Well, that didn't take long.
Sunday, I was so pleased to vote for health care reform. This morning I was honored when President Obama signed the bill that provided insurance coverage to 32 million Americans, and proud of all you for helping me push the final vote through.
But even before President Obama could put pen to paper, Washington Attorney General Robert McKenna announced that he was hell bent on tearing down all of this progress.
By announcing that he would join a partisan group of Attorneys General from states like South Carolina and Texas in suing the federal government to stop health care reform, he's made it clear this isn't about people -- it's about scoring cheap political points with the extreme right wing.
This is unacceptable. My colleagues and I fought over 2,000 insurance lobbyists in Washington DC to get health care reform passed -- and now we have to fight Washington State's Attorney General too?
When Rep. Kind, Rep. Braley, Rep. McCollum, and I were representing the House Quality Care Coalition until 3am Saturday night to negotiate a solution to longstanding inequities in Medicare and cobble together the votes to pass the bill, we were doing what was right for America.
Meanwhile, all weekend, right-wing Tea Partiers attacked our efforts and stopped at nothing to try to kill this landmark bill. I knew we'd be in for more of these attacks -- but I didn't expect it to come from our own Attorney General.
We have fought too hard and have come too far to give up now. This legislation delivers critical reforms, like providing health insurance for an additional 32 million Americans, eliminates discrimination based on pre-existing conditions, and corrects reimbursement disparities that have been costing Washington families for decades. That is a big win for all of us, and I won't let Rob McKenna take it away.
If you agree that we can't give up critical reform that was 30 years in the making for one politician to try to win the support of right-wing extremists, then sign this emergency petition right now.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/healthcare/march_2010/55_favor_repeal_of_health_care_bill
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey, conducted on the first two nights after the president signed the bill, shows that 55% favor repealing the legislation. Forty-two percent (42%) oppose repeal. Those figures include 46% who Strongly Favor repeal and 35% who Strongly Oppose it.
In terms of Election 2010, 52% say they’d vote for a candidate who favors repeal over one who does not. Forty-one percent (41%) would cast their vote for someone who opposes repeal.
Not surprisingly, Republicans overwhelmingly favor repeal while most Democrats are opposed. Among those not affiliated with either major party, 59% favor repeal, and 35% are against it.
Most senior citizens (59%) also favor repeal. Earlier, voters over 65 had been more opposed to the health care plan than younger adults. Seniors use the health care system more than anyone else.
"THE politically orchestrated hiss at Rob McKenna has not been convincing. Washington's attorney general has the clear authority to argue that the new health-insurance law violates the Constitution, and to sign on to a lawsuit to that effect.
Opponents ask, "Who is McKenna's client?" It is the people who elected him. Note that a Survey USA poll suggested that more Washington voters agree with him (44 percent) than do not (40 percent).
Opponents ask how much the lawsuit by 13 state attorneys general costs the people of Washington. It doesn't cost them any extra money. The state of Florida is paying for it.
Opponents imply there is something outrageous in challenging a new law. It is not outrageous. It is part of the American system. Think of the Tim Eyman tax initiatives. Almost all the ones that passed have been challenged.
The main challenge here is on one point — whether the federal government can require people to buy a private product: health insurance.
The argument centers on the U.S. Constitution's commerce clause, which gives Congress the power "to regulate Commerce ... among the several States ... " The lawsuit argues that requiring a citizen to buy insurance goes beyond regulating commerce. It is, says McKenna, "forcing people into the stream of commerce."
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorials/2011453136_edit28mckenna.html
cont...
The law calls its mandate a tax. But if you comply, your money goes to the insurance company. You pay the government only if you don't comply — which means, McKenna says, "It's not a tax. It's a fine."
We think McKenna has a good case, and one the progressives who condemn him ought to appreciate. These critics are so often right about the dangers of corporate power, and particularly the rapacity of insurance companies.
But if it's federal power, and it's for a social purpose, and Barack Obama is presiding over it, they set their judgment aside. They accept a 2,000-page bill on its label only. They accept its promise, almost surely vacant, of cost savings. They overlook the deals cut with the insurance and pharmaceutical interests. They shrug off the "cornhusker kickback." And to those who invoke the Constitution, they become shrill.
This page supported Obama, and we still like him. But we also support checks and balances on federal power, and review of this law by the Supreme Court.
Go Jay Inslee! Go Governor Gregoire!
Too bad for your theory, huh...?
Note that we are still in Iraq and Afghanistan -- and we aren't leaving either for years to come....
I actually voted for McKenna. He was my only Republican vote. I did so because he came across as a rational person making responsible nonpartisan decisions during the Governor's election.
I was wrong as were many other Democrats who voted for him. Washington State is solidly Democratic. President Obama won here by a landslide. McKenna has just committed political suicide. I do not see him being reelected. The Governor is working on trying to remove his funding to do this, but the damage has been done. He does not represent the views of the majority in my state.
I theorize that there is something about the pollution in big cities that causes the people there to want to forcibly take stuff from other people. There doesn't seem to be this problem out where the air is clear.
