Sides line up in renewed battle over health care legislation

By Bob Keefe

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

WASHINGTON -- If you thought the fight over federal health care legislation was even close to being over, think again.

In Washington, nearly 100 newly elected and emboldened lawmakers -- most of them Republicans -- converged on Capitol Hill for orientation on Monday, many of them reiterating campaign pledges to take up the fight to overturn the legislation championed by President Barack Obama and other Democratic leaders.

Separately Monday, more than 50 members of the conservative Republican Study Committee, led by Rep. Tom Price of Roswell, announced they plan to file a friend-of-the-court brief backing Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue and leaders of 19 other states who have filed suit seeking to overturn the legislation. In the suit led by Florida, the states claim the federal government is overstepping its constitutional authority by requiring citizens to have health insurance, and also is placing a huge financial burden on the state governments.

On the other side of the argument, meanwhile, more than 70 state lawmakers from across the country -- including two from Georgia -- announced Monday they were filing a separate friend-of-the-court brief backing the federal health care overhaul and bucking Georgia and the other states.

State Sen. Nan Orrock and Rep. Pat Gardner, both Democrats from Atlanta, say the lawsuit by Georgia and other states is a waste of time and money. Joining them in their friend-of-the court filing backing the federal government are 69 other state lawmakers -- all but one of them Democrats -- from 26 states.

"The interests of Georgians are being very poorly represented when we have state leadership refusing to take steps toward implementation and instead spending time, political capital and tax dollars on lawsuits," Orrock said. "It's time for our leaders to get on board and put aside this partisan sniping."

Don't expect the partisan sniping to end anytime soon, however.

In Congress, Republicans have vowed to do everything they can to strike down the legislation, threats that will come with new strength when the GOP takes control of the House in January.

“In addition to voting for outright repeal, conservatives can support legal challenges, defund ObamaCare and dispute the job-killing regulations it produces,” Price said in a statement.

Republican Gov.-elect Nathan Deal, who opposed the legislation while he was in Congress, has said he will continue to pursue the lawsuit once he takes office.

And Perdue has no intention of backing away from the lawsuit between now and then, his spokesman Bert Brantley said. Brantley denied that the state's lawsuit was wasting taxpayer money, since the outside attorneys who are handling the case are working on a pro bono basis.

"I don't know why anybody is afraid of testing the constitutionality of a major law like this," Brantley said. "If they truly believe it is constitutional, then there shouldn't be anything to worry about."