On March 22, Virginia passed the Health Care Freedom Act, a piece of legislation that opposes President Barack Obama’s health care reform bill. And that’s in addition to suing the federal government over the bill.
On Sunday, Virginia’s Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, who himself has had a rocky start to his term, discussed, in an editorial published by the Daily Progress, why Virginia has decided to go all out against the health care bill.
“We in the attorney general’s office feel that the new federal individual mandate—the requirement that everyone be forced to buy government-approved health insurance by 2014 or face fines—is unconstitutional,” writes Cuccinelli.
Cuccinelli argues that while the federal government says it can institute a mandate on health insurance by using the Constitution’s Commerce Clause, if a citizen is not buying health insurance, he or she is not involved in commerce.
“How, then, can the government use the Commerce Clause to regulate non-commerce — i.e. regulating inactivity?” asks Cuccinelli.
Finally, Cuccinelli argues that although the outcome of the lawsuit won’t be known for a while, the gesture is important in itself for protecting citizens against too much power in Washington.
