February 18, 2011 10:14AM # ObamaCare’s New Freedom By [Michael F. Cannon](https://www.cato.org/people/michael-f-cannon) --- SHARE Earlier this month, President Obama’s HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius took to the *Washington Post*’s op-ed page to [reassure](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/09/AR2011020905682.html) everybody that [ObamaCare](www.cato.org/pubs/wtpapers/BadMedicineWP.pdf) “puts states in the driver’s seat” and “gives states incredible freedom to tailor reforms to their needs.” One grows weary of exposing the brazen falsehoods this administration incessantly and unconscionably peddles about its corrupt, unconstitutional, and irredeemable health care law. But here I go again: the very idea that ObamaCare puts states in the driver’s seat is nonsense. States already had the power to enact all the taxes, mandates, and price controls that ObamaCare expects them to implement — and to make what few choices ObamaCare leaves them. If you want to know what Incredible Freedom really means, look to Wisconsin, where President Obama — who is evidently bored with the federal budget — has [inserted](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/17/AR2011021705494.html) himself into *a state budget dispute*, as [David Boaz has noted](https://www.cato.org/two-three-many-wisconsins/). As it turns out, Incredible Freedom means you are free to do exactly what President Obama wants. The *Washington Post* [reports](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/17/AR2011021705494.html) on talk of federal bailouts for states (like Wisconsin) that are struggling with huge deficits and unfunded liabilities in their state pension and retiree health care programs. However: > The White House has dismissed such speculation, saying **states have the wherewithal to raise taxes, cut programs and renegotiate employee contracts to balance their books**. A startling admission. Perhaps someone in the White House can pull Sebelius aside and explain that states also had the wherewithal to enact all the “reforms” that ObamaCare imposed on them. States already were “in the driver’s seat. They already had the power “to tailor reforms to their needs.” Then along came ObamaCare. ##### Related Tags [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Health Care](https://www.cato.org/health-care), [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).