A federal appeals court in Atlanta has set June 8 for oral arguments in the the federal health care lawsuitbut denied Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi‘s request for a full court hearing.
The fast-tracked lawsuit by 26 states, including Florida, and the National Federal of Independent Businesses is ultimately headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“We are pleased that the 11th Circuit scheduled oral argument this June, so we can resolve this case and protect Americans’ individual liberties,” Bondi said in a statement. “This case will ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, and a case of such national importance should have no delay.”
Pensacola U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson in January ruled the health overhaul unconstitutional, saying the U.S. Commerce Clause did not allow the federal government to require every citizen to buy insurance or pay a penalty. Doing so would give the federal government such sweeping powers that it could force its citizens to eat broccoli, he contended.
Vinson, who is based in Pensacola, declared the entire health act invalid.
Earlier this month Vinson put a stay on his ruling while the appeals proceed – meaning the health act could continue to be implemented – but gave the White House a week to appeal. President Obama’s administration filed the appeal on March 9.
Bondi filed a motion with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta seeking an en banc hearing, meaning the appellate review would be held before all 10 federal judges.
The reason for her request, Bondi said in a press release, “is to avoid any unnecessary delays that may arise if a three-judge panel decides the case and then refers it for a hearing by the full 11th Circuit.”
If the court agrees to her request, the case would be heard on June 6, according to Bondi.
“This case is so significant to all Americans that it needs to be resolved as quickly as possible,” she said in the release. “If granted, the petition would allow a faster track to the Supreme Court.”
Gov. Rick Scott’s budget plan includes a tax cut for businesses that would decrease corporate income taxes from 5.5 percent to 3 percent and roll back property taxes by $1 billion, the governor said in Tampa this afternoon.
Scott did not reveal details of how he plans to come up with the savings while also closing a $3.62 billion budget deficit but is scheduled to release his entire budget on Monday in Eustis.
Scott’s also blaming Florida’s budget woes in part on the federal health care law recently struck down by a Pensacola federal judge as unconstitutional.
Gov. Rick Scott, who’s fought against federal health care reform since its inception, said today Florida won’t begin implementation of the federal health care law ruled unconstitutional by a judge yesterday.
“We are not going to spend a lot of time and money with regard to trying to get ready to implement that until we know exactly what is going to happen,” Scott told reporters this morning. “I hope and I believe that either it will be declared unconstitutional or it will be repealed.”
U.S. District Court Judge Roger Vinson ruled yesterday that critical components of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act are unconstitutional. The Department of Justice indicated it would file an appeal and ask the judge to issue a stay on his order.
Attorney General Pam Bondi, who picked up the challenge after her predecessor Bill McCollum initiated the lawsuit, said she and the 25 other states who’ve joined Florida’s lawsuit are trying to decide whether to by-pass the appellate court and seek resolution directly from the Supreme Court, which both sides agree will ultimately rule on the law.
Scott said he is not concerned about whether a delay in implementing the law in Florida could create problems if the Supreme Court upholds it.
Scott said state officials “will have enough time” to implement the measure before the 2014 deadline.
“The state won’t be caught flat footed,” Scott said. “We’ll be ready.”
Six more states have joined Florida’s legal challenge to the federal health care law now awaiting a Pensacola federal judge’s preliminary ruling.
Iowa, Ohio, Kansas, Wyoming, Wisconsin and Maine are now among the 26 states, including Florida, challenging the constitutionality of the federal health care law. Virginia has filed a separate lawsuit and Oklahoma is considering its own as well.
Attorney General Pam Bondi filed the papers in Pensacola to add the six states to the lawsuit initiated by her predecessor Bill McCollum.
Meanwhile, the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives are debating a bill that would repeal the law. That measure is expected to go nowhere in the U.S. Senate, where Democrats still have the upper hand.
Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum is in the midst of a press conference right now announcing that the National Federation of Independent Businesses has joined his lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of President Obama’s federal health care overhaul.
McCollum amended the lawsuit today (see a copy here) to include all complainants: 20 states, the NFIB and two business owners, Mary Brown and Kaj Ahlburg.
“The outpouring of opposition to this new law was overwhelming and our members urged us to do everything in our power to stop this unconstitutional law,” said Dan Danner, NFIB president and CEO.
The suit challenges the so-called “individual mandate” in the law that requires Americans to buy health care coverage or face a fine.
McCollum said he expects a hearing in September on a yet-to-be-filed motion to dismiss from the U.S. Justice Department. McCollum said the suit would probably end up in the U.S. Supreme Court by in 2012. McCollum is running for governor this year and will not be the state’s attorney general after this year.