RINO Rossi got as far as he did by refusing to state his position on the issues and posing as a "moderate." Rob McKenna has been using that strategy, and if he had continued, I am absolutely certain that he would have been the next governor. But instesd, he filed this lawsuit.
Thank you, Rob, for pulling back the curtain and showing us that you're just another teabagging Republican. Maybe this silly suit will prevail and maybe it won't, but either way, he'll never hold statewide office again, and that's a fact.
Over 75% of the states population lives west of the Cascades. We see eastern Washington as our own welfare state as they receive much more state money for police, roads, schools etc than they ever contribute.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=info&ref=nf&gid=102763306425603
A Google search reveals a number of efforts to impeach him as well.
As a proud Washingtonian I am appalled. I have signed your petition and passed it on to friends. How McKenna could take this step in a state with two Democratic Senators and 6 out of 9 members of Congress Democrats is totally beyond comprehension.
Thanks for your hard work getting the bill passed.
Signed,
One Washington Woman
Either way, the reactions against this AG are emotional and fail to take these considerations into account. You are upset that something you want passed is being challenged. I understand that, but you either have nothing to worry about or what you want passed gets struck down by the Constitution. Either way, things happened the way they are supposed to.
Make no mistake about it, real Americans need to fight just as hard to save American's lives just as hard as Teabaggers are fighting to have Americans die, otherwise the GOP will win and Americans will die. The GOP is fighting to cause more than 4 times as many deaths than happened on 9-11, only the GOP is trying to make this happen year in and year out, yet another example of GOP compassion and patriotism.
Your opinion that "Teabaggers are fighting to have Americans die" is about as shameful an accusation as I've seen, and it's a load of BS. I challenge you to come up with a SINGLE shred of evidence to support your assertion.
My best recollection is that the silly "infinite horizon" estimate for SS is $11 trillion in "unfunded liability"--which means that in an infinite number of years, if nothing changes, that's what it will cost. So do you think nothing will changes over an infinite number of years? Do you know what the US economic growth rate will be in the year 2600? I don't and you don't either, and no one else does.
But SS is paid for by payroll taxes, and the present value of payroll tax revenue over an infinite time horizon is $275 trillion. So either there's no problem at all, because we'll bring in 20 times the revenue that the system needs (and it would pay for Medicare too), or we're having a ridiculous discussion about fictitious numbers estimated over an absurd length of time. You choose.
And as a note, this HCR bill is FULLY PAID FOR, and represents no "unfunded liability" of any kind. For you to bring that phrase into the conversation is just a "guilt by association" fallacious argument. In fact, it will lower our budget deficit by over a trillion dollars over twenty years. And you know it.
Many or rather, THE MAJORITY of us can see this and don't want it. We are very proud of the Attorneys General of 14 states, and hopefully more, who are taking these steps to try to stop this outrageous out-of-control government.
Lets GET ANGRY CAUSE GOVERNMENT IS TRYING TO HELP PLACE CONSUMER PROTECTIONS IN THE HEALTH INSURANCE INDUSTRY, when i read your post that's all i could conclude. MUST BE A SOCIALIST PLOT TO MAKE US ENGAGE IN DEALS WITH PRIVATE CORPORATIONS. ./sigh
And if you dig deep and actually find out what this reform will mean to all of us, maybe you wouldn't try to make it a Rep/Dem issue.
And to the next poster, how about you go go take a poll at tent cities and homeless shelters and ask them if they could use some medical care. The MSM doesn't dare ask them what they think.
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress makes the following findings:
(1) IN GENERAL.—The individual responsibility requirement provided for in this section (in thisvsection referred to as the ‘‘requirement’’) is commercial and economic in nature, and substantially affects interstate commerce, as a result of the effects described in paragraph (2).
(2) EFFECTS ON THE NATIONAL ECONOMY AND INTERSTATE COMMERCE.—The effects described in this paragraph are the following:
(A) The requirement regulates activity that is commercial and economic in nature: economic and financial decisions about how and when health care is paid for, and when health insurance is purchased.
~~~~~~~~~Cut sections B/C/D/E/F/G/H to save words~~~~~~~~~
(3) SUPREME COURT RULING.—In United States v. South-Eastern Underwriters Association (322 U.S. 533 (1944)), the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that insurance is interstate commerce subject to Federal regulation.
And there you go. Read the bill: http://democrats.senate.gov/reform/patient-protection-affordable-care-act-as-passed.pdf
"With this law, the federal government will force citizens to buy health insurance, claiming it has the authority to do so because of its power to regulate interstate commerce. We contend that if a person decides not to buy health insurance, that person – by definition – is not engaging in commerce, and therefore, is not subject to a federal mandate."
Kenneth T. Cuccinelli, II
Attorney General of Virginia
I'm so glad my Governor and AG are so busy and spending money reversing anti discrimination laws and starting lawsuits over health care reform instead of spending that money creating jobs. Or using that money instead of cutting our education budget. And to think they both campaigned as moderates...
We’ve got a philosophical difference, which we’ve debated repeatedly, and that is that Senator Clinton believes the only way to achieve universal health care is to force everybody to purchase it.
-Barack Obama