The Affordable Care Act has been branded as unconstitutional by many Republicans, but Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) ratcheted up the condemnation on Tuesday. Implementation of the 2010 health care law, Perry said, actually amounts to a “criminal act.”
“If this health care law is forced upon this country, the young men and women in this audience are the ones who are really going to pay the price,” Perry said at a rally in Hasbrouch Heights, N.J. for Republican Senate hopeful Steve Lonegan, as quoted by the Star-Ledger. “And that, I will suggest to you, reaches to the point of being a felony toward them and their future. That is a criminal act, from my perspective, to put that type of burden on them, to mortgage their future like that. America cannot stand that. America cannot accept that.”
Perry outlined rules last month for organizations in place to help individuals sign up for coverage under the Affordable Care Act, a move that will likely make it more difficult for Texans to enroll in the exchanges that went live on Tuesday.
