South Carolina's plan to pass a bill outlawing the Affordable Care Act in the Palmetto State will be a test case for the rest of the country, former New Jersey Superior Court Judge Andrew Napolitano says.
"South Carolina will present a test case: Will the feds come into South Carolina and set up their own exchange at their own expense?" Napolitano, senior judicial analyst for Fox News, told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.
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"They could probably afford to do it in South Carolina, but if other states, like … New Jersey, were to do that, if [Gov.] Chris Christie had the fortitude, I don't think the feds could afford it," Napolitano added.
He said while South Carolina cannot stop its residents from signing up for Obamacare, it can prohibit its government employees from "cooperating with establishing or enforcing [the law]."
"If enough states did that, that would seriously gut the president's ability to enforce Obamacare in the state," Napolitano said.
He said South Carolina's gamble is possible because the Supreme Court struck down a law ordering states to establish and pay for their own insurance exchanges.
"The Supreme Court said … if you want exchanges in the states, you, Congress, have to pay for them. So Congress basically said to the states, OK, you help us set this stuff up and we'll pay for it," Napolitano said.
"If the states refused to help the federal government set it up, the federal government simply does not, believe it or not, have the resources to set it up," he said.
"So that will seriously impair the ability of Obamacare to become the opiate of the masses that the president hopes that it will become if enough states say no. South Carolina will strike a blow for state sovereignty and if enough states follow suit, it will seriously impair the ability of the statute to be as effective as the president wants it to be," the jurist said.
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