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10:10
Tom: So the mandate is constitutional. Chief Justice Roberts joins the left of the Court.
10:13
Tom: The bottom line: the entire ACA is upheld, with the exception that the federal government’s power to terminate states’ Medicaid funds is narrowly read.10:15
Tom: Chief Justice Roberts’ vote saved the ACA.
So the Gov’t can levy a Tax if a citizen does not buy something.
That seems like a radical change …
10:18
Amy Howe: The money quote from the section on the mandate: Our precedent demonstrates that Congress had the power to impose the exaction in Section 5000A under the taxing power, and that Section 5000A need not be read to do more than impose a tax. This is sufficient to sustain it.
10:20
Amy Howe: The court reinforces that individuals can simply refuse to pay the tax and not comply with the mandate.
What? It’s legal to refuse to pay a tax?
Oh, that’ll go well….
10:22
Lyle: The key comment on salvaging the Medicaid expansion is this (from Roberts): “Nothing in our opinion precludes Congress from offering funds under the ACA to expand the availability of health care, and requiring that states accepting such funds comply with the conditions on their use. What Congress is not free to do is to penalize States that choose not to participate in that new program by taking away their existing Medicaid funding.” (p. 55
10:24
Tom: Apologies – you can’t refuse to pay the tax; typo. The only effect of not complying with the mandate is that you pay the tax.
Ok — tkx for the reality check….
10:25
Amy Howe: The Court holds that the mandate violates the Commerce Clause, but that doesn’t matter b/c there are five votes for the mandate to be constitutional under the taxing power.
Now we’re into the Deep Weeds….
Get ready to buy Broccoli Futures!
10:28
Lyle: In opening his statement in dissent, Kennedy says: “In our view, the entire Act before us is invalid in its entirety.”
*sigh*
10:32
Amy Howe: In Plain English: The Affordable Care Act, including its individual mandate that virtually all Americans buy health insurance, is constitutional. There were not five votes to uphold it on the ground that Congress could use its power to regulate commerce between the states to require everyone to buy health insurance. However, five Justices agreed that the penalty that someone must pay if he refuses to buy insurance is a kind of tax that Congress can impose using its taxing power. That is all that matters. Because the mandate survives, the Court did not need to decide what other parts of the statute were constitutional, except for a provision that required states to comply with new eligibility requirements for Medicaid or risk losing their funding. On that question, the Court held that the provision is constitutional as long as states would only lose new funds if they didn’t comply with the new requirements, rather than all of their funding.
Opinion in PDF here.
I’m done. Going out back to plough and plant mandatory broccoli.
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27 Comments!
&%$^&(^#@@$%^&%$*%^.
FreedomFIFY.
I’m sickened by the direction of the country. The skunk in chief is getting his teleprompters ready so he can show everyone he is still the king. Something wicked this way comes……
There is no Utopia without Control.
November is Coming
We are all Breitbart
Over at Cafepress.com I recently bought a shirt that reads, “The Founding Fathers would be shooting by now.”
^^ I gatta take one of my little pills
OK, so the thingie that was declared ‘not a tax’ is now declared ‘sort of a tax’ so that makes everything else moot.
Supreme mental masturbation!
Thank God for KisPians and The Asylum………….
So I have to enter an involuntary arrangement with a company for a product that I may not want.
If I refuse, I have to pay a fine (not a tax).
If I refuse to pay the fine, I no doubt will be charged with a crime.
If I refuse to recognize the charge, I will be incarcerated.
If I refuse to be incarcerated, someone will force my compliance at gunpoint.
If I refuse to comply, I may be shot.
What will happen to those who can’t afford insurance in this “bustling” economy?
If you can’t afford auto insurance, you can’t drive a car.
If you can’t afford health insurance … ?
Grabbed gun.
Ran outside.
All alone.
STILL not time yet ?!?!
What in the hell is wrong with people.
It’s over folks. Been a nice run. 200+ years.
Yeah!!! Free health care!!! sooooo glad I voted for Obama –4 more years!!!
