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Statements on Obamacare ruling
Published 10:35am Thursday, June 28, 2012Gov. Robert Bentley on Thursday issued the following statement regarding the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the Affordable Care Act.
“I am deeply disappointed by today’s Supreme Court decision. The health care law is an overreach by the federal government that creates more regulation, bureaucracy, and a dramatic increase in costs to taxpayers. The ACA is the single worst piece of legislation to come out of Congress. This law must be repealed.
People need more choices, not fewer choices. Bigger government is not the answer. Market-based solutions are the best solutions to giving the public the most affordable options.”
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U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt (Alabama District 4), today released the following statement regarding the Supreme Court of the United States issued its decision regarding the President’s health care law.
“Most Americans agree that the President’s health care law is taking America down the wrong path and government mandated health care is not what they want. Health care decisions that are made at the federal level only make it more difficult for small businesses and families to afford quality coverage. Putting health care decisions in the hands of unelected Washington bureaucrats and using taxpayer dollars to provide for abortions is simply bad policy. My concern is the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the majority of the President’s health care law is a devastating step toward socialized medicine for our nation.”
“House Republicans will continue to work to repeal the President’s flawed health care law, so that we enact common-sense, step-by-step reforms that protect Americans access to the care they need, from the doctors they choose, at a lower cost. I think you will see House Republicans act quickly once again to fully repeal the law and implement patient-centered reforms that ensure families and doctors make health care decisions.”
Aderholt currently serves as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Homeland Security for the powerful House Appropriations Committee, is a member of the Committee’s Commerce, Justice and Science; and Agriculture Subcommittees, and also serves on the Helsinki Commission.
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Attorney General Luther Strange:
While I respect the Court’s decision, I strongly disagree with its ruling today. The individual mandate was sold to the American people as a penalty when it was proposed, but is now ruled constitutional as a tax, the very thing the Obama Administration and Congress insisted it was not. Now it is up to a new congress and new president to repeal the act.
Make no mistake, the consequences of today’s decision are dire. The law forces the states, private employers and individuals to be used as instruments in carrying out the federal government’s increasingly burdensome policies, including forcing religious based employers, even self-insured ones, to start providing coverage for sterilization and contraception in 2013, without regard to their religious beliefs or conscientious objections.
I, along with other conservative state attorneys general, will continue to stand on the front lines of protecting liberty and pushing back against an ever-encroaching federal government.
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Lt. Gov. Kay Ivey:
The Supreme Court’s ruling today, upholding major portions of Obamacare, perpetuates the illusion that taxpayers can and should provide health care for every citizen, in spite of the fact that the country is broke! If our elected leadership in Washington does not overturn this law, it will bring America down. Like the former great powers of Europe and other nations in human history, America will spend and tax itself into weakness and, God forbid, collapse.
The President’s trillion dollar takeover of the American healthcare system is wrong for the federal budget, is in opposition of our constitutional principles and wrong for Alabama. I support efforts to improve our healthcare system by restoring state flexibility, promoting free markets and competition while empowering consumer choice.
Even though the individual mandate was upheld, the Court struck down the mandate requiring states to expand Medicaid coverage, which will not require Alabama to spend hundreds of millions of dollars beginning in 2019.
This continues to be a state and national emergency with major tax implications. Citizens, we must be vigilant, active and passionate about our deep concern over this unfunded, non-sustainable mandate from those in Washington who would tax us into oblivion. We must begin the process to repeal and replace Obamacare.
