Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli sparred with members of Congress over the constitutionality of the federal health care law he’s challenging in court during a lively hearing Wednesday that veered into debates over vegetables and solar panels. Cuccinelli defended Virginia’s challenge to the federal health care law as modest despite the potential repercussions if the state succeeds in reversing President Obama’s health care reforms. “It is the federal government that is asking for a dramatic change to the law, not the states that are challenging the individual mandate,” he said.
That mandate, central to Obama’s reforms, requires people to buy health insurance or pay a penalty. Virginia is arguing that Congress doesn’t have the power to force consumers to buy a product, and a federal judge recently agreed. But Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee challenged Cuccinelli’s assertion.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., asked Cuccinelli if the state of Virginia could require people to eat broccoli every day.
“I think they could certainly order them to buy broccoli,” Cuccinelli said.
Nadler then said that if the state can exercise that authority, the issue is not a matter of liberty, as Cuccinelli claimed.
Cuccinelli, though, maintained that the case is about liberty, not health care, and that the states have a unique reservoir of authority that the federal government does not.
Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., later asked whether it would make a difference if everyone with health insurance was given a tax credit, instead of assessing fines on people who go without it. People can get a tax credit for solar panels, but they don’t have to buy solar panels, Scott noted.
“The substance is still the same,” said Cuccinelli, contending that consumers are not compelled to buy solar panels, as they would be with health insurance.
Cuccinelli got friendlier treatment from fellow Republicans on the committee, including Robert Goodlatte of Virginia, who introduced him, and Mike Pence of Indiana, who warmly welcomed his fellow conservative.
“This is an argument that the American people are fully engaged in,” Pence said.
