Florida district court judge, Roger Vinson, has ruled the nation’s health care law unconstitutional due to the inclusion of the ‘individual mandate’ that forces people to purchase insurance.
“I must reluctantly conclude that Congress exceeded the bounds of its authority in passing the act with the individual mandate,” wrote Vinson.
He goes on further to say that Congress does have the authority to address the “problems and inequities in our health care system.”
Within the ruling Judge Vinson used President Obama’s own position from the 2008 campaign against him. (link via michellemalkin.com)
“I note that 2008, then-Senator Obama supported a health care reform proposal that did not include an individual mandate because he was at that time strongly opposed to the idea, stating that ‘if a mandate was the solution, we can try that to solve homelessness by mandating everyone buy a house.’”
Of course the Department of Justice plans to appeal the ruling, which will more than likely mean the provisions of the health care bill will continue to be put in place until it is, hopefully, struck down in the Supreme Court. (link via michellemalkin.com)
Department of Justice spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said, “We strongly disagree with the court’s ruling today and continue to believe – as other federal courts have found – that the Affordable Care Act is constitutional. There is a clear and well established legal precedent the Congress acted with its constitutional authority in passing this law and we are confident that will ultimately prevail on appeal.”
I would guess that Schmaler went to the same “school of thought” that Pelosi, Sen Leahy, and much of the White Staff went. At the “school”, the constitution is only useful we they deem it so, and a hindrance on most occasions.
It didn’t take long for the liberals to come out and begin the fear-mongering. Surprisingly, the Huffington Post’s article on the ruling was fairly well balance, but towards the bottom of the article, Sen Harry Reid said this:
“This lawsuit is nothing more than an attempt by those who want to raise taxes on small business, increase prescription prices for seniors and allow insurance companies to once again deny sick children medical care”, said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)
Good old Prince Harry didn’t leave any fear-stone unturned with that prepared statement. He hit the small businesses, the seniors, and the kids. I wonder what focus group told him to use that language. Although I am sure he has all of those little nuggets stashed away in some card index file to be accessed when needed.
While you’re over at the HuffPro, don’t miss this little commentary from Ethan Rome. I pulled these little gems out of the column in case you want to skip the whole thing.
“The judge gave Republicans governors and attorneys general what they wanted, a decision that advances the GOPs extremist agenda to return control of our health care to the insurance companies. This is judicial activism on steroids.”
When a judge makes a decision you don’t like, it is activism, when a judge makes a decision you do like, it is called sound judicial reasoning. Why would you call this an extremist GOP agenda when it is clear 60% of Americans wan this bill repealed? The Republicans were swept into the House of Representatives because of a clear mandate from the folks to get rid of this bill and to curb spending. Knocking nearly $1T out of the budgets is a good start.
“Congress clearly has the authority to regulate the health insurance market, including protecting consumers from insurance industry abuses and reducing costs for families, seniors and businesses.”
Does Congress have the authority to tell me what kind of car I can purchase (they are making the attempt through mileage requirements)? Does Congress have the authority to tell me where and what kind of food I can purchase (they are making the attempt through the Safe Food Act)?
Reading through the comments on Rome’s column and the main health care repeal article, it is awesome watching the liberals try to justify the bill with their emotional reasoning. Hardly any of them brought up this bill just might be too far of a stretch for Congress. Most of them talk about how everyone is going to die due to the evil republicans not liking anyone but the rich. Babies are going to be tossed out with the bath water and seniors are going to be allowed to die on the street corners.
Over at CBS, Rep Eliot Engel (D-NY) thinks the whole court thing is not necessary, he wants to work together to make it work.
“If the American people want us to work together, this is not the way to do it. If there is a problem with the bill we should tweak it!”, said Engel.
Two things Rep Engel; the American people don’t want this bill in any shape or fashion. They want it scraped and the process to begin anew. The vast majority of Americans know there needs to be some form of reform in the health care industry, put this complete gov’t takeover is not what they want Secondly, the Republicans tried to work with you guys back in 2009 and you guys basically told them to go pound sand. To quote President Obama when Sen McCain (R-AZ) tried to say his piece at the White House health care summit for Republicans, “John, we won”.
As a side note, please take a read of Michelle Malkin’s column on the health care waivers. Read through the whole thing, including the links, to get an idea of just who is getting the waivers. (hint; big unions are at the top of the list)
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