ObamaCare Enabled by Duplicitous Daugaard and Lustful Leadership

ObamaCare, the signature socialist legislative achievement of the Obama administration and the progressive liberal left, has been enabled in South Dakota by a Republican Governor and a power-inebriated Republican legislative leadership.  This in arguably the most conservative state in the union.

 

Evidence is mounting that suggests a conspiracy hatched in 2007 in the Zaniya Task Force, chaired by the then Lieutenant Governor Dennis Daugaard, has actively duped South Dakotans while setting up the groundwork for the implementation of ObamaCare in South Dakota. Even the individual mandate was planned. See Recommendation #14 here.

 

Under Governor Mike Rounds and Lieutenant Governor Dennis Daugaard in 2007 the legislature attempted the beginning of the process with HB 1166. It is noteworthy that the two prime sponsors of the 2007 bills, Representative Joel Dykstra and Senator Tom Dempster, were members of the Zaniya Project Task Force. Apparently the direct approach of presenting the bills for what they were was far too blatant; both bills went down unanimously in committee. That might explain why the ‘stealth’ approach was used to pass SB 38 and SB 43 in 2011.

 

 

Under Governor Daugaard, SB 38 and SB 43 were supported and the Republican dominated legislature passed both measures which set up the mechanisms to facilitate ObamaCare. The duplicity is the fact that the Governor professed (and still professes) to oppose ObamaCare while driving the state into the forefront of implementing it legislatively.

 

In the 2012 legislative session, the Governor has orchestrated the killing of all bills attempting to repeal SB 38 (2011) and SB 43 (2011) and also the attempt to pursue a Healthcare Compact with other states. (Senator Deb Peters was heard in the halls saying, “I have talking points from (Lt. Governor) Matt Michels to oppose this bill.”)

 

With the willing help of Republican leadership in the SD House. Speaker of the House Val Rausch and Majority Leader David Lust have used every opportunity and every means to not only defeat any attempt  to stop the ObamaCare juggernaut but also to silence any dissent and eliminate any opposition to their agenda using heavy-handed tactics, which included the expulsion of two conservative Republican legislators from the Republican Caucus, violating the confidentiality of legislative research of conservative members, threats and intimidation of conservative legislators and even refusal to permit a duly elected legislator to speak on the House floor. Their behavior is reprehensible, unexcusable and unacceptable.

 

The pro-ObamaCare agenda of the Daugaard administration is now exposed. The hubris of the Republican House leadership is now exposed. Their actions have exposed their true agenda.

 

South Dakotans have been betrayed and deceived.

 

***Ed Randazzo, is a nationally syndicated author. He has been a conservative activist and consultant for over 30 years and is currently the Chief News Editor of Life and Liberty Media***