Posted on 03/23/2010 10:03:48 PM PDT by sheikdetailfeather
I just saw Fla. AG Bill McCollum on Greta tonight. I taped it and then transcribed it roughly: Greta: "If the court were to agree that the mandate were unconstitutional, would it knock out the entire health care bill or just that one particular provision being tossed out?" McCollum: "WELL, WE THINK THAT IS THE CORE OF THE WHOLE BILL AND I BELIEVE THAT IT WOULD KNOCK OUT THE WHOLE BILL, BUT THE REALITY IS, IT IS A HOUSE OF CARDS, BECAUSE, IT IS ALL PREDICATED ON THE ASSUMPTION THAT YOU REQUIRE PEOPLE TO BE INSURED; AND IF YOU CAN'T REQUIRE PEOPLE TO BE INSURED, THEN THE METHODOLOGY OF TRYING TO SOLVE THE HEALTHCARE PROBLEM WOULD FAIL. AT LEAST THIS METHODOLOGY." He said the states are being told to provide additional services, set up ins. exchanges, etc., and the Federal govt. has no authority to do so. He said this is unprecedented. Also said 2-3 more DEMOCRAT AG's ARE GOING TO PROBABLY JOIN THE SUIT AS WELL AS MORE AG's. He said the lawsuit procedure could take anywhere from a few months to two yrs. and does not happen quickly and whoever loses would no doubt appeal.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
defund, repeal and invalidate at court level. Multi-pronged approach is needed.
From Fox’s Gatfield....
Here’s a graph from Nick Gillespie’s great piece at Reason.com. Check out the estimated cost of Medicare: $12 billion. Now check out its actual cost: $110 billion. They were only off by 900 percent.
First they tried to sell the bill on moral grounds — didn’t work. Then on efficiency grounds — still didn’t work. Then they switched to saving money. Insure 30 million new people and you’ll save billions. Using the same logic, we should insure Canada too. We’d be in the black by then!
Look, universal health care is a beautiful idea. But so is getting a pony for your fifth birthday. When daddy argues with little Susie over that pony, she doesn’t care about how they’re going to afford it. She doesn’t care if they have to sell the house. She just wants that pony.
But see, daddy should know that. And daddy shouldn’t actually buy the pony! And, most of all, he shouldn’t tell everyone that it’s cheaper than having a car.
But he just did. And the media and the Democrats fell in line like a classroom of 5-year-old girls.
They didn’t just buy the pony. They just bought the whole damn farm.
And if you disagree with me, you’re a racist homophobe who wears fur to whale-eating parties.
Or you can buy from one of these state coops which have four basic insurance plans with starting price tag of 6000 per person .
Hence the reason the states are suing .
These so called new insured patients will be push onto the
state Medicaid load for each state to fund
but no state has the funds and no MD will want to see them.
This bill was all about taxing the middle class and
the minority lawmakers getting even.
Thanks
Hmmm.....this gives me an idea. It may be lame but maybe all conservatives should contact their state Medicaid board and tell them we want our free healthcare because Obama promised it.
Ass em for the pony too.
You said:
“This bill was all about taxing the middle class and
the minority lawmakers getting even.”
Bingo. It is wealth distribution and “social justice” aka reparations.
Even collecting the tax and then issuing vouchers with which citizens would be required to “purchase” health insurance would have been more aligned with the usual interpretations of the federal government’s powers than mandating an individual purchase.
So, it seems to me the feds are between a rock and a hard place here. It’s likely they can fairly easily win their case by arguing that the individual mandate actually is a tax with a cute name. But then they’ve got the political problem that they’d be admitting that this “free” healthcare actually is going to be funded, first, by a direct tax on individuals regardless of income.
2. This Heritage article, White House Health Care Rhetoric About to Meet Reality, has this to say about state Medicaid programs:
Though the bill will cover the cost of the benefits expansion, it will not cover the added administrative costs, which Heritage analyst Ed Haislmaier has highlighted. According to an article on Bloomberg.com, “States faced with unprecedented declines in tax collections are cutting benefits and payments to hospitals and doctors in Medicaid, the health program for the poor paid jointly by state and U.S. governments. The costs to hire staff and plan for the average 25 percent increase in Medicaid rolls may swamp budgets.”
