Tort Reform

Standard

Is this the GOP’s idea of Tort Reform?

State Attorney General Tom Corbett and Republican colleagues from across the country vowed yesterday to challenge the health-care reform legislation approved by the U.S. House in a narrow vote Sunday night.

Corbett, a candidate for governor this year, has a strong political motivation to attack the Democratic legislation in advance of the May 18 primary election.

But the original basis for his threat, first made in December, has evaporated.

In a statement issued yesterday, Corbett said he will file a lawsuit “to protect the citizens of Pennsylvania,” whose rights, he said, “will be violated” by the law. He added that he believes courts will find the law “unconstitutional.”

Later, Corbett spokesman Kevin Harley could not say what part of the legislation violates the Constitution, adding that “specific claims” for the suit are still being developed by his boss and attorneys general from at least 10 other states.

Corbett and 12 other Republican attorneys general threatened to sue in late December, after the Senate passed a version of the legislation that promised $100 million in Medicaid assistance for Nebraska.

In their Dec. 30 letter to congressional leaders, the attorneys general cited that issue as the basis for their lawsuit.

But the Senate is expected to ratify the House legislation this week, and it doesn’t include the Nebraska promise.

That has the attorneys general shifting tactics.

Five of them – from Virginia, Nebraska, Michigan, Texas and Utah – issued statements yesterday complaining that the legislation infringes on the rights of citizens by requiring them to purchase health insurance.

via Corbett & Co. to sue to block health-care law | Philadelphia Daily News | 03/23/2010.

Corbett thinks citizens of a state need protecting from President Obama’s centrist health care reform bill after candidate Obama won 55% to 44%, while touting health care reform with a public option. Sheesh.