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Obamacare, Unconstitutional |
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News Article |
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...Of The People, By The People, For The People... |
The Montana Shrugged Group |
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April 2010 |
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HELENA — Tea Party and Republican activists rallied here Wednesday against the new federal health reform law, demanding that Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock join a lawsuit to overturn it. But Bullock, who met with several Tea Party members and organizers after the rally, reiterated his stance that he won’t become one of the attorney generals suing to invalidate the law. “He explained to them that he reviewed the legislation, the litigation and case law and came to the conclusion that it’s without legal merit,” said Kevin O’Brien, a spokesman for Bullock. “Because of that, he’s not going to use taxpayer resources to pursue it.” Bullock, a Democrat, announced two weeks ago that he won’t join a lawsuit filed March 23 by attorneys general in 13 states. The suit says the law is unconstitutional because it requires all citizens to have health insurance, starting in 2014. All but one of the attorneys general challenging the law is a Republican. GOP members of Congress voted en masse against the federal health-reform bills that passed Congress last month. At Wednesday’s rally, about 75 people gathered outside Bullock’s office at the state Justice Department, criticizing the health-reform bill and urging him to join the lawsuit. The Big Sky Tea Party Association helped organize the rally and Montana Republican Party Executive Director Bowen Greenwood issued a media advisory publicizing the event. The “Tea” in Tea Party stands for “taxed enough already,” and its supporters usually speak out against what they see as excessive government spending and involvement. Clarence Getz, a retired fish and game employee from Helena, came to the rally with a sign that said “Bullock do the right thing for our country.” He said he opposes the health-reform bill because nothing in the Constitution allows the federal government to be involved in health care. “The federal government is way out of bounds,” Getz said. “Socialism is not an American value and never has been, and I certainly hope it doesn’t become one.” Vincent Vaccaro of Townsend, who carried a sign that asked “Did you know that 15,000+ new IRS agents will enforce Obamacare?” said America will become a “militant state” if people don’t stand up and say “no” with their votes. Vacarro, a former emergency room nurse, said the health reforms passed by Congress will further complicate an already bureaucracy-laden health system. Vacarro said a better solution would be to take all of the government-funded health programs — Medicare, Medicaid, the Veterans Administration health system, Indian Health Service, Children’s Health Insurance Plan — and lump them into one, single-payer system, and then have everyone else in the private insurance market. “The only thing Obamacare is doing is setting up more bureaucracy,” he said. “It’s just another level of expense.” A few Republican state legislators from the Helena area attended the rally, as did Tim Fox, the Republican attorney general candidate defeated by Bullock in the 2008 election. Jim Walker, a Tea Party organizer from Clancy, urged rally attendees to continue to put the pressure on elected officials about the health-reform law and other government encroachment: “We know for every person standing out here there are hundreds more that are like-minded.”
For original article please visit this link: http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/article_18e01e62-429f-11df-a1f2-001cc4c002e0.html |