Haislmaier projects the added administrative cost to the states would total $9.6 billion between 2014, when the provision is implemented, and 2019. This extra burden comes at a time when states are trying to tighten their budgets to account for decreasing revenues. Research by former Heritage analyst Dennis Smith and Ed Haislmaier shows that, as the fiscal burden of the Medicaid expansion grows, it would be in states’ interests to drop the program entirely: “The savings to state budgets are so enormous that failure to leave Medicaid might be viewed as irresponsible on the part of elected state officials. The federal government, however, would be left holding a trillion-dollar-plus tab.”
Clearly, this indicates that, whatever steps the federal government might take to "punish" a state (by withholding funds, for example), states do have the power to "leave Medicaid" and, therefore, leave the feds to pick up the tab.
If the feds cannot directly force the states to fund Medicaid, I'm interested to see on what basis the feds think they can force individuals to fund Medicaid through individual "purchases," not invoking the feds' power to tax.
Moreover, if states can opt out of Medicaid, maybe this gives them standing to opt out, essentially, on behalf of all citizens of the state.
Here’s a transcript of a great call to Rush today, from Stacey, the EIB insurance expert:
Oh, no. If you can’t pay, you won’t have to and you won’t get penalized either. The same people we were paying for before by hidden surcharges in our premiums and healthcare costs will still be getting “free” healthcare — except there will be millions and millions more of them and it will cost us more and more.
Well done, my FRiend! And my greatest compliments to the chef!
I think you can apply online for lots of “free” stuff, such as food stamps (nifty new name — SNAP), bus passes, cell phone, utility vouchers, and of course healthcare.
The crypto-communistic Democratic Party is arrogant because is has deceived many naive, uniformed people or has played on the anti-white, anti-Christian, anti-conservative views of many non whites and feels it can whip-saw them into doing anything the Party wants them to do. That and the cultural Marxist media in the US keeps the Democrat Party (really a kind of cut-out party for the CPUSA)in power. But people are waking up.
I believe another point the government will argue that the Constituion under the Commerce Act, state something to the point that they can impose national powers for the general good of the country. That point should be challenged. As an individual I don’t want “general” healthcare directed to me or my family. As an individual with rights, I want to protect my family with the best health care program.
According to CSAC, starting in federal fiscal year 2014, all individuals with incomes at 133 percent of the federal poverty level or lower will be eligible for coverage under Medicaid. The federal government will cover the costs of benefits at 100 percent for the first three years, through 2016. That reimbursement rate will fall to 95% in 2017 and phase down to 90% in 2020 and thereafter.
Everyone should read that transcript as there is a lot of very important info there. Love the commies’ plan to have none of the bad stuff hit people until after the election in November. Grrrrrrrrrrrr.....
Thanks for your long post earlier in the thread as well as the link to this transcript.
Here is a President who speaks of 'spreading the wealth' - ours not his - whose own Aunt; living in America illegally; is living on our dime. A man whose brother essentially lives in a 'box' of a house in Africa and receives nothing from his brother Obama to 'lift him up'.
What journalist is going to ask 'why'? What would happen to 'tea party' sign holder; if they did. . .would they be accused of hate crime for a 'shout out' they did not make; would they have unexplained 'flat tires' for however long, deemed worthy by these people who, in secret and in truth; rule like mafia goons?
They will eat our legal challenges - and spit the crumbs back in our face. Hope I am wrong; we do need strong. . .and lots of it.
Heh, I hear ya. I was unemployed for several months. When I finally found a job, it was making $30,000 less than I had been making before (just no jobs out there in my overly glutted field). I can afford catastrophic temporary insurance, which I renew every six months, and then only barely. I cannot even begin to imagine what Obamacare is going to do to my already struggling budget.
How about the court knocking down the muslim invader in the oval office?
And i’ll bet the ones that don’t outperform the others economically and when the govt decides those states have to carry the water for the failures thats when the [roverbial poop will hit the fan.
Getting Democrat AGs, if they aren't moles, is a pretty big deal. I already saw one "news" outlet pretending this was all Republicans.
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