Even though Governor Christine Gregoire is threatening him, Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna is among the 13 Attorneys General who filed a law suit against HHS Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, Treasury Secretary, Tim Geitner, and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, over ObamaCare. Here are the key points from the brief
filed in concert (see copy here) with frequent Victoria Taft Show guest, David Rivkin, and his law partner, Lee Casey:
2. The Act represents an unprecedented encroachment on the liberty of individuals living in the Plaintiffs’ respective states, by mandating that all citizens and legal residents of the United States have qualifying healthcare coverage or pay a tax penalty. The Constitution nowhere authorizes the United States to mandate, either directly or under threat of penalty, that all citizens and legal residents have qualifying healthcare coverage. By imposing such a mandate, the Act exceeds the powers of the United States under Article I of the Constitution and violates the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution.
3. In addition, the tax penalty required under the Act, which must be paid by uninsured citizens and residents, constitutes an unlawful capitation or direct tax, in violation of Article I, sections 2 and 9 of the Constitution of the United States.
4. The Act also represents an unprecedented encroachment on the sovereignty of the states.
They also go after the direct taxes levied on the people:
Said tax penalty applies without regard to property, profession, or any other circumstance, and is unrelated to any taxable event or activity. It is to be levied upon persons for their failure or refusal to do anything other than to exist and reside in the United States.
We also find out who will not be forced to buy ObamaCare:
Exemptions to the tax penalty only apply for individuals with certain religious objections, American Indians, those persons without coverage for less than three months, undocumented immigrants, incarcerated individuals, or some individuals with financial hardships.
The AG’s argue that if the state wants to pull out of ObamaCare the feds will penalize them by raising the number of people they have to cover under Medicaid. In other words, states seeing the bankruptcy writing on the wall and want to pull out will be required to spend EVEN MORE than they would being under ObamaCare. Gee, I wonder what they’ll do?
Further, they argue, because of the low threshold for qualifying for ObamaCare (133% of poverty rate), millions of people will be thrown off their current employment based insurance and be thrown ON ObamaCare, leaving the states holding the bag. This is insane.
Are they TRYING to crash the system?
