"Sovereigns" next assault: Baker seeks to block Fed health reform in Florida

Baker at July 4 TEA Party in Orlando (photo by centralfloridapolitics.com)

State Senator Carey Baker (R-Eustis) together with State Representative Scott Plakon (R-Longwood) filed a proposal (HJR 37) to prevent planned Federal health care reform legislation from affecting Floridians. If passed by the legislature in the 2010 session, Florida voters would likely be voting on the constitutional amendment on Election Day, 2010.

Baker and Plakon were also sponsors of the “sovereignty” memorial (HM 19). (A memorial is a form of counsel from one government body to another, in this case from the Florida legislature to the US Congress). The memorial reminds Congress of the US Constitution’s 10th Amendment provision that rights not expressly given to the federal government in the Constitution are “reserved to the States respectively, or to the people”.

Baker is also a Republican candidate for Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services, a state cabinet level office.

The constitutional amendment proposal filed last Monday seems an outgrowth of the “sovereignty” movement of which Baker seems to be identifying himself as one of the most active leaders in Florida. He was a speaker at July 4th TEA Party events in Orlando and Gainesville.

Earlier in July, Baker also filed what he named the “Florida Firearms Freedom Bill” to protect the Florida-only transactions of gun manufacturers and sellers located in Florida from federal regulation. A National Guard veteran who served in Panama and Iraq, Baker owns a gun shop in Mount Dora. The House version of the bill (HB 21) was filed by State Representative Marlene O’Toole (R-Lady Lake).

The proposed constitutional amendment HJR 37 would deny the ability of any new law to impose demands, restrictions or penalties on health care choices on Floridians. Versions of proposed federal health care reform legislation have included insurance coverage mandates, and certain penalties on employers who fail to provide employee health insurance.

Baker’s comments to the Associated Press as reported in the Miami Herald and Orlando Sentinel promoted the false notion that planned changes in health care meant that the system was being “socialized,” leading to the Federal government determining an individual’s physician and the rationing of care, even though nothing of the kind has been proposed.

As a military veteran, Baker is able to receive health care benefits under the US Veteran’s Administration, funded by federal tax dollars, and as a State Senator, participates in the state’s health insurance plan whose premiums are likely subsidized by state taxpayer funds.