The attorney general in Montana won’t be suing the federal government over health care reform, charging that GOP requests to do so are just political theater. The Republicans say he’s the one playing politics.
As the state lawsuits — driven in every case but one by Republican officials — over the new health care reform law pop up across the country, GOPers want in on the action. After being asked to join the suit, Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock (D) penned a letter to House Minority Leader Rep. Scott Sales (R) and state Sen. Robert Story (R) saying no way.
Bullock, elected in November 2008 along with President Obama, said there is “no credible constitutional claim” to the lawsuits, which seem driven by politics. “The lawsuit also presents serious standing and ripeness issues, given that it appears to be filed based more on the timing of the November 2010 elections than the date in 2014 when individuals and states might first be subject to the act’s requirements,” Bullock wrote in the letter, which you can read here.
“Montana’s decision not to join these lawsuits leaves these critical questions of national policy in the hands of “We the people and our elected representatives, where these decisions belong,” he added.
Sales told me in an interview this morning he does believe the Republicans are poised to make major gains in the fall legislative elections, even though he is term limited and will be leaving state office. He was speaker of the House with a 51-50 majority, but when the legislature split 50-50 in 2009, the control went to the party which holds the governorship.
Sales thinks the bill is unconstitutional and will put “a huge burden” on states due to Medicare expansion and disagreed with Bullock’s claim. “He accuses us of playing politics – that seems seems a little political to me,” Sales said.
