My love affair with the leader of the free world continues! Barack has successfully signed his US$940 billion healthcare reform into law. I think the man deserves a holiday (in Queensland – especially after he had to cancel his trip to Australia to get this off the ground).

Of course I’m a little unimpressed that Biden’s gaffe took the focus and became the headline papers ran with – is a US healthcare bill not big enough on its own? I mean, Biden dropping the F-bomb is definitely amusing but it’s hardly the lead story here.

I’m also quite unimpressed that 13 states filed lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the reform within moments of Obama signing it into law. From the previously linked article:

“This lawsuit should put the Federal Government on notice that Florida will not permit the constitutional rights of our citizens and the sovereignty of our state to be ignored or disregarded,” the state’s Attorney General Bill McCollum said.

Mr McCollum, a Republican who is running for Governor, led the charge to challenge a provision that would require most people to buy health insurance or else pay a fine.

He was joined by the Republican attorneys general of South Carolina, Nebraska, Texas, Utah, Pennsylvania, Washington, North Dakota, South Dakota, Colorado and Alabama and the Democratic attorneys general of Michigan and Louisiana.

Mr Obama’s Republicans foes have waged a political war on the historic health care overhaul and have vowed to repeal it should they retake the House and Senate in November mid-term elections.

The Governor of Idaho signed a Bill into law last week blocking federal mandates requiring individuals in his state to purchase health insurance and a similar Bill was passed in Virginia. Some 34 other states have either filed or announced their intention to file similar legislation, according to the National Conference on State Legislatures.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said yesterday it’s typical for “big pieces of legislation” to face legal challenges but there is “pretty longstanding precedent on the constitutionality of this”.

I may have spent time living in their natural habitat but I still don’t understand Americans.