Georgia Attorney General Thurbert E. Baker, a Democrat, has responded to calls for his state to join the suspect lawsuit against health care reform with a letter (PDF) that makes one wish our own AG, Rob McKenna, had the intestinal fortitude to do the same. Well, McKenna could have just said nothing, because Georgia has a wingnut Republican governor, and we don’t.
It’s not that long, so I encourage readers to click through and have a read.
What’s really hilarious is how Baker smacks down one of the most widely publicized contentions of the lawsuit, that mandates for people to purchase insurance are unconstitutional:
In fact, earlier this month, an appellate court decision rejecting such arguments was issued in the only case I am aware of to be litigated on this topic to date. As you may know, then-Governor Mitt Romney proposed and signed into law in 2006 a bill that requires all Massachusetts residents to purchase health insurance. A suit was brought against the Commonwealth by a plaintiff who alleged that the requirement violated his rights under the Fifth, Seventh and Eighth Amendments of the United States Constitution and various provisions of the Massachusetts Constitution. In Fountas v. Commissioner of the Depørtment of Revenue, 2010 Mass. App. Unpub. Lexis 223 (Marchs, 2010), the Massachusetts Court of Appeals rejected all of those arguments.
The concept of mandates is a Republican idea. In a normal political world the GOP would be demanding partial credit, and at least a dozen or so of their House members and a couple of senators would have voted for final passage.
But we don’t live in a normal political world, because the GOP and its noise machine cannot abide defeat, and even those Republicans who know the Tea People are full of shit are too cowardly to stand up to them. This potentially leaves the GOP, once again, facing status as a permanent rump party.
Republicans say they know something had to be changed, but all they did was obstruct, obstruct, obstruct. They’re still doing it, like a gambler who knows deep down it’s time to get up from the table, but can’t. But thanks, Rob McKenna, for making this pathetic state of affairs obvious to hundreds of thousands of Washingtonians who thought you were a straight shooter.
Jon–
Like your Leftist Brother Michael said…
“Bring it on” in regard to the lawsuit.
Get it directly to the Supreme Court.
If it’s Constitutional…fine.
If not’s not…do over.
Not that complicated.
You Leftist Pinheads are once again trying to make the Constitution a “living document” and squeal anytime you have to defend your Legislation.
The legal challenge is part of the process.
Grow up!
Show your support for Rob and come to the capital steps Saturday at 10:30am. Show him that he stands with the majority in this state and the country against the HC bill.
Cynny,
You and your ilk will never accept a Supreme Court decision that goes against your views, so what is the point? In the meantime, a frivolous lawsuit wastes taxpayer money and judicial resources. This case is frivolous. I guess you like some frivolous lawsuits.
I think McKenna did us a big favor by showing Washington voters his true colors as a radical who puts party loyalty above the public good.
Now, not only will McKenna never be Governor, he’s a decent challenger away from losing the job he’s got.
5
It’s too bad rabbits can’t run for public office, not even if they do have law degrees.
Republicans and their wingnut toadies didn’t have any trouble at all with legislation during the Bush era authorizing warrentless searches, suspension of Habeaus Corpus, indefinate detention without trial, arrest and rendition to foreign countries without the benefit of so much as a cursory hearing, etc. Heck, they even supported requiring librarians to turn over records of your reading habits to government agents upon demand, and made it a federal crime for the librarians to inform you (or anyone else) that they had done so.
And now suddenly they have become the champions of Constitutional liberties to preserve our right to be un-insured?
Their priorities are just so twisted.
# 6: I think Richard Pope is still available…..
@1
I probably left the “on” off. I usually just say “bring it.” And yeah, whats to worry and scream about? One of two things will happen:
1. The Righties will get bitch-slapped by the courts.
2. People will continue to have previously existing condition waiting periods for themselves and their kids, they will continue lose their insurance when they lose their jobs, they will continue to get dropped by their insurance companies when they try to use their insurance, they will continue to go bankrupt at record rates. And they will hate the Righties that refused to fix the system. Then we’ll fix the system.
It’s win/win for the left.
That said, I don’t see any reason why if McKenna and The Right are going to try and use this for their political advantage the left shouldn’t do the same.
@1
How many Republican’s can I vote for and still qualify as a leftist? I voted for two Republicans in the last election.
Re: (brain surgeon at) #2:
I’ll be there asswipe. I’ll be the one with the “Not in MY name, McKenna” sign!
@11…vandalized any churches lately rujax?