Attorney General Bill McCollum’s lawsuit against Democrat-controlled Congress and President Barack Obama’s administration has sparked a political feud not only in the nation’s Capitol but in the state’s as well.
Senate Democratic Leader Al Lawson took offense at Senate President Jeff Atwater’s congratulatory press release lauding McCollum’s legal disparaging of the president’s health care reform.
The president’s office issued an unusually partisan release entitled “Florida Senate Leaders Support AG McCollum’s Legal Challenge to Unprecedented and Unconstitutional Government Health Care Scheme.”
The GOP leaders are “like little boys who are playing marbles and the ones who lost went home,” Lawson, D-Tallahassee said.
If you count Florida’s Bill McCollum (and we always do), three of the 12 Republican attorneys general who say they’re suing over the Democratic health care reform bill are also running for governor of their respective state next year (Michigan’s Mike Cox and South Carolina’s Henry McMaster are the others).
Of the remaining nine, five are seeking re-election in 2010 and four don’t have to run again for two more years.
McCollum, whose gubernatorial platform to lower health care costs is to limit lawsuits, said his lawsuit is not political. Perhaps he should remind his campaign, which has sent seven press releases about health care reform in the past seven days.
In Florida, that means free publicity for Suzanne Kosmas of New Smyrna Beach and Allen Boyd of Monticello, both
facing tough re-election campaigns this year. The two changed positions after citing a government report showing the plan would cut the deficit by $1.2 trillion over 10 years.
Republican Marco Rubio‘s U.S. Senate campaign posted this video on Monday in response to Gov. Charlie Crist, his primary rival, telling The Post editorial board that he wouldn’t completely scrap President Obama’s health care reform. Crist, however, also refused to identify any parts of the reform that he would keep.
Saturday, February 27th, 2010 by Michael C. Bender
Gov. Charlie Crist, a Republican U.S. Senate candidate, told The Palm Beach Post editorial board on Friday that, unlike many Republicans in Washington, he didn’t think President Obama should scrap his health care reform proposal:
“There may be parts of it that you don’t have to scrap. There are three parts of it that I would like to see scrapped: It would raise taxes significantly, it would raise rates significantly and it would take half-a-trillion dollars out of Medicare.
“I think the real issue here, as it relates to health care, is that people want it to not cost so much and people want to have access to it. I think there is a consensus of agreement that the health care that is delivered in America is good. But it’s not easy to get it and it’s too expensive when you do get it.”
Asked if there were any parts of the bill he liked, Crist said:
“I don’t think a whole lot. Watching the discussion yesterday (Thursday) you get a chance to sort of see more of it be ferreted out. You know, I’m the kind of guy … I’m pragmatic. The stimulus is a great example. We needed the money. Every other Republican governor took it, too. I was just maybe a little more honest and straight forward about it. Well, shame on me for being honest. But, you know, as it relates to health care, if there are good ideas, I’m willing to look at them. And I would take that same approach to any issue in Washington.”
Asked again if there were any parts he liked he said:
“Not at present. No.”
Not one good idea?
“There may be. There may be. You know, I’m pretty focused on Florida right now. I mean, after the session I’ll be more focused on the issues in Washington. But I’ve got to do my first job first.”
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson criticized President Obama on Thursday for being too “aloof” and not fighting hard enough to pass health care legislation before offering his own prescription.
“It’s my hope that the President is going to get engaged,” Nelson, D-Fla., said Thursday. “He’s been aloof. If we’re going to pass health care he’s got to get in there with a bull whip and brass knuckles.”
Nelson was in West Palm Beach to speak at a luncheon hosted by the Forum Club of the Palm Beaches at the Kravis Center. In comments before and during the lunch, he railed against the “excessive partisanship” and “ideological rigidity” that was jamming up Congress and frustrating voters.
Taking questions from the audience, Nelson offered his own solution. He conceded that the so-called public option would not get the necessary 60 votes in the Senate. Instead, he endorsed creating a “nationwide insurance plan,” as outlined in the Senate version of a health care bill to offer coverage to those who aren’t already covered by their employer. The program, he said, would be similar to the plan now offered to federal employees and would be overseen by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. The plan would compete against private insurers, offering coverage through a state insurance marketplace
Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 by Michael C. Bender
From Democrat Alex Sink‘s gubernatorial campaign manager Paul Dunn:
“Every single Floridian should be deeply troubled about Bill McCollum’s effort to have health care declared unconstitutional because, by McCollum’s logic, programs like Medicare and Social Security could also wind up being labeled unconstitutional. And with Bill McCollum’s track record during his 20 years in Congress, where he voted over 20 times to cut or reduce funding of Medicare by billions of dollars, that may well be McCollum’s objective here.”
