McDonnell touts new Va. law in health-care challenge

Gov. Bob McDonnell and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli -- who is drawing national attention for suing the federal government over health-care legislation -- trumpeted a state law yesterday that they said strengthens the challenge.

Echoing President Barack Obama at the White House, McDonnell, surrounded by nine Republican lawmakers and doctors in white coats, held a bill-signing ceremony in which he symbolically signed four bills that would bar state residents from being forced to buy health insurance. The state legislation was enacted earlier this month.

Cuccinelli, who filed his lawsuit Tuesday just after Obama signed the federal legislation, sat beside McDonnell and said they now have a statute to defend and "a better-than-even chance of winning this case."

The nine legislators "and their colleagues of both parties in the Senate and the House have put us in a strong position constitutionally and given us a basis to go forward that is somewhat unique in the country," Cuccinelli added.

If the state prevails, the entire federal law could have to be unraveled, McDonnell said.

The Virginia law, which takes effect July 1, stands "in stark contrast to what the United States Congress just did by . . . making a clear statement of policy that no Virginian will be required to purchase health-care insurance," the Republican governor said.

He added that sending this message to Congress doesn't "give me much pleasure" before he signed the four bills and passed ceremonial pens to the lawmakers who carried the measures.

McDonnell emphasized the bipartisan support of the Virginia law, though no Democrats joined in the bill signing and their support of the measures was modest.

Earlier in the day, Democrats blasted Cuccinelli's lawsuit as a "right-wing" pursuit "doomed to fail." The Democratic Party of Virginia said it had filed a Freedom of Information Act request to find out how much money is being spent on the action.

State Sen. A. Donald McEachin, D-Henrico, charged in a news conference yesterday that Cuccinelli is advancing a right-wing agenda with the blessing of McDonnell, and he said the attorney general is pursuing this fight with the federal government as a priority over other issues, among them chasing down predatory lenders or Internet sex offenders.

Asked by a reporter about any parallels between Virginia's opposition to desegregation decades ago and the state's current fight against health-care reform, Del. Jennifer L. McClellan, D-Richmond, said: "Absolutely."

"If you ask them, a lot of people today are embarrassed by the fact that 50 years ago we engaged in Massive Resistance and regret that we did that, and realize that was a huge waste of time that had a detrimental impact on a whole generation of children who were prevented from going to school," she said.

"If we are not careful, we could have the same detrimental effect on a whole generation of children who are denied health-care coverage right now," she said.

McClellan pointed specifically to the provision in the federal health-care reform that would not allow insurance companies to deny coverage to children based on pre-existing conditions.

McDonnell said there was a fundamentally different constitutional argument between desegregation opposition and this opposition, which is based on the Commerce Clause in Article I of the U.S. Constitution.

"I'm really disappointed to hear that argument brought into the health-care debate," he said. "I'm really surprised that would occur."

One of the sponsors, Sen. Frederick M. Quayle, R-Chesapeake, said: "This is not at all about health care. It is about the basic right of citizens proscribed in the Constitution."

When asked to address Democratic claims that he's wasting taxpayer money, Cuccinelli interrupted -- "Defending the Constitution?" -- and then later argued that "passivity, doing nothing, is not commerce and it has no effect on commerce."

He said the only additional cost is the filing fee of $350 and that otherwise it's in-house work.

There will be no document production, no depositions, no trial, and it will be decided on summary judgment, he added. Whoever loses likely will appeal, said Cuccinelli, who also is suing the federal government over a climate-change decision.

McDonnell called the allegation of a waste of resources in the attorney general's office a "complete straw man and hollow argument."

Contact Olympia Meola at (804) 649-6812 or omeola@timesdispatch.com.

Contact Tyler Whitley at (804) 649-6780 or twhitley@timesdispatch.com.