Michael @ 10
Wow, 2 Republicans? You need both rehab and absolution. There are facilities available. How can you sleep at night?
hate crime…hate crime
hate speech…hate speech
hate thought…hate thought
Oh-my-achin’-ass, it’ll be fine.
You fucking liars.
You’re never gonna stop bitching because it’s all you pathetic jerk-offs know how to do, anymore.
This stunt of a lawsuit will die in a whimper, while you fuck-tards keep right on shrieking, tearing off your shirts, and shooting out windows.
Fuck you.
Nope…but I hear you are threatening Congress members again.
Fuchwad.
Never have either, asshat. More than I can say for you.
@15, And the horse they rode in on.
defund….thats the ticket
Activist Roberts Supreme Court, activist Democratic Party controlled Congress, Socialist muslim President*.
I guess Saul Alinksy can now rest in peace.
*pssst. Don’t tell anybody, but HE’s BLACK.
@13
Terry Lee, my Republican Pierce County Council member, is an old fashioned conservative and is far more focused on representing his neighbors than on political ideology.
The Great Trust Buster and a bunch of the founders of the environmental movement were conservatives. My views tend to fit in well with these folks.
GEE LOOK AT THAT KIDS WONT BE COVERED UNTIL 2014.
FORTITUDINE VINCIMUS — BY ENDURANCE WE SHALL CONQUER
@22
Maybe if instead of right claiming that this would be The End Of America and parading around with guns they sat down and tried to fix the problems with us they would get covered sooner!
Btw, that’s not even true. We’ve already doubled funding for federally funded healthcare clinics. Everyone will be covered by 2014, most will be covered much sooner than that.
@22
When do previously existing conditions waiting periods become a thing of the past for kids? I’ll give you a hit, it’s much sooner than 2014.
Michael @ 21
This state used to have some very respectable Republicans, Dan Evans, of course, being one. Ralph Munro was another. Then, something happened to that party. They went nuts. I don’t really understand why Sam Reed keeps his partisan appellation. I think it is because he wants to believe that the Republican Party could still be the party of his youth. He maintains, retains, sustains the idealism of his youth. That’s not an altogether bad thing if there is any hope it might be. There is no such hope. Frankly, now, I cannot trust a word that any politician says who puts an R behind his or her name.
Evans and Munro were great and Reed would be Republican #2 that I voted for. We need more folks like them & to get rid of the crazy fuckers.
Another frivolous lawsuit on behalf of the GOP.
I don’t care what a state does….if our fucked up legislators do this then that is our states option to do so…..the federal gov has no right to mandate I buy insurance to be a citizen.
That is wrong. Government controled medical might be the best thing (contrary to all known facts and evidence), but forcing a citizen to buy a product to be a citizen isn’t. Why do you not get that?
Dengle,
Where did you hear that you’ll have to buy insurance to be “a citizen”?
One other question to you folks…that worship mother nature….why not let natural selection just take the folks that decide to not buy insurance or those that say…decided to drop out of high school and thus end up poor….just kick the bucket? That’s mother nature working….you you believe in keeping natures balance don’t you? Besides there are to many people on the Earth already….progressives created eugenics….so hell kill them all.
That was funny to type. Roger……as a lawyer…you’re like the ones at my wifes firm….smart, good lawyers and fathers/wifes, but stupid as shit when it comes to the world. Have no idea…..they don’t even know what a working class person is. I do…and it’s not because of a union boss telling me what it is.
One other question to you folks…that worship mother nature….why not let natural selection just take the folks that decide to not buy insurance or those that say…decided to drop out of high school and thus end up poor….just kick the bucket? That’s mother nature working….you believe in keeping natures balance don’t you? Besides there are to many people on the Earth already….progressives created eugenics….so hell kill them all.
That was funny to type. Roger……as a lawyer…you’re like the ones at my wifes firm….smart, good lawyers and fathers/wifes, but stupid as shit when it comes to the world. Have no idea…..they don’t even know what a working class person is. I do…and it’s not because of a union boss telling me what it is.
Last thought….Judge Schmails is a prick, but he got it right when he said, “the world needs ditch diggers too!”.
Good thing the free market allowed for the backhoe.
Dengle,
Ain’t any chance you might just go fuck yo’self, is dey? Id’yacy really ain’t no claim to be’in a betta cit’zen than those who think an’ contribute, is it?
You fucking racist.
Remember it’s the content of your character……did you not understand his message?
@28
What the fuck are you even talking about?
@28
The individual mandate that the right is all up in arms about is a creation of the right, btw.
@30
Actually, that’s Social Darwinism which is a creation of the right.
