Congressional Republicans: ObamaCare in Our Court Now
Democrats on the Hill trumpeted today’s surprising Supreme Court ruling upholding ObamaCare as a “victory for the American people,” in the words of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), while Republicans quickly latched onto the part of the decision that deemed the individual mandate to be a tax as vindication of their message all along.
Facing polls that have reflected less and less enthusiasm for the law since its passage, President Obama lauded the ruling that saved his signature domestic law by delivering a statement that was as much a public-relations announcement touting the specifics of the law as a victory lap.
Discussion over “who won and who lost,” he said, “completely misses the point.”
“It should be pretty clear by now that I didn’t do this because I believed it was good politics,” Obama sad. “…The highest court in the land has now spoken. We will continue to implement this law.”
Other Democrats highlighted the fact that Chief Justice John Roberts was the one who tipped the scales in the administration’s favor.
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) stressed that the “conservative Roberts court put an end” to the debate of the health care law’s constitutionality.
“Those who have sought to demonize health reform need to put an end to their scare tactics,” Kerry said. “…Enough time has been wasted in the United States Congress on pointless repeal votes designed to score political points. Too much time has been wasted on a legislative temper tantrum.”
“I have believed since the case was argued that Chief Justice John Roberts would be the swing vote, not Justice Anthony Kennedy, because Kennedy tipped his hand during oral arguments,” said Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.). “In abandoning his conservative colleagues on the bench, the chief justice acted judiciously, not politically, exercising the presumption that a law passed by Congress is constitutional.”
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who is distancing himself from the Obama re-election effort, said that the ruling required additional congressional action. “We can move forward with fixing what is wrong with this bill and saving what is right,” he said.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called the ruling a step in the right direction, but said “we ultimately need to do better” with a shift to a single-payer system.
“If we are serious about providing high-quality, affordable health care as a right, not a privilege, the real solution to America’s health care crisis is a Medicare-for-all, single-payer system,” Sanders said.
Republicans were ready to hammer the administration with a loss at the Supreme Court, but instead were forging statements vowing that the high court, in the words of House Republican Conference Vice-Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), “will not have the final word” on the fate of ObamaCare.
“Today’s ruling underscores the urgency of repealing this harmful law in its entirety. What Americans want is a common-sense, step-by-step approach to health care reform that will protect Americans’ access to the care they need, from the doctor they choose, at a lower cost. Republicans stand ready to work with a president who will listen to the people and will not repeat the mistakes that gave our country ObamaCare,” said House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), reflecting both the congressional and campaign dimensions to come in the health care fight.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said that the ruling “sets the stakes for the November election.” The Romney campaign reported receiving nearly half a million dollars in online donations in the few hours after the decision.
Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) announced that the House would vote to repeal ObamaCare after returning from recess the week of July 9.
“The Supreme Court’s decision to uphold ObamaCare is a crushing blow to patients throughout the country,” Cantor said.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on the floor today that the decision puts the focus on repeal and replace.
“The Democrat health care law has made things worse; Americans want it repealed; and that’s precisely what we intend to do. Americans want us to start over. And today’s decision does nothing to change that,” McConnell said.
“The court’s ruling doesn’t mark the end of a debate. It marks a fresh start on the road to repeal. That’s been our goal from the start. That’s our goal now. And we plan to achieve it.”
The conservative Republican Study Committee preceded today’s ruling with the release of a 27-page list of more than 200 pieces of health care-related legislation that its members have introduced over the past 18 months.
“The fate of ObamaCare is not yet set,” said Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), an RSC member. “The House has voted to pass my language to repeal 100 percent of ObamaCare. Every Republican senator has voted to do the same. On the other hand, President Obama and Democrats in Congress remain as committed as ever to forcing the unconstitutional law that bears the president’s name upon an unwilling and disapproving public.”
For the focus on their drive to move forward and strike at ObamaCare through other channels, Republicans didn’t hold back their emotions on the ruling itself.
