December 14, 2010 —
Washington Responds
Attorney General Eric Holder and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius have an
op-ed in today’s Washington Post entitled, “Health reform will survive its legal fight” that responds to yesterday’s ruling by a Virginia court that the individual mandate portion of the “Affordable Care Act” is unconstitutional.
The article is definitely worth a read. What’s most surprising, though, is their implication that, if President Obama’s health care reform law is struck down, any further health care reform is dead now and forever.
We know better. We know that’s a false choice.
If we hope to better health care, and better our country as a whole, we have an obligation to get rid of the bad portions of this law and keep the good, either through court challenges or Congressional action. We can repeal this law and replace it with a better one.
Furthermore, it’s disheartening to see that the Attorney General of the United States seems to be discouraging legal challenges to such a complex, far-reaching law. A law, no matter how well intentioned, must still stand up to the checks and balances of the American system of government. The head of the Department of Justice should be reinforcing, not denigrating, those principles.