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I’ve felt for a while now that Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), once a lonely crank, now has the soul of the Republican Party in his briefcase. So his reaction to the Supreme Court decision on ACA is of more than passing interest:
This government takeover of health care remains as destructive, unsustainable, and unconstitutional as it was the day it was passed, unread, by a since-fired congressional majority. Now as then, our first step toward real health care reform and economic renewal remains Obamacare’s full repeal, down to the last letter and punctuation mark.
I urge every governor to stop implementing the health care exchanges that would help implement the harmful effects of this misguided law. Americans have loudly rejected this federal takeover of health care, and governors should join with the people and reject its implementation.
You can only imagine how conservatives (including DeMint) would react if a Democratic public official uttered this sort of incendiary talk about federal legislation Republicans supported. But it’s a token of the radicalism that has seized the GOP, and particularly its southern wing—viz., DeMint’s governor, Nikki Haley, trying to run unions out of her state. Speaking of Nikki, is anyone really confident that she’d ignore DeMint and not only implement the exchanges but accept the Medicaid money ACA authorized to accomplish much of its coverage expansion in states like South Carolina? Sure, the super-matched Medicaid money is a “sweet deal” for anyone thinking rationally, but that is not the beast we are dealing with in places like the Palmetto State.
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caught this tweet on June 28, 2012 2:49 PM:
"House Republicans headed into their closed door weekly conference meeting largely in silence, grim faced, @postroz reports."
— @edatpost via HootSuite
TCinLA on June 28, 2012 2:54 PM:
Further proof that back in 1865, South Carolina should have been punished for its treason the way Rome finally dealt with Carthage.
These people have been nothing but trouble to the rest of the country since 1715. DeMented is just another in a long line of traitors from South Carolina.
Mimikatz on June 28, 2012 2:54 PM:
They say people in a democracy get the government they deserve. The gulf between the states that are moving forward into the 21st Century and those that are going back to the 19th is going to just grow and grow, and in so many different ways. It is really too bad so many people are unable to relocate and have to stay where they are not comfortable, and that mist of these are the ones who will suffer, but that looks to be what we are moving toward.
T2 on June 28, 2012 2:56 PM:
poor GOPers..... they are really in a tizzy. Its fun to watch their disbelief that their very own Conservative Activist Supreme Court would be the player to stab them in the back. I mean, they knew...just knew that Obamacare would be banished and the horrible death panels disbanded forever. Now they'll work to send a law up to repeal Obamacare.....I wonder what the chances are that he would sign it?
TCinLA on June 28, 2012 2:56 PM:
DeMented must not have heard that the last South Carolinian to try nullification got his ass whipped by Andrew Jackson in 1832. These morons never learn.
Mudge on June 28, 2012 3:05 PM:
I do believe that if the states fail to set up the exchanges, the Federal government is obliged to do so. I'm sure Nikki would rather have some fed come down to run her exchanges than someone in her state..
I think someone writing the bill just might have anticipated state intransigency..
DeMint should know all this.
thebewilderness on June 28, 2012 3:11 PM:
They'll take the money and spend it on something else.
That is what they did with the mortgage money and the exchange money. Corrupt people behave in corrupt ways.
Dave on June 28, 2012 3:13 PM:
If the states don't build these exchanges, then the feds are allowed by law to come in and do it for them. So DeMint's "state rights" angle actually results in greater federal authority. Ah, irony...
another anonymous girl on June 28, 2012 3:16 PM:
Well said at crookandliars.com:
"The Affordable Care Act being upheld by the Supreme Court: nice.
The fact that right-wing hero and Bush-appointee John Roberts wrote the majority opinion: even better.
The delicious Schadenfreude from the wingnuts' hysterical tantrums today: priceless."
c u n d gulag on June 28, 2012 3:17 PM:
Looks like the ghost of John Caldwell Calhoun, from SC, has found a host body in a "modern" Senator from his state.
Hey, Senator DEMENTED - why not go fire off some cannons at Fort Sumpteh, and see how that works out for you - AGAIN!!!
Christo-Fasist feckin' idjit.
nerd on June 28, 2012 3:25 PM:
I do wish people would ask DeMint and others who say such crap what the harm is and how they would ensure people could access care other than Emergency Rooms. Don't stop asking until we get an answer and then trumpet the answer through election day.
Having spent a few hours in an ER a few nights ago I can say that ERs are great to have but not the right method of delivering routine health care. Quality of life depends on routine not catastrophic care.
Anonymous on June 28, 2012 3:40 PM:
"Further proof that back in 1865, South Carolina should have been punished for its treason the way Rome finally dealt with Carthage."
uncle billy's men did their best, at least in columbia.
