In an escalating political and legal battle over America's new health-reform law, Florida is again ground zero in an election year. And at stake is a renewed debate over who is setting the national agenda.
Amid hyper-partisanship that rivals the 2000 presidential election, Attorney General Bill McCollum and 12 other state attorneys general filed suit in federal district court in Pensacola Tuesday, challenging the constitutionality of the federal plan that requires all Americans to obtain health coverage.
"This will ultimately wind up in the U.S. Supreme Court, where we will prevail," McCollum said, flanked by 50 state Republican lawmakers.
McCollum, following through on an earlier promise, filed suit less than an hour after President Barack Obama signed the historic legislation.
House Speaker-designate Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, called the health-care program a "massive expansion of federal control."
Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, called it "an invasion of the state's historic sovereignty."
Lawmakers in at least 30 states are working to prevent what they say is an unconstitutional mandate forcing Americans to have health insurance. But Florida, as in the prolonged Gore-vs.-Bush contest, is at the epicenter.
As a bellwether state, Florida's demographics and politics reflect the national mood.
The state's GOP legislators, who previously called for a National Balanced Budget Amendment, jumped on the divisive health-care issue and tapped into public angst about the plan.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act provides health care for 30 million Americans without coverage and would add 16 million Americans to Medicaid. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the measure will cost $938 billion over the next decade. Individuals opting out of health coverage would face fines starting at $750.
"It's a deeply unpopular measure on all sides," said Robert McClure, president and CEO of the James Madison Institute in Tallahassee.
"Democrats are banking on the notion that doing something is better than nothing."
Florida's chief financial officer Alex Sink, a Democrat and McCollum's prospective opponent in the November gubernatorial race, echoed McClure's view, calling the health bill "better than nothing."
A Democratic candidate for attorney general, Sen. Dave Aronberg of Greenacres, called the lawsuit "a politicial gimmick."
"As someone who has worked in the Attorney General's Office, I am dismayed by the politicization of the office," he said. "The lawsuit has no merit and is being filed for purely political reasons."
McClure said it will be difficult, if not impossible, for Democrats to "straddle both sides."
"This is a polarizing issue and the health-care bill effectively nationalizes the November election," he added.
Ramping up rhetoric reminscent of the 2000 post-election fracas, Florida Democratic Chairman Karen Thurman called McCollums litigation "frivolous."
"This is just another petty partisan ploy from a Washington politician," she said. "Rather than filing politically motivated lawsuits, McCollum needs to stop wasting our taxpayer money and start doing his job, like cracking down on Medicaid fraud that is costing our state billions of dollars."
Senate President-designate Mike Haridopolos said it was unfortunate that Washington lawmakers could not come together, as they did in 1996, to pass bipartisan welfare reform.
Judging by the 12 AGs who joined McCollum in filing suit, centrists from blue-tinted states that include Washington, Pennsylvania and Michigan are being pushed into the fray.
The other states in the case are South Carolina, Louisiana, Nebraska, Texas, Utah, Alabama, Colorado, Idaho and South Dakota. Louisiana Attorney General James "Buddy" Caldwell is the lone Democratic AG in the group.
McCollum said that David Rivkin of Baker & Hostetler is serving the group as adviser on constitutional issues. Rivkin worked at the Department of Justice during the Reagan administration and is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Nixon Center and a contributing editor for National Review. McCollum worked at Baker & Hostetler between his tenure in Congress and his service as state attorney general.
Marshall DeRosa, a constitutional scholar at Florida Atlantic University, said the attorneys general are "rolling the (Republican) base, which isn't necessarily a bad thing."
McCollum filed suit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the U.S. Department of Labor.
The suit argues that the new law infringes on individuals rights by mandating that every Floridian have health insurance or be forced to pay a fine. McCollums suit maintains, The law exceeds the powers of the United States under Article I of the Constitution and violates the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution.
Article I spells out the powers of the U.S. Congress. The Tenth Amendment states that powers not given to the federal government or prohibited to the states are reserved to the states or the people.
Thomas Arnold, secretary of the Agency for Health Care Administration, represented Gov. Charlie Crist's administration at McCollum's announcement. Crist was not present for the McCollum news conference; he was traveling back to the Capitol from Washington.
Arnold said the new law would cost Floridians $1.5 billion in new Medicaid expenses.
Haridopolos said the program for indigent citizens already heavily impacts Floridas budget. He said that when he first arrived in the House in 2001 Medicaid expenses comprised 14 percent of the state budget. Medicaid now makes up 27 percent of the budget.
Washington has now set the rules, but Floridians get the bill," he said.
The Florida Medical Association said the federal legislation "is especially harmful to Florida because the Sunshine State is home to the largest Medicare population in the nation -- seniors who are already vulnerable to access-to-care issues."
The FMA also maintained, "Florida stands to suffer the worst of the health care legislation's fallout, including new administrative and oversight costs and an extra $1.6 billion per year in Medicaid costs, which taxpayers will be forced to pay.
After weeks of hedging on the merits of the federal plan, Crist announced Tuesday that he backed McCollums challenge to it.
Any individual mandate of this kind from the federal government is unconstitutional, a direct attack on our essential personal liberties, and vastly increases the power of Washington bureaucrats that far exceeds the proper role of government," Crist said.
Calling the Democratic health reform package "fundamentally flawed," House Majority Leader Adam Hasner, R-Delray Beach, predicted that the measure
"will raise taxes, kill jobs, increase deficits, cut Medicare and expand Medicaid while imposing unconstitutional mandates and financial penalties on the American people."
House Democratic Leader Franklin Sands, D-Orlando, responded with this statement:
As historic federal health care reforms signed into law today by President Barack Obama take effect, and none of the scary outcomes that Republicans have stirred the tea over unfold -- none of the death panels, none of the government takeover, none of the socialism and job losses -- it will become obvious to more Floridians that Republicans in the current leadership in the Florida Legislature have no credibility."
"Similarly, governmentally funded, provided and mandated universal health care will soon be just as entrenched across the political spectrum.
"Political reaction to the health-care measure and the Tenth Amendment movement are tantamount to the death throes of the American rule of law, properly understood."
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com, or (850) 727-0859, and Kenric Ward at kward@sunshinestatenews.com, or (727) 559-4719.
