Posted on 06/28/2012 10:25:40 AM PDT by US Navy Vet
SOMEBODY give us SOME hope!
On Drudge now:
Republican governors vow to ignore Obamacare...
well, there is this article I just read.... as close to a silver lining as you can get, i guess...
Was today’s Supreme Court Obamacare decision a win for conservatives or a loss? It depends on what you were rooting for.
If you were above all interested in the bill being struck down, it was mostly a loss. On the other hand, if you were more concerned about the qualitative expansion in the power of the government that the bill represented, it was definitely a win.
First, the Roberts Court put real limits on what the government can and cannot do. For starters, it restricted the limits of the Commerce Clause, which does not give the government the power to create activity for the purpose of regulating it. This is a huge victory for those of us who believe that the Constitution is a document which offers a limited grant of power.
Second, the Roberts Court also threw out a portion of the Medicaid expansion. States have the option of withdrawing from the program without risk of losing their funds. This is another major victory for conservatives who cherish our system of dual sovereignty. This was also a big policy win for conservatives; the Medicaid expansion was a major way the Democrats hid the true cost of the bill, by shifting costs to the states, but they no longer can do this.
Politically, Obama will probably get a short-term boost from this, as the media will not be able to read between the lines and will declare him the winner. But the victory will be short-lived. The Democrats were at pains not to call this a tax because it is inherently regressive: the wealthy overwhelmingly have health insurance so have no fear of the mandate. But now that it is legally a tax, Republicans can and will declare that Obama has slapped the single biggest tax on the middle class in history, after promising not to do that.
Conservatives have a shot at getting the best of both worlds: having the Supreme Court use Obamacare as a way to limit federal power while also using the democratic process to overturn the law. I didn’t think we could have one without the other, but now maybe we can.
GOP governors vow to ignore Obamacare
http://washingtonexaminer.com/gop-governors-vow-to-ignore-obamacare/article/2500862
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
There should be a silver lining for the insurance companies.
If I were a health insurance provider I would be putting together a “minimum coverage” policy with very high deductibles and rates that mirror the “tax”. I would think most folks would rather buy SOMETHING than just forfeit their money.
romney has NO choice but to go BOLD and that is...romney/palin 2012 !!!!!!
And the vast majority of Americans will yawn and go back to watching American Idol.
1. Obama, democrats and the judges who voted for this is the most despised people in the country.
2. This will wake up those people who thought they were too busy to pay attention to what comrade obama and his followers were doing. Angry people will vote.
3. States rights. Scotus said states can opt out without threat of having their federal funds stripped. We all need to write to our governors and tell them to opt us out.
4. The democrat party is toast.
5. Independents and Reagan democrats will realize how conservative they really are.
Come and get me copper! HEHEHEHEHEHE!
?
Much of it has already been implemented-started in Sept 2010..i.e. no longer pre ex on kids younger than 18, kids covered until age 26 on their parents plan, physicals, mammograms covered at 100% with no deductible etc.
—Have you heard the saying “Give them enough rope and they’ll hang themselves”?
The rope is being uncoiled.—
That is how I see it. And based on the wording in the decision, it may be how Roberts sees it too.
Yep. It would never have passed as a tax and it cannot survive as a tax. Roberts ruling has doomed it and given us huge motivation to take action.
Bravo!
I agree with your analysis. Justice Roberts did his job by looking at the constitutionality, not by being an activist for the side he might have personally favored. The gov’t presented three arguments for Obamacare, two fell but the third was held to be constitutional. What more can we ask of our justices?
And to those who want to demonize Justice Roberts - bear in mind that we would condemn that kind of personal attack had the decision gone the other way. Let’s be the big people here, not act like DUmmies.
It is true that congress has the power to lay and levy taxes -- an enumerated power. Taxes, however, are never popular. What HAS occurred is the single largest tax increase in history has occurred 4 months prior to an election, and there are not exemptions from this. Everyone must pay it. Further, good luck in running on I want to raise taxes. This really holds the legislature to the fire. Additionally, as it is a tax it forces the issue then, that the house of representing can simply defund with the power of the purse, or in the event repeal, with a republican senate and house, and president, reconciliation can be used to end the program -- sweet justice -- just the way that it was forced down our throat.
I think that this ruling, though I would have loved to see the whole thing go down, really actually puts the liberals in a bind...calling it what it is a TAX (remember no one on the lib side wanted that word used) and in the event the whole thing went down, single payer would have had an excellent chance of being enacted.
With all due respect to my fellow freepers....this is not the end of our republic, this is the reinvigoration of what it means to be a representative republic. The court merely forced the issue -- and it is true, the court does not exist to protect us from bad laws, just unconstitutional ones. Elections mean things, and I am heartened that the commerce clause and necessary and proper clause have been limited. This forces the legislature to be honest, which when raising taxes is NEVER popular. Finally, I believe that this will lead to free market reforms when President Romney (no not my first choice) who is a business man takes office. He hit it out of the park with repeal and rewrite...This in my judgment increases our chances of winning the war.
That is precisely the role of the Supreme Court when the political choices are not consistent with the Constitution. If people don't like something in the Constitution they can try to have it amended.
If everyone were to buy guns and ammo TODAY it would send a real message
The Good News (in the decision)
Still feels like a big loss.
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