State leaders react to Supreme Court healthcare ruling - WCIV-TV | ABC News 4 - Charleston News, Sports, Weather

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) -- As soon as the announcement was made that the Supreme Court had upheld the individual insurance requirement at the heart of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, releases from state leaders came pouring in with their reactions.

Congressman Tim Scott focused on the dollars the plan would cost middle America.

"We already found $500 billion in new taxes as part of Obamacare, and now that is multiplied even further. Simply put, the American people have been misled as to what the individual mandate was, and today the veil has been lifted – it is a tax on hardworking, blue collar American families," he said in a release.

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham also focused on the issue of new taxes.

"The problem for the American people is this is a massive tax increase at a time they can least afford it, and Obamacare will jeopardize the quality and accessibility of health care," he said.

South Carolina State Attorney General Alan Wilson worried that the states would not be able to afford the plan.

"Under the Act, the states will be forced to expand their Medicaid rolls to unprecedented levels. While the court ruled today that existing federal money used to fund Medicaid cannot be cut, any new money necessary to fund this explosion of new recipients could be withheld from any state that does not fall in line with Congress' wishes. Many states will simply not be able to afford this new onerous mandate," he said in a release Thursday.