Two of the nation’s most prominent attorneys general sparred Thursday over federal health care reform in a precursor to next month’s U.S. Supreme Court battle on President Obama’s signature legislative achievement.
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, a staunch critic of the Affordable Care Act, and his Massachusetts counterpart Martha Coakley, whose state’s health care law served as a model for the federal law, offered vastly different visions for how the high court will ultimately decide the case in June during a forum at the National Press Club.
Cuccinelli, a Tea Party darling, predictably opined the Supreme Court would ultimately rule in favor of the 26 states that sued the federal government over the law. Under Cuccinelli, Virginia launched the first legal challenge to the law just hours after it was signed by Obama.
“The federal health care bill necessitates the dramatic destruction of liberty in this country,” Cuccinelli said.
The states' lawsuit is focused largely on the individual mandate that requires every American to buy health insurance or face a penalty and the question of whether the federal government can require such purchases. Coakley, a Democrat, said the mandate worked well in her state, even as Republican presidential contender and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is under fire within his own party over those health care reforms.
Cuccinelli contends the government is wrongfully requiring someone to purchase an item against the individual's will. Coakley, who filed an amicus brief supporting the Obama administration, said the commerce clause of the Constitution allows the federal government to regulate interstate commerce and, therefore, health care.
“Everybody is in the health care marketplace,” Coakley said. “Everybody uses some kind of health care or will and if you use health care, you can be regulated.”
The two found little common ground, but if there’s anything Cuccinelli and Coakley can agree on its that Romney’s attempts to distance himself from the Massachusetts reforms he supported as governor are disingenuous. Coakley repeatedly roped Romney into the conversation and insisted he was an adamant supporter of the state’s health care law in the past.
Cuccinelli has often expressed his own skepticism over Romney’s position on the Massachusetts’ law and his waffling arguments on how it differs from Obama’s reforms.
The hour-long session offered a peek at what could come next month when the Supreme Court hears five and a half hours of arguments over three days.
