Several states are joining the fight to repeal Obamacare. From the Associated Depressed:
" Twenty states and the nation's most influential small business lobby demanded Friday that a federal court in Florida hear their challenge to President Barack Obama's health care overhaul because they face imminent harm from its mandates.
The states, the National Federation of Independent Business and several individual taxpayers filed their response Friday in Pensacola federal court.
A key issue raised by their lawsuit is whether the federal government can require individuals to purchase health care insurance and fine those who don't.
"If Congress can regulate the failure to have health care insurance coverage, it can equally regulate the 'failure' to meet any other requirement it chooses to impose," Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum wrote in the response.
Though the health care mandate does not take effect until 2014, the states will suffer now from spending more resources on an expanding Medicaid enrollment and from losing sovereignty "to enact statutes or state constitutional provisions to protect their state citizens from compulsion in their healthcare choices," McCollum wrote.
Obama's health insurance requirements also would impose significant costs on small businesses, he said.
The court must hear the case to preserve individual liberties granted through the Constitution, said Karen Harned, executive director of the Small Business Legal Center of the National Federation of Independent Business.
"The federal government does not have the authority to regulate an individual's decision to do nothing. If they did, then they could force us to purchase any product they want," she said.
In a statement, Harned said the government's motion to dismiss was based on "political rhetoric and flimsy legal arguments" and was an attempt to distract the court from evaluating the case's constitutional issues.
McCollum, a Republican candidate for governor, is leading the legal challenge. Other states that have joined the lawsuit are Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Idaho, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Washington.
Virginia's attorney general separately sued the government. A federal judge denied the Justice Department's motion to have that case dismissed, saying the overhaul raises complex constitutional issues.
Missouri voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly voted in favor of a state measure to bar the government from requiring people to carry health insurance and penalizing those who don't.
The states argue the new law will require them to pay additional Medicaid costs not covered by the federal government, but that they cannot opt out of the program for low-income and disabled people because it has become too popular.
They maintain that violates the 10th Amendment, which says the states and people have powers that the constitution does not grant to the federal government nor prohibit the states from having.
"I'm really, really really perturbed right now about the intrusion of the federal government in the rights of my state," McCollum told reporters in Orlando. He said it was part of a pattern also seen in Arizona where the Justice Department has challenged a new immigration law.
Individuals who refuse to get health insurance will face a tax penalty, with exceptions for financial hardship and religious reasons."
With each passing day, more American realize that Obamacare is a bad deal. They also realize that King Hussein and the Democrat controlled congress is governing against their will. You'll see the results of that in November.
Background Reading:
Associated Press: States respond in health care overhaul lawsuit
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