Health Care "Reform"

[Boz]

Kennedy - for all intents and purposes the only one who matters in this case - sure seems to be leaning toward A.

But who knows?

I may actually watch the cable news shows tonight, where I am going to get a ton of D, just for giggles.

[GUJook97]

I would agree that Kennedy has been tough on the government, but if you are judging by questions, which I personally dont think matters, you could easily make the case that Roberts is leaning B.

[Boz]

Mar 28, 2012 13:25:25 GMT -5 GUJook97 said:

I would agree that Kennedy has been tough on the government, but if you are judging by questions, which I personally dont think matters, you could easily make the case that Roberts is leaning B.

Well, you're right. It's a mistake to guess how Kennedy will vote based on his questioning.

But if Roberts votes B, I'll eat my hat.

(EDIT: Possibly resulting in an emergency room visit that my insurance may or may not cover. )

[GUJook97]

Oh, I dont think it will be at all surprising that Roberts votes for the constitutionality of the mandate. Not sure why you think that. This is far from a clear-cut 5-4 decision. I think that is why people were so surprised the questioning was as tough. Until yesterday, many thought this would be upheld easily. Moreover, it's definitely been rumored that if Kennedy is with the majority, Roberts would stay with them too to make a 6-3 ruling and have the choice to write the opinion.

[Boz]

Who you trying to convince? Me or you?




I simply made a prediction, that's all.

If I am wrong about Roberts, I'm wrong.

(But I don't think I am).

[GUJook97]

Saying you would eat your hat if Roberts would vote for the constitutionality of the mandate seems stronger than simply a prediction to me, but no biggie.

[Boz]

OK, a confident prediction. ;D

[GUJook97]

Fair enough.

I think the key question here involves finding the position that gets 5 votes, and that is difficult IMO. The apparent antimandate position almost certainly has three (Scalia, Thomas, and Alito), but you have to wonder whether Roberts and Kennedy would want to hatchet the entire thing, and even if Roberts gets picked off, whether Kennedy would throw his lot in with them. If not, what is the Kennedy position that carries the day for a sharply divided court?

[EasyEd]

May be difficult to get 5 to ditch the whole thing but maybe not so difficult to ditch the mandate and, perhaps, the Medicaid part, and then throw it back to the Congress to do whatever it can. As a non-lawyer, this is what makes the most sense re the Constitution.

[bmartin]

Democrats are unbelievably terrible at explaining anything about the health reform bill, especially the minimum coverage mandate with generous subsidies for private insurers they took from free market Republicans as the path of least resistance to near universal coverage.

But the Democrats are much better at health care offense than defense so if the Supreme Court votes in party lines to kill or gut the bill they can get back to warning that the Republicans want to throw Grandma off a cliff and want Members of Congress to mandate the terms of obstetrics and gynecology practice.

[Boz]

Because that's what Republicans want, of course.

[hoyainspirit]

Single national exchange. Everybody in.

[EasyEd]

Amazing reaction from the left who seem to be assuming at least part of Obamacare will be declared unconstitutional. Now the message from the left is that this will be good for Obama's reelection chances. In other words they are attempting to declare victory out of defeat. All assuming the Court does what seems to be the consensus of the all-knowing experts.

[ksf42001]

Mar 29, 2012 9:48:51 GMT -5 EasyEd said:

Amazing reaction from the left who seem to be assuming at least part of Obamacare will be declared unconstitutional. Now the message from the left is that this will be good for Obama's reelection chances. In other words they are attempting to declare victory out of defeat. All assuming the Court does what seems to be the consensus of the all-knowing experts.

To be fair, Steve King said the exact same thing last week.

[Elvado]

Mar 29, 2012 9:48:51 GMT -5 EasyEd said:

Amazing reaction from the left who seem to be assuming at least part of Obamacare will be declared unconstitutional. Now the message from the left is that this will be good for Obama's reelection chances. In other words they are attempting to declare victory out of defeat. All assuming the Court does what seems to be the consensus of the all-knowing experts.

This reaction is not surprising. It does, however, speak to a more sinister characteristic of the Left. Everything they do, repeat everything, is for the sole purpose of electoral victory and the accumulation of power. Thus, losing Mr. Obama's signature legislation (designed in whole to consolidate power in Washington) becomes just another means of marching on toward electoral victory. It is so very distasteful.

[TC]

Mar 29, 2012 9:57:04 GMT -5 Elvado said:

This reaction is not surprising. It does, however, speak to a more sinister characteristic of the Left. Everything they do, repeat everything, is for the sole purpose of electoral victory and the accumulation of power. Thus, losing Mr. Obama's signature legislation (designed in whole to consolidate power in Washington) becomes just another means of marching on toward electoral victory. It is so very distasteful.

The amount of trollish projection in this post is unbelievable.

[Elvado]

Mar 29, 2012 10:06:22 GMT -5 TC said:

Mar 29, 2012 9:57:04 GMT -5 Elvado said:

This reaction is not surprising. It does, however, speak to a more sinister characteristic of the Left. Everything they do, repeat everything, is for the sole purpose of electoral victory and the accumulation of power. Thus, losing Mr. Obama's signature legislation (designed in whole to consolidate power in Washington) becomes just another means of marching on toward electoral victory. It is so very distasteful.

The amount of trollish projection in this post is unbelievable.

Methinks thou doth protest too much...

[superan]

Mar 29, 2012 9:57:04 GMT -5 Elvado said:

Mar 29, 2012 9:48:51 GMT -5 EasyEd said:

Amazing reaction from the left who seem to be assuming at least part of Obamacare will be declared unconstitutional. Now the message from the left is that this will be good for Obama's reelection chances. In other words they are attempting to declare victory out of defeat. All assuming the Court does what seems to be the consensus of the all-knowing experts.

This reaction is not surprising. It does, however, speak to a more sinister characteristic of the Left. Everything they do, repeat everything, is for the sole purpose of electoral victory and the accumulation of power. Thus, losing Mr. Obama's signature legislation (designed in whole to consolidate power in Washington) becomes just another means of marching on toward electoral victory. It is so very distasteful.

One of the most hilarious posts I've read in a while. Well done!

[AustinHoya03]

Mar 29, 2012 9:48:51 GMT -5 EasyEd said:

All assuming the Court does what seems to be the consensus of the all-knowing experts.

I'd change that to: "the consensus of the all-knowing experts who are getting TV time because their reading of the tea leaves is considered more newsworthy than other experts."

I've been crushed by judges at oral argument on two separate occasions. We won the first case. We lost the second (though we later won on appeal to a higher court). If you want my opinion, based on my own experience, it's silly to predict anything based on the past three days. There's no way anyone who shares my opinion is getting on cable news, which demands a major reaction from every minor event.