Secession, robocalls, freedom: Day 1 after health care reform

Within 24 hours of health care reform passing in Washington D.C., we had here in Florida:

Attorney General Bill McCollum, the leading Republican candidate for governor, declare that he would file a lawsuit with nine other states as soon as Tuesday and that his decision had nothing to do with any political ambitions or attempts to place conservative critics of health care reform.

"No politics involved in this whatsover,'' said McCollum during a press conference held on Monday morning. It is all about the fact that the bill is bad and unconstitutional, he said.

About six hours later, McCollum's campaign sent out a press release attacking Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink that stated "while she provides lip service on addressing the serious challenges facing our state, Alex Sink refuses to stand with the small businessmen and small businesswomen who will be harmed by the higher taxes and government mandates this legislation will bring."

The release further states: "Fortunately, Attorney Bill McCollum is leading the charge to challenge the Democrats’ unconstitutional health care plan – showing the true leadership we need for Florida’s future.”

The attack on Sink came because after months and months of refusing to say whether or not she supported Obamacare she finally put out a statement that said she was in favor of the bill headed to the president, sort of.

"Though it is certainly not perfect, these long-overdue reforms are better than Washington continuing to do nothing to improve America's health care system.'' said Sink, the main Democratic rival to McCollum for governor.

While Sink and McCollum weighed in, the Florida Legislature jumped right into the fray as well, passing not one, but two bills out of legislative committees. One bill urges McCollum to sue, while the other would put a constitutional amendment on the 2010 ballot that would say Floridians are not obligated to follow any mandates to participate in any health care systems.

"It is our duty to step up and reassert the rights of Floridians, in this case protecting our citizen’s rights and freedoms to make appropriate decisions as it relates to their own health care,”said Rep. Scott Plakon.

State House Democrats, in a bit of clever wordplay, announced that now was not the time to "secede" and that Republicans were having an outrageous display of partisanship and ignoring the fact that nearly 25 percent of adult Floridians were uninsured.

Former House Speaker Marco Rubio said he would launch a petition to repeal health care reform and chided his U.S. Senate rival Gov. Charlie Crist for not being strong enough on the issue. Crist's campaign pointed that he did in fact support repealing the measure. And if that wasn't enough, there was the release from the Rubio campaign that stated the road to health care reform started with the "Crist-Obama stimulus."

Lastly, the re-election campaign of U.S. Rep. Allen Boyd did robocalls to voters in the 2nd Congressional District trying to explain why he changed his vote from a no to a yes on health care reform.

His call touted the legislation as a way to stand up to insurance companies, while offering a tax credit to middle class families and help out with the deficit.

"For too long insurance companies have had too much power to determine patient coverage and care, premiums are out of control, and health care costs threaten our nation's fiscal future,'' Boyd declared in the phone call.

Health care reform he promised would "put a stop to insurance companies who deny care or cancel coverage when you get sick care."

He added that "I'm confident that with these reforms we will begin to control health care costs for our families and our country, reserve the right to choose your doctor and stop many of the abuses of the big insurance companies."

Comments

[Jeffrey]

I will never vote democrat again - they cannot be trusted - they want socialism and they are rapidly getting it in america - I URGE EVERYONE NEVER VOTE DEMOCRAT TAKE A VOW AND STAND UP

[g]

Do any of these fear mongers have any idea what socialism is? Is this "Obama as Socialist" which research has shown are mostly seniors, willing to give up their socialized Medicare?

[malpais beach costa rica]

oh la la !

[buy keflex online]

Within 24 hours of health care reform passing in Washington D.C., we had here in Florida: Attorney General Bill McCollum, the leading Republican candidate for governor, declare that he would file a lawsuit with nine other states as soon as...