Governor Lynch, in a fit of impotence and self contradiction, has confused his role as the states chief executive, as reported in a Union Leader column today by Tom Fahey.
In regard to the passage into law of New Hampshire HB 601 and SB 148, Governor Lynch remarked on one hand that…
He allowed the bill (HB 601) to become law, he said, “because I did not want New Hampshire to default into federal oversight.”
and then claimed that…
…SB 148 has no practical effect on New Hampshire residents because there is no way to enforce it.
“ The assessments for not obtaining health insurance will not be administered through the state but through the Internal Revenue Service. Legislators and the public should understand that this legislation would have no impact on the capacity of the state of New Hampshire to block the individual health insurance mandate or the federal assessments for not obtaining insurance,” he said.
HB 601 (in short-hand) prohibits accepting pump-priming federal dollars for Obama Care–which must be returned to lower the federal deficit) and gives the NH legislature oversight of all state agencies on the matter before any part of it can be implemented. SB 148 simply states that we will not enforce any purchase mandate fine or imprisonment related to the Health Care law.
As a matter of semantics Lynch is not wrong to suggest that if the IRS barges in and arrests us for failing to comply that no state agency is interposed to prevent that. But that is exactly the point of SB 148. It deems to interpose the law enforcing branch of the New Hampshire government–the executive and his Attorney General–between (in this case) the IRS and the people on the matter of the Patient affordable care act. SB 148 draws a line over which our chief executive is meant to stand in defense of his state and it’s people. The same line, by the way, that he draws (at least rhetorically) with regard to HB601.
So according to Lynch, while he does not want to default to federal oversight, the IRS can just reach over the Governors office and snatch whomever they please.
What exactly is his job again? It is not to keep getting re-elected. But I think that is what this is about and I’ve got some thoughts on that. (of course I do.)
With HB601 Mr. Lynch claims that he does not want the state to default into federal oversight, a problem that never (Never, ever) troubled him when he had a democrat majority legislature. Education money, stimulus money, "insert name of federal money here" money, it was all accepted with open arms, with all the strings and oversight that came with it. He couldn’t accept it fast enough. But now we are meant to applaud his so-called discovery of a few vertebrae (in the shadow of a likely veto override) when in this instance all he has to do is refuse to cash one check.
SB148 would actually require him to ask his AG to intercede in the interests of state sovereignty to legally protect and defend his constituents from what amounts to the exact same thing; a default to federal oversight. But in this case, where he is the only legal roadblock to implementation (of a plan he actually supports) we are told the bill empowering him to be that roadblock means nothing, that it can’t be done.
So why refuse to veto this bill and make that case? Why just let SB 148 become law?
Governor Lynch has established that he can and will refuse to do his job. Having never signed the bill that sends the federal money back relieves him of any responsibility; his excuse for avoiding a veto is the likelihood of an override by the Republican Super majority. Obamacare is destructive to the lefts political aspirations, because most people don’t like it, so starting a veto fight would keep it in the public eye; this would be bad for the state democrat party and its candidates heading into 2012.
Since Lynch is only willing to defend us from default oversights that are politically convenient there is nothing to stop the federal government from forcing us to pay for the entire ObamaCare exchange mandate ourselves when the time comes; a mandate this Democrat Governor supports. Remember, the Republicans made him return the money.
Lynch sits on his hands, says the feds say we have to pay, which starts a public mess about spending which he and the left can blame on Republicans, even the stupid ones that keep voting for him. A fiscal fight about local dollars is easier to demagog than a federal law the governor claims he can’t prevent.
Is he that smart? I think that between Lynch and the Left wing party leadership this is a reasonable tactical assumption. But there is an easy solution to all these problems.
SB 148 will work just fine if we have a governor willing to enforce it. So we either find a way to make Lynch do his job or replace him with a governor who will.
Problem solved.
