Freedom Campaign - February 2011

Freedom Campaign

by Larry Greenley, Director of Marketing

Nullify the Entire ObamaCare Law Now!

Time is of the essence. Precious time is being frittered away by elected officials, and conservative organizations and individuals, who are fighting the individual mandate of ObamaCare with lawsuits and partial nullification legislation. These efforts, even if successful, will take years to complete. And, during those years the massive new federal healthcare bureaucracy authorized by the ObamaCare law will be enthusiastically implemented by the Obama administration. This implementation would devastate the healthcare providers and private insurers of our healthcare system.

So what if the individual mandate is stripped out of the ObamaCare law in the next couple years by legal decisions or congressional action, if we permit ObamaCare implementation to proceed there’ll be little left of our healthcare system to choose between. Furthermore, we already know that congressional repeal of the entire law is virtually impossible with Democrats in control of the Senate and occupying the White House until at least 2013.

We urgently need 10-20 states to nullify the entire ObamaCare law this year. That would definitely bog down the implementation of ObamaCare and build up the momentum for a full congressional repeal.

Even though this is being written in early January, I’m already aware of eight states where legislation to nullify the entire ObamaCare law has been introduced: Texas (HB297), Montana (SB161), Wyoming (HB0035), Oregon (SB498), Indiana (SB505), Maine (LD58), Nebraska (LB515), and Oklahoma. With our members working on this project in many additional states, I’m expecting we’ll see full ObamaCare nullification bills introduced in 10-20 states this year.

Of course, once a nullification bill is introduced the next order of business is getting sufficient votes for passage. If you get a nullification bill introduced in your state, let your Coordinator know and have him work with us at headquarters to post a legislative alert for your state similar to what we do for bills in Congress. We can then send an email to the people on our national legislative email alert list that reside in your state to help increase the pressure on your state’s representatives to pass your nullification bill.

If you haven’t already started working on nullification of ObamaCare in your state, go to http://www.JBS.org/StopObamaCare where you’ll find many useful tools, including our recent article “States Should Enforce, Not Revise, the Constitution!” from the December 6, 2010 issue of The New American and a “Model Federal Health Care Nullification Act for State Legislatures.”

Work to Stop Con-Con Calls Now!

For the past year I’ve been predicting that there would be vigorous pro Con-Con activity in all 50 state legislatures in early 2011. One of our Virginia members, who had just been working in the Virginia state capitol to convince legislators to oppose any new Con-Con calls, called me in mid-January to confirm just how active the pro Con-Con forces currently are. He told me that a majority of the Tea Party groups in Virginia have formed a federation that is backing a Con-Con call by the Virginia legislature. And, one Con-Con resolution, based on the Repeal Amendment, already has 49 cosponsors in the 100-member House of Delegates.

If you haven’t already been working with your state legislators on stopping any new Con-Con calls, please contact them now and see what the situation is in your state. We urgently need you to be in close contact with your state legislators in order to defeat any new Con-Con calls, and where appropriate (see the “States Should Enforce, Not Revise, the Constitution!” article for a list of the 34 states that haven’t rescinded), work on getting a resolution introduced and passed to rescind all of your state’s existing Con-Con calls.

Several different potential amendments are being used to entice state legislators to vote in favor of a Con-Con, such as the Repeal Amendment, a balanced budget amendment, and an amendment to restrict Congress from increasing the national debt limit. While the amendments often sound good, the Con-Con that would be necessary for getting them proposed would pose too great a risk to the Constitution.

We have just finished production of a new tool for convincing your state legislators to oppose any new Con-Con calls. This new tool is a video, Beware of Con-Cons: State Legislators Warn Against a Constitutional Convention, which is available on DVDs in two lengths, 12 minutes and 30 minutes, and with audio versions of both lengths also available on CDs. It features Oklahoma State Representatives Charles Key and Dr. Michael Ritze, and Randy Brogdon, who retired from the State Senate at the end of 2010. See the ShopJBS ad on page seven for ordering information. We’ve also posted a new “No Con-Con Documentation Packet” PDF under the Freedom Campaign downloads at JBS.org which includes nine letters by a wide variety of constitutional scholars and judges who oppose convening a new constitutional convention plus our “Model Con-Con State Rescission Resolution.” This documentation packet contains the letters referred to in the Beware of Con-Cons video.

We urgently need our members and their allies to work on stopping any new Con-Con calls in all 50 states. This is the critical time for you to help preserve the Constitution.

You’ll find all of our current tools for opposing Con-Con calls at http://www.JBS.org/StopACon-Con.

“State Legislator Packet” Project

This is still an excellent time for distributing our “State Legislator Packet” to newly elected, like-minded state legislators to get them started on the right foot by giving them some key educational materials that will increase their understanding of our form of government and their role as state legislators. See page seven of the January Bulletin for further information.

Action Summary

• Get an act passed in your state to nullify the entire ObamaCare law.
• Stop all Con-Con call resolutions in your state, and where appropriate, work to rescind all previous Con-Con calls. Personally distribute our new Beware of Con-Cons video to as many of your state legislators as possible.
• Distribute the “State Legislator Packet” to newly elected, like-minded members of your state legislature.