There are two kinds of leaders: those who make problems and those who make solutions. Problems stir up headlines, but solutions create prosperity. When Scott Walker takes office in January, we are going to find out what sort of leader he is. Hopefully he will be more into solution-making, because that is what it will take to create the 250,000 jobs and 10,000 new businesses that Wisconsin needs and that he has promised.
Unfortunately, so far Walker seems more interested in problem-making. Take for example his decision to allow Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen to sue President Obama and the federal government over the constitutionality of health care reform. An almost identical suit filed by the Thomas Moore Law Center was already struck down by a Michigan judge last month. There’s no reason to believe that the lawsuit, filed in Florida District Court and joined by the attorneys general of twenty states, will have any more success. Yet come January, Wisconsin will likely add its name to the list of plaintiffs hoping to halt the enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
The lawsuit is based more in partisan politics than jurisprudence. Constitutional and legal scholars of all stripes have found little merit to its claims, and if the decision in Michigan is any indication judges too will be a difficult audience. So if the lawsuit is unlikely to succeed, what is the point of using our state’s resources to sue? To create problems, or as Governor-Elect Sam Brownback of Kansas put it “to push back.” Controversy over health care reform has been a tremendous boon to partisan politicians. The ongoing legal challenge helps keep the Affordable Care Act controversial as some of the most popular features of the law are enacted.
While frivolous lawsuits may help politicians, what about the health care industrialists who make pharmaceuticals and medical devices? They are the ones who are arguably most affected by the law. At the recent Reuters Health Summit an executive of the drug company GlaxoSmithKline observed “when you are running a business, the hardest thing is changing policy [in] a changing environment because it is very difficult to plan, predict and ultimately invest in that sort of scenario.” As he described it, the Affordable Care Act has created “a stable, predictable environment,” now leave it alone and let business carry on.
In the campaign for governor, Walker billed himself as the corporate-friendly candidate, declaring on election night that “Wisconsin is open for business.” He has promised to create 250,000 new jobs in Wisconsin in the next four years and help grow 10,000 small businesses. This would be much better accomplished by working with the insurance and health care industries to develop the insurance exchanges envisioned by the Affordable Care Act than by taking on the federal government in court.
It is small businesses that are disproportionately affected by the struggle to insure employees. Insurance exchanges will allow companies with fewer than one hundred employees to buy lower-cost, high-quality insurance for their workers. Being able to offer health insurance will help small companies attract and retain good people. Workers who can afford to go to the doctor when need be and don’t live in fear of being driven to bankruptcy by a broken leg are better employees.
Entering into this lawsuit will create more problems that Wisconsin does not need rather than the solutions it does. In January, Walker will inherit a $2.7 billion budget deficit and over 8 percent unemployment statewide. We need him to be serious about rebuilding Wisconsin, not engaging in partisan stunts. This lawsuit has been described as “truly silly” by Reagan’s former Solicitor General and Harvard Law professor Robert Fried. It is frivolous and doomed to failure. Joining it may be, in the short-term, in the strategic interest of partisan politicians, but it will not create the solutions that Wisconsin needs to grow.
Geoff Jara-Almonte ([email protected]) is a 4th year medical student going in to emergency medicine.
