Obama Citizenship

13 State AGs Categorically Reject ?Nebraska Compromise;? To Litigate if Not Removed

By Phil

As I had referenced in a previous posting, lots of State-level resistance is brewing against the congressional healthcare plan, HR3590. Now AmericanGrandJury.org has posted an article summarizing that Alabama Attorney General Troy King has gone on the offensive regarding the “Nebraska Compromise.”

What is the premise of the compromise? According to one of Mr. King’s pressers:

The “Nebraska Compromise,” as it is being called, would ostensibly require the remaining 49 States to recoup the loss of Nebraska’s Medicaid payments, and was added to the Senate bill in return for the vote of Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson (D). With the addition of Senator Nelson’s vote, the Senate’s Health Care Bill was able to move forward with the required 60 votes.

The same press release contains the following no-holds-barred language describing the Attorney General’s sentiment regarding such federal bills:

“This is no sweetheart deal, it is backroom deal of the worst kind. Alabama, whose citizens overwhelmingly oppose the current healthcare plan, should not be asked to subsidize vote buying by the Senate leadership,” remarked Attorney General King. “If a bill is so deficient that it lacks sufficient support to even reach a vote; it should either be re-written or die. It should not be kept alive by buying the vote of one State’s Senator at the expense of the taxpayers in 49 other States. Perhaps worst of all, the Senate’s brazen action?which was taken in the name of providing healthcare to all?could actually result in denying healthcare to the poorest and neediest across the nation.”

The above was the result of a conference call on Tuesday, December 22, 2009, during which 10 State Attorneys General discussed potential legal challenges:

“No one questions that the Nebraska Compromise is patently absurd. The question is whether it is also unconstitutional,” stated Attorney General King. “We are evaluating whether it is, and, if it is, what our oaths require us to do to defend the Constitution. If the Senate refuses to contemplate these serious constitutional questions and concerns, then we will.”

These State-level discussions had not gone unnoticed by the Nebraskan Senator. In fact, Mr. King reported in another presser — also indicating that the total number of Attorneys General had increased to 13 — that the Senator offered to include all other 49 States in the same “compromise,” a move that would undoubtedly not only raise the cost of the bill by billions of dollars, but was subsequently and unequivocally rejected by South Carolina’s Attorney General Henry McMaster.

My readers will recall in my posting showing 3 main ways that the healthcare bill is unconstitutional that Senators Jim DeMint and Lindsey Graham (both SC GOP) had originally contacted Mr. McMaster about its potential unconstitutionality. In response, here is what the South Carolina AG posted online:

Healthcare

According to Mr. King, not only did Mr. McMaster say “no” to Sen. Nelson, but essentially retorted with a “hell no:”

“Thursday night, Senator Nelson called South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster and offered to give all states their own version of the Nebraska Compromise in return for our attorneys general group calling off the dogs,” said King. “Attorney General McMaster’s response was exactly correct ? we reject Senator Nelson’s offer.” Attorney General King said that, “this issue has never been about healthcare reform legislation; rather, it is about upholding the Constitution. I cannot stop the United States Senate from making shady deals and passing bad legislation, but I can object to a violation of the Constitution and take actions as attorney general to stop it.”

The following is the formal letter and statement from Mr. King’s office to Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid stating the judicial basis for the Attorneys General premise, a request that the compromise language be removed (along with a mild threat of litigation if it is not), and an assurance that the communications does not suggest that this issue is the only potentially unconstitutional provision of the healthcare bill:

King Healthcare

To the 13 State Attorneys General, excellent job thus far in your respective roles of upholding potential enforcement of the Constitution. Hopefully events will not require litigation to be settled, but in the event that they move in that direction, it is especially comforting to know that we, the People (as represented by State-level officials such as yourselves), will not go quietly by the wayside.

-Phil

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Photo courtesy FamilyProtection.Alabama.gov

Full post as published by The Right Side of Life on January 07, 2010 (boomark / email).