During the GOP primary race for lieutenant governor this year, state Sen. Mark Hutchison ran on the fact that he handled the failed lawsuit to overturn ObamaCare for the state of Nevada. Problem is, after losing the case, Hutchison and Gov. Brian Sandoval gave up. If it was a movie it would have been titled, “How I Stopped Fighting and Learned to Love ObamaCare.”
You see, what Sandoval did after getting elected in 2010 was become the first and only Republican governor to quit fighting the feds and set up his own ObamaCare exchange here in Nevada – a complete, total, unmitigated disaster that has resulted in the recent axing of the exchange director and a slew of lawsuits that are gonna cost taxpayers a bundle in the coming years.
For his part, Hutchison stopped fighting and instead voted to implement ObamaCare here in Nevada three separate times as a wet-behind-the-ears freshman state senator last year. He then went on to run as lieutenant governor this year defending those votes and Sandoval’s ObamaCare exchange clunker claiming it was better for Nevada to go it alone than be included in the federal exchange.
And thanks to those misguided I’d-rather-quit-than-fight decisions, Nevada is not one of 36 states that had a key part of ObamaCare’s exchange program struck down by a court on Tuesday. From the Wall Street Journal…
A federal appeals court struck down the subsidies available to some consumers who buy health coverage on insurance exchanges established by the federal government, in a substantial blow to the Obama administration’s implementation of its health-care law.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, on a 2-1 vote, invalidated an IRS regulation that implemented a key piece of the Affordable Care Act. The regulation said subsidies were available to qualifying consumers whether they bought coverage on a state exchange or one run by the federal government. The ruling potentially could cripple the act by making subsidies unavailable in as many as 36 states where the federal government has run some or all of the insurance exchanges.
The court sided with challengers who argued the health law allowed subsidies only for insurance purchases made through state exchanges.
If Sandoval and Hutchison had kept fighting ObamaCare instead of quitting, Nevadans – like the citizens of 36 other states – might have had a chance to shed themselves of this massive government take-over of our health insurance industry. Instead, we’re gonna continue to get screwed.
Ladies and gentlemen, your GOP ticket for governor/lieutenant governor for 2014!
