Rio Grande Foundation Signs on to amicus curiaeBrief on Federal Health Care Law

(Albuquerque) This week, an amicus curiae brief signed by the Rio Grande Foundation and New Mexico legislators was filed in preparation for the March 27 Supreme Court oral arguments regarding the constitutionality of the individual mandate in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the health care law signed by President Obama in March of 2010. Dozens of public policy research institutes (including the Rio Grande Foundation) and hundreds of state legislators from across the country signed onto the brief expressing their concern that the affordable, quality health care Americans need cannot be engineered and mandated by politicians and bureaucrats

The brief addresses the simple fact that key components of the Affordable Care Act are unconstitutional, will not provide access to quality care and will stifle health care innovation if implemented in all states. The brief is the latest outcry from citizens and state policy makers about this impending law.

According to the brief, the issue discussed in the brief is:

Can a limited government to whom a free people have delegated only certain enumerated powers commandeer that people into purchasing a product from a private business pursuant to its power to pass laws “necessary and proper for carrying into execution” the authority to “regulate Commerce . . . among the several States”?

You can read the full brief here.

Said Rio Grande Foundation president Paul Gessing “The affordable, quality healthcare we need cannot be created by the White House. Our personal health care decisions should be managed by us and our health care providers, not politicians and bureaucrats.”

Other New Mexico-based signatories of the brief included Rep. Dennis Roch (R-Texico) who said, “My constituents and I have a growing concern over the federal government’s encroachment into our lives. This unconstitutional health care law gives unprecedented control over the average citizen to Washington bureaucrats. It’s sad that, instead of relying on the federal government to protect its people, we the people must now ask the Supreme Court to protect us against the government itself!”

Rep. Yvette Herrell (R-Alamogordo) argued that “Citizens in New Mexico and around the country are paying attention to how the federal government is trampling on our individual liberties.   We recognize the Obama Administration is attempting to force unconstitutional mandates in the form of health care insurance upon us, and the people will not stand for it.”