FLORIDA ATTORNEY GENERAL MCCOLLUM WANTS STATES TO RESIST HEALTH CARE BILL

12/30/2009 • godlikeproductions.com

TALLAHASSEE — Attorney General Bill McCollum called on other states’ legal officers Tuesday to review a “tax on living” in the pending federal health-care proposals. In a conference call with reporters, McCollum also said he might mount a court challenge if the final health package includes a Senate provision requiring the federal government to cover future Medicaid costs in Nebraska. That was added last week for Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., who provided the 60th vote needed by President Obama and Senate Democrats to get the plan to a vote. State Sen. Dan Gelber of Miami Beach, a Democratic candidate for attorney general, accused McCollum, a Republican, of pouncing on the controversy to advance his own campaign for governor. Gelber said McCollum didn’t use his discretion as the state’s chief legal officer to enforce a state constitutional requirement for adequate funding of education, but chose to make a “legal review” of health care because that issue stirs the conservative base amo