March 23, 2010 12:40 AM UTC

Suthers Joins GOP Health Care Legal Challenge

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• by: Colorado Pols

Just up at The Spot:

Colorado Attorney General John Suthers said today he would join at least a dozen other state attorneys general in challenging the health care reform bill passed by Congress Sunday.

“The United State Constitution enshrines a form of limited government to protect the rights of the states under a system of federalism and to protect the individual freedom of American citizens,” Suthers said in a statement.

” The individual mandate to purchase insurance or suffer economic sanction violates constitutional principles and lacks constitutional authority,” Suthers said. “The Constitution gives Congress the enumerated powers to regulate those engaged in interstate commerce.

“It does not give the Congress the power to compel a citizen, who would otherwise choose to be inactive in the marketplace, to purchase a product or service and thereby become subject to congressional regulation. Such an expansion of the current understanding of the Commerce Clause would leave no private sphere of individual commercial decision making beyond the reach of the federal government. It would render the 10th Amendment meaningless.”

UPDATE: Statements from Gov. Bill Ritter and others after the jump.

GOV. RITTER CRITICIZES ATTORNEY GENERAL’S BID TO BLOCK REFORM

Gov. Bill Ritter today criticized Attorney General John Suthers’ decision to join a lawsuit that seeks to block national healthcare reform, saying that Suthers’ action is not the right thing to do for Colorado.

“Our focus the past few years has been to control healthcare costs, improve quality and increase access to care and coverage. We are making tremendous strides, but we can’t do it alone,” Gov. Ritter said. “Colorado and all states need national reform to ensure that people with pre-existing illnesses do not lose coverage or are denied coverage. We need national reform to help drive down costs, and we need national reform to stop annual double-digit insurance premium increases that are devastating small businesses and families alike.

“I am confident the reforms poised to become law in Washington will complement and support Colorado’s efforts, that they are within Congress’s power to regulate commerce, and that they are constitutionally sound.”

An estimated 750,000 to 770,000 Coloradans lack health insurance. Over the past three years, Gov. Ritter’s administration has enacted the Colorado Healthcare Affordability Act and other initiatives that will provide coverage to 200,000 uninsured Coloradans.

Pending national reforms would provide coverage to an additional 300,000 uninsured Coloradans.

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Progressives Denounce Suthers’ Cheap Political Tricks

Colorado Attorney General Abuses Position for Partisanship Once Again

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Monday, March 22, 2010

CONTACT: Bobby Clark, Executive Director at 303-905-8375

DENVER: Responding to news that Colorado Attorney General John Suthers will join a Republican-engineered lawsuit against landmark health reform legislation passed by Congress yesterday, ProgressNow Colorado, the state’s largest online progressive advocacy organization released the following statement:

“Attorney General Suthers is once again using taxpayer resources to help launch a partisan attack against healthcare reform,” said ProgressNow Colorado Executive Director Bobby Clark. “Nearly every Coloradan will benefit in some way from this historic healthcare reform, and his actions show he is more concerned with electoral politics than the health and lives of Coloradans.”

“Our Republican Attorney General is acting out his party’s tired partisan agenda, and misusing his authority as Attorney General–and he’s spending Colorado tax dollars to do it.”

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