ObamaCare Whitewash: Covering the Tracks of Betrayal in South Dakota

HCR 1028 is a resolution submitted by Rep. Stace Nelson,  and Senators Tim Begalka and Senator Ryan Maher “Urging Congress to repeal and defund Obamacare.”

Why would we want to urge congress to repeal and defund ObamaCare?

Well, first I should point out that many “Republicans” ran in 2010 (and later) on the pledge to repeal ObamaCare if possible, and to defund it if repeal wasn’t possible.Repeal of ObamaCare is virtually impossible since Republicans don’t control both houses of congress and certainly don’t have a veto-proof majority.  But DEFUNDING was certainly possible, and Senators Ted Cruz and Mike Lee handed Republicans in the House the perfect opportunity to do it last October.  The result: “Republicans” were hell-bent on LOSING that fight and not defunding ObamaCare.

But to a more basic question, why should we want to repeal or defund ObamaCare in the first place?  Well, in case you’ve been living under a rock (or you’re a liberal hopelessly drunk on Koolaid of government-run health care), many of the reasons were laid out in this bill in its original form. I’ve highlighted them in blue below.

But this bill did something else that is VERY important. It also cataloged and laid out for the people of South Dakota the duplicity and betrayals by “Republicans”-especially in South Dakota government-of the people of South Dakota concerning ObamaCare.  These are marked in RED and boldfaced below.

These citations include the BS empty claims of being opposed to ObamaCare…along with the multitude of examples where “Republicans” in our Republican state government and Republican supermajority legislature deliberately chose to KILL bills intended to fight ObamaCare and PASS bills facilitating ObamaCare. It also shows the “money trail” of federal money the “Republicans” in South Dakota government were eager to take, even as they were claiming to oppose ObamaCare.

There is more to follow after the highlighted text of the bill below, so continue reading afterward.

A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION, Urging Congress to repeal and defund Obamacare.

    WHEREAS, on March 23, 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, also known as Obamacare, amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, passed by the unsavory political maneuvering of reconciliation, was enacted by completely partisan votes, i.e. not one Republican vote, in both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives; and

    WHEREAS, since 2010, many South Dakota politicians have campaigned claiming to be opposed to Obamacare and to be dedicated to preventing the enactment and implementation of Obamacare; and

    WHEREAS, on February 23, 2010, SB 137, an Act to nullify Obamacare, was defeated; and

    WHEREAS, on March 23, 2010, the South Dakota attorney general joined Florida and twelve other states in a lawsuit contesting that Obamacare was unconstitutional; and

    WHEREAS, between July 15 - September 29, 2010, South Dakota state governmental agencies received six Obamacare grants to enact and implement Obamacare provisions, which they previously applied for, totaling $2,860,314.00; and

---

    WHEREAS, in December 2010, SB 38 and SB 43 were prefiled and subsequently passed during the 2011 South Dakota Legislative Session, which enacted changes to South Dakota Codified Law to facilitate enactment and implementation of Obamacare; and

    WHEREAS, on February 9, 2011, HB 1165 to prohibit the enforcement of Obamacare in South Dakota, was defeated; and

    WHEREAS, between August 11 - September 24, 2011, South Dakota state governmental agencies received five Obamacare grants to enact and implement Obamacare provisions, which they previously applied for, totaling $3,774,653.00; and

    WHEREAS, on September 28, 2011, the South Dakota attorney general joined other states in challenging the constitutionality of Obamacare to the Supreme Court of the United States of America; and

    WHEREAS, on February 7, 2012, HB 1191, an Act to provide for an interstate compact on public health care, to establish an interstate advisory health care commission, to specify the relationship between the member states and the federal government, and to assert the right to federal funding in lieu of certain federally funded incentives, was defeated; and

    WHEREAS, on February 13, 2012, HB 1165, a repeal of 2011’s SB 43, was defeated; and

    WHEREAS, on February 13, 2012, HB 1167, a repeal of 2011’s SB 38, was defeated; and

    WHEREAS, on February 15, 2012, HB 1190, an Act to require Legislative approval before a health insurance exchange is created or implemented, was defeated; and

    WHEREAS, on July 1, 2012, HB 1185 became law when it was passed to prohibit all qualified health plans offered through Obamacare health care exchanges in South Dakota, including abortion coverage; and

    WHEREAS, on July 1, 2012, HB 1220 became law when it was passed to conditionally repeal certain provisions enacting and implementing Obamcare provisions into SDCL via 2011 legislation in the event Obamacare was found to be unconstitutional; and 

    WHEREAS, between May 16 - September 25, 2012, South Dakota state governmental agencies received five Obamacare grants to enact and implement Obamacare provisions, which they previously applied for, totaling $7,363,460.00; and

