Monday, August 27, 2018

Texas & Co win Bigly

In case you missed it, five states that had sued the previous administration over an illicit tax have finally been vindicated, to the tune of almost a billion dollars:

"Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton [led] a five-state coalition that on Thursday won an $839 million judgment against the federal government ... joined by Indiana, Nebraska, Kansas, and Louisiana"

The states had sued because even though ObamaCare explicitly exempted states from this tax, his administration capriciously imposed it. The suit itself took several years to wend its way through the judiciary, and the plaintiffs were duly rewarded for their patience:

"Judge Reed O’Connor ... agreed on the statutory issue (the APA claim), striking down the Obama HHS rule because it violates the plain language of the ACA law."

It's interesting to me because this doesn't seem to have anything to do with the whole Medicaid expansion kerfluffle, which has also been a problem from the outset.

In a related story, "Texas and Wisconsin will argue at a hearing on September 5 that Obamacare, as amended by the recent tax bill, is unconstitutional in its entirety."

That will leave a mark.
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