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AMES — Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Vander Plaats pointed to national education policy and the debate surrounding health care reform as signs that states, including Iowa, need to recognize the need to re-establish their sovereignty over the federal government.
While speaking to a group of supporters Wednesday, Vander Plaats was asked about the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which says “The 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.” Vander Plaats said he’s had to address this topic a lot lately.
“When I ran for governor and lieutenant governor before, that question was never asked,” he said. “But now you’re seeing the federal government become more and more intrusive, and that question gets asked all the time [about] state sovereignty.”
Nationally, measures to stop individual mandates on health care have been introduced in more than two-thirds of states, citing the 10th Amendment as the justification. The “state sovereignty” movement is considered an outgrowth of the Tea Party movement that sprung up around issues like federal health-care reform, gun-control laws and greenhouse-gas limits.
The sovereignty rhetoric has led to some interesting reactions from conservatives around the country. A recent Daily Kos-Research 2000 poll found that 23 percent of self-identified Republicans want their states to secede from the union. In the South, it’s 33 percent.
“States more and more today understand the 10th Amendment,” Vander Plaats said. “But you need governors who are willing to take on the federal government instead of roll over to the federal government.”
Vander Plaats also mentioned a plan to get the federal government out of Medicare and Medicaid.
“Stop taking our Medicaid and Medicare dollars to DC and just leave them here,” he said. “Let us run that program.”
Last August, one of Vander Plaats’ rivals for the GOP nomination, state Rep. Chris Rants of Sioux City, called the idea a “cure that’s worse than the cold,” saying that while President Barack Obama spells trouble for Iowa, “the Vander Plaats plan spells bankruptcy.”
Below is video of Vander Plaats discussing the 10th Amendment and state sovereignty.
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