Yesterday the Palm Beach Post ridiculed Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum for backing “the rights and freedoms of insurance companies” over that of the people, and today two more Florida editorial boards joined the chorus:
“Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum’s decision to sue over the new federal health-care law is a divisive, overly political waste of state resources.…McCollum has a duty to use the resources of his office — paid for by taxpayers — in the public interest. Taxpayers should also question the propriety of hiring McCollum’s former law firm, Baker and Hostetler of Orlando, to work on the lawsuit for McCollum and 12 other attorneys general. The firm will be paid whether the states win or lose.”
— Sarasota Herald-Tribune
“Beyond the political gamesmanship, the maneuvering in Tallahassee seems especially callous given that as many as 4 million Floridians currently have no health insurance. Sadly, like the Republicans in Washington the Republicans in Tallahassee have no plan of their own to provide affordable coverage for uninsured Americans. All they have are political games.”
— Gainesville Sun
And yet the editorial board of the Seattle Times — the paper of record in a state that voted for Barack Obama and his promise of health care reform by an 18-point margin (and in a county that went for Obama by a better than 42-point spread) — has thus far remained silent on our own AG’s role in this Republican political charade.
From the Tacoma News Tribune
“Taxpayers should also question the propriety of hiring McCollum’s former law firm, Baker and Hostetler of Orlando, to work on the lawsuit for McCollum and 12 other attorneys general. The firm will be paid whether the states win or lose.”
Well, geez, Sarasota, quit the whining and cut him some slack, will ya? As long as the asshat’s stoking the flames of HCR passion for his own political gain, what’s wrong with him greasing some skids with the taxpayer’s money? After all, that’s what today’s conservatism is all about, isn’t it?
I fully support health care reform, yet I also support a challenge that will bring health care before the Supreme Court. Without such a challenge the idiots screaming out there will never shut up. They will continue to scream that it is unconstitutional, so give it its constitutional challenge. It will pass muster, we move on.
Speaking of health care, am I the only person completely pissed off at that weasel Obama for signing the anti-choice directive?!!! WTF?
The 85% of the women who currently have health care insurance will now have to write a second check if they need an abortion? Why isn’t anyone talking about this? Or does that @@#$% weasel Obama get a free ride.
Michael @1, Duke @3,
There would have been a challenge regardless. There is absolutely no need for McKenna to spend our tax dollars joining it. This is political grandstanding, pure and simple, and an embarrassment to the people of Washington state.
“Without such a challenge the idiots screaming out there will never shut up.”
I doubt that’d help shut them up. When has a Supreme Court decision ever shut up any lunatic fringe element of our society?
@Goldy
I was just passing that tidbit along.
#3. Sigh. There’s a lot in this “health care reform” which people aren’t talking about, besides your valid point. Such as, how are people going to afford to buy health care FOR THE NEXT FOUR YEARS until these policies come into effect? And, even then, how are they going to afford to pay them until their tax refunds arrive, once a year? How are these rules supposed to contain health care costs in the first place? And that’s just the start.
That said, back to McKenna: First of all, there is a provision in the law which allows states to opt out if they meet certain critera. Second of all, the Preamble to the Constitution (which I HOPE McKenna’s read)states that one of the duties of government is to provide for the “general welfare” of the people. If providing health care for its citizens, by offering relief from price-gouging, exploitive ins. cos, hampering those citizens’ abilities to live and prosper–if that’s not providing for the general welfare of the citizens, then I don’t know what is.
@3 To a degree I share your irritation with Obama over the abortion deal, but I’m far more pissed at the other side for once again using abortion as a wedge issue while self-righteously gasbagging about “protecting the rights of the unborn”.
On the other hand, it’s worth keeping in mind the greater good. A family struggling with the prospect of bankruptcy because Dad needs a quintuple bypass or little Joey a kidney transplant–or for that matter a women with an intended pregnancy who unexpectedly finds herself without coverage for prenatal care and childbirth–faces a far greater challenge than a woman seeking a $500 D & C.
In fact…I doubt that many folks on the right realize that the current status quo may well be forcing women in that first category to become members of the second.
I’m more interested in the Florida AG using his own private law firm to do the work. Conflict of interest, anyone?
Goldy @ 4. I know there would have been challenges without McKenna butting in. But you have to admit Gregoire’s expression, when she was asked about it was priceless! She looked like she swallowed that poop you left on the Seattle Times’ lawn!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5Ng5lYw3kE
Goldy still silent on Randy Dorn driving drunk! News at 11!
Wow, obsess much, Goldy?
If you truely were convinced that all this ‘tenther b.s.’ would result in no fruit, why spend so much time, energy and money on it?
A political action committee, really? McKenna has you running scared and her royal heiness trading her kingdom for a horse.
If their’s one thing ‘progressives’ are not good at, it’s hiding their fears.
There your error is fixed, now for my reply:
You’re God Damned right about that, Bub. It’s a virtue you wouldn’t understand. It’s the very definition of courage.
Being afraid of something, but doing it any way, not letting your fear show takes real moral character and an understanding of doing something that is greater than yourself.
Cowards try to use displays of guns, bravado “talk” in large mobs and slinking around in the middle of the night slashing natural gas lines and throwing bricks through windows. Sound familiar?
Well I had to laugh when I saw Joni Balter beating up on McGinn today. Prior to his election the Seattle Times ed board or one of them writing individually would have trotted out the city council’s old resolution on removing Snake River dams when they felt a need to divert the attention of the masses from something pressing.
If you can’t make a contribution to get rid of McKenna then cancel your subscription to the Seattle Times.
Tell them WHY you are canceling and would like a prorated refund right NOW!
The message will become clear if enough of you cancel.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....13618.html
Conservatives don’t tolerate any critical views within their shrinking echo chamber.
It’s the brilliant W strategy, where the yes men are rewarded, and the scientists, budget specialists, military strategists are punished if they make the mistake of telling the LOCK STEP nuts something they don’t wanna hear.
who gives a fuck what left wing extremist editorial boards say? you dont get that most people in this country hate the media, do you?