FDR Library hosts Health Care Reform Debate

Featuring Senior Fellow Richard Kirsch, former National Campaign Manager for Health Care for America Now

 

 

The Hudson Valley Debate Union announces:

The Health Care Act Debate at Historic FDR Estate

When: Wednesday, June 1st, 2011.  7:00pm-9:00pm ET 

Where: Henry A. Wallace Center at the FDR Presidential Library & Home, 4079 Albany Post Rd., Hyde Park, NY

 

The Hudson Valley Debate Union, which brings interactive, face-to-face “Oxford-style” debating to the Hudson Valley and beyond, announces its first-ever debate event to be held at the historic estate of President Franklin D. Roosevelt on the banks of the Hudson. The subject will be one of today’s public policy flashpoints—the recently enacted Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PL 111-152) of 2010.

This House opposes the order of the U.S. District Court for Northern Florida granting summary judgment in Florida et al. v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Scheduled to speak in favor of the motion will be:

  • Mr. Richard Kirsch, Senior Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and former National Campaign Manager for Health Care for America Now.

  • Mr. Mark Scherzer, Legislative Counsel, New Yorkers for Accessible Health Coverage

  • A potential third speaker to be named later.

Scheduled to speak against the motion will be:

  • Mr. Steve Lonegan, Americans for Prosperity of New Jersey.

  • Mr. Robert Fois, blogger from NewsCopy.org

  • A potential third speaker to be named later.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act—called ‘Obamacare’ by its opponents—was one of the most controversial bills ever debated and enacted by the Congress. The debate is not over: twenty-six states, joined by several other parties, sued in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, seeking a judgment that the legislation was unconstitutional. On January 31st, the judge hearing the case, Richard Vinson, granted summary judgment to the states and their allies and ruled that the Obamacare law was unconstitutional. The Government appealed that decision. Exactly two months later, on March 31st, the U.S. Court of Appeals sitting in Atlanta announced that oral arguments in the case will be heard in their court on June 8th. So our HVDU debate takes place mere days before that crucial oral argument.

Supporters of the law believe that it will bring affordable health care to millions of previously uninsured Americans. Opponents of the law believe that the Federal Government has no constitutional authority to enact such a law in the first place, and object to the law’s ‘individual mandate’ that will compel every American to buy a federally-approved health insurance policy, whether they want such a policy or not.

This debate will ultimately be resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court, but before it arrives there, our HVDU Principal Speakers will thrash out the issues involved.