TALLAHASSEE – On primary day as Florida’s new House speaker, Rep. Dean Cannon took a clear shot at President Barack Obama’s new health-care reform law.

“Should it really be the role of government to necessitate people to buy a health insurance manufactured goods they don’t want, move up taxes to give that same product to others who can’t afford it, and commandeer our state government and its sources to carry it out?” Cannon, a Winter Park Republican, told House members after being sworn in two weeks ago.

“Or, should we work to limit government and empower the private sector?”
While the brawl against President Obama’s health-care reform may be centered in the Beltway, Republican resistance to the sweeping new mandates is also taking shape in Tallahassee. in the middle of the battlefronts:

• Florida led the accuse with 19 other states last March by challenging the law in central court, claim the mandates that uninsured people purchase coverage violated states’ rights. A moderator in Pensacola is expected to rule soon after a Dec. 16 hearing on whether the suit can move forward. More states are predictable to join after a new crop of state attorneys universal are sworn into office in January.

•Last coil, GOP legislators hastily drafted a legitimate amendment spelling out that Florida businesses and residents couldn’t be forced to buy insurance, but a Tallahassee judge threw it off the November ballot for “misleading” language. Lawmakers have re-filed an altered version and hope to place it before voters in 2012.