Lawsuit filed challenging constitutionality of DRA

From a NAELA press release:

An elder law attorney has filed a challenge to the constitutionality of the Deficit Reduction Act.   Jim Zeigler says Congress violated clear requirements of the U.S. Constitution when it passed S. 1932, which was signed into law by President George W. Bush Feb. 8. He asked the federal court to void the Act because differing versions passed the U.S. House and U.S. Senate. “An eighth-grader in civics class knows that a bill cannot become law unless the identical bill passes the House and Senate and is signed by the President. Congressmen did not read the bill, and they made a serious, foolish mistake,” Zeigler said. “Different versions of the bill passed the House and Senate. The bill was not legally enacted into law.”

The Senate bill says patients dependent on medical equipment such as oxygen get to live for 13 months. The House bill says they get to live 36 months. The President signed the Senate version, which never passed the House.” Legal authorities are already joining in agreement that Congress made a mistake, and the bill was not legally enacted. Zeigler says the Act would penalize church tithes and normal gifting by senior citizens, including presents for Christmas, birthdays, weddings, graduations, and charitable donations. “All gifts by a senior would be totaled for the five years preceding nursinghome admission. He would then have to pay five years of donations back to
Medicaid before becoming eligible for nursing home coverage,” Zeigler said.”This Act penalizes faithful givers and hurts church budgets. Senior citizens are the lifeblood of many churches.”

Zeigler is a long-time conservative activist. He was elected as Bush Delegate to Republican National Conventions in 2000 and 2004. He served on the Bush legal team in Florida in 2004.

A copy of the complaint is available at http://jimzeigler.com/