Gorilla’s had a brief correspondence with Virginia Attorney General Bill Mims about his decision to join with a few other Know Nothing Party AGs to sue the US government to stop health care reform legislation.
Gorilla asked:
Why are you wasting Virginia taxpayers’ money filing frivolous, partisan lawsuits against the health care reform bill? Your suit, as you know very well, is entirely without legal merit. It’s nothing but a cheap political stunt by a cowardly lame duck Attorney General. I thought the Attorney General was supposed to represent all the people of Virginia, not just those who vote Republican. You are an absolute disgrace to the Commonwealth, the legal profession, and the United States of America.
Here’s how Attorney General Mims’ office explained his decision:
Mr. Meek:
Thank you for contacting the Office of Attorney General Bill Mims. The Attorney General has requested that I respond to you on his behalf.
So that you might better understand the General’s actions, please allow me to explain that the letter sent to Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid regarding the Senate Version of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act H.R. 3590 asks only that Congress delete the Nebraska provision from the pending legislation. This legislation would place unfair burdens on the other 49 states to cover the costs of any new Medicaid recipients in Nebraska. The current proposed legislation would require every state, except Nebraska, to shoulder its fair share of the increased Medicaid costs the bill will generate and our Attorney General feels that this is placing undue burdens on the citizens of our Commonwealth to assist citizens of another state.
In closing, I hope that this information provides some clarification to you regarding General Mims’ actions on behalf of the citizens of Virginia.
Sincerely,
Jacqueline A. Kotvas
Community Relations
Office of the Attorney General
Gorilla tried to tease out the logic behind this clarification, but in the end was just chagrined:
Ms. Kotvas:
Your logic remains ridiculous, and it would be laughable if the complete amorality behind this lawsuit were not so serious.
Will the Attorney General be asking some or all of the other 49 states not to shoulder the unfair burden of covering the cost of say the US Navy in Norfolk and Newport News?
After all, it’s not Nebraska’s fault that the state lacks an ocean, so they don’t get anywhere near the kind of funding Virginia gets for naval facilities. Why should their citizens have to pay for Virginia’s good geographic fortune?
On the other hand, if this lawsuit is upheld in the courts, 45,000 Americans annually will continue to die for lack of health insurance, but we Virginians will save a few bucks on supporting those Medicaid chiselers in Nebraska.
I must suppose the unfair burden of those deaths, some of which will occur in Virginia, just isn’t very important to Attorney General Mims and his fellow Republican Attorneys General.
Presumably, this complete amorality on the part of Attorney General Mims and his colleagues is the legacy of what our country became in the years between 2001 and 2008, when the government decided that the rule of law and the Constitution wasn’t something that mattered very much, so long as elections were won and fear was stoked.
Thankfully, we no longer live in such a country, and Virginia’s citizens soon will not be burdened unfairly by Attorney General Mims.
