When the people of South Carolina are subjected to actions that violate their constitutional rights and our state’s sovereignty, it is my sworn duty as attorney general to protect them. For that reason, South Carolina has joined with 16 other states in a legal challenge to President Obama’s new health care law, with additional states expected to join in the coming days.
President Obama’s national health care law represents an unprecedented encroachment on the liberty of individuals by mandating that all citizens purchase health care insurance, whether they want to or not. And if they do not comply, they will be forced to pay a tax penalty to the IRS. This forced tax penalty constitutes an unlawful direct tax.
Some mistakenly compare mandating federal health insurance to automobile insurance. Driving is a choice and a privilege. If you choose to drive, a state is within its constitutional authority to require insurance to do so on its roads. A more accurate comparison would be requiring all citizens to have auto insurance, even if they don’t drive, and then penalizing them if they do not purchase it.
No part of our federal Constitution authorizes the federal government to mandate, either directly or under threat of penalty, that every citizen purchase health care coverage. By imposing such a mandate, the new health care law exceeds the powers of the federal government under Article I of the Constitution and violates the Tenth Amendment.
The law also represents an unprecedented encroachment on the sovereignty of South Carolina by forcing an almost $1 billion increase in state government spending over the next 10 years by mandating an additional half a million Medicaid recipients be added to the state rolls.
Medicaid was originally designed to be a voluntary federal-state partnership, but this new health care law turns it into a compulsory, top-down federal program in which the discretion of the states is removed.
A 61 percent increase in Medicaid enrollees will force the state to spend billions of dollars to hire and train new employees to comply and implement the expansion of the state Medicaid program under national health care.
This encroachment on state sovereignty occurs at a time when our state is faced with a tough economy, record unemployment, shrinking revenues and severe budget cuts to an already-strained budget. Medicaid currently covers more than 803,000 South Carolinians and consumes more than a quarter of spending in our state budget – which, unlike the federal government, is constitutionally required to be balanced.
Even if you believe that it has still has the legal option, South Carolina could not realistically withdraw from participating in Medicaid, because over the more than four decades of its existence, the state has become increasingly dependent on federal funds for its operation. Washington politicians know this, and use this undeniable fact to force states to comply with their will.
This violates the core constitutional principle of federalism upon which this nation was founded. In so doing, the national health care law exceeds the powers of the United States and in a second way violates the Tenth Amendment.
South Carolina and her partner states are in a fight for their lives – legally, economically and philosophically. Our businesses – both large and small – will be unable to bear the financial pressure being forced upon them by the federal government in these already-difficult times. Many will be forced to lay off employees or even go out of business.
Make no mistake about it: This new federal health care mandate is a freedom killer and a jobs killer. It is clearly unconstitutional. There are better ways to rein in the cost of health care. It must be done lawfully and without making already tough economic times worse.
Henry McMaster is South Carolina’s attorney general and a Republican candidate for governor.
