Missouri votes "NO" on Obamacare

It's official -- by a margin of 71 percent to 29 percent, Missouri voters approved a referendum to invalidate any Obamacare mandate to purchase health insurance or any penalty for not doing so.  Expect a host of other states to do exactly the same thing.

America's first returns are now in on the personal mandate included in Obamacare.  That's the same mandate then-candidate Obama once said would never be part of universal healthcare.  The constitutionality of the personal mandate is going to provide a spirited debate for a long time to come.  So much for campaign promises.

In this thought-provoking piece after the Missouri election, libertarian columnist (Scripps Howard News Service and a media fellow with the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University) Deroy Murdock nails the issue squarely on the head:

"A July 30 and 31 Rasmussen survey shows that — among 1,000 likely voters — 59 percent want Obamacare overturned, while 38 percent disagree. (Error margin: plus/minus 3 percent.) Despite relentless Democratic preening over Obamacare, pro-repeal sentiments have risen from 55 percent (42 percent opposed) on March 24, when Obama signed this bill.

"The American people can kill this monster in its crib. Handing Republicans the keys to Congress on Nov. 2 could smother this $2.5 trillion extravagance in its infancy. While a GOP repeal vote surely would earn a presidential veto, a Republican Congress could defund this law's implementation.

"Instead, Republicans should administer a pro-market antidote to Obamacare's poison: health-insurance vouchers; Medical malpractice reform; universal, tax-free Health Savings Accounts; and individual, portable medical plans — all available across state lines.

"Obamacare's ultimate demise likely will require a Republican chief executive to sign its death certificate. Until that joyous occasion, Americans should dream of the day when Obama returns to Chicago to break ground on his presidential library."

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Set aside for the moment any concerns about the actual cost of Obamacare (my major complaint).  An aroused American electorate is pushing back against the perceived intrusion into their freedom of choice. 

 

IT'S THE CORE ISSUE IN THE UPCOMING MID-TERM ELECTIONS. 

 

The party that gets it figured out between now and then will prevail in November, and this time they'd better stay true to their constituents.  Shall we have freedom, or a central, arrogant, Washington-knows-best, dictatorial government?

 

The decision, as always, rests in the hands of the voters.  I'm betting they get it right.  They usually do when the God-given, Constitutional right to agency is on the line.