Will we applaud our betrayers?

Sometimes our deepest wounds come from behind from our “friends”.

I’ll tell you why I say that in a minute, but before I do I need you to understand why H3101, Nullification of ObamaCare in South Carolina, suffered a mortal wound March 20.

The people of South Carolina spent the last three months fighting off weak nullification bills from Republican Representative Delleney and others.

But even before that, we fought for and passed S424, the Nullification Resolution.

We  fought and won a year-long battle, from 2009 to 2010, to get the Nullification Resolution passed by our General Assembly.

That Nullification Resolution specifically addressed the looming specter of ObamaCare and says, among other things:

. . . No law shall interfere with the right of a person to be treated by or receive services from a health care provider of that person’s choice;

. . . No law shall restrict a person’s freedom of choice of private health care systems or private health care plans of any type;

. . . No law shall interfere with a person’s or an entity’s right to pay directly for lawful medical services; and

. . . No law shall impose a tax, penalty, or fine, of any type, for choosing a health care provider, to obtain or decline health care coverage or for participation in any particular health care system or plan.

It is important to note that state Representatives Bannister and Delleney, the chief opponents of H3101, as originally written, both voted for the Nullification Resolution in 2010.

Why would they vote for S424 and fight us on H3101?

Because H3101 would have done what S424 did not.

H3101, as it was originally written, outlined specific meaningful penalties for anyone who forced you to participate in ObamaCare.

It offered real protection!

State Republican Representatives Quinn, Pope, and Bannister teamed up with Democrats James Smith and McLeod to strike these penalties from the Nullification bill.

Without specific penalties, the bill gives us no protection from ObamaCare!

Why do you hit the brakes whenever you see a highway patrolman?

Because you don’t want to pay a fine for speeding, of course!

Without the fine, the law limiting speed has little meaning.

Representative Bill Chumley recognized the need for a penalty to make nullification meaningful.

He introduced H3101 with specific penalties for those who force unwilling participants to submit to ObamaCare.

This enforcement mechanism is what made H3101 a meaningful way to protect South Carolina citizens from ObamaCare.

These enforcement mechanisms are why I supported the bill, as it was originally written.

Quinn, Bannister and Pope conspired to strip the penalty language from H3101.

Before the subcommittee meeting ever started, they laid their plans to defy your demands.

They knew Kent Masterson Brown would give them the cover they needed.

I’ll explain in a minute.

They changed H3101 from being a bill with real protection to nothing more than an impotent resolution.

State Representatives Quinn, Pope, and Bannister talked a good talk, but when it came to action and real protection from ObamaCare, they fought against us.

They said, “Let’s pass this first, then we’ll put the protection in later.”

Why would we think they’d support real penalties later when they won’t support them now?

Isn’t it hypocritical for them to pass a bill that says the state is “empowered to take all necessary action” to protect the people of South Carolina from ObamaCare while at the same time stripping out the language which would actually take that necessary action.

They serve us platitudes and talking points and expect us to thank them for it.

They should get no credit for protecting us from ObamaCare!

They left us with an empty bill that does . . .

. . . nothing to protect us from the death panels of ObamaCare . . .

. . . nor from forced home inspections . . .

. . . nor from the enforcement of all the provisions of ObamaCare that we know will destroy our freedom and bankrupt our state and our country.

But, we expect our legislators to fight us on these things.

What shocked me was the fight we got from our “friends” from out of state.

The people of South Carolina spent the last three months fighting off weak nullification bills from Republican Representative Delleney and others.

These weak bills removed penalties and gave us lip service rather than real protection.

You demanded over and over again that anything less than real protection by specifying penalties for anyone who enforces ObamaCare on an unwilling participant was dead on arrival.

You would not give these political insiders a fake win for anything less than real protection.

But the Tenth Amendment Center wanted a “win” in South Carolina at any cost.

Make no mistake, this so called “win” cost them nothing!

It may end up costing the people of South Carolina everything that would give us real protection from ObamaCare.

Monday, March 18th, two days before the hearing on H3101, I got invited to a conference call with many of the grass roots leaders from around the state.

