Payne: Michigan 1, Obamacare 0 (The Michigan View 2.5.11)

Posted by hpayne on February 5, 2011

Obamacare

Michigan hasn’t had many chances to celebrate in recent years, but last week was a good week in its War on Obamacare.

The state was one of 26 that won a key court battle in Florida that declared not only that the law’s forced purchase of health insurance is unconstitutional – but that the entire law was void. The partisan, federal takeover of health care is a dagger at the heart of business – which is why the state’s small business lobby – the Michigan Federation of Independent Business – joined the attorney general’s Florida suit.

State media – in Lansing absorbing the details of Governor Snyder’s report on state finances – gave short shrift to the momentous ruling. But the state’s fisc will never recover without sustained economic growth, and Obamacare is a major reason why employment rolls have lagged the last twelve months. Obamacare is forcing huge new costs on business – beginning with premium rate hikes as high as 18 percent.

How big was the Florida decision by Judge Roger Vinson for Michigan? Hear the roar.

“We are very pleased by the judge’s ruling,” said Michigan NFIB Director Charles Owns, “The mandates, penalties and regulatory burdens imposed by this law are costly and confusing to Michigan small businesses.”

Democrats like John Dingell and Gary Peters claim that small business wins from Obamacare, but the truth is small business has been one of the law’s fiercest opponents.

State Attorney General Bill Schuette hailed the state’s victory. “I am pleased with this ruling because it confirms the individual mandate intruded onto the basic liberties and rights that the Founders envisioned and enshrined in our Constitution for every American citizen,” Schuette said.

Dingell and Peters were lonely cheerleaders for Washington this week. With a January Free Press-WXYZ poll showing that Michiganians oppose Obamacare, 51-43 percent, that’s people, business, AG against.

Even the bad news was good news.

While the still-Democratic Senate voted on partisan lines not to follow the Republican House lead and put a stake thru Count Obamastein, it did vote to repeal the law’s so-called 1099 provision. This little gremlin forced businesses to file 1099 tax forms EVERY TIME THEY SPENT MORE THAN $600 with a single vendor.

“(This was a) vast new paperwork and accounting burden for 30 million businesses and hit start-ups hardest,” wrote the Wall Street journal editorial page, but Democrats and their ceaseless appetite for taxes saw it as a revenue stream for the hungry health care bill.

Lefty Senator Debbie Stabenow led the Democratic retreat – the vote was 81-17 – sponsoring 1099 repeal just a year after voting for it. Democrats once promised that the more skeptical Americans learned of Obamacare’s details, the more they would embrace it. The 1099 shellacking hints at the opposite – and gives momentum to GOP strategy to kill the bill piece by piece..

Lastly, Obamacare burdens states by compelling health exchanges – another cost at a time when Michigan can least afford it. The Wall Street Journal reports Wisconsin and Florida have already suspended compliance until Obamacre’s constitutionality is resolved.

Michigan should join them.

As the Mackinac Center’s Jack McHugh reports nearby, legal experts agree that the Florida court’s voiding of the law means the federal government must stop implementing Obamacare immediately (even as the White House has stubbornly flaunted the law). Says Joseph Coletti, a John Locke Foundation analyst: “Judge Vinson’s ruling frees the state of Michigan from any obligations imposed by Obamacare.”

Last week’s battlefield victories brought Michigan one step closer to defeating Obamacare for good.

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