Staff Report
MONTGOMERY – Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard today reacted to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on ObamaCare calling it “a victory for government-loving bureaucrats and a loss for taxpayers and small businesses.”
The Court upheld the law’s requirement to purchase health insurance under Congress’ authority to tax, but struck down the authority to penalize states who choose not to participate in this massive expansion of government-subsidized healthcare.
“Today’s ruling is a victory for government-loving bureaucrats and a loss for taxpayers and small businesses,” Speaker Hubbard said. “It just goes to show how vastly different our approach is from President Obama and the Democrats. We are trying to reform government and rein in wasteful spending, and President Obama is forcing a shocking expansion of government that raises taxes on businesses and families. We’re trying to incentivize business and create jobs, and President Obama is mandating job-killing bureaucratic regulations. It’s time for Congress to repeal this job-killing law and replace it with a conservative approach to healthcare.
“If there is a silver lining to this ruling it is that the federal government may not penalize Alabama if we cannot afford to participate in this expansion of government. That’s important because, with our budgets already strapped for funds, the last thing we need is a mass increase in Medicaid healthcare costs.”
Speaker Hubbard added that Alabama voters will have their say on the matter at the polls in November, when the referendum passed by the Legislature in 2011 opposing the ObamaCare tax will be on ballots statewide.
“This November Alabama voters will have a chance to voice their opposition to this massive expansion of government loud and clear,” he said. “Hopefully, by then, the law will have been repealed. Still, I encourage all Alabamians who resent this job-killing tax to go to the polls and make their voice heard.”
