By a near party-line vote, Missouri's House voted to call upon both the state's governor and attorney general to join a lawsuit by 20 other states challenging the federal health care law passed by Congress last year.
"[If] the provisions of this act are determined to be unconstitutional, then the citizens of Missouri will not have an unfair and penalizing mandate forced upon them and states' rights will be preserved," said the resolution sponsor, Rep. Ward Franz, R-West Plains.
But Rep. Jean Peters-Baker, D-Kansas City, argued the resolution has no legal effect, except for a cost to the state of helping pay for lawsuit against the federal government.
"So while we are here in this chamber today, we are not creating a job, we are not impacting unemployment. We are voting on a resolution that is legally non-binding and that has an actual, real cost to taxpayers."
The measure passed the House 115-46. No Republican voted against the resolution. Democrats split by a margin of four-to-one against.
In August, Missourians overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure declaring that no law can require Missourians to have health insurance.
No comments:
Post a Comment