Kagan’s cloudy role in PPACA suggests recusal for the public good

Most of us believe challenges to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act—some call it ObamaCare but I call it ObamaNotCare—are headed to the Supreme Court. Many of us believe Justice Elena Kagan should step aside, the act of recusal aimed at the public good.

Public watchdog groups Judicial Watch and Media Research Center have requested documents and messages originating during Kagan’s stint as President Barack Obama’s Solicitor General. The House Judiciary committee has also requested these materials.

In an astonishing act of obstruction, the Department of Justice led by scandal-plagued Attorney General Eric Holder has balked at many of these requests.

Democrats knew PPACA would stir controversy. To make matters worse,  they arrogantly admitted not reading the bill they passed, effectively socializing an additional 18 percent of the US economy.

The auto industry, mortgage lending and energy sectors have already been socialized to varying degrees with disastrous results.

I’ve often said the only way for a free people to remain free is transparency. Any government message or document produced belongs to the people unless there is a valid risk to national security.

There is no reason whatsoever for the government to keep these materials secret, any of them.

Should the Supremes take up the healthcare law, Kagan should recuse herself.

Have you read the healthcare bill? I followed this bill from its inception. I believe it will actually harm patient health and shift significant costs onto working Americans who will subsidize healthcare even more than we already do for people who don’t or won’t work and for those in the country illegally. While it’s understandable that we provide healthcare for those who are truly incapable of working, it is not acceptable that we provide additional subsidies for irresponsible choices made by others.

Congress has trampled the Constitution numerous times by using the Commerce Clause in nefarious ways.

The individual mandate, in essence the federal government commanding you to purchase a product, is of course unconstitutional. Any judge ruling otherwise should be removed from the bench.

Kagan’s allegiance to Obama during the progress of PPACA is reason enough to have her step aside. The fact that DOJ balks at releasing records that belong to and were paid for by the American people is another chapter in Holder’s sordid record.

As of Tuesday, 36 congressmen had called for Holder’s resignation. Every Republican congressman should join that effort.

The most logical option to remove the threat of PPACA is for Americans to vote for Republicans in 2012. That way Congress could simply repeal the bill and replace it with a regulatory model to free the market.

Alternatively, every American could simply cancel his health insurance. That act would be a populist approach that would also free the market.

~~Read archived articles on healthcare and PPACA at The US Report

(Opinion by Kay B. Day/Nov. 11, 2011)