Only a week out of the election, Governor-Elect Scott Walker is looking to tackle another foe of the Republican Party: health care reform.
Walker announced Tuesday he will authorize Attorney General J. B. Van Hollen to enter a federal lawsuit against the landmark health care legislation alongside other states.
Van Hollen requested permission to enter the lawsuit in the spring but was denied by the state government, with both chambers of the Legislature and the governor’s office controlled by Democrats.
But with Walker poised to move to Madison and Republicans in control of both chambers of the Legislature, the tables may have turned.
According to Van Hollen spokesperson Bill Cosh, the attorney general is looking forward to working with Walker to challenge the health care bill he calls a “constitutional overreach” by the federal government.
A federal judge ruled in October the 20-state lawsuit could continue after President Barack Obama’s administration requested the case be thrown out.
Walker has had his eye on blocking health care reform in Wisconsin since the beginning of his campaign for governor, running in opposition to what he said was “Canadian-style programs” that put bureaucrats in charge of personal health care decisions.
Both Walker and former Republican gubernatorial opponent Mark Neumann originally supported Van Hollen’s attempts to join a multi-state lawsuit in March to block implementation of the health care reforms in Wisconsin.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Barrett, who returned to his day job as mayor of Milwaukee after losing to Walker last week, supported the health care bill.
After winning the gubernatorial election last week, Walker has wasted no time in pursuing campaign promises to fight the reforms in Wisconsin.
While touring a manufacturing company in Dane County, Walker said he will allow Van Hollen to pursue the lawsuit.
After the health care bill was initially passed in April, more than a dozen attorneys general from states across the country joined a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the health care overhaul.
Van Hollen was originally prohibited from joining the other states in the lawsuit without the permission of Gov. Jim Doyle or one house of the state Legislature, both of which were Democratically-controlled prior to last week’s landslide Republican victories.
Doyle, a strong supporter of the health care reforms, was unsympathetic to Van Hollen’s attempts to join the lawsuit from the start.
“The lawsuit you suggest is a frivolous and a political attempt to thwart the actions of Congress and the law of the country,” Doyle wrote in a letter to Van Hollen in March. “The State of Wisconsin will not enter into litigation intended to deny health care for tens of thousands of residents.”
Van Hollen originally wrote to Doyle and the state Legislature over sections of the health care bill that require individuals to either have health insurance or pay a fine, which Van Hollen argued violated states’ rights.
Other Wisconsin politicians have voiced their objections to the health care law since its inception, as well as Republicans across the nation.
Not a single member of the Republican minority voted for the reform package in Congress earlier this year, and numerous Republican victors of last week’s election have set their sights on repealing the legislation.
Walker’s transition office could not be reached for comment as of press time.
