On Mike Church’s Sirius satellite radio show, Tennessee State Assembly Representative Susan Lynn of District 57 (Mt. Juliet) announced both a health care nullification bill and state health care constitutional amendment planned for Tennessee.
Rep Susan Lynn
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Nullification is the latest tactic that has grown out of the political Right’s tea party movement after having failed to stop passage of health care bills in both U.S. House and Senate; despite much publicized and highly rancorous town halls this past summer, and marches on the National Mall in Washington D.C. this fall.
Right now the two congressional bills are awaiting reconciliation when Congress return from holiday vacation, in order to come up with one combined bill for a final vote.
On December 28, Lynn took to the airwaves with conservative radio host Church to express her thoughts. Nashville Post Politics transcribes the most specific part of the conversation to this point to have been as such:
Mike: Let me move on to another area, here, of this same discussion here, then. Wouldn’t it be prudent to pursue this in the state legislature and have an absolute piece of legislation, a law that says, uh, not so fast, Charlie, we’re just going to make that law null and void and illegal in Tennessee. We are not going to allow the federal government to subjugate our citizens into some kind of slavery here that they have to buy anything. Susan?
Susan: Yeah, it’s my understanding that a nullification bill is going to be filed in Tennessee. And also I have a constitutional amendment that we’ll put into our state constitution that, you know, people have the right to choose their own healthcare, that the government cannot force them into anything. And so, you know, we’ll see how that will go. Constitutional amendments, though, in Tennessee are a very lengthy process. They take really about six years or more. So the nullification bill would really be much more effective.
Lynn Continued “We have to do both,” according to the City Paper. “We have to have a law immediately, and then we also have to have a constitutional amendment to protect our citizens through our constitution.”
Then on Tuesday December 29, the Mt. Juliet Republican Representative was joined by fellow Republican Rep Debra Maggart of Hendersonville in sending a letter to state Attorney General Robert Cooper urging him to file suit against the federal government if health care reform passes with a Medicare expansion.
Rep Debra Maggart
The letter in part states that:
Under this bill, Tennessee would be forced to expand our Medicaid program, potentially costing the citizens of the state $1.4 billion dollars in additional state taxpayer funds annually. Such an increase would place a great burden on the citizens of this state. It is clear by the wording of the legislation itself that not every state would face a similar and equal burden.
We see this as a violation of the equal protection of the law, an affront to our sovereignty, and a breach of the U.S. Constitution.
Rep. Mike Turner, chairman of the House Democrats’ political caucus, said Tuesday
“Susan Lynn is yearning for times gone by. Maybe we could put the poor people back to sharecropping and slavery and let the people up at the big house have all the nice things. We’ve already had that fight about states’ rights."
Turner is referring to states rights arguments that were at the center of the Civil War, and to the Nullification Crisis of the 1830s where South Carolina passed a law nullifying federal tariffs. After President Andrew Jackson sent Navy warships to the Charleston harbor, South Carolina backed down and rescinded the law; while congress passed a new lower rate tariff. Much like Rep. Lynn’s proposals, the South Carolina law declared 1828 and 1832 federal tariff laws to be unconstitutional, and hence null and void.
Cited articles and documents:
Nashville Post Politics - http://politics.nashvillepost.com/2009/12/29/susan-lynn-talks-nullification-on-satellite-radio/
The City Paper - http://nashvillecitypaper.com/content/city-news/state-legislator-says-she-plans-introduce-nullification-bill
Letter to Attorney General Robert Cooper - http://www.tennessean.com/assets/pdf/DN1489021221.PDF Read more: http://www.blogdoctor.me/2007/02/expandable-post-summaries.html#ixzz0fvTXmFSF
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