The White House is pushing back at the latest court to find the health insurance reform law unconstitutional, calling a Florida judge's decision "unconventional," an "outlier," and "a scare tactic."
Judge Roger Vinson found that mandates requiring people to buy insurance were unconstitutional, and unlike a Virginia judge who found the mandates unconstitutional last month, said the whole law needs to be thrown out. The Administration is appealing the Virginia case, and the Justice Department said it would appeal this one, too.
Vinson said Congress exceeded it authority in passing the law, and argued that forcing Americans to buy health insurance logically could lead to odd things like making them eat broccoli or drink tea.
"Congress could require that people buy and consume broccoli at regular intervals, not only because the required purchases will positively impact interstate commerce, but also because people who eat healthier tend to be healthier, and are thus more productive and put less of a strain on the health care system," Vinson wrote.
White House officials seemed to think the reasoning was bizarre.
"There's something from the very beginning that is sort of peculiar about the line of constitutional analysis that he's elected to take here," a senior official said. "The analysis on the whole is, to put it charitably, unconventional," the official added, calling the decision an "outlier."
Saying the ruling was "built on rhetorical conjecture" such as the forced broccoli-eating threat, the official argued that it would "make for surpassingly curious reading" to appeals judges.
"It's really, frankly, as far as I can tell, a scare tactic," the official said. "And it's just not one I think that any lawyer of whatever ideological inclination would recognize."
Another official noted that 12 cases against the health care law have been dismissed, including two in federal court. Those judges were Democrats. The ones finding against the law were Republicans.
Republicans were gleeful over the decision.
"“The individual mandate is undemocratic, unprecedented and unconstitutional.," said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas), who did not find the tea and broccoli argument odd at all. "If we allow this abuse of authority to stand, where will it end? If Congress can require the American people to purchase health insurance, why not a car or any other product or service that Congress deems necessary?"
"ObamaCare not only poses a threat to job creation, our nation’s fiscal well-being, and quality healthcare, but simply put, the law threatens our individual liberties,” said House Republican Policy Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-Ga.).
"While courts in Virginia and Florida continue to validate our fight against an unconstitutional expansion of federal authority, Republicans will do our part to support further repeal efforts and focus on adopting patient-centered reforms," Price said.
Administration officials said the Florida ruling would have no practical impact, and would not stop states from working on implementing the health care law, which doesn't fully kick in until 2014.
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