State AG: Washington will join suit against healthcare bill
Olympia, WA - Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna says he will join nine other states in challenging the recently passed health care bill.
In a live interview on KIRO Radio's Dori Monson show McKenna said the 10 states are still working on the draft of the complaint, and they may wait for the Senate to vote on further aspects of the bill.
McKenna called the provision in the bill to mandate individual health insurance unprecedented, and said any such mandates should be imposed by the states, and not the federal government.
"I think it violates the 10th amendment of our Constitution which reserves to the states, and people of the states, any powers not expressly granted to the federal government."
Idaho, Virginia, South Carolina, and Florida said ahead of the health care vote in the House on Sunday night that they were ready to file a federal lawsuit challenging whether the bill is constitutional.
Considering that those states tend to be much more conservative than Washington State, Dori Monson asked McKenna if it was a politically risky move to join in the complaint.
"I expect significant pushback from the state democrats," McKenna said, "But I would point out that the fact that there were only democratic attorneys general involved didn't stop (then) Attorney General Gregoire from suing the Bush Administration and the EPA over greenhouse gas emissions. They just went out and did it."
McKenna said it's up to the states to defend their rights under the United States' federal system. "If we don't do it, it's not going to happen," McKenna concluded.