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Nine GOP Senators Opt Out Of Brief Calling Health Care Reform Unconstitutional
WASHINGTON -- When Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) filed a brief backing a court case challenging the constitutionality of health care reform, it was hailed as an important gesture of united GOP opposition to the president's signature domestic achievement. Notably absent from the list of signatories, however, were the names of nine of McConnell's Republican colleagues.
The Kentucky Republican filed the brief last week in federal court in Florida, arguing that the individual mandate portion of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is unconstitutional because it gives Congress too much power to regulate citizens' activities. Thirty-one fellow Senate GOPers joined him. The rest did not.
Explanations for the abstainers range from the obvious to the speculative. Among the list are three members who will not be in the body next year. Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) is retiring and has shown little willingness to get too political in his final weeks and months. The same could be said of Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), though when asked why he hasn't joined the rest of his GOP colleagues, the New Hampshire Republican's office was comically mute.
That bill, the Healthy Americans Act, was co-sponsored by two other Republican senators who have, to date, declined to participate in the suit challenging the Affordable Care Act's constitutionality: Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). Neither Alexander nor Graham's office returned a request for comment.
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The Viking wrote: LJ, can you name me any other Federal piece of legistlation in history that forces Americans to buy a service whether they want it or not?
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The Viking wrote: LJ, can you name me any other Federal piece of legistlation in history that forces Americans to buy a service whether they want it or not?
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LadyJazzer wrote: And: (42 U.S.C.A. §§ 1395 et seq.).
Medicare
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Teddy wrote:
LadyJazzer wrote: And: (42 U.S.C.A. §§ 1395 et seq.).
Medicare
Neither of those require Americans to purchase anything from private party. And you can opt out simply by not earning money in the US. And there is no provision for sanctions or jail time for opting out.
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