Twenty states are suing the Trump administration over the individual mandate in Obamacare that obligates people have health insurance or pay a fine, seeking an end to the entire law.
In the lawsuit filed Monday, states said Congress’s decision to repeal the tax penalty as part of the Republican tax bill signed into law by President Trump, invalidates the mandate and all of Obamacare. The penalty still applies this year, but will go to zero beginning in 2019.The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Texas.
This is the second lawsuit against the mandate. The Supreme Court upheld this portion of the law in 2012, determining it was allowed because it was a tax, and fit under the power of Congress to levy taxes.
The Obama administration had argued the individual mandate was allowed under Congress’s power to regulate interstate commerce, a position the Supreme Court rejected. The ruling essentially concluded the federal government isn’t allowed to force people who aren’t engaged in commercial activities to buy a product or service they don’t want.
“In reaching this end, the majority concluded that Congress’s taxing-power interpretation was only ‘fairly possible’ because the provision at issue raised ‘at least some revenue for the Government,'” according to the complaint.
www.washingtonexaminer.com/20-states-sue-trump-administration-to-end-obamacare-after-mandate-repeal/article/2650106
www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1b6v4PCRio