The Idaho Statesman reports that Gov. Butch Otter may be the first Governor in the United States to sign into law a piece of legislation that allows a State to file suit in Federal Court against the United States of America, stopping that State from mandating that its citizens buy health insurance.
Here's an excerpt:
"The law directs Idaho's attorney general to sue if mandatory insurance becomes federal law. State lawmakers opted for a bill rather than a resolution to give the measure greater weight and to help Idaho's standing in court, where the issue seems headed."
(See article below)
Butch's actions remind me of when, as Lt. Governor, he joined then-Governor Cecil Andrus as they stood at the State line to turn back a shipment of nuclear waste that was on its way to being dumped in Idaho. The Idaho Statesman reported it as:" Otter's strong rejection follows the tradition of Idaho governors to fight efforts for new long-term storage of waste at the INL. Former Democratic Gov. Cecil Andrus used the Idaho State Police to halt shipments of military nuclear waste to the INL in 1988 and halted commercial waste shipments in 1991."
Even more dramatically, it reminds me of a fictional dark-comedy HBO film, The Second Civil War, a few years back where the Governor of Idaho (played by Beau Bridges) had a stand-off with the Feds in a modern day near-civil war type issue.
Well, well....could life be imitating art?
Does Butch REALLY intend on standing against the Federal Government?
If any Governor could, Butch Otter is straight out of Hollywood's central-casting to be the "lone cowpoke" Governor, who does stand against Bad-Day-At-Black-Rock-Obama!
Den
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Idaho Statesman
March 18th, 2010
Democrats in Washington, D.C., hope to pass health care reform soon, but Republican state leaders in Idaho are preparing to go to court to fight it.
Gov. Butch Otter signed the Idaho Health Freedom Act on Wednesday in his first public bill signing of the 2010 session.
"If I am (first), I'm glad," said Otter, who was flanked by several Republican lawmakers.
At least 36 other states are considering similar legislation in response to the drive by President Obama and congressional Democrats to expand health insurance to 30 million uninsured Americans, in part by requiring them to buy insurance. Virginia has enacted similar legislation, but it became law without a signature by Gov. Bob McDonnell.
"How can somebody mandate us because we're breathing to buy health insurance?" said Rep. Jim Clark, R-Hayden Lake, one of the Idaho bill's co-sponsors. "É Now we're saying in code: We're not going to stand for that."
The law directs Idaho's attorney general to sue if mandatory insurance becomes federal law. State lawmakers opted for a bill rather than a resolution to give the measure greater weight and to help Idaho's standing in court, where the issue seems headed.
Read more here.
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