Marco Rubio - U.S. Senate - 2010

Attorney General Bill McCollum Yesterday: “There is no benefit to this bill. I can’t conceive of any.”
Crist Three Weeks Ago: “Crist says he would not scrap Dem health care reform” (Palm Beach Post, 2/27/10)

RUBIO CAMPAIGN STATEMENT
“Just like Charlie Crist’s embrace of the stimulus, his opposition to scrapping ObamaCare pits him against Florida Republicans and on the side of Democrats, who are looking to ram this bill through Congress over the objections of the American people. At a time when President Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are scratching and clawing their way to forcing ObamaCare into law, Charlie Crist’s opposition to scrapping it is like a wind in their sails.”

Sunshine State News
McCollum Pushes Back On ‘Forced’ Health Care: AG Readies Constitutional Challenge, Urges Other States To Join
By Kevin Derby
Wednesday, 3/17/2010

Attorney General Bill McCollum declared Tuesday there is “no benefit” to the federal health care legislation supported by the Obama administration and invited attorneys general from around the nation to join him in preparing to challenge the policy on constitutional grounds.

“There is no benefit to this bill,” McCollum said of the pending health care reform. “I can’t conceive of any.”
McCollum sent a letter to Attorney General Jon Bruning, R-Neb, president of the National Association of Attorneys General, along with a memo arguing that both the House and Senate bills are unconstitutional on the issue of individual mandates.

“I’ve challenged, in my own legal analysis in this office, the constitutionality of individual mandates,” McCollum said during a news conference.

McCollum said that with both the U.S. House and Senate using reconciliation bills, it is likely the health care legislation will pass soon.

“The president may very well sign a bill by the end of this week,” he said.

According to his legal analysis, McCollum said Congress cannot force citizens to purchase health care. It does not have the power to enact such a mandate. In his analysis, McCollum also drew upon precedents to argue that states have the right to sue the federal government to protect their interests.

To prepare for a lawsuit, he said, “We’re putting together a working group of the [state] agencies most harmed by this bill.”
That group includes the Office of Insurance Regulation, the Agency for Health Care Administration, the Department of Children and Families and the Department of Health.

“We simply know it’s going to fiscally hurt these agencies,” McCollum said. “That’s what they’re telling me.”