“I’m shocked. I’m stunned. And I’m extremely disappointed. This is a sad day for the Constitution,” said Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas). “The government can now tax not only your income, but also tax your behavior. Where does it stop?”
“victory against the American people”
Fixed
a victory for deez nuggets!! Obama will turn the USA into another Spain or Greece
ObamaCare now needs to be changed to ObamaTax!
By the way, does this now mean we can deduct our health premiums 100% on our income taxes, now that they are considered a tax?
The last breath of freedom in the republic. This is a disgusting ruling filled with holes. It’s pretty clear that Roberts has no desire to actually make rulings based on law but on his own court’s popularity. Well, America was a great experiment.
http://bredred.com/how-to-divide-a-country-the-healthcare-question-and-why-the-courts-got-it-so-wrong/
I am not sure roberts is the villian we think he is, even though is reasoning in the decision looks really strange. A narrow 5-4 rejection of obamacare would have energized the opposition. but now, in exchange for giving the dems and the leftist justices, a possibly temporary victory on obamacare, he has forced them to accept, without complaint, important precedents limiting the commerce clause, and the feds ability to bully the states with a medicaid funding withdrawal. And by making the dems admit the mandate is in reality a tax, it makes obama out to be a liar, for claiming it was not a tax during passage of the bill, and gives repubs a great campaign issue, since most people still oppose obamacare. if obamacare is ultimately repealed, then this decision could be a long term victory.
So, America just decided to spend another trillion per year…above and beyond the government’s income. (No amount of taxation will pay for this w/o completely shutting down economic activity.)
Do. The. Math.
…and get to know your local survivalist/prepper.
Defeat the dictator scum in November
Sen. Rand Paul Discusses on CNBC the Supreme Court’s Ruling on Obamacare – 6/28/12
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRANe7BCTUg&feature=player_embedded
If the government can send you off to war or require car insurance, they certainly can require health insurance. Next step is to either require employers to provide insurance for their workers or single payer.
Car insurance assumes you own a car. I can opt out of that activity but I cant opt out of breathing and still maintain a viable lifestyle,my non thinking fellow american.
“If the government can send you off to war or require car insurance, they certainly can require health insurance. Next step is to either require employers to provide insurance for their workers or single payer.”
This is the “thought” coming from the left.
“If the government can send you off to war…they certainly can require health insurance.” Please connect these two dots. They do not intersect anywhere in real space.
“If the government can require car insurance…they certainly can require health insurance.” Please connect these two dots. Car insurance is a state issue, not federal, and this ruling is equivalent to requiring you to buy car insurance even if you don’t drive. Try again.
“Next step is to either require employers to provide insurance for their workers or single payer.” Please justify these two with something resembling reality. Why should employers be required to do so? Why don’t we allow individual to write off their health care costs in the same way businesses do – you know, that “level playing field” that liberals are always squawking about in every other sphere?
Why single payer? That’s a monopsony, a market with a single buyer. The only other example that springs to mind is the Pentagon, and I haven’t heard much about the efficiency and cost savings there. Why do you suppose single-payer health care would be any different?
Universal health coverage is good for EVERYONE. It costs less for EVERYONE if we are all covered. If you’re too dense to get coverage you SHOULD have to pay back into the system (via this “tax”) so that when you get hit by a truck and you spend the rest of your life racking up medical bills, it gets paid for. By the rest of us.
“Universal health coverage is good for EVERYONE. It costs less for EVERYONE if we are all covered.”
See previous comment re: monopsony. Are you truly stupid enough to believe that the government, which has not been able to run anything in an economically sound manner, can run a complete health care system successfully?
Ar you truly dense enough to propose that this 2000-page sack of excrement, which we had to pass to find out what was in it, is the best way to cover the most people at the least cost?
Please don’t vote or breed. You aren’t smart enough to do either.
No, it costs more for everyone and increases wait times as well as reducing the number of doctors and medical facilities available.
