Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster, a former Republican who switched parties in 2007, has become the first Democrat to support a repeal of ObamaCare’s most onerous provision, the mandate requiring Americans to purchase health insurance. Mr. Koster characterized the provision as “a substantial blow to federalism and personal freedom.” Yet the Attorney General hedged his bet, preferring to file a “friend of the court” brief in the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, as opposed to joining the litigation filed by Republican governors and attorneys general from 26 states. The difference reflects two realities: Mr. Koster’s personal political journey, and the tenor of Missouri politics heading into the 2012 election.
Chris Koster, who managed to withstand a barrage of criticism from both sides of the aisle when he switched parties only months before his run for Attorney General in 2008, was commonly known as a moderate Republican. When he became a Democrat, displeased state leaders on both sides of the aisle dubbed him “Koster the Impostor.” Missouri voters apparently didn’t care, handing Koster 52.8% of the vote against Republican candidate Michael R. Gibbons. It was his third position in state government, having been Prosecuting Attorney of Cass County for ten years, before being elected to the Missouri State Senate as a Republican in 2004. In announcing his switch to the Democratic Party in August 2007, Mr. Koster claimed he could no longer stay in a party that caters to right-wing extremists. “At such a juncture, a man can either change his beliefs in order to preserve his party, or a man can change his party in order to preserve his beliefs. Today I choose the latter. I am a Democrat,” said Koster in his announcement.
Apparently Mr. Koster is once again changing his beliefs–or bowing to the reality that Missouri’s electorate has moved to the right since the 2008 election. Although Barack Obama lost the state narrowly in 2008, with less than 4,000 votes separating the president and John McCain, Missouri voters completely rejected ObamaCare in a 2010 ballot referendum aimed at nullifying the law. The process began on July 7, 2010, when Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder and three Missouri plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against the health care bill. Acting in his official capacity as lieutenant governor, as well as his personal capacity as a citizen of the state, Mr. Kinder contended that the law raised health care costs while decreasing coverage, and placed unconstitutional mandates on the citizens of Missouri. Kinder was criticized at the time by Missouri Democratic Party spokesman Ryan Hobart who speculated that Kinder was “allowing his office to be subsidized by the insurance industry and its lobbyists or candidates who want this law repealed.” Mr Kinder countered that the lawsuit costs were underwritten by private donations made to a non-profit corporation he set up.
On August 3, 2010 during the General Assembly, Republicans proposed a bill allowing Missourians to opt out of certain provisions in ObamaCare. 25 Democrats in the Missouri House and Senate sided with 109 Republicans to approve putting “Proposition C” on the ballot. Prop C, which proposed that “no federal law shall compel a patient, employer, or health care provider to participate in any government or privately run health care system, nor prohibit a patient or employer from paying directly for legal health care services,” was the first time voters had the chance to express their support or rejection of the controversial health care bill since its passage. Prior to the vote, a lawsuit was filed to prevent it from being put on the ballot, and Republicans who sponsored the measure had to settle for a vote on the proposed law during the primary contests, as opposed to putting it on the 2010 ballot in the form of a state constitutional amendment. They did so in order to avoid a Democratic filibuster in the state senate. The August primary garnered national attention, and the final totals were a wipe out for the president’s plan: over 70 percent of Missourians rejected the measure.
Moving on to 2011, both houses of the Missouri legislature passed non-binding resolutions calling on Koster to challenge last year’s health care overhaul. Koster admitted that those resolutions were “impactful, as they give voice to the political will of Missourians.” When he filed his brief he was more direct, contending that Congress over-reached with the individual mandate, calling it “a substantial blow to federalism and personal freedom.” “If Congress can force activity under the Commerce Clause, then it could force individuals to receive vaccinations or annual checkups, undergo mammogram or prostate exams or maintain a specific body mass,” he argued.
Yet once again, Mr. Koster hedged his bet. Despite arguing that the individual requirement to buy insurance should be stripped from the bill, he asked that the rest of the law be kept intact. This ambivalence contradicts the most recent ruling on the case by Florida federal district judge Roger Vinson. ”Because the individual mandate is unconstitutional and not severable,” wrote Vinson, ”the entire Act must be declared void.” This was a reference to the fact that when Congress passed ObamaCare they didn’t include a severability clause which states that ”invalidity or unenforceability of one or more provisions of this Agreement shall not affect any other provision of this Agreement.” Judge Vinson explained what he considered the limits on the judicial branch of government:
Going through the 2,700-page Act line-by-line, invalidating dozens (or hundreds) of some sections while retaining dozens (or hundreds) of others, would not only take considerable time and extensive briefing, but it would, in the end, be tantamount to rewriting a statute in an attempt to salvage it. … Courts should not even attempt to do that[.]
Thus, Judge Vinson declared the entire law unconstitutional, but he has stayed his ruling until the Supreme Court decides what to do. Mr. Koster has defended his own position, writing that while he supports the expanded health care coverage provided by ObamaCare, he is beholden “to the law, and not to a political outcome.”
Many political experts consider Missouri a “bellwether state” due to the fact that residents have voted for the winner in every presidential election but two since 1904, with the exceptions being 1956–and 2008. In 2012, the state’s two top Democrats, Gov. Jay Nixon and Senator Claire McCaskill are up for re-election along with Koster. Nixon, who was Missouri’s State Attorney General prior to Koster, won the governorship in a landslide in 2008. McCaskill was elected in 2006, with 49.6% of the vote, narrowly defeating then-incumbent Republican Jim Talent. McCaskill supported ObamaCare. Nixon has no official track record either way, but he failed to support Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder’s lawsuit.
Only Chris Koster knows for certain whether his decision to break ranks with his party is based on principle or political ambition, but there is no doubt where Missourians stand on ObamaCare. They are hardly alone. According to the latest Rasmussen poll of likely voters, Americans have supported repealing Obamacare for 56 consecutive weeks, by double-digits, in every week but one. As the 2012 election gets closer, the bet here is that Mr. Koster will also not be standing alone. The 2010 election demonstrated the pitfalls Democrats face defending one of the most despised pieces of legislation to come out of Congress in quite some time. Attorney General Koster has already demonstrated his political flexibility with respect to party affiliation. Now he’s demonstrating something even more germane to political careers: an instinct for survival.
Arnold Ahlert is a contributing columnist to the conservative website JewishWorldReview.com.
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