Just another reason to be glad we got that Democratic sweep:
Days after House Republicans voted to repeal last year’s health care reforms, California Attorney General Kamala Harris kept a campaign pledge Friday by joining with other state attorneys general to file a brief in the Affordable Care Act’s defense.
Harris and the Democratic attorneys general of Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Maryland, New York, Oregon and Vermont planned to file their friend-of-the-court brief with the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in the case brought by Thomas More Law Center. The lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of the law’s mandate that most people maintain a minimum level of health insurance coverage or else pay a tax penalty.
Harris — a Democrat who defeated Republican rival Steve Cooley by less than 1 percent of the vote in last November’s election — said during a conference call Friday with Oregon Attorney General John Kroger and Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller that the spirit and intent of the Constitution and its Commerce Clause indicate such a mandate is a crucial and permissible exercise of Congress’ power. (San Jose Mercury News)
During the campaign (on which I worked), Kamala Harris strongly and repeatedly voiced her support for health care reform. And, hey, look at that, she’s following up on what she said.
This isn’t about expanding Medicaid or defending any of the good things in HCR, this is about the RomneyCare Mandate. It should be unconstitutional for the government to force people to pay tribute to private corporations. It is philosophically bankrupt to have a RomneyCare Mandate without a public option.
Calitics and progressive across the state fought against a RomneyCare Mandate when Ahnold tried to bring it here. Obama mocked it during the campaign, it was the main reason he was better on HCR than Clinton.
It is not simply not progressive to defend the RomneyCare Mandate. Hopefully the RomneyCare Mandate will be ruled unconstitutional.