@31
I’m one of the resident Edward Abbey loving, eco-freaks and I’m the one that pointed out that there’s a religious objection opt out.
Employers aren’t going to be real happy about losing that tax credit for you to go uninsured.
Five words, people:
Richard Pope for Attorney General.
@1 “If it’s Constitutional…fine. If not’s not…do over.”
Works for me, but you and I both know a court ruling in favor of the bill won’t shut up your screeching rightwing friends. After all, SCOTUS has rejected multiple “birther” lawsuits, but the birther monkeys are still screeching.
@2 Feel free to stand in the rain with the 10 other people who agree with you, doofus.
@26 You’re forgetting that Reed stood on a stage with Rossi and made himself a party to the GOP grandstanding in the wake of Rossi’s 2004 defeat.
@28 So how long have you been violating our state’s mandatory auto insurance law?
Don’t you get it, asswipe? If you choose not to buy health insurance, and walk into an ER (or get carried into a hospital) expecting free care, you’re stealing from others.
And “stealing” is the right word here.
The government requires you to buy lots of products, stupid — schools, police and fire departments, libraries, to name a few.
@29 He may be onto something. Instead of fines, which are difficult to collect, let’s revoke their citizenship and render them to foreign countries (Haiti is good, so is Uzbekistan) if they refuse to buy health insurance.
@30 “Roger……as a lawyer…you’re like the ones at my wifes firm….smart, good lawyers and fathers/wifes, but stupid as shit when it comes to the world. Have no idea…..they don’t even know what a working class person is.”
I won’t bother to catalog all the menial jobs I’ve had — I wasn’t always a lawyer, you know. Here’s the job description for one of my menial jobs:
Walk point or flank as directed, to draw enemy fire so the guys behind you have a chance to survive.
Load cases of ammo weighing over 120 lbs. on trucks in 120-degree heat, drive over mined roads to destination, then unload same in 120-degree heat.
Shit burning detail. If you don’t know what that is, watch the movie “Platoon” again.
Kitchen detail: Get up at 0200 hours (that’s 2 a.m. for civilians), wash pots and pans inside tin shed in 120-degree heat all day, get off duty at 2400 hours (i.e., midnight for you Republicans) covered with grease and grime after all the shower water is gone, and get up at 0200 hours with 2 hours of sleep after 22 hours of kitchen duty to stand 4 hours of guard duty on the perimeter.
Dig latrine holes, fill sandbags, string barbed wire, and build bunkers as directed. I once spent 4 months doing nothing but filling sandbags 14 hours a day. Not a few people considered this good duty compared to what they were doing.
Yeah, yeah, I know nothing about the real world, just because I can’t weld or fix a diesel engine. Never mind that I worked my way through college in non-union laboring jobs in a right-to-work southern state, I don’t know anything about “real work” because I’m a lawyer. Yeah, sure …
Oh, no, not a chance. It has to get laughed out of a lot of lower courts first.
BTW, for those who haven’t read the bill, no one is being “forced by the government to buy” anything.
Buy anything you plase. Or don’t. But for each month in a tax year in which you do not hold minimal essential coverage, you will be fined an IRS penalty (on which normal interest and fees accrue if not paid.) This penalty will be levied anew in any subsequent calendar year in which you do not hold minimal essential coverage for one or more months. This way, even if you’re not joining the risk pool by obtaining insurance from the exchange, you are contributing to the mitigation of that risk by paying.
You can just pay it and forget about it, if you’re that determined to go without insurance. Or, if you are determined also not to pay your fair share, you can NOT pay it, and the IRS is not allowed by law to take you to court or place any liens on your property.
But most people don’t want IRS penalties and will obtain insurance or pay their taxes.
Oh, and because the Congress has all the Constitutional power in the world to levy taxes (Hint: it’s written in there. Really.), good luck with the frivolous lawsuit, boys.
@17….Rujax likes to break windows in churches…makes him feel superior to “those stupid christians”….
30. Dengle
Ah, the smell of ignorance mixed with mendacity, topped with a frothy float of sociopathy.
First, my friend, humans are not in a state of nature. We are not subject to natural selection in the way you are proposing.
The losers in the captalism game are not roadkill to be kicked into the ditch. Their condition is as much the result fo our policies as any other cause. Heck fire, pal, we have 10% unemployment and people are losing their homes left and right! Do you think that suddently and mysteriously a bunch of people became unfit to survive? Ridiculous!
And as Michael alluded, social Darwinism, though a favorite of the 19th century rich’s attempts to justify their often ill-gotten wealth as the due of their inherent superiority, was completely discredited a century ago.