Colorado Attorney General John Suthers has joined a frivolous political complaint seeking to find health care reform unconstitutional which was joined by on our behalf.
The complaint argues in legal reasoning worth of tax protestors and conspiracy theorists that the 10th Amendment deprives Congress of the power to impose a modest tax on businesses and individuals that fail to obtain health insurance, and that the regulation of health insurance does not fall within the Congressional interstate commerce power. It also argues that it is impermissible to condition government spending on compliance with federal funding conditions.
Those who thought that Attorney General John Suthers was a career law enforcement officer, and not craven political tool who doesn't exercise reasonable professional legal judgment, should think again.
Alas, it isn't clear that the Democrats will mount any meaningful challenge to him this time around, so he will probably be re-elected anyway. Apparently a Democrat is seeking a nomination in the campaign, but has done nothing meaningful to seek the office.
"Pointless" would be a more accurate description.
ReplyDeleteEven if these lawsuits get anywhere, then all Congress has to do is raise everyone's taxes by $750 and then grant a $750 tax credit to everyone who buys health insurance.
I keep telling my Tenth Amendment cohorts that the Sixteenth Amendment, having been enacted later, trumps the Tenth, but they don't listen.
There is a point, which is to politically attack Democrats for a policy decision that Republicans disagree with in a way that appropriates the heft of the office of attorney general for political purposes to lend credibility in the court of public opinion to a meritless legal theory and thus muddy the waters and stir up outrage with the Republican political base.
ReplyDeleteWhat makes it objectionable is not that it is pointless, but that the reason for it, even if rational from the AG perspective as political actors, is illegitimate.