MO Says NO
71% of Missouri voters rejected a federal mandate to buy health insurance. This is from Chris Jacobs:
Activist Annette Read, who organized the ballot effort, in an AP story: “To us, it symbolized everything…The entire frustration in the country … how our government has misspent, how they haven’t listened to the people, this measure in general encompassed all of that.”
Contractor Mike Sampson, also quoted by AP: “I believe that the general public has been duped about the benefits of the health care proposal.”
C.C. Swarens, executive vice president of the Missouri State Medical Assn. backing the referendum, in an LA Times story: “There is just a backlash against everything Washington right now.”
Republican state Senator Jane Cunningham, in a New York Times story: “My constituents told me they felt like their voices had been ignored and they wanted Washington to hear them…It looks to me like they just picked up a megaphone.”
Republican state Senator Jim Lembke, also quoted in the New York Times: “This really wasn’t an effort to poke the president in the eye…First and foremost, this was about defining the role of state government and the role of federal government.”
The voter turnout for the election was 25% of registered voters. So, 71% or 25% means that less then 18% of registered voters rejected the federal mandate.
WOW. This is a statement.
I think artk’s spin goes as far as optimism can be spun in the light of overwhemingly negative results.
They can’t be very happy in the White House this morning. And the scuttlebutt is that they won’t be very happy tomorrow when the Medicare Trustees report.
Ken, states like Missouri are a mystery to me. Missouri gets 1.26 in federal expenditures for every dollar they pay in federal taxes. How can you complain about the “redistribution” of the federal government when you’re on the receiving end?
Actually, I think Missouri is a tossup state, a bell weather in national elections – not predictably Democrat or Republican. So if the sentiment there is at all reflected in the vote, this is not good news for obamaCare.
Hey, folks. It’s called the “Show Me” state. Obama showed and Missouri voters didn’t like what they saw.