Proposition C is more accurately about state sovereignty and it’s about time in my opinion. (Strange that a state like Missouri would choose to take on the Federal government in this manner, but more power to them). So, how is this measure actually a challenge to Federal oversight?
Proposition C proposes the following:
“Shall the Missouri Statutes be amended to:
Deny the government authority to penalize citizens for refusing to purchase private health insurance or infringe upon the right to offer or accept direct payment for lawful healthcare services?
Modify laws regarding the liquidation of certain domestic insurance companies?”
There it is in essence anyway. It basically tells the government to go shove it in terms of forcing citizens to buy something against their will. Nowhere in the Constitution does it state you must purchase a 'product' in order to be a citizen.
This measure is expected to be heartily endorsed statewide on August the third. And, as its passage will come into direct conflict with existing Federal law. It will immediately be challenged in the higher courts… which is exactly what the State of Missouri desires. (a moment for applause)
I only hope that the other states jump in on this issue. The fight will no doubt go on and on until the people of this country finally get tired of the loss of states rights and declare what has always been in their power to declare...the repeal of Amendment 17.
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Amendment XVII (the Seventeenth Amendment) of the United States Constitution was passed by the Senate on June 12, 1911 and by the House on May 13, 1912. It was ratified on April 8, 1913 and was first put into effect for the election of 1914. It amends Article 1 Section 3 of the Constitution to provide for the direct election of Senators by the people of a state rather than their election or appointment by a state legislature, thus effectively eliminating state representation in Congress. It was passed and ratified during the Progressive Era.
This masterful stroke of the pen enabled anyone (individual, corporation or others) with enough money to support a chosen candidate and then buy the election. Prior to this, the individual state legislatures picked and then watched like a hawk Representatives and Senators that went to Capitol Hill. If these folks did not act in the best interest of the state from which they came, they were given the boot after their term was up. As things are today, most of Congress is in the back pockets of Special Interest groups not the people.
