Posted on 06/30/2012 10:23:54 AM PDT by EternalVigilance
In the wake of the Supreme Court ruling on the Affordable Care Act, I have noticed a curious phenomenon in which some conservative commentators seem to be so desperate to find a silver lining to the ruling that they have abandoned all logic. Consider George Will, who wrote a column in the aftermath of the ruling that actually puts forward the argument that we conservatives should take the fact that Roberts didn’t rely upon the commerce clause as evidence that there might be some constitutional limitation on the federal government after all. That would be a wonderful aspect of this ruling, if they had overturned the law! Instead, what we have is a monstrous precedent set in which the court re-writes a law in order to make it constitutional by imputing into the act a tax that had not existed in fact. This is an unmitigated disaster. I have heard a few who have noted hopefully that this ruling will energize the conservative base, and while that’s probably the case, I’m not certain I am so concerned about the political fall-out as I am about the long-run constitutional implications. You see, the political situation may permit us to repair the law, but it doesn’t permit us to immediately repair the damage done to the body of case law upon which future courts will rely as precedents in their own rulings.
The other thing I have read is the bizarre notion put forward by the National Review that what Roberts did was more conservative because he exercised judicial restraint in not striking down the law. Balderdash! Once you realize the legal contortions through which Roberts arrived at this ruling, it makes no sense whatever to claim he hadn’t acted as an activist. The convoluted logic by which he found a tax in a law that plainly states it does not contain one is an onerous breech of any notion of strict construction. I cannot conceive of any intellectually rigorous examination of this ruling by which this can be seen as a positive by anybody who is in favor of strict construction. When it came to the Anti-Injunction section of the ruling, it was held not to have been a tax, but just a few pages later, as Roberts performed mental gymnastics, he declared it was a tax after all.
On Thursday evening, Mark Levin summarized the matter better than anybody I’ve heard speak to this matter, in part because he understands the legalities in question, his Landmark Legal Foundation having been a participant in this case, but also because he knew Justice Roberts years ago when they both worked in the Reagan administration. Levin’s critique of the decision mirrors most of my own, and indeed, there was one aspect I hadn’t considered until Levin led me to it. That premise led me to yet another that I don’t believe Levin has yet realized in full. What one must understand is that this ruling is an unmitigated disaster, and no search for some alleged silver lining can repair it.
What Justice Roberts actually did was to expand the definition of what constitutes a permissible tax . Congress is permitted to levy only certain forms of tax, and this one doesn’t fit the definition of any of them. In dispensing with that issue, Roberts held that it didn’t matter, and that words don’t matter, and that plain-written legislative language doesn’t matter. He also ignored the context of the law, and the intent of Congress. One version of this bill had an actual tax, but Congress could not pass it in that form, so Congress altered it to contain no tax. What John Roberts did was to ignore the actual text of the legislation, and to say that the labels didn’t matter: If it looks like a tax, it is one. The problem with this is that it does nothing to restrain Congress from levying new taxes, and ignores the definitions of what sort of taxes Congress may enact. This is a wholesale extension of Congressional taxing authority because what Roberts ruled with respect to the particular form of the tax, insofar as the question of whether Congress had met the constitutional limits on whether it could impose it was effectively: “Close enough.”
That is offered to us as evidence of John Roberts’ alleged strict construction? Close enough? What this means, effectively, is that if Congress enacts some tax that it has questionable constitutional authority to levy, smiling John will be there to tell us it’s “close enough,” with every leftist monster on the court standing behind him to uphold it.
Ladies and gentlemen, there exists no silver lining to this ruling. All of the crackpot, delusional happy-talk from some conservatives in media is designed to make you feel better. You’ve just lost both arms and legs in a brutal assault, but they tell you, you should consider this a happy opportunity to enjoy the comforts of a new wheelchair and mouth-controlled joystick. You’ve just lost your family to a violent home-invasion, but, they tell you, you should view this as a chance to start over. The intention here is to keep you calm. The intention now is to serve a political end, while your country is dying around you. Your most sacred law, the US Constitution, has been crumpled and tossed into the ash-bin of history, and you are told you should do a happy-dance to the calming sounds of “Oh Happy Days.”
I’d like you to inventory the whole of the conservatives to whom you listen, or whose columns and opinions you read, and I want you to take care to note which of them are imploring you to consider some silver lining. They are lying. They have good intentions, many of them, and they have contorted themselves into a formless spaghetti of reasoning in order to find some good in this awful plate of refuse you’ve been handed. Don’t surrender your minds by sprinkling Parmesan on it and wolfing it down. Are there some limited political opportunities as a result of this decision? Yes, but they require the fulfillment of a whole laundry-list of “if-then” statements.
