Tea Parties: 1994 and 2010?

Poll after poll demonstrates that this summer's town hall meetings were a tipping point, and the majority shifted on two critical points. First, that it is not the responsibility of government to provide health insurance for all citizens. Second, most of us don't like the plans being shoved down our throats one little bit.

While a powerful argument will be made that federalized health care is unconstitutional and a usurpation of State's rights, some states aren't waiting for that challenge. Two pre-filed bills to be considered by the 2010 South Carolina General Assembly caught my eye. H.4171 proposes that South Carolina will opt out of any federal government health care program. H.4181 seeks to amend the S.C. Constitution so that no South Carolinian can be required to purchase health insurance.

Other states are working on or contemplating similar measures. Surely Congress is aware of these attempts at preemption, and yet just as during those summer meetings, they are marching to their partisan ideological drumbeat. More and more of us are convinced that this is not now, nor has it ever been about health care. It is about larger government and the long-term political effects of an immense entitlement program in an increasingly victim-centric society.