INTRODUCTION by Bob Weiner, event coordinator, National Press Club Health Act Constitutionality AG’s Debate Newsmaker
10:00 A.M., February 9, 2012
WELCOME TO THE NATIONAL PRESS CLUB NEWSMAKER SERIES. The National Press Club is the nation’s leading organization for journalists. I’m Bob Weiner, today’s event coordinator and a National Press Club Newsmakers Committee member.
Today two outstanding and prominent state attorneys general, Martha Coakley of Massachusetts and Ken Cuccinelli of Virginia, will lead a National Press Club Newsmaker, “The Affordable Health Care Act -- Constitutional or Not?” as a prelude to the Supreme Court’s March consideration of the law.
Ken Cuccinelli brings personal experience with his state’s legislation and national leadership concerning the federal health care lawsuit, while Martha Coakley has deep knowledge of the Massachusetts legislation and will discuss state and federal law. Cuccinelli filed the first constitutional lawsuit to the Supreme Court against the Affordable Health Care Act, before 26 other state attorneys general; while Coakley is the expert in her home state so called Romney Care’s legal basis and how it does or does not serve as precedent for the federal law which followed. Coakley has also filed a brief with the Supreme Court, hers supporting the National Affordable Health Care Act’s constitutionality and citing precedents.
Reelected to her second term as Attorney General in 2010, Martha Coakley has devoted her career to protecting children and public safety, standing up for consumers and taxpayers, and fighting for equality, prosecuting dangerous criminals, and protecting consumers, civil rights, and the environment. She has recently been appointed to the President’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force.
Ken Cuccinelli was elected Attorney General of Virginia and sworn into office in January 2010. Prior to serving as attorney general, he served in the Senate of Virginia from 2002 to January 2010. As a state senator and private attorney, he worked to improve the Commonwealth's mental health system. He has also been a champion for citizens’ property rights. He made government more transparent and accountable by sponsoring a law to put the state’s detailed budget online in a format that citizens could understand. Mr. Cuccinelli is proud to protect consumers from scams and fraud, take sexually violent predators out of communities, put gang members in jail, and prosecute Medicaid fraud. Like Ms. Coakley in Massachusetts, Cuccinelli is often talked about for higher Virginia office but that is not today’s subject.
The attorneys general have been invited to address several facets of the casethe Supreme Court is taking up, including the health care mandate, the tax basis, the general welfare aspect, expansion of Medicaid, severability, the law’s provisions and other areas.The Supreme Court is preparing for three days of consideration March 26-28 with five-and-a-half hours of debate and a possible June decision, so the Press Club event will be a timely preamble.
We did not call the forum today a debate but that’s essentially what it is with these two power-house and national leading attorneys general on opposing sides. The difference is that after their opening presentations, the media will have at them—we will try to keep the questioning even and fair. Please ONLY MEDIA and then National Press Club members ask questions until and unless those run out. Our humble hope is that today’s forum will serve as a primer for the media and the public for what the Supreme Court may consider as arguments for and against the bill and its provisions.
Many thanks to the staffs of both Attorneys Generals, Coakley and Cuccinelli, for their competent liaison and follow-through with the Club in arranging today’s event. As a former White House and congressional staffer myself for over 20 years, I really appreciate your work. I also want to introduce my wife and the event staff for today.
Attorneys General Coakley and Cuccinelli will each speak for 15 minutes on opposing sides, and then take questions for the remainder of the hour from the media. In the spirit of ladies first, Ms. Coakley will go first but we don’t promise that in the questions! Ms. Coakley….