As he cheered for his fellow Washington Democrats to ram ObamaCare into law, former DNC Chairman Tim Kaine showed his strong support for President Barack Obama’s onerous individual mandate.
Last year, when a federal court in Virginia ruled the mandate unconstitutional, Kaine “argued that the law does not violate the federal government’s authority to regulate interstate commerce because health decisions have real world consequences” – indicating that he apparently only respects the U.S. Constitution when the matter in question is devoid of “real world consequences.”
But today, a federal appeals court issued the latest in a series of rulings against Kaine and Obama’s individual mandate. As The Hill newspaper reports:
A federal appeals court ruled Friday that the individual coverage mandate in healthcare reform is unconstitutional… The ruling from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals comes in the highest-profile challenge to the new law’s requirement that most people buy insurance. The suit was filed by 26 states.
“Despite his continued attempts to defend ObamaCare, yet another federal court confirmed today that Tim Kaine’s individual mandate is unconstitutional,” said National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) spokesman Chris Bond. “Once again, Kaine’s liberal agenda in Washington puts him at odds with Virginians, and with the law.”
Background Information:
Kaine Said The Mandate Will Ensure That People Will Not Have To Pay A Thousand Dollars A Year Of Their Premiums To Cover The Uninsured. MR. RATIGAN: “. . . But actually, I have a bigger question, which is, as this bill rolls out a mandate to buy insurance, and is mathematically rational because everybody will ultimately need insurance, just like car insurance; at the same time, unlike car insurance, the amount of choices and actual competition in the American sense of the word is deprived of people who the government is telling them they have to buy health insurance. And that can be a bitter pill to swallow when I get a law that says, ‘You got to go buy this Dylan.’ But we’ve got a monopoly on the other side of the table, and, yes, they have to cover pre-existing, but maybe the price of it is so outrageous and there’s no competition that I actually can’t do it. How do you get through all that?” MR. KAINE: “Well, there are provisions in the bill — for example, the creation of the exchanges. And the goal of the exchanges is to expand people’s options. You do see some separate things moving on some insurance reforms. The House has passed a bill to eliminate the antitrust exemption, which currently covers the insurance industry. And that bill will be over in the Senate, and I suspect there’s going to be additional discussion about that. But you’re right. This is a step forward where the only way to provide this level of coverage and to make sure that, you know, people who hold policies aren’t paying a thousand dollars a year of their premiums to cover uninsured people, you know, is to have more universally available coverage with mandates. The good news is that the bill includes sizable tax cuts for individuals and businesses to purchase that coverage, and purchase it at an affordable level.” (MSNBC’s “The Dylan Ratigan Show,” 3/16/10)
Kaine And Other Democrats Argued The Health Care Law “Does Not Violate The Federal Government’s Authority To Regulate Interstate Commerce Because Health Decisions Have Real World Consequences.” “U.S. District Court Judge Henry E. Hudson ruled Monday that the health care reform bill’s requirement that people buy insurance is unconstitutional, handing a partial win to Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. . . . Democrats, including former Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, now chair of the Democratic National Committee, have argued that the law does not violate the federal government’s authority to regulate interstate commerce because health decisions have real world consequences.” (Kimball Payne, “Insurance Mandate Illegal, Judge Rules,” [Newport News, VA] Daily Press, 12/14/10)
