0 back in 2009, as a fight over health reform was raging from the halls of congress to the town halls in michele bachmann's district, the government of texas got tenth amendmenty and threatened to secede from health care, end from the united states, itself. very patriotic. texas would be gone. they'd get no more highway money. there would be no more shared national defense. it would just be texas on its own. the land where nobody messes with the fact that poor people can't afford health insurance. that was almost four years ago exactly. >> the opposition to reforming health care isn't the most cogent thing in the world thus far. the gop health care solutions group in congress, you will recall, admitted this week they think it's best if they don't actually offer any health care solutions. they'd rather just keep saying no to whatever it is the democrats are offering no matter what it is. but in this rollicking substance-free festival of incoherence, there is one man who is determined to be the most incoherent of all. little known outside his home state for anything other than having beautiful hair and for threatening to secede from the union back in april, texas governor rick perry is now threatening that texas will also secede from health care. i told you it was incoherent. speaking with a conservative talk show host yesterday on wbap in arlington, texas, governor perry had this to say about what he wants to secede from next. >> it really is a state issue, and if there was ever an argument for the tenth amendment and for letting states find solutions to their problems, this may be at the top of the class. >> the whole tenth amendment screw you i'm going to be my own health care-free country thing, it didn't really take off. not even in texas. but there is more than one way to skin a health care reform law, and so the right, and activists on the right and the republican party, itself, they set out to try and defeat the president on this by just getting it voted down. first they tried to prevent it from happening. all fake grassroots organizations like freedom works and americans for prosperity. they organized and paid for rallies and bus tours with fancy, cool, customized buses that had their logos all over this. >> this rally organized by a collection of conservative and libertarian groups. >> too much power, too little freedom. it is time to restore constitutional government. >> almost all echoing a common theme. >> we must stop this government takeover of health care. >> and coming after a summer of heated town hall meetings and congressman joe wilson's outburst at president obama during wednesday's address to congress. >> you lie! >> among today's organizers, former house majority leader dick armey, now the chairman of conservative action group, freedom works. >> that wasn't just rallies and things that these firms organized. they also sent people to hound elected officials in their of the pushback. >> we simply can't have washington make the rules and we get stuck with the bill. >> 14 states and counting. >> is an unprecedented expansion. >> to have the individual mandate held unconstitutional. >> does trample the constitution. >> attorneys general from every part of the nation, nearly all of them republican, are challenging the health care law in court. >> so after a year of truly insane off the wall got to get congressmen escorted to their car politics on health care, the case went to the supreme court, the highest court in the land. you know what happened there? again, the republican effort to kill the law fell short. >> the bottom line here is the supreme court has upheld the health care case. it's a 5-4 decision, with chief justice roberts joining the courts' liberals in upholding it. >> okay. now were we done? health reform passed both houses of congress. individually and then if you break your leg or you need your appendix taken out or you contract a communicable disease, you might go bankrupt, but hey, you went bankrupt in the name of freedom. and so the anti-obama care cause will endure. the hope to kill health insurance lives on. the dream of scuttling obama care will never die. even if it means convincing the uninsured to remain uninsured. joining us now, my friend, jonathan cohnn, senior editor at the "new republic." good to see you tonight. >> thanks for having me on the show. >> let's say they get the folks to burn the draft card and not take the insurance and they're uninsured. what does freedom works say to a 24-year-old who in 2014 gets into an accident and can't pay their bills? >> what we're seeing here is really something i think is different than what we've seen before. this isn't just fighting a law, isn't just saying we want the law off the books. this is telling people who stand to benefit from the law, hey, don't take advantage of it. it's like telling people don't take your social security checks because we don't like the system. when you turn 65, don't enroll in medicare because it's a bad idea. i don't know what they're going to say to these people. the truth is there's a reason we're trying to make health insurance available to people. it's because people get sick. they get in accidents and end up in the hospital and are going to have very large bills. here's a chance to get health insurance so they don't have the face the prospect of bankruptcy, so they can pay for their medical care. groups like freedom works out there saying, hey, don't do this, it's a bad idea. >> one of the things i find fascinating about this whole strategy, it means, i think, obama care as it rolls out is going to have incredible variation between states. so i don't think this little obama care draft card thing is going to be much more than a blip on everybody's radar. places like texas are doing everything they can to make the health care law which means to make their health care system in 2014 a huge disaster. and then you have california say, which has really worked hard to make it a success. you're going to get into 2014 and 2015 and it's possible you could have california with a functioning pretty much universal health care system. and texas a complete disaster zone from a health care perspective. and i don't really understand, i think, myself, how the politics of that play out if it looks bad for the law or looks terrible for rick perry, that out of spite, he destroyed his state's health care system. >> yeah, i don't know how this plays out, either. i think it's quite likely we will see a situation where not just california but places like oregon, washington, vermont, maryland, places where the officials are committed to making this work. it's going to work pretty well. and then you have places like texas or georgia where not only the officials not interested in helping, they are, as you say, actively working to sabotage it. now, i actually think even in those states, the system will work well enough, but i don't know how people react. do they get up and say, gee, this is a bad law overall? or do the people of texas and georgia start going to their state officials and saying, hey, why are those people in maryland getting all these benefits and we aren't? >> jonathan cohn, senior editor at the "new republic." thanks for your time tonight. >> thanks for having me. still ahead, why is this woman bringing a cantaloupe to congressman steve king's office? i'll give you a hint. it's not so they can have brunch together. 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