Gooden Responds to SCOTUS Rulings on Immigration and Health Care

07-03-2012

State Representative Lance Gooden responded to the latest rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court on Arizona’s immigration law and Obamacare.

“This week, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down decisions that tear at the heart of one of the most fundamental pillars of our republic – the right to self-determination,” said Gooden. “Whether you’re talking about the rights of the individual states to govern themselves through their legislatures and elected leaders or about each individual American’s right to make choices that are in the best interest of themselves, their families and their communities, the U.S. Supreme Court has decreed with the stroke of a pen that those rights no longer exist.”

In the first ruling on Arizona’s immigration law, the court struck down most of the law, while upholding a key provision. This provision leads Gooden to believe that Texas can take significant steps in the next legislative session to crack down on illegal immigration in the state.

“The Obama Administration has failed by any definition in fulfilling its constitutional duty of securing our borders, but rather than applaud or work with states like Arizona and Texas, who are willing to step forward and do the job for them, they have done everything in their power to stop us,” Gooden continued.

“But even though the court significantly curtailed the rights of the states to secure our borders, it made clear that there is no federal law that would prohibit states from requiring law enforcement officials to check the immigration status of those who are lawfully detained. This leaves me optimistic that in 2013 we will be able to finally end sanctuary cities in Texas and take a big step forward in this battle.”

The second key decision from the Supreme Court was to uphold Obamacare, including the individual mandate portion of the law. The court ruled that it was a tax, rather than a mandate, and was therefore constitutional.

Gooden said that not only is the ruling a step in the wrong direction from the standpoint of personal freedoms, but the legislation itself is a misguided attempt to solve the problem of affordable health care with top-down government.

Gooden said, “Our health care system is broken. No one can deny that fact; however, top-down mandates from Washington aren’t the solutions that we need. We must reduce the layers of bureaucracy that separate doctors from patients and increase costs. The system is already overflowing with regulations forced on us by federal health care laws.

If Obamacare is fully implemented, it will do nothing but cripple the system even more by introducing what the Supreme Court has deemed an astronomical tax increase on the American people.

There is a larger, more philosophical, question to be asked about this ruling as well. If the federal government can force us all to buy health insurance, is there anything out there that it cannot force us to do? When the government gets into the business of mandating an individual’s behavior, especially when it’s ‘for our own good,’ we have taken the first step down a very slippery slope that I would caution against. Clearly our best recourse in the next four months is to work hard to elect a Republican President and a Republican Congress in order to repeal Obamacare.”

State Rep. Lance Gooden represents District 4 comprised of Henderson and Kaufman Counties. He serves on the Appropriations, County Affairs and House Administration Committees and resides in Terrell.