If the average cost of medical care for all folks is 15K, than we all have to pay 15K- some will use and need more than 15K, others will need less than 15K. But if everyone is covered than we have to collect 15K from everybody. If you’re healthy, take care of yourself etc you’ll be subsidizing the lifestyles of others who don’t. If you don’t have children, well, you’ll be subsidizing the neo-natal care and delivery services for those who do.
When folks perceive things as free, or already paid for they use it more. Which means there will be more demand on the system, more services/transactions/materials/tests/equipment used or required. Which means that costs overall will go up. If the average before this was 10K, well it’s going to go higher-15K? 20K?. More use and demand on the system. Now, if you want to keep costs down you have to cut services, make them less available, ration care whatever term you want to use. If you cut pay to people providing services they quit, or they don’t replace equipment or cut the services they provide. You did follow the number of medical personnel who retired early/shut down practises immediately following this, didn’t you?
This is why many advocate eliminating employer provided healthcare and going to a market system where insurance companies can compete and costs are apportioned more in keeping with the risks/needs of individuals. And are more aware of the direct costs of services they are obtaining and they get to decide whether they actually need it or just want it.
” you spend the rest of your life racking up medical bills, it gets paid for. By the rest of us.”
You mean I should have tried to bill all those folks I spent all night with saving their lives ? Even the illegal aliens ? I tried to do a barter deal with one illegal (who had lived in San Juan Capistrano for may years) who was hit by a train when walking on the tracks. After 60 units of blood, he survived and recovered. I suggested that, in return for my saving his life, he cut my grass for a year. He and his brother had a lawn care business. No, he said. He was too busy. If only you had told me sooner !
Lefty logic.
You might be able to make that claim except for one thing – the federal government has been running large health care programs for decades and doing a lousy job of it. The VA veterans care program is hardly concidered well run or efficient. Medicare and Medicaid are rife with fraud, inefficiency and cost overruns. Who in their right mind can believe that letting the government run all of the nation’s health care will result in better care or lower costs? Where is the track record to prove the government is capable of doing a better job than the private sector? Can you name of a single case where the US federal government took over something from the private sectir and did a better job?
I refer you to the horrible mess the British national health care system has become.
We already have socialized medicine. However, it is the most ugly stupid system ever devised. Old people, poor people and government workers get everything they want and the rest of us pay for them plus extra for ourselves. Let’s do it right. Bring these ugly parts all together into a combined single system and melt in obamacare as well. Then let it sink or swim on its own. However, please leave the private system in place so that those who want better care can keep getting real care.
Actually, the vast majority of states (perhaps all) don’t require auto insurance but they do require proof of financial responsibility. That is, if you have sufficient funds to cover any damages you are likely to cause which can be posting a bond. Since most folks don’t have the couple of hundred thousand available they get car insurance, but legally they aren’t specifically required to buy insurance or pay a fine- just prove they can cover the possible financial liabilities which may arise from driving their car.
For example, CA does not require auto insurance. What they do require is proof of Financial Responsibility, it’s up to you how you fulfill it. You aren’t forced by law to buy insurance. From the DMV website:
Establishing Financial Responsibility
Under Vehicle Code § 16021 , financial responsibility is established if the driver or owner is:
Holder of a department-issued certificate of self-insurance, pursuant to Vehicle Code § 16052.
An insured or principal under a form of liability insurance policy or surety bond pursuant to Vehicle Code § 16054, which covers the driver for the vehicle involved in the accident.
The United States of America, this state, any municipality or subdivision thereof, or the lawful agent thereof (owned, leased by, or under the direction of these entities, pursuant to Vehicle Code § 16052 ).
A depositor under Vehicle Code § 16054.2 (a).
In compliance with the requirements authorized by the department by any other manner which effectuates the purposes of the financial responsibility laws in Division 7, Chapter 1 of the Vehicle Code
Behold, a victory for the nomenklatura, i.e., our ruling class! They refuse to be flouted. Just as Stalin collectivized agriculture in the U.S.S.R. and brooked no objections, so the left wing has collectivized medical care, and will not be denied. The Supreme Court has spoken.
