By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reprter
The Speaker of the Alabama House Mike Hubbard embraced Alabama Governor Robert Bentley’s decision to not set up a health care exchange in Alabama and not to expand Alabama Medicaid to hundreds of thousands of new beneficiaries.
Speaker Hubbard said in a written statement, “As a Republican, Gov. Bentley obviously understands that government must live within its means and personal liberties must be protected at all costs, and I applaud his principled stand against Obamacare.“
Speaker Hubbard said, “Implementing Obamacare would bloat the size of government and place Alabama on the same path to fiscal disaster that the federal government is already traveling at breakneck speed.
Speaker Hubbard said that the, “Legislature is currently working with Gov. Bentley to reform and streamline Medicaid, not to expand the already costly entitlement program.”
“The governor is in discussions with roughly two dozen of his counterparts in other states to coalesce against Obamacare and push back against its mandates. It’s my hope that this coalition can send a wakeup call to Washington and reverse the dangerous trend of liberal policies and directives that Obama and Congressional Democrats are pushing so hard to implement. Alabamians clearly signaled they agree with these beliefs with their overwhelming votes against Obama and in favor of the anti-Obamacare constitutional amendment just last week,” Speaker Hubbard concluded.
Conservatives throughout the State of Alabama have petitioned the Governor to reject involving the state Government of Alabama in the federal government’s costly and controversial Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA commonly referred to as Obamacare).
On November 6th the people of Alabama voted by a wide margin for a state amendment that promised to exempt any individual or business from being forced to participate in a healthcare insurance plan against their will. Since the Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that the Supremacy Clause gives federal government supremacy wherever it contradicts state law it appears unlikely that the Amendment to the 1901 Constitution is enforceable. Passage of Amendment Six did establish a mandate that the people of Alabama dislike Obamacare and don’t want it implemented in Alabama if possible.
Indeed dissatisfaction with President Obama and his controversial healthcare plan was one of the driving forces behind the 2010 election which gave Bentley the Governor’s job and Republicans commanding majorities in both Houses of the Alabama legislature as well as every statewide elected office in the state.
Speaker Hubbard said recently on Facebook, “As the last line of defense against what is sure to be four more years of federal government overreaching, we won’t back down.”
