Vander Plaats would buck federal health-care approach

DES MOINES – Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Vander Plaats said Thursday he would preserve Iowans' rights to opt out of a federal government-run health care system if he is elected as Iowa's next governor.

Vander Plaats said he would invoke the state's 10

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Amendment rights to defend Iowans from “socialized health care” if Congress approves “Obamacare.” He said his action would protect Iowans from new federal mandates.

The Sioux City business consultant said Iowa “needs a governor willing to stand against runaway federalism.” To that end, he said he would protect the right for individuals to secure the health care they want rather than being bound by a government-run plan.

As governor, Vander Plaats said his legislative agenda would be modeled after a Virginia proposal that guards against government infringement on a person's decision to choose a private health care system or private plan.

“I talk to so many Iowans who are fed up with the federal government trying to grab more and more power over their lives and take more and more of their money,” Vander Plaats said in a statement. “There's no clearer example of that power grab than the Democrats' plan to take over our health care system lock, stock and barrel.

“Frankly, there's no reason for us to just sit here and let the federal government run roughshod over the public's will,” he added. “If that legislation passes, I'll show the federal government that the states still have a say in things.”

Vander Plaats said the 10th Amendment was enacted to defend the rights of the states and their citizens by denoting that powers not delegated to the federal government by the U.S. Constitution and not prohibited to the states are reserved to the states.

“I would argue that a federal take-over of our health care system is not a power delegated to the United States,” he said. “I'll be a governor who reminds Congress and the President that there's a reason the constitution has a 10

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amendment.”

He also said he would support legislation that firearms, firearms accessories and ammunition made and retained in Iowa are “not subject to federal law or regulation under the authority of Congress to regulate interstate commerce.” And, he would urge Iowans to launch the process to amend the federal constitution to include a balanced budget amendment.

“Bob Vander Plaats' comments today make it clear that Republican primary voters face a choice between a tax-raising Terry Branstad and a faux-constitutional scholar whose pontificating on what is not constitutional is just frightening,” said Ali Glisson, communications director for the Iowa Democratic Party.

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