Sen. Steve Daines has often been critical of federal judges who “legislate from the bench,” in his words, but apparently legislating from the bench is perfectly acceptable as long as it suits his ideological goals.
Daines recently expressed his support for a lawsuit currently before the Supreme Court that seeks to invalidate the entire Affordable Care Act. If the lawsuit were to succeed, Montana’s Medicaid expansion (which Daines has voted to undermine) and protections for 152,000 Montanans with a pre-existing condition could be lost.
Of all the lawsuits Daines could be on board with in the middle of a global pandemic, he chooses the one that would rip health care coverage from the most vulnerable of our neighbors when they need it most. He didn’t get his wish to repeal the Affordable Care Act in Congress, so now he wants the Supreme Court to do his work for him.
I’m hopeful the Supreme Court will choose to protect the thousands of Montanans with pre-existing conditions and that are covered under the Medicaid expansion signed into law by Gov. Steve Bullock. But in the meantime, we should focus on choosing a new senator – one who will work harder to expand access to affordable health care than he does to sabotage it.
Lynn Stanley
Kalispell