S.C., Fla. to sue on health bill

COLUMBIA -- Top prosecutors in South Carolina and Florida said Friday they are ready to sue if health care reform legislation passes this weekend as expected.

S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster said he and Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum will file a federal lawsuit challenging the bill's constitutionality.

"We are ready to kill it," McMaster said.

"When the national government and Congress start going wild, it's up to the states to rein them in."

The U.S. House plans to vote on the plan Sunday. McMaster and McCollum will argue that it violates state sovereignty because it requires that all Americans have some form of health insurance.

In a rare Christmas Eve vote, Senate Democrats pushed sweeping health care legislation to the brink of Senate passage, crushing a year-end Republican filibuster against President Obama's call to remake the nation's health care system.

The 60-39 vote marked the third time in as many days Democrats posted a supermajority needed to advance the legislation.

After the vote, McMaster recruited other attorneys general to question the constitutionality of the health care bill because the version that passed included an extra $100 million in Medicaid money for Nebraska, added to win Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson's support. Democrats have since removed that provision, but the bill still includes extra money for other states.

On Thursday, McMaster said he and McCollum had a conference call with those other attorneys general, whom they expect to sign onto the lawsuit next week.

"It's essentially a direct tax on the people for which there is no authority," said McMaster, one of four announced GOP candidates for S.C. governor.

"It's the national government requiring a citizen to buy something that he may or may not want to buy. There's no authority in the Constitution that allows the Congress to do that."

McCollum's office confirmed Friday their participation in the legal action.

"Like all of these people, I swore an oath to uphold and defend the U.S. Constitution and the constitution of South Carolina," McMaster said.

"It is difficult to understand how the president and the Congress can believe that this is constitutional. It is harmful, and that's why we're going to kill it."

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