Obamacare represents an unconstitutional mandate on the states and the people. A new ballot measure will seek to allow Colorado to reaffirm our rights under the 10th Amendment. (Independence Institute)

This spring lawmakers in Washington D.C. and President Barack Obama rammed their faulty version of health care “reform” down the throats of the American people against their will.  On Coloradoans’ ballot this November will be an issue allowing us to opt out of the unconstitutional portions of the mandate.

On Friday, the Independence Institute headed by Jon Caldera submitted more than 76,000 signatures for the “Right to health care choice.”  This measure will allow Colorado to opt out of the mandates in Obamacare that require citizens to purchase health care against their will.

This measure reaffirms our constitutional rights under the 10th Amendment to the United States Constitution.

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people. 
~ 10th Amendment to the United States Constitution

This clearly means that the United States government cannot force states to enact or enforce a federal program – including health care.  Further, the government is not allowed to compel its citizens to spend their own money in a way they do not want to. 

It is under this provision that so many states’ attorneys general have filed suit against the federal government – including Colorado Attorney General John Suthers.  As Suthers wrote back in March, “The Constitution gives Congress the enumerated powers to regulate those engaged in interstate commerce. It does not give the Congress the power to compel a citizen, who would otherwise choose to be inactive in the marketplace, to purchase a product or service and thereby become subject to congressional regulation. Such an expansion of the current understanding of the Commerce Clause would leave no private sphere of individual commercial decision making beyond the reach of the federal government. It would render the 10th Amendment meaningless.”

Assuming enough signatures on the petition are valid, this issue will be on our ballot in a few months.  It is important that Coloradoans understand the wide-ranging implications of allowing the federal government to trample our constitutional rights.  We need to vote in support of this measure and send a message to Washington – Don’t Tread on Me!

Click here to read the ballot language.

Related:

• A complete and utter failure of representative government 
• Texas to reaffirm sovereignty under 10th Amendment
• Forgotten promises: Obama said we would have five days to review bills
• Health care roundup – Some interesting views from across the web

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