    WHEREAS, on June 28, 2012, the Supreme Court of the United States of America ruled that Obamacare was a tax and therefore constitutionally enacted; and

    WHEREAS, on February 4, 2013, HB 1244, an Act to prohibit the expansion of Medicaid eligibility under Obamacare, was defeated; and

    WHEREAS, on July 1, 2013, SB 139 became law when it was passed to regulate certain market activity in an enacted Obamacare health exchange in South Dakota; and

    WHEREAS, on July 1, 2013, HB 1103 became law when it was passed to exempt credit health insurers from certain provisions related to preexisting conditions; and

    WHEREAS, between June 25 - September 20, 2013, South Dakota state governmental agencies received five Obamacare grants to enact and implement Obamacare provisions, which they previously applied for, totaling $3,686,723.00; and

    WHEREAS, all reliable public opinion polls continue to show that less than half of the population supports the unpopular Obamacare, and support continues to decline as more and more details of the costly law take effect and Americans lose their current health care coverage; and

    WHEREAS, health care costs are already rising and are projected to rise more by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates for this program, and the data is showing that the care and cost for those with health insurance will rise to compensate for those not being presently covered; and

    WHEREAS, employers, especially those employing over fifty employees, are finding it impractical to employ more full-time employees due to these onerous costs, because it is impractical, expensive, and harms the businesses; and

    WHEREAS, the Obama Administration recently delayed the employer mandate, but unfairly is still forcing individuals and families to pay to implement an individual mandate; and

    WHEREAS, both public and private unions have petitioned for waivers to be released from the mandates of Obamacare, and recently, having discovered the details of the plan, are calling for repeal or fixes to the law; and

    WHEREAS, health care should remain in the hands of citizens, not bureaucrats; and

    WHEREAS, Obamacare will result in the IRS alone hiring more than 12,000 new agents to ensure compliance, while more and more regular Americans lose full-time work by the day; and

    WHEREAS, the implementation of Obamacare has already prompted large corporations like UPS, Home Depot, Walmart and others to dramatically revamp or eliminate their employee health care plans, and reduce workers to part-time status to avoid Obamacare’s draconian mandates, causing great suffering for middle-class American families; and

    WHEREAS, the average family of four will spend an additional $4,000 annually in health care costs by 2016 if Obamacare continues to be implemented; and

    WHEREAS, government will collect more than $1.3 TRILLION in new taxes over the next decade on everything from prescription drugs and private insurance plans to medical device manufacturers; and

    WHEREAS, Obamacare forces free people, under the cover of a convoluted Supreme Court decision, to buy a product from a private company, which is fundamentally un-American, unconstitutional, and anathema to a country that was built on free market principles; and

    WHEREAS, the United States Office of Personnel Management has recently exempted Congress and its staff from Obamacare while forcing American taxpayers they are supposed to serve, into compliance with it; and

    WHEREAS, Congress has the power to stop Obamacare from being forced upon the people of the United States by introducing and securing passage of bills to repeal Obamacare as well as appropriations bills that exclude funding for Obamacare:

    NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, by the House of Representatives of the Eighty-Ninth Legislature of the State of South Dakota, the Senate concurring therein, that the South Dakota Legislature urges South Dakota’s Congressional delegation to support every effort by their Congressional colleagues to repeal and defund Obamacare; and

    BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Legislature urges Congress and President Obama to support such efforts as the will of the people.

The bill was passed in its original form in the House, and went to the Senate Health and Human Services Committee yesterday…where it was gutted and renamed using the Orwellian official name of ObamaCare to be titled “Urging Congress to repeal and defund the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.” Keep in mind that this (along with its House counterpart) is the committee in the legislature which consistently sides with every bleeding-heart liberal notion in the Department of Social Services and related social lobbyist organizations to pile on more tax burdens on the people of South Dakota and resists every effort at accountability and responsibility.

The committee reduced the bill from 1142 words down to 273 words, cutting 76% of the text of the bill. Incidentally, while the remaining language listed a few of the terrible aspects of ObamaCare, it removed every single citation of the duplicity and betrayal of the people of South Dakota by their supposedly “Republican” representatives in state government.

As Senator Begalka said, “Here in the legislature, several of these bills that attempted to nullify or put restrictions on ObamaCare were defeated, and it’s interesting that both the current and past administrations, through their lobbyists or spokespeople were against these bills, as well as some of the bills health care lobbyists, as well as insurance company lobbyists were against bills to put restrictions or nullifications on ObamaCare,  which I find rather disheartening.”

“We say we’re against it,” concluded Begalka, “yet sometimes we don’t really want to do much about it.”