On that conference call, Michael Boldin of the Tenth Amendment Center did his level best to convince us that we needed to drop the penalty provisions from the bill just so we could get “something” passed.

I was flabbergasted!

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing!

Isn’t this the group that is making a name for their selves supporting nullification?

Yet, Mr. Boldin said it was important for South Carolina to pass “something” that would help the Tenth Amendment Center move their agenda forward across the country, even if it meant what was passed did nothing to protect the people of South Carolina.

I’ve been dealing with the South Carolina legislature for more than ten years.

And after ten years I’ve learned that “something” is usually a way for politicians to vote one way while achieve nothing.  This is exactly what happened with H1301.

This time, what we got was actually much WORSE than nothing.

At least with nothing it would be easy to expose Representatives Quinn, Pope, and Bannister for fighting against us!

But now, Quinn, Pope and Bannister are walking around like heroes taking credit for supporting Nullification of ObamaCare!

Instead, these rascals killed the language that would have actually protected us from unaccountable-Obama-loving-bureaucrats who will enforce ObamaCare anyway, regardless of what an impotent H3101 says.

Yet, Mr. Boldin wanted us to sacrifice our protection . . .  for the Tenth Amendment Center’s agenda.

Mr. Boldin used the conference call to try to convince the remaining leaders to support this watered down meaningless version.

A couple of us fought to counter his arguments on the conference call that Monday night.

We clearly explained the fallacy of Mr. Boldin’s argument that it was better to sacrifice real protection for South Carolinian’s in exchange for their national agenda.

We explained how this watered down bill would provide political cover for our opponents in the General Assembly to claim to have supported Nullification when they really were the ones who fought us.

I knew the people of South Carolina, when given the facts, would continue to stand strong and demand real protection.

But then we got the sucker punch from Mr. Kent Masterson Brown, an out of state “expert”.

He admitted in his testimony on March 20th that he had been paid $7500 to come to South Carolina and testify in “support of nullification”.

I don’t know who paid him that money, but if it were me, I’d be demanding a refund!

Unknown to most folks in South Carolina, Mr. Brown met with legislators before the subcommittee meeting.

Mr. Brown talks a good talk about the negative effects of ObamaCare.

But instead of supporting real protection, he gave the subcommittee members the cover they desperately needed to defy the will of their constituents.

Brown flat out said that he recommended the penalty provisions be removed!

Both Brown and the Tenth Amendment Center undermined and defied the will of the people of South Carolina!

They aided our enemies in stripping away real protection and gave them cover to pretend that they are actually supporting us!

As originally written, H3101 outlined specific fines and penalties for a bureaucrat or anyone else that defied the law and enforced ObamaCare.

Now, after Quinn, Pope, and Bannister amended it, no penalty is specified and it leaves it up to other bureaucrats to decide what to do, if anything, about some fellow bureaucrat who enforces ObamaCare.

I’ll repeat it one more time — H3101 as amended by Quinn, Pope, and Bannister does nothing to stop or penalize some bleeding heart liberal bureaucrat who makes you submit to ObamaCare.

It doesn’t even require a slap on the wrist.

My friends, we must stop relying on out of state experts to “help” us.

We don’t need them!

They hurt our cause and undermine our will.

Quinn, Pope, and Bannister are now making the false claim that they support nullification of ObamaCare simply because they amended and passed H3101.

We must not give our enemies cover for pretending to support us!

In order to destroy their cover, we must force them to vote on real protection.

Don’t give these subcommittee members credit for supporting nullification!

Hold them accountable for what they really did!

Quinn, Pope, and Bannister stripped our protection out of H3101.

If H3101 passes as is, we’ll have to wait for the General Assembly to take action again to give us any real protection . . .  IF they decide to.

Make no mistake, no matter how much H3101 says they must do something in the future, the General Assembly will have to actual vote to do it.

If they refuse to vote to protect us now . . .  I have no confidence that they will they magically change their minds in the future.

Demand that the penalty language that was the enforcement mechanism for the bill be restored!