As Judge Roy Bean would say, “And that’s my ruling.”
Q: This is a sad day for the Constitution,” said Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas). “The government can now tax not only your income, but also tax your behavior. Where does it stop?”
A: With the American People!
It can stop with us. Given the 2nd Amendment. It can!
IMHO, the United States of America has now effectively ceased to be a federation but a unitary state. There is now no limit to the Central Governments, formerly the Federal, power. I used to work for the US Department of Agriculture which manages the Feds crop support programs for certain row crops. The Feds can now tell us to increase our comsumption of corn, for instance, to decrease the Feds tax expenditure in case of low corn crop yields, hence making corn for expensive.
We can now say that this ruling changed the fundamental relationship as codified in the Constitution of the government to the individual. We will now have more government and less individual freedom. The Court which was at one time the arbiter between the government and the individual has abrogated its responsibility. It is a loss of respect that shall never be regained.
The Obama forces are now hard at work to put this miserable ACA in full implementation, to get as many businesses and individuals bound to the system as it can before the election. But even here, I’m afraid, our Conservative leadership is proving itself only barely to the right of the Progressives.
Obama needs to realize that progress is not necessarily always ‘Forward.’
A sad day, indeed.
This is not new here dang you all,its exactly how social security was upheld way back when and its only the timidity of most pols that we havent had more crap like this shoved up our backsides over the years since FDR reigned.Just be glad the argument about the commerce clause was crushed because that would be worse on all levels. The tax thing is much more easily remedied and in that odd sense Roberts did us a solid. Less voted needed to amend and repeal tax issues.SO, hold the R clubs feet to the fire and get this fixed.
Exactly. The Repubs in congress have been sitting on their asses hoping the courts would do their work for them so now it’s time for them to go to work. I have watched the Repubs in the house refuse to defund any rogue branch of the government ever since they won the house.
This court has truly screwed up America more than I could ever imagine w/ the foolish decisions. First,amnesty for illegal aliens & now the gov’t can force you to buy health care. Amazing! However, I truly doubt that the republicans have the courage to repeal it in Nov. We shall see…
We now know what is in Obamacare: TAXES!
Lots and lots of taxes. Taxes on the rich, taxes on the middle class and taxes on the poor. Everyone is taxes except those with waviers. They are exempt from being taxed. As the Democrats crow and congradulate themselves American voters are watching them.
They are going to be gone in November. The Democrats spent their political capital on healthcare reform. They got it. What did they win? Nothing except they gained contempt of the American people. Nothing changed except the President Obama’s lie was exposed.
Taxed Enough Already!
James Carville announced the Tea Party is dead. Because of the Supreme Court the Zombie Apocalypse is now upon the Democrat Leftists.
Liberty from excessive taxation! Freedom from government mandates desguised as taxes! Power to choose our own healthcare without government regulation and intervention. The only path now for liberty and freedom from big government intrusion, over regulation and abridging religion is to vote Republican!
Go Mitt! Romney for President! 2012!
Heh. yeah…good luck with that.
A lot of big talk here, but nothing will change. Government will grow, people will pay, and trillions will be borrowed and thrown away. All is as it was, and shall ever be. All glory to the government.
Hey there Pvt. Hudson, remember when you take the razor to your wrists, it’s: “down the road, not accross the street.”
Defeatist little punk.
US Constitution, Article 1, Section 7 says that “All bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills.”
If I’m not mistaken, Obamacare originated in the Senate. Also, constitutionally it would seem impossible for the Supreme Court to impose a tax or revenue-generating mechanism.
Can any learned lawyers out there clarify these points?
If the Dems think they won anything, they had better think again. This decision doomed obama’s re-election.
so dems are celebrating a ruling which confirmed everything the republicans have been saying about it all along.
from this point forward, it’s “obamatax” not “obamacare”.
keep driving home that its a tax.
There is a kind of justice at work here. Instead of trying to upset and destroy Obamacare by denying funding in the House, Republicans took the lazy way out and hoped the Supreme Court would do their work for them. Didn’t happen.