That is exactly what this committee chose to whitewash: the duplicity of the “Republican” supermajority legislature in claiming out of one side of its mouth to oppose ObamaCare…while out of the other side of its mouth it defended the advance of ObamaCare and fought every effort to protect the people of South Dakota from ObamaCare. The committee chose to whitewash the duplicity of the current “Republican” governor, Dennis Daugaard, in participating in these same efforts, as well as former governor and current U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rounds in doing the same.

Nelson also testified during the committee hearing yesterday, stating, “My understanding is there’s a move afoot to cover our tracks do a ‘hoghouse’ on this resolution to gut the fingerprints of how ObamaCare was enacted in South Dakota. I think that would be a grave disservice to South Dakotans, and frankly I think it would be dishonest. My understanding is that the ‘hoghouse’ wants to say that the state of South Dakota has done everything to prevent ObamaCare. As this resolution which has passed the House indicates, we have not done everything possible to stop, negate, or nullify ObamaCare.  Matter of fact, exactly the contrary. And for posterity’s sake, they deserve to know the facts, they deserve to know exactly how ObamaCare has gotten to be rife throughout our system at this point.”

Incidentally, no opponent testimony was offered.

Senator Bruce Rampelberg made a motion to gut the bill by amendment, and this was seconded by Senator Jim Bradford. Senator Phil Jensen objected and stated the bill should keep the original language, but the amendment was passed by voice vote, and then the bill itself was passed on a 6-1 vote.

And now the bill makes it look like the “Republican” government of South Dakota opposed ObamaCare…when in reality-the now hidden reality-they facilitated ObamaCare and fought efforts to resist it. Nice whitewash job and history revisionism. Liberals always act like liberals, regardless of what letter they have after their name.

The text below is all that was left of the bill, cutting it by 76% and removing all evidence of the duplicity and betrayal of the “Republican” supermajority:

A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION, Urging Congress to repeal and defund the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

    WHEREAS, on March 23, 2010, Congress passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also referred to as the ACA, through a partisan effort without gaining a single Republican vote; and

    WHEREAS, since the ACA’s inception, the State of South Dakota has consistently opposed the ACA due to the adverse consequences it has on the state and its constituents, and numerous state officials have called on Congress to repeal ACA; and

    WHEREAS, on March 23, 2010, the South Dakota attorney general joined Florida and twelve other states in a lawsuit to rule on the ACA as unconstitutional and defended that argument to the Supreme Court of the United States of America on September 28, 2011; and

    WHEREAS, the costs of implementing the ACA total nearly $1.8 trillion over the next 10 years and are only expected to exceed estimates, thus further compounding the national debt. The federal government seeks to offset these costs by imposing new taxes and penalties; and

    WHEREAS, financial impact and overall feasibility remain questionable as phases of implementation remain costly, chaotic, and unpredictable, while contributing to increasing federal regulation and bureaucratic control; and

    WHEREAS, Congress possesses the power to repeal the ACA and its funding souces:

    NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, by the House of Representatives of the Eighty-Ninth Legislature of the State of South Dakota, the Senate concurring therein, that the South Dakota Legislature urges the state and its constituents to support every effort by the delegates in Congress to repeal and defund the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010.

The men who founded our great nation probably wouldn’t even claim us as their posterity if the knew how low we have fallen. While they risked their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to fight for freedom and against tyranny…while in the context of their struggle, our so-called “patriots” of today talk “independence” but are busy taking millions in bribes from King George and can’t be found when it’s time to vote for independence.

My question to the people of South Dakota is this: are you going to stand by and do nothing while not only are you being betrayed by your “Republican” representatives, but are also being subjected to a whitewashing campaign of deception by these same “Republicans?”

A Republican primary election is almost upon us. Are you going to give these gutless wonders a pass, or are you going to hold them accountable at the ballot box?

This article is printed with the permission of the author(s). Opinions expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the article’s author(s), or of the person(s) or organization(s) quoted therein, and do not necessarily represent those of American Clarion or Dakota Voice LLC.

Comment Rules: Please confine comments to salient ones that add to the topic; Profanity is not allowed and will be deleted; Spam, copied statements and other material not comprised of the reader’s own opinion will be deleted.

Similar Posts:

• Roots of Govt Health Care in South Dakota in Zaniya Project
• Corruption on Parade in the South Dakota House
• Ted Cruz Was Right
• Extended Concealed Weapons Permit Bill Moving Forward
• Questions About ObamaCare in South Dakota

Bob Ellis has been the owner of media company Dakota Voice, LLC since 2005. He is a 10-year veteran of the United States Air Force, a political writer for the past decade, and has been involved in numerous election and public policy campaigns for nearly 20 years, including a Tea Party leader and organizer since 2009. He lives in Rapid City, South Dakota with his wife and two children.

Bob Ellis

View all articles by Bob Ellis