Today, the National Federation of Independent Business joined the states suing the federal government on the grounds that federal health reform is unconstitutional. Wow – this ups the ante, right?

Politico seems to think so, saying its daily health care alert this morning:

…politically and symbolically, it could make the lawsuit look less partisan, less like an election year stunt by a bunch of Republican governors and AGs. While long opposed to the law, the NFIB is the nation’s most influential small business lobby at 350,000 members and it will now be formally on record saying the law’s mandates affront the Constitution…

But the NFIB, as I pointed out in a story last November, appears to be anti-Democratic health reform even though that reform empirically includes major benefits for small business. Overall and broadly, this sector of the U.S. economy stands to gain far more than it loses under reform.

As I said in my previous story, the NFIB fought hard against the employer mandate despite that most small businesses would be exempt from the rule. The NFIB helped defeat the public option, even though it would have been a cheaper way for its members to insure its workers without any mandates. In short, the NFIB seemed then to be shooting itself in the foot or misunderstanding how health reform would affect small businesses.

Is that happening again?