subject: Obamacare in the pitts [print this page] Granite Staters might avoid the most anti-liberty portion of Obamacare after all, but not because our governor or attorney general did a thing to stop it.
Last week, Florida U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson ruled that a multi-state lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Obamacare's individual insurance coverage mandate could proceed. Nineteen states joined Florida in suing the U.S. government, alleging that it had no constitutional authority to mandate that individuals buy health insurance. Alas, New Hampshire was not among them.
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Judge Vinson ruled that the states raised a legitimate question about the law's constitutionality. But he also criticized the Obama administration and Congress for playing political games with the court. While the bill was being debated, White House officials and Democratic leaders in Congress asserted that the individual mandate was not a tax. After it became law, the administration started arguing that it was a tax after all. Vinson called that "Alice in Wonderland" trickery.
"Congress should not be permitted to secure and cast politically difficult votes on controversial legislation by deliberately calling something one thing, after which the defenders of that legislation take an 'Alice-in-Wonderland' tack and argue in court that Congress really meant something else entirely, thereby circumventing the safeguard that exists to keep their broad power in check," he wrote.
Gov. John Lynch and Attorney General Michael Delaney failed to even attempt to protect us from this unconstitutional mandate. They let it happen without a peep of protest. Thankfully, governors and attorneys general in other states were more principled. Maybe we'll get this oppressive law overturned despite the complicity of Democratic state officials.