IF Mitt Romney is elected, and IF he doesn’t sell us out, and IF we hold the House, and IF we recapture the Senate(and at least 60 votes) and IF the moderates in either house don’t screw us, and IF Boehner and McConnell have the guts to do in repealing what the villains Reid and Pelosi did in passing the ACA, and IF they can deliver a bill to President Romney’s desk, and IF John Roberts and the other liberals on the court can be replaced, and IF Mitt Romney can replace them with actual strict constructionists, THEN you might have a chance to undo this damage. IF any of these don’t happen, your constitution is effectively dead as a restraint on government.
The danger of self-imposed delusions is that you come to believe them, like a pathological liar. It is by this form of self-delusion that we’ve permitted our country to lose its roots in reverence for the Constitution. We cannot defeat the statists by pretending this isn’t the disaster that it is, if we can defeat them at all. I believe some talking heads know this, but do not want to yield to what will come in the wake of such a monstrosity. They’re hanging on, stubbornly telling us that the stench of smoke reaching our nostrils is merely an air freshener of a novel scent. Rather than screaming “Fire,” and warning conservative Americans that the house is ablaze, the barn is wiped out, the surviving farm animals running loose in a frantic bid to stay ahead of the flames licking at their heels, many are now telling you that it’s all okay. It will be fine.
EV...One of two candidates will win this election..You know that don’t you?
I will vote to oust Obama and that is that.
I would ask that all of us vow to fight on, unfortunately with what we have to work with. Truth is, the left does that each day, week, month,decade and century. I am just about to turn 47, and the ability of the left to take a little here, a little there, more later has always amazed me. They look at the end game, we don't. Perhaps we need to.....and continue to educate those that simply don't get it yet.
Still a slave, unless millions of us keep fighting...
MOgirl
You mean you will vote to oust Obama, and install a pro-choice democrat socialist in his place.
Romney’s role, if elected, will be to consolidate Obama’s socialist gains.
Not something I’m willing to empower or be responsible for. Thanks.
Do you really think Obama might beat Romney in Texas if you don't vote for Romney?
I’m still taking my chance with Romney. I have no illusions it is a perfect choice..but I want the Marxist Obama gone.
I’m feeling a lot better about my vote for Ron Paul in the primary right now.
I did my protest voting in May when I voted for Newt.
You seem perfectly capable of doing your own research, no ones stopping you.
Did TR's proposal serve as the model for Obamacare?
Right
Pawlenty calls it Obamneycare because Romneycare gave birth to Obamacare.
Come on, who cares what Tim said in the primaries.
Obamacare was going to be created regardless of Romneycare. The perfect storm of Obama and his majorities in the House and Senate allowed it's creation. Socialized medicine is one of the main goals of the left. Ted Kennedy was working for national healthcare since the Carter Administration -"the cause of my life", he said. "Teddy can rest now" remember that phrase?
Salve
Because I know Mozart, doesn’t make me Mozart.
It is muzik to people ears, when it comes to sit down and realize delusion from illusion, and fathom facts, now we have a different table of disagreement.
See friend, many disagree and agree, if it is in proper methodical way, debate is resolve yes or no. Once abated it becomes emotional...there is no longer debate.
Merci.
OK, Jim.
It’s your site and your call how to run it.
But there is nothing conservative about avoiding the truth.
Yeah, and now you have it, courtesy of Republicans.
Bookmark
So why are you avoiding it? The truth about Romney came straight out of his own mouth in Massachusetts.
Right. Romney Republicans are beyond reasoning with.
All they’ve got is abject fear.
My children are older than you, MOgirl...I have great grands..
Prayers for our nation.
May we be able to start chipping back..a little here and a lot there!
Did you listen to the videos linked for you in posts 169 and 172? I really don’t know how anyone can view those videos and conclude that it’s important to choose between Obama and Romney. It’s a bit like choosing between water and H2O.
You deserve better. Vote against both of them.
Except he’s wrong. Tax bills only need a simple majority. No need for sixty votes.
The thing that I see are a number of folks moving on to what is possible to accomplish given the circumstances.
I am not trying to determine what was in their heads— but we need to deal with the situation as it is.
Hello,
AMEN and Bless you!
MOgirl
I have faced the reality..that I have a choice between Obama and Romney.
The reality is third party candidates don’t have a chance.
My fear is that some conservatives will stay home and pout and we won’t get enough votes downticket for our conservative candidates.
Notwithstanding, that’s still a whole lot of ‘ifs.’
And, don’t forget, Romney says “Repeal and Replace,” which, translated, means “we can do socialism better than Obama.”
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