GOP pushes tenther amendment to ban ‘Obamacare,’ DFLers call it the Southern Strategy

Republicans in the Minnesota House have included an amendment to the health and human services omnibus bill that would ban the implementation of the Affordable Care Act in the state of Minnesota because legislators believe it to be in violation of the 10th Amendment to the United States Constitution. On Wednesday night, Republicans argued that “Obamacare” would “eviscerate” state sovereignty, while DFLers made comparisons to the Confederacy and the arguments used by secessionists during the Civil War. One legislator even proposed changing the state song to “Dixie.”

The amendment was offered by Rep. Glenn Gruenhagen, R-Glencoe. “This amendment is the Freedom of Choice in Health Act,” he said. “This bill attempts to say that Minnesota is not going to cooperate with imposing a penalty to purchase a particular product without a penalty being imposed.”

In a bid to keep the discussion civil, Gruenhagen urged the Republicans in the body to refrain from using “Obamacare.” “As we discuss this, there are those in the chamber who are offended by the use of the term ‘Obamacare.’ Please use Affordable Care Act, or as I sometimes refer to it, the Unaffordable Care Act.”

But few listened to Gruenhagen’s suggestion.

Rep. Kathy Lohmer, R-Lake Elmo, said, “Republicans have opposed ‘Obamacare’ for the simple reason it will destroy jobs. This [amendment] will allow doctors the freedom to practice the way they see fit.”

Rep. Doug Wardlow, R-Eagan, said the Affordable Care Act would “destroy the fabric of our system.”

“The Affordable… whatever it’s called, is a terrible piece of legislation that will eviscerate the private health insurance industry in America… It will push us past a tipping point where the federal government will come to usurp any meaningful role for state governments in our dual sovereignty system,” he said. “That’s why this amendment is so very important.”

Later he said, “For decades our country has been walking down a road to a cliff. What is the cliff? The cliff is the end of state sovereignty. The cliff is turning the 9th and 10th amendments into meaningless recitation that are ignored wholly.”

He added, “This is unconstitutional and the Supreme Court will find it unconstitutional, but we don’t need to wait for the Supreme Court to tell us what we know is true.”

But, the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act is very much an undecided issue. Republicans on the House floor offered court decisions in Florida and Virginia as evidence to back their claims about the unconstitutional nature of “Obamacare,” but did not mention the two cases that did rule it constitutional: Thomas More Law Center v. Obama and Liberty University v. Geithner.

DFLers made that point clear at several moments in the floor debate, but their strategy seemed to be to tie the ban on the Affordable Care Act to the 10th Amendment battles waged during the Civil War and Civil Rights Eras.

Rep. Steve Simon, DFL-St. Louis Park, compared the amendment offered by Gruenhagen to those arguments used by the South during those periods of American history.

“Reasonable people can disagree with the Affordable Care Act,” he said. “But what this amendment proposes is crazy, I just have to tell you.”

“We have a tradition in this country that we don’t just opt out of laws that we think are unconstitutional,” he added. “We had this debate in the 1860s with the Civil War. We had it in 1960s with civil rights.”

Simon said he didn’t want to assert that Republicans were arguing those same issues — that of slavery and discrimination — but that the 10th Amendment argument had been used in those cases as well.

“Everyone here wants equality. I don’t want to criticize anyone’s motives,” he said. “But this is procedurally indistinguishable from the arguments made by southern segregationists.”

“For us on any issue to simply opt our of laws we don’t like, it is an act of rebellion on par with Fort Sumter in the Civil War. To say we are going to essentially break away from the union on this issue I think is shortsighted. It makes us look, as a state, backward and ridiculous.”

Rep. Steve Gottwalt, R-St. Cloud, disagreed with that sentiment. “To call it crazy, Rep. Simon, is to argue that the U.S. Constitution and Minnesota Constitution are are in fact crazy, ridiculous or silly. That, to me, is frankly offensive,” he said. “Members we are not talking about seceding from the union.”

But it was Golden Valley Democrat Rep. Ryan Winkler who hammered home the comparison to Southern segregationists.

“Using the 10th Amendment is really a bogus argument. And it’s obviously very passionately followed by certain members of activist organizations in the United States today, but it doesn’t change the fact that this is legal hogwash.”

He said he had planned to offer an amendment to the amendment that “would make the official state song of Minnesota ‘Dixie,’ and take down that portrait of Abraham Lincoln and replace it with Jefferson Davis.”

He added, “That’s what this amendment stands for, and it has no place in this building.”

The amendment passed by 71 ayes to 60 nays and is included in the health and human services omnibus bill that also passed by a similar margin.