Three Former Health Secretaries Take Aim at Dan Gelber on Bill McCollum's Challenge to Obamacare

The Republican Party of Florida is trumpeting an op-ed written by three former secretaries of the Agency for Health Care Administration taking aim at Democratic attorney general candidate Sen. Dan Gelber of Miami Beach. Ruben King-Shaw, Alan Levin and Holly Benson, who lost to Pam Bondi in the Republican attorney general primary, argued that Gelbers plan, if elected, will dismiss the legal challenge launched by Attorney General Bill McCollum against new health-care laws backed by President Barack Obama.

The federal governments massive expansion into our health care system imposes massive spending mandates on the states, puts enormous pressure on businesses, and arguably intrudes into personal freedoms in a way never before done by Congress, wrote the three secretaries. It is with good reason that Florida and 19 other states, together with the National Federation of Independent Business, have challenged the new federal health care law in court. At its heart, Floridas lawsuit seeks to preserve the constitutional design inherited from the founders -- one that safeguards our liberties by carefully balancing power between the states and the federal government.

In light of whats at stake, we note Democrat attorney general candidate Dan Gelbers pledge to dismiss Floridas lawsuit, which he describes as meritless and politically motivated. It's an odd position for someone seeking election to an office charged with defending both the Constitution and the rights of all Floridians, they wrote.