On Tuesday, McCollum campaign manager Matt Williams labeled his boss “courageous” for threatening to sue the federal government over a proposal to require Americans buy health insurance and criticized Sink forwhat he said was a “continued refusal to weigh in on critical issues like federal health care reform.”
Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 by Michael C. Bender
UPDATE:McCollum’s chief of staff Joe Jacquot called to say the estimate of 200 hours put in on the legal analysis was off. He did not give a new number, but said it was largely the work of two attorneys in the office along with McCollum.
Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum on Tuesday threatened to sue the federal government if Congress approved a proposal requiring Americans to buy health insurance.
“We’ll be ready if the time comes,” McCollum said. “We would want to file suit very quickly if we could.”
McCollum, a Republican candidate for governor, denied the announcement was a political ploy. But hours after the press conference, his campaign released a statement citing the proposed lawsuit and criticizing the likely Democratic gubernatorial nominee.
“As Florida’s next governor, Bill McCollum isn’t afraid to take a stand on behalf of Floridians,” McCollum campaign manager Matt Williams said.
McCollum acknowledged problems with the health-care system, but told reporters earlier in the day that he had no proposed solutions. McCollum said he recently assembled a health care advisory board for his campaign.
“During the course of the campaign I may well lay out something, I may not. I don’t know yet,” said McCollum, a former chairman of the Healthy Florida Foundation.
Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum said today a proposed mandate to require Americans buy healthcare coverage was unconstitutional and would sue if the bill passes.
McCollum, a Republican candidate for governor, said his office put in about 200 hours to determine the proposal was unconstitutional.
“We want to be ready if the time comes,” McCollum said.
The letter was sent today to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate President Harry Reid:
We believe this provision is constitutionally flawed. As chief legal officers of our states we are contemplating a legal challenge to this provision and we ask you to take action to render this challenge unnecessary by striking that provision.
UPDATE:Quick response on Twitter from state Sen. Dan Gelber, a Democratic candidate for attorney general: “I wish McCollum was as concerned about solving Florida’s health care crisis as he was about stopping the solving of the health care crisis.”
From Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum says he will review the federal health care bill because he has “grave concerns” about whether it violates the federal and state constitution.
“The mandate is especially troubling to Floridians who are guaranteed through the Florida Constitution to have ‘the right to be let alone and free from governmental intrusion into [their] private life,” McCollum wrote in a statement today.
McCollum specifically refers to a provision that would require Americans to obtain health insurance or pay a fine.
“Such a ‘living tax’ is worrisome because it would be levied on a person who does nothing, a person who simply wishes not to be forced to buy health insurance coverage. Upon initial review, this appears to be contrary to the freedoms we, as Americans, have enjoyed for the past 233 years,” McCollum said.
McCollum, the leading Republican candidate for governor next year, has also written a letter to other state attorneys general asking them to review the bill in regards to the Commerce Clause and taxing power in the U.S. Constitution.
McCollum is also joining several attorneys general who are evaluating the constitutionality of a U.S. Senate bill provision that provides 100 percent federal Medicaid funding to only one state, Nebraska.
Former U.S. Representative Mark Foley works the crowd Thursday before a health care town hall meeting. (Brandon Kruse/The Palm Beach Post)
Former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley was scheduled to tape the first broadcast of a new radio show he’s launching from Palm Beach County. “Inside the Mind of Mark Foley” was billed by the station as a program that “will expose the inner workings of Washington D.C.” It will air for the first time on Sept. 22 at 6 p.m. on WSVU 960 AM.
“During these incredibly changing times, it’s important that we hear the voice of a true Washington D.C. insider,” WSVU GM Chet Tart said in a press release.
WSVU, owned by North Palm Beach Broadcasting, can be heard from Boca Raton to Port St. Lucie. It includes several CBS programs, including “Imus in the Morning.” It also broadcasts Boston Red Sox and Dallas Cowboys games.
The press release from the station mentions that Foley is a former member of the House Ways & Means Committee, but fails to mention his embarrassing exit from the House which was sparked by inappropriate e-mails sent to underage congressional pages.
Foley was recently spotted at U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings’ town hall meeting and has maintained a Facebook page filled with political observations, according to Page2live.com.
President Obama’s grassroots group, Organizing for America, announced today it will bring its “Health Insurance Reform Now” bus tour to Florida.
The bus has made 10 stops between Pheonix and Raliegh since Aug. 26 and claims to have made contact with more than 12,000 supporters.
The bus is scheduled to stop Wednesday in Atlanta before Obama’s address to a joint session of Congress. Following the event, the bus will stop in Tallahassee, Orlando and Tampa during the next couple weeks.
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