Greeting All.

I am sending you a copy of a letter I will be sending to the Governor to resist implementing health care insurance exchanges. We can avoid this monstrosity if we band together. I would encourage you to write a letter to the governor and ask him to not implement these exchange.

God Bless,

Jim Chmelik

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The Honorable Governor C. L. “Butch” Otter

This letter is in response to Obama care and the mandate concerning health care exchanges and to encourage you not to allow this to happen in our state. I had hoped to be brief in my request, however, you being a man with an understanding of our historical foundations, it seemed fitting to bring forth both a past and present representation of our founding principles.

Our founding fathers understood the power of tyrants and the violation it brings to the Laws of Nature and that we are endowed by our creator with certain unalienable Rights; that among these are Life, Liberty,  and the pursuit of Happiness. Sadly we are losing this perspective and the stomach to engage in the battle to defend these principles. The war of emotions wins out over the war of reason. Are we to retreat as a sovereign people and not  stand and fight for the principles we hold dear?  Do we not have a duty and an honor as a state to stand firm against federal tyranny and at times repel the over reach of federal prerogatives? Our founding fathers having fought and died for freedom from a tyrannical form of government, understood this well and firmly resolved themselves to the protection of these rights.

“The government of each state is, and is to be, sovereign and supreme in all matters that relate to each state only, and subordinate barely in those matters that relate to the whole, and IT WILL BE THEIR OWN FAULTS if the several states suffer the federal sovereignty to interfere in the things of their respective jurisdictions."  Founder, John Dickinson, The Fabius Letters III (1787)(all caps in original). Lets progress forward 225 years and See what the Supreme Court has to say concerning state sovereignty. The excerpts below are from Justice Roberts Supreme Court ruling.

“The Federal Government has expanded dramatically over the past two centuries, but it still must show that a constitutional grant of power authorizes each of its actions.”

The same does not apply to the States, because the Constitution is not the source of their power. … state governments do not need constitutional authorization to act. ... Our cases refer to this general power of governing, possessed by the States but not by the Federal Government, as the ‘police power.’”

“The Framers thus ensured that powers which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, were held by governments more local and more accountable than a distant federal bureaucracy”

“The independent power of the States also serves as a check on the power of the Federal Government: ‘By denying any one government complete jurisdiction over all the concerns of public life, federalism protects the liberty of the individual from arbitrary power.’”

“In the typical case we look to the States to defend their prerogatives by adopting “the simple expedient of not yielding” to federal blandishments when they do not want to embrace the federal policies as their own.  The States are separate and independent sovereigns.

Sometimes they have to act like it.”

It is transparently stated by John Dickinson and clarified 225 years later by Justice Roberts, that the intent of our rule is one of a compound government with States being sovereign entities but united by a common purpose as defined through our federalist system and that those powers not delegated to the federal government are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Governor Otter, when you were a brash young legislator you championed your conservative positions with zeal and reckless abandon. When I first met you, you pulled out a copy of the constitution to make your point. This was only eight short years ago.

Governor, I offer you these words as those of encouragement and because I believe you still have this in you. There are more people who agree with us than disagree. The principals of our foundation need to be dusted off and are worth fighting for and as Ronald Reagan once said, "This is a wonderful time to be alive, we're lucky not to live in pale and timid times. We've been blessed with the opportunity to stand for something -- for liberty and freedom and fairness. And these are things worth fighting for, worth devoting our lives to. And we have good reason to be hopeful and optimistic. We've made much progress already. So, let us go forth with good cheer and stout hearts -- happy warriors out to seize back a  country and a world to freedom.”

Governor , we did not choose this battle, it was brought to us; so let us stand with firm resolve against tyranny and defend those rights as endowed by our creator. The people of Idaho are independent and fierce fighters when given a reason to fight. I implore you to lead and give us that reason; our founding principles are under assault. Use your office to defend our God given rights and deny President Obama victory in our state, say no to health care exchanges. Stand for the principles of free markets and individual responsibility. Lets respect individual rights as defined in our founding documents and defend the constitution as we swore we would do the day we took our respective offices.

And for support of this Declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Respectfully Yours

Jim Chmelik

Idaho County Commissioner

From:  rremelin@gmail.com