Missouri Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder was ecstatic the Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Congress does not have the authority to force people to buy a product under the commerce clause. But he was disturbed they used the tax provision of Congress to rule the healthcare law constitutional. Kinder’s lawsuit on behalf of Missourians in July 2010 was one of the reasons this issue made it to the High Court this year. He tells KZIM KSIM the 5-4 decision forces voters to decide on the healthcare law in November. Justices also ruled the law’s expansion of Medicaid benefits to those within 133-percent of the federal poverty line is constitutional. Kinder says he was happy with the Supreme Court’s ruling that the government could not take back all Medicaid funding to states that chose not to expand their programs. He says that would have bankrupted them. Missourians approved a law by a 71-percent vote in August 2010, prohibiting the government from forcing them to buy healthcare. Kinder’s fight to the Supreme Court was in response to that vote.
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