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Snowe, Collins back lawsuit challenging health-care law
Washington Post ^ | 11/22/10 | Matt DeLong

Posted on 11/22/2010 1:48:00 PM PST by FTJM

The Portland (Maine) Press-Herald reports that both of Maine's senators -- Republicans Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins -- are signing on to a friend-of-the-court brief in support of a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the new health-care law.

The brief was initiated by U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and boasts the signatures of 30 Senate Republicans. The lawsuit was brought by the attorneys general for several states and the National Federation of Independent Businesses, a small-business trade organization.

At issue is a requirement that U.S. citizens purchase health insurance beginning in 2014 or face a fine -- known as the "individual mandate."

As the lone Republican on the Senate Finance Committee who voted to move the bill -- which at the time included an individual mandate (though Snowe made clear then that she didn't support that provision) -- to the full Senate last year, Snowe was the only Republican senator who supported the bill at any stage. She did not vote for final passage of the bill in March. Snowe and Collins are widely viewed as two of a dwindling number of GOP moderates remaining in Congress.

Snowe is up for reelection in 2012, and Maine tea party groups have already pledged to mount a primary challenge. Snowe is no doubt taking the threat seriously, considering the Maine GOP adopted a tea party-backed platform this year and Paul LePage, a combative conservative candidate who promised to tell President Obama to "go to hell," won the state's gubernatorial race in November. Collins faces reelection in 2014.

UPDATE: In an interview last year with Karen Tumulty -- then of TIME and now of The Post -- Snowe voiced opposition to the individual mandate on affordability grounds, but didn't say anything about the provision's constitutionality.

(Excerpt) Read more at voices.washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Maine
KEYWORDS: collins; snowe
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To: GizzyGirl

Not that “blue” anymore. We now have a Republican Gov.


21 posted on 11/22/2010 2:31:48 PM PST by VeeP22
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To: FTJM

Even a blind pig (in this case two pigs) finds a truffle once in awhile.


22 posted on 11/22/2010 2:32:33 PM PST by JaguarXKE (RINOs be gone!)
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To: bert
Well, there is this from National Review:

Olympia Snowe is getting a challenger - and soon

And Repubicans won both the state legislature and the governor's office this time around.

Maybe, just maybe...

23 posted on 11/22/2010 2:34:32 PM PST by Madame Dufarge
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To: FTJM

A court decision would be the quickest way to stop Obamacare.


24 posted on 11/22/2010 2:34:40 PM PST by Anti-Bubba182
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To: GizzyGirl
one or both of them helped bring the whole Health Care bill to a vote

"As the lone Republican on the Senate Finance Committee who voted to move the bill -- which at the time included an individual mandate (though Snowe made clear then that she didn't support that provision) -- to the full Senate last year, Snowe was the only Republican senator who supported the bill at any stage. She did not vote for final passage of the bill in March. Snowe and Collins are widely viewed as two of a dwindling number of GOP moderates remaining in Congress."

25 posted on 11/22/2010 2:35:22 PM PST by SeeSac
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To: VeeP22

You also have two Republican Senators.

That means quantity, but not quality


26 posted on 11/22/2010 2:37:17 PM PST by bert (K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 .....( History is a process, not an event ))
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To: FTJM

Snowe voted for it, didn’t she?


27 posted on 11/22/2010 2:41:45 PM PST by blondee123 (REPEAL OBAMACARE, NO NEW TAXES, NO NEW SPENDING!)
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To: SeeSac

What a Snowe Job.


28 posted on 11/22/2010 2:46:56 PM PST by screaminsunshine (Americanism vs Communism)
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To: FTJM

Too Late! You ugly Hags!

You can slap lipstick on a pig....


29 posted on 11/22/2010 2:50:28 PM PST by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously... You'll never live through it.)
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To: definitelynotaliberal
In that case, more power to those Democrats. Between Dem and Dem Lite, why bother with Dem Lite?

But they're not Dem lite.

They are liberal Republicans, yes, but they are not communists - and their replacements will be.

30 posted on 11/22/2010 2:52:45 PM PST by Jim Noble (It's the tyranny, stupid!)
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To: FTJM

OLYMPIA SNOWE IS PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE HEALTH CARE FIASCO. SHE VOTED TO MOVE IT OUT OF COMMITTEE KNOWING IT WOULD PASS IF IT HIT THE FLOOR OF THE SENATE. SHE GAVE BEN NELSON POLITICAL COVER SINCE HE IS A RAT IN A RED STATE.

SNOWE AND COLLINS MUST BE PURGED!!!!!!!!!


31 posted on 11/22/2010 3:20:23 PM PST by SC_Pete (The)
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To: FTJM

stay focused folks. we are winning.


32 posted on 11/22/2010 3:24:46 PM PST by rrrod (at home in Medellin Colombia)
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To: bert

Unfortunately you’re right, but it’s a step in the right direction, and at least the dem governor was finally sent packing.


33 posted on 11/22/2010 3:34:13 PM PST by VeeP22
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To: SC_Pete

Yep.


34 posted on 11/22/2010 3:40:22 PM PST by FTJM
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To: definitelynotaliberal
Exactly!...Had Snow held her ground as a republican...IT WOULD HAVE NEVER MADE IT OUT OF COMMITEE...(they needed 1 Republican vote)

Instead, she got it out of committee knowing full well it would pass with the Dems and she could take false cover by voting against it!!!

Shes a “Stealth Democrat”...always has been

35 posted on 11/22/2010 4:40:49 PM PST by M-cubed
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To: definitelynotaliberal

“In that case, more power to those Democrats. Between Dem and Dem Lite, why bother with Dem Lite?”

Easy, they both voted to put Roberts and Alito on the bench. I have difficulty thinking of how we’d be better off with Dems in those seats.


36 posted on 11/22/2010 5:17:14 PM PST by BobL (The whole point of being human is knowing when the party's over.)
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To: pallis

Snowe is responsible for this health care bill getting out of the Senate. It’s too dang late to flip flop now, Rinopig traitor.


37 posted on 11/22/2010 5:39:57 PM PST by SaraJohnson
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To: FTJM

Nothing like a big win by conservatives to shove a re-bar up the spine of a RINO!


38 posted on 11/23/2010 4:30:45 AM PST by jmaroneps37 (Conservatism is truth. Liberalism is lies.)
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To: FTJM

this might bode well for them holding firm against DREAM act


39 posted on 11/23/2010 8:56:09 AM PST by Uncledave
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