"These people have been nothing but trouble to the rest of the country since 1715. DeMented is just another in a long line of traitors from South Carolina."
south carolina has the distinction of being the only state of the confederacy not to send units to fight for the union during the civil war.
on the other hand, without south carolina, yorktown might never have happened.
Phil on June 28, 2012 3:57 PM:
You can only imagine how conservatives (including DeMint) would react if a Democratic public official uttered this sort of incendiary talk about federal legislation Republicans supported.
Do we need to imagine? Didn't some states discuss or pass laws concerning ignoring certain provisions of the PATRIOT Act? And didn't Republicans react exactly as one would predict?
sick-n-effn-tired. on June 28, 2012 4:00 PM:
Impeach John Roberts....3....2...1
Soon in a neighborhood near you.
I wish for once just once one of those overpaid newsreaders would ask when the "Government Takeover "talking point is spouted .
Excuse me Mr. Idiot spokesperson , Explain to me how exactly it is a "Government Takeover"
It would probably sound like that guy that Chris Matthews cornered with appeasement
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR2_8D7tYxk
Peter C on June 28, 2012 4:00 PM:
Republicans and the 1% always think that laws don't really apply to them.
boatboy_srq on June 28, 2012 4:06 PM:
@Mudge on June 28, 2012 3:05 PM:
Given SC's stellar record for law-abiding public officials (/snark), having a federal appointee running their exchange might just be a substantial improvement - and would stand a helluva better chance of actually making sure the exchanges help citizens (what they're supposed to do) instead of creating more in-state insurance fat cats (what a SC exchange would likely do if left to the local officials).
Captcha: those execCre. Precisely.
SecularAnimist on June 28, 2012 4:18 PM:
Ed Kilgore wrote: "the radicalism that has seized the GOP"
It's not "radicalism".
It's bullshit.
Just plain old bullshit that bought-and-paid-for corporate stooges like DeMint, who play "conservatives" on TV, use to bamboozle weak-minded, ignorant, gullible dupes whose brains have been reduced to mush by Fox News.
You know that headache you got from watching just a little bit of Fox during your lunch break, Ed?
That's the feeling of brain cells dying.
grandpa john on June 28, 2012 4:27 PM:
the states don't build these exchanges, then the feds are allowed by law to come in and do it for them. So DeMint's "state rights" angle actually results in greater federal authority. Ah, irony...
so this time the carpetbaggers are coming by invitation of the state, sure is nice of Sen Demented
Glenn Beck's Chalkboard on June 28, 2012 5:41 PM:
DeMint's just giving a reach-around to his far-right base. He's from South Carolina ("too small for a republic. . . ."), where the correct response to any divisive question includes some variation of nullification/states' rights/10th Amendment. It who that are.
David Martin on June 28, 2012 6:28 PM:
I doubt that states can be forced to accept funding to set up health insurance exchanges. In that case, state residents can be given access to federal exchanges.
But as I understand it, funds for subsidized individual insurance policies must be handled by the states, through an expanded Medicaid program, to be funded mostly by the federal government.
This morning's decision allows states to reject that additional Medicaid funding. In fact, I suspect it allows states to accept however little Medicaid funding they want. So state residents may find that they qualify for insurance subsidies but can't get them.
For South Carolina and other southern states, that could set off a new version of the Great Migration, with sick people fleeing to more accommodating states. That would probably lead to residency requirements at least as strict as the ones in Wyoming for in-state hunting licenses.
My scenario will probably never fully play out, but I certainly expect my own state, Florida, to adopt Medicaid policies to deny insurance to poor residents.
MsDp on June 28, 2012 7:20 PM:
Oh yea, I remember this guy (idiot demented), he is the one who initially planned to make passing healthcare reform, President Obama's WATERLOO, right? ROTFLMAO!!
TCinLA on June 28, 2012 8:21 PM:
on the other hand, without south carolina, yorktown might never have happened.
The southern fight against the British actually had more to do with fighting in North Carolina (King's Mountain was the battle that sent Cornwallis north to Virginia). Also, the mountain people who opposed the British in South Carolina were a minority of the state - the "coastals", i.e., the plantation owners and their lackeys, were solidly Loyalist. The reason they weren't run out to Canada after the Revolution the way the other traitors were was because they had a majority of the power in the state.
bluestatedon on June 29, 2012 8:36 AM:
"that is not the beast we are dealing with in places like the Wingnutto State."
FIFY.
Crissa on June 29, 2012 3:29 PM:
Of the incumbents who did not return in 2011, how many voted for the ACA reconciliation bill?
Chris on October 18, 2012 3:34 PM:
Peopople should be kinder in Congerss