Bachmann and conservatives ask governors to reject exchanges

WASHINGTON - With the Supreme Court's ruling last week to uphold the Affordable Care Act, conservative opponents of the law lost their main line of argument that the ACA was an unconstitutional expansion of government power. Now, with the help of Republican U.S. Michele Bachmann, they're urging governors to slow the implementation of the law by refusing to create the online health insurance markets known as exchanges that are one of the ACA's key policies.

In a letter sent to all 50 governors, Bachmann and other tea party-linked members of Congress argue that "implementation of this law is not inevitable" (emphasis from original text).

Still, the 12 senators and 61 representatives who signed the letter face an uphill challenge: if a state declines to set up an exchange, the federal government will do it instead.

Bachmann was the only Minnesota member of Congress to sign the letter.

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