In a move learned from his national Republicans, yet in a move that was old and discredited three months ago, “Tardy” Colin Bonini, the Republican presumptive nominee for state Treasurer, is demanding that Attorney General Beau Biden waste the taxpayer’s money and the state’s resources, and not to mention, the AG Office’s time (in short supply in the gear up for the biggest prosecution this state has seen since Capano), in a partisan yet unfounded effort to declare the Healthcare Reform Bill unconstitutional.
Yes, it has been several weeks, but the Republicans are back to that old chestnut, and Mr. Bonini is proving himself to be a stalwart follower of the national Talking Point as any other state Republican drone.
You see, Mr. Bonini is “concerned” about the mandate to purchase health insurance if you do not already qualify for Medicare or Medicaid, or if you do not already have your own private or employer based plan.
Mr. Bonini needs to read more. He needs to keep up with the news. And, as a politician, he needs to keep up with popular opinion.
In the months since that bill became law, top Republicans like House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) have called repealing healthcare reform the GOP’s “number one priority,” though Republicans have battled internally over whether they should repeal it in full or in parts.
The Hill reports that a poll from 60 Minutes/Vanity fair shows that effort has failed.
Given the option to name the sections of the healthcare law they would most like to see the GOP repeal, 42 percent [the plurality] said they would leave the bill alone and repeal no parts, a new 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll found.
Bonini seems to be aiming for that 30% that want to get rid of the mandate. I have news for Colin. They are already in your camp. They are called Republicans, or Teabaggers (it is not as if one can tell the difference between the two these days).
Other polling seems to suggest that it is even MORE of a losing strategy to push repeal as an electoral or political strategy:
Would you be more likely to vote for a candidate who supports and will work to improve the new health care reform law, or a candidate who will work to repeal it completely?
Support: 52
Repeal: 41
What’s that, a MAJORITY of Americans do not want repeal??? Oh wait, I forgot, majorities are only what Republicans say they are, and this week, I guess Colin Bonini is a majority of one. And next week it will be 60% or 67% or 75%.
Indeed, we need to ask Mr. Bonini, since he is involving himself in national politics rather than concentrating on the state treasurer’s race, what his opinion is on the Republican Healthcare Bill, which would both repeal the current law but would also reopen the “donut hole” in the Medicare Part D Prescription Drug benefit (costing our seniors untold millions), un-insure 29 million people and adds almost $75 billion to the federal deficit. I want Bonini on the record for that. Hey, News Journal, you seem to be waking up recently, let’s see Bonini on the record telling his constitutents what he wants to do to them.
Finally, is the mandate constitutional? Of course it is. Constitutional scholars more learned than myself or Mr. Bonini have debated this issue in multiple forums, and the consensus is that it is constitutional under the commerce clause as Congress has ample Constutitional authority from Supreme Court precedent to regulate the national economy, and given that healthcare is now fully a quarter of our economy, Congress has the power to regulate it.
In fact, since Mr. Bonini has been hanging around with old retired Republican Governors from the east coast recently, he should put a call into former Governor Mitt Romney. Massachusetts has had an individual mandate on the books for a couple of years now, signed into law by Romney. Its constitutionality remains unchallenged.
Interesting, that.