Bill McCollum & Pam Bondi Letter to Repeal Health Care

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum and Attorney General-elect Pam Bondi sent out a letter urging other states to join in the legal battle to repeal the Affordable Care Act. I hate the health care mandate and want to see it repealed. My reasoning is it is a tax-paid giveaway to the private health insurance industry. I would prefer to see an expansion of Medicare and SCHIP. McCollum and Bondi are filing their lawsuit because they are grandstanding and are bad lawyers. The Affordable Care Act passed through both houses of Congress and was signed by the President. The process can hardly be considered undemocratic.

Essentially, Republicans are saying the federal government does not have the power to regulate commerce. The Commerce Clause in the Constitution gives the federal government the power to regulate interstate business. If McCollum and Bondi were serious legal scholars they would make the Dormant Commerce Clause argument. The legal argument for the Dormant Commerce Clause is that a federal regulation can have a negative impact on the states. Medicare and Medicaid are using private health care providers. It is obviously the millions of new customers won't have a negative impact on the health insurance industry. It will be hard to prove that a federal and private health care partnership is unconstitutional. The extent of McCollum's and Bondi's legal argument is Obamacare is bad.

Update: Sen. George Lemieux and 31 Florida Republicans filed a legal brief supporting the McCollum-Bondi lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act.

“I hope the courts recognize Congress overstepped its authority -- the authority intended by our nation’s founders -- and that this mandate will be thrown out,” LeMieux said.

Let the grandstanding begin.

McCollum_BondiLetter