{"id":510012,"date":"2010-04-02T18:14:21","date_gmt":"2010-04-02T22:14:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/northwestvoices\/2011510282_stateagmckennainhealthcaresuit.html?syndication=rss"},"modified":"2010-04-02T18:14:21","modified_gmt":"2010-04-02T22:14:21","slug":"state-ag-mckenna-in-health-care-suit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/510012","title":{"rendered":"State AG McKenna in health-care suit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lawsuit could take toll on taxpayers\u2019 already snug budgets<\/strong><\/p>\n

In response to Andrew Garber\u2019s \u201cSuit puts spotlight on AG\u2019s politics\u201d [page one, April 1], Washington state residents should be aware of the potential consequences of state Attorney General Rob McKenna\u2019s constitutional challenge.<\/p>\n

According to McKenna, Florida AG Bill McCollum will take the lead in trying to negate the recent health-care bill. Washington state\u2019s involvement will be limited to participating in \u201cconference calls\u201d and the \u201creview of briefs,\u201d implying there will be no cost to Washington state residents.<\/p>\n

As it now stands, this may not be the case.<\/p>\n

As reported by University of Washington law professor Stewart Jay at the Mar. 30 health-care panel held at the campus, McCollum intends to hire outside counsel to represent the various states challenging the validity of the health-care bill. He plans on hiring the law firm he worked for prior to becoming attorney general.<\/p>\n

Most law firms do not work for free when representing state interests. As such, when the lawsuit runs its course, various states that entered the lawsuit will eventually have to \u201cpay the fiddler.\u201d<\/p>\n

Knowing that thousands and potentially millions of dollars may be spent on the lawsuit, what contribution does McKenna expect the citizens of Washington to pony up? He may be, as he professes, a \u201cvery good lawyer,\u201d but I believe he is far from a truthful lawyer. What will taxpayers be paying toward this frivolous lawsuit?<\/p>\n

\u2014 LeRoy Loiselle, Seattle<\/em><\/p>\n

Gregoire\u2019s response misses the point<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gov. Chris Gregoire has received numerous letters opposing her negative, hyperpartisan characterization of Washington state AG Rob McKenna\u2019s lawsuit against the federal government over health-care reform.<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s response to her critics simply repeats the mantra from Washington, D.C., and the Democrats who voted for this massive reform. She misses the point people are trying to get across: Specifically, there is broad agreement regarding the need for reform to supply affordable health care for those who are not covered or are under-covered.<\/p>\n

However, the solution passed by Congress and signed by President Obama is akin to throwing a life preserver to the drowning and at the same time, mistakenly throwing an anchor to those who are patiently treading water in today\u2019s fragile economy.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s call this reform for what it really is \u2014a European-style, big-government redistribution of wealth, which is a proven formula to steal the liberties of the people by creating an all-knowing nanny state.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Steven Cheesebrew, Renton<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lawsuit could take toll on taxpayers\u2019 already snug budgets In response to Andrew Garber\u2019s \u201cSuit puts spotlight on AG\u2019s politics\u201d [page one, April 1], Washington state residents should be aware of the potential consequences of state Attorney General Rob McKenna\u2019s constitutional challenge. According to McKenna, Florida AG Bill McCollum will take the lead in trying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2861,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-510012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2861"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510012\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}