chloe
12-29-2009, 08:40 PM
SALT LAKE CITY -- Utah's attorney general is preparing to joins a lawsuit that challenges the Senate's massive health care reform bill (http://www.ksl.com/?nid=153&sid=6910039). Utah is one of 10 conservative states prepared to challenge the health care bill. The reasoning behind the suit goes way beyond the cost of the legislation. The attorneys general, including Utah's Mark Shurtleff, say there are constitutional questions. Even more, they say the so-called Nebraska compromise part of the deal smells of corruption.
There weren't enough votes to get the bill to the floor of the Senate, so the president cut a deal with Ben Nelson, the senator from Nebraska," says Utah Chief Deputy Attorney General John Swallow.
The deal with Nelson was made in exchange for a "yes" vote on the bill. The estimated cost: $100 million.
It's just one aspect of the Senate's health care reform bill that has motivated 10 states to start researching legal action.
The states are researching a constitutional challenge of whether requiring every American to buy something -- in this case health insurance -- is legal. They also have constitutional questions about mandating state legislatures to enact portions of the bill.
"That's unprecedented. State legislatures can't be mandated by the federal government to do anything," Swallow says. For health care advocates, those specific questions are not an issue. The federal government already requires auto insurance, says Judi Hilman, with the Utah Health Policy Project.
"The federal government already has all kinds of regulation going on around Medicare and Medicaid, and we don't blink an eye," Hilman says. "So why should this be any different?"
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=9172210
There weren't enough votes to get the bill to the floor of the Senate, so the president cut a deal with Ben Nelson, the senator from Nebraska," says Utah Chief Deputy Attorney General John Swallow.
The deal with Nelson was made in exchange for a "yes" vote on the bill. The estimated cost: $100 million.
It's just one aspect of the Senate's health care reform bill that has motivated 10 states to start researching legal action.
The states are researching a constitutional challenge of whether requiring every American to buy something -- in this case health insurance -- is legal. They also have constitutional questions about mandating state legislatures to enact portions of the bill.
"That's unprecedented. State legislatures can't be mandated by the federal government to do anything," Swallow says. For health care advocates, those specific questions are not an issue. The federal government already requires auto insurance, says Judi Hilman, with the Utah Health Policy Project.
"The federal government already has all kinds of regulation going on around Medicare and Medicaid, and we don't blink an eye," Hilman says. "So why should this be any different?"
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=9172210