Europe Is Baffled by the U.S. Supreme Court

The Atlantic Wire ^ | 4.5.2012 | John Hudson

[TexasNative2000]

Europe is scratching its head over possibility that the U.S. Supreme Court will strike down President Obama's signature legislative achievement. As the judiciary and the Obama administration trade legal barbs over the high court's authority, the idea that health care coverage, largely considered a universal right in Europe, could be deemed an affront to liberty is baffling.

"The Supreme Court can legitimately return Obamacare?" asks a headline on the French news site 9 POK . The article slowly walks through the legal rationale behind the court's right to wipe away Congress's legislation. "Sans précédent, extraordinaires" reads the article. In the German edition of The Financial Times, Sabine Muscat is astonished at Justice Antonin Scalia's argument that if the government can mandate insurance, it can also require people to eat broccoli. "Absurder Vergleich" reads the article's kicker, which in English translates to, "Absurd Comparison." In trying to defeat the bill, Muscat writes, Scalia is making a "strange analogy [to] vegetables."

[skinkinthegrass]

very devastating...should have died in congress.

[bigoil]

You’re on a roll today.

Kudos...I always enjoy your posts.

Professor Kingsfield: ‘You come in here with a skull full of mush but you leave thinking like a lawyer.’
—The Paper Chase

[ZULU]

“In the German edition of The Financial Times, Sabine Muscat is astonished at Justice Antonin Scalia’s argument that if the government can mandate insurance, it can also require people to eat broccoli. “Absurder Vergleich” reads the article’s kicker, which in English translates to, “Absurd Comparison.” In trying to defeat the bill, Muscat writes, Scalia is making a “strange analogy [to] vegetables.”

Of course, these parasites don’t understand this. That’s why were Americans and they are what they are - losers.

[righttackle44]

Eurowinnie may well be the best word in 21st Century international political thought.

[katana]

I once had an epiphany waiting in a queue in a post office in Brussels, Belgium watching as my fellow standers-in-line waited patiently and with resigned expressions watching the fat and lazy postal employees behind the counter move about like slugs, smiling and laughing among themselves and then changing expression as, almost unwillingly, they deigned it time to take pity on the rows of their supplicants, one by one and with incredible slowness and condescending looks doing the work for which the taxpayers supplied their bloated salaries.

That is at least as I saw it as an American. And it occurred to me that my vision of what was occurring in that room was entirely different from that of the Belgians. They expected to be treated like s*** by people who to me were by definition public servants. They, these citizens were not citizens at all were subjects and no different except in the quality and fashion of their clothing than their serf ancestors, the bottom rung of the natural political order. God (although He is largely forgotten and irrelevant), the King (now the Prime Minister), the Nobles (the iron rice bowl bureaucrats), the lick spittles, lackeys, and henchmen of the Nobles (in this case these public union teat sucking postal workers), and then the Peasants (everybody else). That is their pyramid of power and authority and is at a fundamental level how their minds operate.

And I realized that for me, with the exception of God who to most of us relevant at least in Name, the pyramid stands on its pinnacle with the wide base, the People, at the top just beneath and with no one in between ourselves and the Deity. That is the American exception and is more truly revolutionary than any idea that has come along probably since the invention of fire.

[Repeal 16-17]

Europe has a difficult time understanding the concept of limited government. It can understand that governments should not be able to violate people’s rights, but it can’t fathom any other limitations.

[ROCKLOBSTER]

an affront to liberty

What the hell would the Eurotrash dirtbags know about liberty?

[Gumdrop]

I liked you response better than any of the others. I agree that the article infers that all Europeans like the idea of Pbamacare, and they think we are nuts to not like it.

Now, I am surprised tha so many posters here automatically decided to accept the premise as true. The liberal media in Europe is as bad as ours or perhaps even worse in their leftist tilt.

Since so many Europeans continue to come to the USA. it stands top reason they are not so enamored of all the socialism over there. In May 2010 I was in Bavaria (southern Germany), and spoke to a businessman in a small town. He ran a small business of collection of refuse (not exactly sure what it was, but he had several employees who drove trucks.). This man was really down on all the social programs which caused high taxation and little incentive for workers to be good employees.

So, I would not take this article as being representative of a lot of Europeans.

[know-the-law]

sfl

[Vigilanteman]

Ah, yes, the poster boy for why separation of powers are needed . . . and the Euroweenies still don't get it.

[Vigilanteman]

Ah, yes, the poster boy for why separation of powers are needed . . . and the Euroweenies still don't get it.

[mimaw]

I've spent enough time in French hospitals to judge them. Paris, Nice, have hospitals that would be closed in this country. They are old dingy and dirty. The wait time is horrible. Their doctors work for the peons morning hours and the self pay patients are scheduled for the afternoon. Their hospitals in the villages are ill equipped and waits for procedures don't guarantee the best outcomes. That would explain why they would like to see our medical care downgraded.

[cradle of freedom]

I know, Europe should think about Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini—all at the same time! Who are they to talk.

[Revolting cat!]

The article is an uninformed POS provoking the predictable equally uninformed jingoism. I expect any minute a post saying that Obumster is a Communist yeah, but he’s OUR Communist, so there. The Euros that I know know, even if this MSM journo selected those who don’t. In fact, in Switzerland, also a federation, it’s the citizens who can collectively overturn any damn law via a referendum. Can we? Also, in parliamentary systems where the prime minister is roughly the equivalent of our POTUS, that prime minister can be kicked out for lesser crimes than those committed by Saint Zero, with whom we are stuck for four or eight years. And, as the informed ones know, a PM’s job is not too secure in those countries. As it oughta be! They have courts too, to review laws, imagine that. And lots of problems that we don’t.

[Delta 21]

...We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Get it ??!!!?? We dont want to be anything like you.

[Yardstick]

Oh yes, those jingoistic Freepers.

Have you considered the possibility that you’ve evolved beyond this place? Maybe it’s time for you to consider a more enlightened forum.

[cdcdawg]

Why is our federalist system so difficult for some to understand? Romneycare actually provides a wonderful teaching moment on this, and the exercise can even bring into play the Left’s favorite judicial boogeyman (the Lochner!!! case). The federal government has specific powers that are enumerated in the Constitution, the states have general powers, except where limited in the Constitution. A state can do something as stupid as Romneycare, while the federal government cannot. Why is that sooooooooooooooo hard to grasp? I contend that it isn’t. The Left simply thinks it can use the One Ring (if I may) to do “good”. Barack Obama understands perfectly well that the Constitution stands in his way, and has plainly said as much. The Europeasants actually don’t get it because liberty is pretty rare on the Continent.

[Verginius Rufus]

I remember back in 1998, at the height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, seeing a sampling of public opinion from other countries--it appeared that they were virtually unanimous in thinking Americans were crazy to object to Clinton's behavior or to try to hold him accountable.

From One Hundred and One Famous Poems, "America for Me," by Henry Van Dyke (1852-1933):

'Tis fine to see the Old World, and travel up and down
Among the famous palaces and cities of renown,
To admire the crumbly castles and the statues of the kings,--
But now I think I've had enough of antiquated things.

So it's home again, and home again, America for me!
My heart is turning home again, and there I long to be,
In the land of youth and freedom beyond the ocean bars,
Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars

(It goes on for several more stanzas)

[grumpygresh]

That looks like the future under 0-care. I could foresee doctors working under contact, hourly for a hospital ACO on some days and then reserve their best efforts for the self pay patients.

[Intolerant in NJ]

Europe - on the verge of bankruptcy because of its unfettered spending on outrageous social programs - Is Baffled by the U.S. Supreme Court.....