Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Could get interesting
Wash Attorney General Rob McKenna is joining other brand-R state AGs, suing to nullify the new Infinite Monopoly For Insurance Companies Act.
Both statements are nominally true, but since the Great Exterminator wiped the 10th Amendment off the books in 1861, the first part won't matter. No section of the Constitution may be used or cited to help American citizens; the document shall only be used and cited by ACLU to help enemy soldiers and criminals. Everyone knows this.
McKenna's second sentence has more of a practical meaning: all states except Nebraska and Louisiana will now be required to spend even more money they don't have. (Yeah, yeah, we hear those exceptions were removed. Count on it. They weren't.)
Looks like McKenna is setting up to run for Gov next time around; this act of independence may help him to start his campaign. And it helps even more that Gov Gregoire has immediately promised to fight his effort.
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The real tragedy in all of this: Federalism still exists as a cultural norm, despite its long-murdered Constitutional basis. Federalism was working as it should in health care until the Infinite Monopoly Act. Wash has a partly-subsidized health care system filling the hole between Medicaid and "real" insurance. Basic Health is built on the non-profit Group Health cooperative, and works very well. (I know because I'm a member!)
Other states have been developing other systems with varying degrees of success. Canada reached its national health plan through province-level experimentation, and America was on a glide path to reach ours the same way. Now the Infinite Monopoly Act will break all the state plans, imposing a single plan for the benefit of a few high-profit insurance companies. ¶ 5:20 AM
“I believe this new federal health care measure unconstitutionally imposes new requirements on our state and on its citizens,” McKenna said in a statement released by his office Monday afternoon. “This unprecedented federal mandate, requiring all Washingtonians to purchase health insurance, violates the Commerce Clause and the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.”
The bill places “an extraordinary burden” on the state budget by expanding its Medicaid eligibility standards, McKenna said.
Both statements are nominally true, but since the Great Exterminator wiped the 10th Amendment off the books in 1861, the first part won't matter. No section of the Constitution may be used or cited to help American citizens; the document shall only be used and cited by ACLU to help enemy soldiers and criminals. Everyone knows this.
McKenna's second sentence has more of a practical meaning: all states except Nebraska and Louisiana will now be required to spend even more money they don't have. (Yeah, yeah, we hear those exceptions were removed. Count on it. They weren't.)
Looks like McKenna is setting up to run for Gov next time around; this act of independence may help him to start his campaign. And it helps even more that Gov Gregoire has immediately promised to fight his effort.
= = = = =
The real tragedy in all of this: Federalism still exists as a cultural norm, despite its long-murdered Constitutional basis. Federalism was working as it should in health care until the Infinite Monopoly Act. Wash has a partly-subsidized health care system filling the hole between Medicaid and "real" insurance. Basic Health is built on the non-profit Group Health cooperative, and works very well. (I know because I'm a member!)
Other states have been developing other systems with varying degrees of success. Canada reached its national health plan through province-level experimentation, and America was on a glide path to reach ours the same way. Now the Infinite Monopoly Act will break all the state plans, imposing a single plan for the benefit of a few high-profit insurance companies. ¶ 5:20 AM
