these tasty crumbs!
Posted on 06/28/2012 1:48:52 PM PDT by Hunton Peck
Conservatives won a substantial victory Thursday. The physics of American politics — actions provoking reactions — continues to move the crucial debate, about the nature of the American regime, toward conservatism. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. has served this cause.
The health-care legislation’s expansion of the federal government’s purview has improved our civic health by rekindling interest in what this expansion threatens — the Framers’ design for limited government. Conservatives distraught about the survival of the individual mandate are missing the considerable consolation prize they won when the Supreme Court rejected a constitutional rationale for the mandate — Congress’s rationale — that was pregnant with rampant statism.
The case challenged the court to fashion a judicially administrable principle that limits Congress’s power to act on the mere pretense of regulating interstate commerce. At least Roberts got the court to embrace emphatic language rejecting the Commerce Clause rationale for penalizing the inactivity of not buying insurance:
“The power to regulate commerce presupposes the existence of commercial activity to be regulated. . . . The individual mandate, however, does not regulate existing commercial activity. It instead compels individuals to become active in commerce by purchasing a product, on the ground that their failure to do so affects interstate commerce. Construing the Commerce Clause to permit Congress to regulate individuals precisely because they are doing nothing would open a new and potentially vast domain to congressional authority. . . . Allowing Congress to justify federal regulation by pointing to the effect of inaction on commerce would bring countless decisions an individual could potentially make within the scope of federal regulation, and — under the government’s theory — empower Congress to make those decisions for him.”
If the mandate had been upheld under the Commerce Clause, the Supreme Court would have decisively construed this clause so permissively...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Everything is consolation prize for conservatives from the Republican party and their Supreme Court nominees. Meanwhile, the country drifts further and further to the left, all while we pretend to be winning while putting Republicans in office.
Am I the only one who see’s this whole thing as a blessing. The fight is now out in the open and Obama will sign his political death warrant.
Does George Will live in the same dimension that I do?
Jim, a number of FReepers see this as a blessing. I don’t. Romney strikes me as Caspar Milquetoast,and if he loses, I see the country going to hell in a hand basket.
The limitation on the Commerce Clause is incredibly important. We might not be happy with the ruling on taxes (which will be a fight for another day), but if Congress had been allowed to use the Commerce Clause to mandate behavior then we would be in infinitely worse trouble.
You know, maybe it is just a wishful hope for something good about this fiasco, but I can sorta understand where Will and others on the right are coming from regarding the Commerce Clause. It is a heck of a lot easier for Congress to use the Commerce Clause as an excuse to ram legislation down the throats of Americans than to use taxation as their justification. The Democrats would’ve never been as brazen to say that they are imposing a new substantial tax on Americans to fund their health care monstrosity. So, while we are stuck with this thing FOR NOW, there is a glimmer of hope. Also, wouldn’t this ruling open the door for new court challenges of existing laws that have used the Commerce Clause ruse? At first, I 100% thought Roberts was a traitor in black robes, but I am beginning to smell a whiff of genius in the decision.
george, you little bow-tied fagot... there is never Victory in losing. George S. Patton said it and Rush Limbaugh said it.
LLS
Others are coming to see this and agree with you.
As a side matter: ObamaCare is no longer the ObamaCare mandate. That ended with today’s announcement. It is now the ObamaTAX. I’m hoping a sufficient number of voters can see that.
There were no victories. True, the Court struck down the unlimited use of the Commerce Clause. But Robert’s ruling has opened a Pandora’s Box regarding both Congress’ ability to tax (now unlimited) and the Court’s inclination to blatantly legislate from the bench in order to “fix” constitutional problems with congressional intent. It has also given the court the prerogative to usurp the tax power from congress by assigning itself the seemingly arbitrary authority to decided what is and what isn’t a tax.
This is the most egregious, flimsy and whimsical decision in decades that has ripped a huge hole in the separation of powers doctrine. A dark day for the Republic indeed.
I saw it when it came out but eveone threw me under the bus! Roberts is very smart he knows law and has put it in the Laps of our lawmakers. The govt does not have the power to CREATE ACTIVITY for the PURPOSEOf REGULATING IT. Limited power. Also they threw out medical expansion. Cost cannot shift to states. A lot more to come once it’s digested. This will turn a lot of stomachs but the medicine will be sweet!!!!
PS dO NOT SUPPORT. STARBUCKS. Your dollars are supporting DEMzoCRATS. They are now committee havens for the DNC. True. Please pass on
I saw it when it came out but eveone threw me under the bus! Roberts is very smart he knows law and has put it in the Laps of our lawmakers. The govt does not have the power to CREATE ACTIVITY for the PURPOSEOf REGULATING IT. Limited power. Also they threw out medical expansion. Cost cannot shift to states. A lot more to come once it’s digested. This will turn a lot of stomachs but the medicine will be sweet!!!!
PS dO NOT SUPPORT. STARBUCKS. Your dollars are supporting DEMzoCRATS. They are now committee havens for the DNC. True. Please pass on
It’s in the open for us, but will our candidates be able to sway the American public with the simple truth? ObamaCare is a tax on the middle class for a back-door subsidization of the medical industry — aided and abetted by crony capitalists — and vote pandering by democrats. Who’s going to call these people out?
It means. . .if this is going to get fixed, the people will have to fix it AND it's only going to get fixed by the AGRESSIVE implementation of Conservative Free Market solutions.
If it means that more people have finally realized that if we truly love America, we must turn off the tube, forget about American Idol AND GET INVOLVED in saving our Republic, then, yes there is hope.
I think its a bit like walking up to the final hole at the U.S. Open with a two shot lead. . that's how I felt this morning. . it's in the bag. . .and then I 3-putted for bogey and a three way tie. A great champion, in that moment, keeps his head in the game. . .it's still on. . and it can still be won!! ON TO THE NEXT HOLE. . we can win!
OK I get it. We won the right for Congress not having to call it a tax because the Supreme Court will do it for them.
What do I care if the ‘Commerce Clause’ has been curtailed by the Supreme Court if they just use another means to the same end?
They're too busy watching American Idolatry, and frankly most of them look towards the government to give them things.
If you are not meeting soon to help register or have people show up at townhall meetings or calling your republican leaders.... You are part of the problem if you are then BRAVO!!!! But now the real work starts. tIME. tO MAKESOME NOISE!!!!
You can be positive but I am sullen because Kennedy was for killing the mandate so Roberts just had to go along with the other 4 instead of joining the liberals with this IT’s A TAX reasoning. As I stated in other posts I do not see any real difference between gov’t telling you to eat your broccoli or saying if you do not eat your broccoli you are going to pay a tax.
What Tex said!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.