March 26, 2010 In the News<embed allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="never" height="385" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/H3P3og62hQk" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="480" wmode="transparent" /></object><p><strong>Houston Chronicle (Texas on the Potomac Blog)</strong></p><p>The fight over health reform may be over on Capitol Hill, but the war of words (and lawsuits) have just begun.</p><p>Thursday, Democratic and Republican lawmakers from Texas held dueling press conferences to condemn (or congratulate) Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott for filing court action trying to nullify the landmark legislation signed into law by President Obama on Tuesday.</p><p>Texas is one of 14 states — 13 with Republican attorneys general — who claim that the reform plan is an unconstitutional extension of federal powers. In his filing, Abbott alleged that the law formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act "violates the United States Constitution and unconstitutionally infringes upon Texans' individual liberties."</p><p>But Democrats were quick to dismiss Abbott's action as a frivolous "junk lawsuit" and right-wing political grandstanding.</p><p>"I find it reprehensible that we have an attorney general in the state of Texas who is supposed to be the chief law enforcement officer, who is suppose to protect are citizens, but is seeking to circumvent federal law because he is of the opposite political party," said Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston. "As federal legislators that believe in the preservation of the federal law, we stand together committed and united to do everything we can to defeat this lawsuit so that every Texan has affordable health insurance."</p><p>Jackson Lee and her fellow Democrats predicted their side would emerge with a victory based on Congress' broad authority under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution to impose taxes and to regulate interstate commerce, including health insurance policies.</p><p>"It has taken our nation many years to finally complete this much needed reform of our health system," said Rep. Al Green, D-Houston. "It should not be underscored by a frivolous lawsuit."</p><p>As soon as the Texas Democrats had wrapped up their press conference in the Capitol's radio and television gallery, a group of Lone Star Republicans march to the microphones.</p><p>Each of the eight Republicans declared that the bill was fatally flawed both legally and politically. They called Obama's version of health reform an onerous "unfunded mandate" on states and individual Americans.</p><p>"There is not a single state in the union that requires you to get insurance for breathing," said Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands.</p><p>Rep, Sam Johnson, R-Plano, decried the "overreach of federal power" and also noted that Americans should achieve prosperity and success by sacrifice, hard work and personal responsibility.</p><p>"We're going to reach a point where more Americans depend on the government for help than those who get along by themselves, and that's not right," said Johnson.</p><p>Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, said the legislation was an affront to the framers of the U.S. Constitution.</p><p>"It goes against what the Founding Fathers stood for," added. "They framed the Constitution to limit the reach of the centralized national government."</p><p>Brady also sought to rebut those who called the Republican lawsuits "unchristian" because they would prevent poor and working-class Americans from gaining access to health insurance.</p><p>"Look in the Bible," he said. "Nowhere does it say 'use someone else's money on the poor or the sick.' You do it with your own money. That's what is called charity."</p>