Small-Business Lobby Joins Florida Health-Care Suit

By William McQuillen     May 14 (Bloomberg) -- The National Federation of Independent Business, a small-business lobbying group, joined Florida’s legal challenge to the health-care reform law passed in March, becoming the first private organization seeking to overturn the measure.     The group’s filing today came as the end-of-week deadline approached for amending the complaint initially brought by Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum. The lawsuit’s plaintiffs now include 20 states.

The states claim the legislation places an unconstitutional burden on their budgets by expanding Medicaid, the federal-state program that provides health care for the poor. Virginia sued separately in March, contending that a requirement that people buy health insurance exceeds Congress’s powers.

Read On Small-Business Lobby Joins Florida Health-Care Suit

American Expats Giving Up Citizenship in Record Numbers

The number of Americans choosing not merely to retire but often to live and work in other countries — expatriates or "expats" — has been increasing steadily for a number of years now. According to one source, the number of American expats has risen to four million, and the steady trickle of Americans out of this country shows no signs of abating.
Americans’ reasons for leaving differ from case to case. Some are convinced that the global empire emanating from Washington, D.C. is in its declining days, as was Rome at one point, and are seeking safe havens for themselves and their families just in case economic shocks in the United States continue. Others have either been sent or have chosen to pursue desirable careers overseas. Some, finally, just desire the experience of living in a different culture.
A new report now indicates that American expats are not just relocating overseas but taking the much bigger leap of relinquishing their U.S. citizenship. According to the Federal Register, during the final quarter of 2009 502 expatriated Americans gave up their citizenship or permanent residency status to fully embrace that of a foreign land. This was the largest quarterly figure in years — and more than twice the figure for all of 2008, which saw 235 renunciations. The total figure of renunciations for 2009 was 743.

Continue Reading