Small Biz Lobby Suits Up Against Health Care

A national small-business lobbying group has tossed in with 20 states in their legal challenge to the Obama administration’s health care reform law. The mostly Republican push claims the health care overhaul violates states’ rights guaranteed in the Constitution. —JCL

Reuters:

The joint lawsuit led by Florida and now grouping 20 states was filed on March 23 by mostly Republican attorneys general.

It claims the sweeping reform of the $2.5 trillion U.S. healthcare system, pushed through by Democrats in the U.S. Congress after months of bitter partisan wrangling, violates state government rights in the U.S. Constitution and will force massive new spending on hard-pressed state governments.

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, who is seeking the Republican nomination to run for Florida governor, told a news conference in Tampa an amended version of the lawsuit was filed on Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida.

In addition to seven states not named in the original complaint, McCollum said plaintiffs in the lawsuit now included the National Federation of Independent Business.

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Flickr / LakelandChamber

Florida’s Attorney General Bill McCollum is one of the leaders of the effort to overturn health care reform.