Now we will see if the Republicans are actually sincere or if they will punt again. Given history, I bet on punting.
How these 2 facts add up:
Obamacare is a tax + 70% of Americans are against Obamacare = taxation without representation.
Period.
Here we go again.
Democrats on the Hill trumpeted today’s surprising Supreme Court ruling upholding ObamaCare as a “victory for the American people,”
Who? Oh, you mean us, the “bitches”, in the words of DNC Executive Director Patrick Gaspard?
Did anyone else catch CNBC this morning? A short time before the decision was announced Melissa Lee noted that the market was moving in a way that suggested the individual mandate would be upheld.
After the decision came out, no one said anything about it.
Can you say “insider trading”? I would like to see how many of our faithful public servants profited on the stock market this morning (on those stocks Melissa was noting).
OBAMA LIES TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ON OBAMACARE NOT BEING A TAX, OR IT’S THE OBAMACARETAX STUPID
September 20, 2009, the 243rdth day of the Obama Administration, Obama assured George Stephenopoulis and the American people that ObamaCare was not a tax. Obama said in effect: READ MY LIPS, NO NEW TAXES ON THE MIDDLE CLASS! This ruling upholding Obamacare under the tax provisions of the Constitution will erode Obama’s credibility and trust with the public and make ObamaCare more unpopular than ever. Kudos to Chief Justice Roberts who has, I believe by design, handed Obama a HOLLOW VICTORY that will cost him the presidency in November. In the worst month of Obama’s ill-starred presidency his fate has been sealed: like George H. W. Bush he’ll be a one term President……
Click ApolloSpeaks to continue reading this widely linked piece.
Obama will go down in history as pulling off the bigest tax hike in the USA and democrats are cheering??? Wow.
Here’s my take from my site:
http://truthandcommonsense.com/2012/06/29/judge-roberts-gives-obama-a-chinese-curse-may-you-live-in-interesting-times-what-conservatives-missed-in-the-ruling/
Roberts handed conservatives a number of victories. The Left is too stupid to realize it. Nancy Pelosi is going to go from “Rah rah rah!” to “WTF?!” in about a minute.
In my opinion, Roberts used a judo hip toss to take the energy and arrogance of the Left and use it to toss them on their heads.
Now if the Republicans can find their courage they will hit the hanging curve just thrown them. Rubio did great on his first swing when he said the SP ruling just made millions of young people targets of the IRS. Think how thrilled they will be when they figure that out.
Further, as people are taking second and third looks at the rulings, it is becoming apparent that the CJ Roberts took a ballbat to the commerce clause and the lame attempt at creating new law in the mandate argument.
I think he was pretty clear when he said Congress cannot regulate non-activity under the commerce clause.
It can tax you. And it does. Those who think Obama-tax is the first time around that particular track don’t look at their paychecks very closely. SS and Medicare are nationalized health and retirement programs and have been from 1937 and mid sixties. The government taxes you on your potential to retire or use nationalized health care.
Roberts just took a swipe at that if you expand his reasoning.
Krauthammer wrote a great article explaining Roberts mindset. I link to it at my blog.
Roberts believes:
Continued:
Roberts believes all branches must respect each other’s work.
That people have the constitutional right to elect idiots.
That those idiots have the constitutional right to write bad laws.
That the SP does not apply morality or common sense to the laws as a way to find them unconstitutional.
But once in place, if the law violates the constitutional rights of a citizen, it is deemed unconstitutional by the court.
Citizen United and campaign finance reform bill as an example.
Wait until the first person is “taxed” or “fined” for not buying insurance and see how quickly this law gets canned.
We can still get obamacare repealed. Keep remembering that Obama was elected by only 30% of registered voters. There was a 58% turnout and of the people who actually voted, 52% voted for Obama. Multiply 0.58 and 0.52 and you get 0.30. Just 30% of registered voters saddled us with Obama. Forget about the polls and just vote. He has not gained followers.