the agenda would would deem TSA pat-downs as sexual assault and legalize the sale of raw milk.
The Campaign for Liberty is a “Tenther” organization that believes states should be allowed to nullify any laws they don’t agree with. According to its website, the group was founded “to highlight the neglected but common-sense principles we champion and reinsert them into the American political conversation.”
Apparently one of the “common-sense” principles missing was a doctrine that slave states and segregationists used to prevent African-Americans from enjoying freedom and equality.
Despite whatever they believe, nullification of federal laws and arresting those who carry them out are definitely not Constitutional — unless the Supreme Court says they are.
