California Conservative

Tuesday afternoon, Megyn Kelly aired her interview of Virginia Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli. Here’s a partial transcript of the interview:

KELLY: How significant is this victory?
CUCCINELLI: It is very significant for a number of reasons. One, it allows us to go forward on the merits of the health care lawsuit. That’s critical, both in terms of how long it will take to resolve this conflict and because we get to the merits. We get to the question of whether the commerce clause and the taxing power can support this legislation that Congress and the President have passed, which we and over twenty other states have said is unconstitutional.
KELLY: You know the Obama administration has responded to the loss by essentially downplaying it, saying that they are confident that this law will be found constitutional and adding that this challenge and other challenges like it are an attempt to settle a political dispute, basically saying it’s sour grapes because this law got passed and it played out fairly and folks should just have to live with it. Your response to that?
CUCCINELLI: You know, when I was a Republican legislator, I opposed Virginia participating in No Child Left Behind, a Republican president’s proposal. When this bill came through, I was the attorney general and I have an obligation to protect the Constitution and the statutes of Virginia. That’s what we’re doing with this case. They have violated the Constitution. It’s my duty to take it on and I think we’re likely to prevail. There’s no guarantees when it’s unprecedented but in the ruling yesterday, the judge said, whether it’s found unconstitutional or not, that under both the Commerce Clause jurisprudence and the taxing power law that exists today, this bill is out beyond the limits of both of them. So if it’s found to be constitutional, it will be the new outer limit of federal power and I would tell you it would essentially be the end of federalism as we’ve known it for over 220 years in this country.
KELLY: You know, if this judge, who was a George Bush appointee, rules in your favor, this will obviously go up on appeal and possibly will wind up and likely will wind up in the U.S. Supreme Court. According to the judge, it really does raise unprecedented issues about government power and what the Congress can do and how far into our personal lives they can and cannot reach.
The reason this is so unusual, this health care bill in general, and the individual mandate in specific that you challenged, is because, for the first time ever, they are essentially penalizing, taxing, however way you want to put it, someone sitting in their own house and not doing anything. That’s essentially makes this so extraordinary, correct?
CUCCINELLI: That’s absolutely right. they’re trying to treat doing nothing as economic activity. That has never, ever been done before. In fact, King George III and his parliament recognized that they couldn’t do it but this congress and this president don’t recognize that the Constitution restrains them from that opportunity. (more…)