According to The Daily Beast, the federal judge, Henry Hudson, who made headlines yesterday for attempting to brand health care reform as unconstitutional is a ‘crusading conservative.’ Shocker.
Here’s more:
When his critics learned last summer that U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson of Richmond, Virginia, would hear a Republican lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Obama health-care bill, many assumed the case’s outcome was a lock.For reasons ideological and political, they predicted, Hudson would find a way to satisfy his longtime friends and supporters in the GOP and declare the bill unconstitutional. And that is exactly what the staunchly conservative 63-year-old judge did Monday, knocking down the bill’s keystone provision requiring tens of millions of Americans to obtain health insurance. Hudson said the requirement exceeded the regulatory powers given to Congress under the Constitution, a ruling that makes him the first judge in the country to invalidate any part of the law. Two other federal judges have upheld the legislation.
“I think Henry Hudson is absolutely driven by ideology in a way that even many quote conservative unquote judges are not,” said Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington-based civil-liberties group.
Read the entire article, by Philip Shenon, here.
The judge’s political allies may be appeased, but it’s the people of the United States of America who will continue to suffer, risking their financial health as well as their physical and mental health as tens of millions go without any health care coverage at all.
Rhiannon “Rhi” Bowman is an independent journalist who contributes snarky commentary on Creative Loafing’s CLog blog four days a week in addition to writing for several other local media organizations. To learn more, click the links or follow Rhi on Twitter.
This article appears in Dec 14-20, 2010.
Is anyone surprised that a Republican Judge used the Republican Party campaign promise to repeal the health care law as the basis for his decision?
It has been pretty obvious since the Gingrich era that party loyalty is more important to them than anything else.
The Republicans are the ultimate hypocrites!
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1. How do we pay for health care reform ?
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2. How do you pay for tax cuts for the wealthy ?
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(a). First attempt : threatening Social Security and Medicare Cut through the deficit panel.
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(b). Second attempt : holding the desperate Hostage, say, by the Ransom.
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3. Auto insurance mandate !
Under historical interpretations of the Constitution, Congress can dictate the economic activity of citizens so long as that activity will have profound, large-scale effects on the national economy.
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4. Health insurance protects you PLUS all !
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** Inaction cost, $9trillion over the next decade, ((Some of CBO analysis : While the costs of the financial bailouts and economic stimulus bills are staggering, they are only a fraction of the coming costs from Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Over the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that each year Medicaid will expand by 7 percent, Medicare by 6 percent, and Social Security by 5 percent. These programs face a 75-year shortfall of $43 trillion–60 times greater than the gross cost of the $700 billion TARP financial bailout)).
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Over the duration of healthcare debate, using the preliminary cost analysis of CBO, the reps opposed the public option stubbornly, but after the release of final score, they have been defiant on the referee.
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The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that :
Inaction cost in relation to health care reform totals $9trillion over the next decade.
Reform will reduce the federal deficit by $143 billion over the next 10 years and as much as $1 trillion during the following decade.
And if the judge was a lib, he’d have thrown this lawsuit out. ALL government hacks look out for their ‘longtime supporters and friends’. Republicans don’t have a monopoly on nepotism. But please, do show me where in the Constitution it states that health care is a right?
“Here comes the Judge.” Judge the Judge? Henry should recuse himself from this case!!!