U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA, 1), widely viewed as a top Democratic contender for governor in 2012, sent out a letter from his "Inslee for Congress" campaign committee (which has $1.1 million in the bank according to Opensecrets.org) attacking the likely GOP nominee for governor, Washington State Attorney General, Rob McKenna, this week.



The letter, which includes the image above, asks Inslee supporters to sign a petition demanding that McKenna drop his lawsuit.

Rep. Inslee's letter says:

The historic health care reform we passed last fall is doing so much good and will do so much more for the people of Washington -- and yet lawsuits are threatening it all.

Right now, healthcare reform is helping children born with congenital heart defects get health care coverage despite their "pre-existing" condition. It's helping our seniors pay for their critical prescription drugs. And it's stopping insurance companies from capping the amount of coverage patients receive.

All of that is under threat because of Attorney General Rob McKenna's lawsuit to wipe out the ENTIRE health care reform package.

And, while he says he cares about Washingtonians' right to quality, affordable health care coverage, he is continuing to push this suit -- regardless of the cost to us.

We can't allow it to continue.

8,267 others are already on board—now I need you to sign on, too. Join me, and sign on to our petition to call on Rob McKenna to drop his lawsuit before it hurts our health care.

Attorney General McKenna says when he started this lawsuit, he didn't intend for his actions to threaten Washingtonians' access to safe, affordable health care.

The fact is: If this lawsuit continues, we could lose protections against discrimination based on pre-existing conditions. We could lose critical help for small business to keep health insurance for their employees. And we could lose health care coverage for millions of young people currently on theirparents' plans.

With Washington state's health care at risk, does Rob McKenna protect our interests, or his own?

Join the 8,267 others, and sign our petition calling on Rob McKenna to drop his lawsuit and stop trying to dismantle health care reform.

We worked for decades to finally get some relief for families struggling to keep health care coverage. But now, when things are finally starting to get better, we could lose it all. Not while I have any say in the matter --and I hope, not while you do either.

Thank you for helping us fight the fight to pass the bill, and now, fight the fight to keep it.

Very truly yours,



Jay Inslee

P.S. At this point, what Attorney General Rob McKenna says his intentions were with his lawsuit attacking health care reform doesn't matter. His actions do. Will he put our access to affordable health care ahead of political gain? Only if we demand it -- sign the petition calling on him to drop the lawsuit now.

We called McKenna's office for a response to Inslee's letter. They're working on one, but McKenna's spokesman Dan Sytman did ask rhetorically if Inslee's letter said whether or not the health care bill's insurance mandate is constitutional; McKenna says it is not.

Inslee spokesman Robert Kellar tells us: "Jay believes the mandate is constitutional, as do at least two federal judges who have heard lawsuits." He also sent a link to Inslee's statement when McKenna first joined the suit.

A federal judge in Michigan ruled in favor of the health care law in October as did a judge in Virginia . Meanwhile, two other federal judges, another one in Virginia, and most recently a federal judge in Florida (ruling on McKenna's suit), said the law was unconstitutional.

After the Florida ruling, PubliCola's LawNerd(s) wrote about the McKenna lawsuit and raised the issue Inslee alludes to (IN ALL CAPS): the fact that McKenna's lawsuit indicts the entire health care law, including popular programs that McKenna says he supports. (Both LawNerd editorials—and our follow-up article giving a McKenna a chance to respond—are here.)

The lawsuit McKenna signed off on with 25 other state attorneys general says (on pg. 57):

Plaintiffs have established that the Act’s Individual Mandate and Medicaid
provisions are unconstitutional. Because each of these portions is essential to the ACA as a whole, neither can be severed. It follows, as a matter of law, that the unconstitutionality of either renders the entire Act unconstitutional. Accordingly, Plaintiffs ask, as requested in Counts One and Four of the Amended Complaint, that the Court declare the entire ACA unconstitutional and enjoin its enforcement.

UPDATE:

In response to Inslee's hit piece, McKenna spokesman Sytman tells PubliCola:

People sometimes forget what this lawsuit is actually about: the constitutionality of the health care law. That’s what every judge who has ruled on the matter understands. As Judge Vinson most recently observed, the health care law should be revised in order to make sure it does not violate the Constitution.

And as Attorney General McKenna has said, he does not believe that every section of the new law, including protections for those with pre-existing conditions, violates the Constitution.  McKenna supports the need for affordable, accessible health care for the people of Washington and their families—he just doesn’t think we need to violate their Constitutional rights to give it to them.