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To: LindyBill who wrote (423057)	4/22/2011 6:30:31 AM
From: unclewest	2 Recommendations Respond to of 793896

Idaho governor blocks federal health care reform law HEALTH INSURANCE April 21, 2011\|By Alan Silverleib, CNN Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter signed legislation, preventing the state from enacting parts of the federal heatlh overhaul bill. How much power do individual states have to block implementation of the new health care reform law? A lot, if the governor of Idaho has his way. Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter, a Republican, issued an executive order Wednesday prohibiting state agencies from implementing the controversial law, which is widely viewed as President Barack Obama's top domestic accomplishment. Otter's order states that "no executive branch department, agency, institution or employee of the state shall establish or amend any program or promulgate any rule to implement any provisions" of the law. Among other things, the order also bars state agencies from accepting federal funds tied to the implementation of the law. The move by Idaho's governor comes in the wake of a series of lawsuits filed by Republican officials against the law. Conservatives insist the law's various requirements -- including a mandate requiring individuals to have health insurance by 2014 -- are unconstitutional, and have used it to rally supporters in elections across the country. The text of Otter's order includes language calling the law "a dramatic attempt to assert federal command and control over this country's health care system." It asserts that the measure constitutes an "infringement on Idahoans and the authority of the state under the Tenth Amendment of the United States Constitution." The Tenth Amendment declares that "powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people." Otter vetoed a bill passed by the GOP-dominated state legislature that, similar to his order, would block implementation of the law. The governor said he was concerned the bill would prevent Idaho from setting up a state-run health insurance exchange and inadvertently allow Washington to do so instead. "The legislature clearly wanted to send a message to the national government this session, expressing its frustration with Obamacare. I agree with the message," Otter said in a letter to Idaho's secretary of state. "However, it is equally unacceptable to forgo exploring viable state solutions to our health care needs and allowing the national government to assert more control over Idahoans," he added. Whether Otter's order could actually survive a legal challenge, however, is unclear.

To: LindyBill who wrote (423057)	4/22/2011 6:35:31 AM
From: unclewest	3 Recommendations Respond to of 793896

Pakistan has stopped U.S. forces from using an air base near the Afghan border where unmanned Predator drones were stationed, amid Pakistani concern about civilian casualties and U.S. complaints about the country's links to the militants. "Yes I can confirm that Shamsi Air Base is no more under the use of Americans and the 150 Americans previously stationed there are now gone," a senior military official told NBC News. msnbc.msn.com