If he gets re elected we’ll see what happens when all those take from the rich get everything free voters find out the truth—- hope they love that healthy food they get for nothing with their food stamps and government housing ’cause they can’t find a job. Love that free government housing.
2 things….
If the ‘not a tax’ is now a ‘tax’ how can the previously issued waivers stand? Can federal taxes be waived?
If the ‘not a tax’ is now a ‘tax’, can taxes be assessed via reconciliation or whatever the procedure is called that the washington weasles used to pass this?
Or is it simply that anything Obama wants, he gets?
The weasels in power change their arguments on whether something is a tax depending on their audience.
Their audience has collective amnesia and does’t remember that the weasels were using a different argument the preceding week.
Bottom line: It doesn’t matter. There’s so much confusion that the liars foremost and prominent say whatever they want when they have to ram their egos into a new law. And the taxpayers are forced to bend over and take it.
REPEAL !
That, brothers and sisters, has to be THE question for congressional candidates. Make them promise to repeal this outrage in the first thirty days … or else no contribution.
After that, we need a constitutional amendment in simple enough terms that even SCOTUS, lawyers, and media can understand it.
If this doesn’t happen … Tea Party !
(What? No, I mean a real one. It’s either that, or there’ll be a movement for some Ft Sumters.)
Pay the tax, then figure out a way to take it back.
Me, I’m gonna rent out the local DNC headquarters building to some out-of-towners…
Gonna print out that fucking bill and find a way around every item in it. There’s probably a ground floor opportunity for accountants and lawyers who can exploit loopholes in Obamacare. Maybe even make enough money to buy health care in some capitalist country.
Yep, gonna go out and buy that AR that I’ve been putting off buying ASAP…and lots of ammo. I think we’re gonna need ‘em, sooner, rather than later. And I’m sick at heart about it.
Yes Peggy U — nothing gets passed unless they first find a way out of it for them.
There truly is not a shred of hope for this country. All that is good, all that is moral, all that is decent, all that is honorable, all that is true, will be raped by the most maleficent evil people to ever walk the face of the earth.
The “Trail of tears” will be a cakewalk compared to what is coming for Americas citizens.
BTW – What was Roberts thinking? Did some government thug threaten his family or something?
I guess with the Roberts vote, Repubicans can start blaming Bush now.
Not over, folks.
Roberts just handed us:
A good reason for a repeat of 2010 in Congress – out with bad wood, put in good wood.
Obie now has the largest middle-class tax increase in history on his plate, along with the largest spending spree in history.
Roberts reminds: “Hey, YOU mooks voted these thieves in, yannow.”
Tax repeals are not subject to filibuster. And all tax bills MUST originate in the House – not the Senate, which is where this baby was born.
The pernicious and overly-broad interpretation of the Commerce clause took a severe beating.
November is coming.
No, it’s not over. We just have a 40-year hole to dig out of rather than a 30-year hole.
We have to learn to be citizens again.
Mojo, I think that you’re assuming that most voters even care if taxes are increased. They don’t because they’re catchers, not pitchers. They don’t pay taxes, they reap the benefits of taxes.
The way I read it, the Commerce Clause drivel is not relevant to the decision so it just amounts to more of Roberts’ mental masturbation and won’t come close to becoming established precedent.
And if all tax bills must originate in the house, then the minute it was considered a tax, it was unconstitutional. If that ruling wasn’t made today, it won’t be made in our lifetime.
I’m going back to my first impression and declaring Roberts an idiot and a fraud. And as for the “you get what you vote for” equivalent from Roberts, what the hell does he think he gets paid for if not to represent the people in these matters? It’s not his job to dream up excuses to find things constitutional when those excuses were never presented as arguments to begin with.
What the chief moron actually did was give future legislators a blueprint for imposing whatever burdens they choose to on citizens and provided precedence for it. No matter who is elected or voted out, the stage is clearly set for the next administration with a clear majority in both the House and Senate to do the same thing Obama, Pelosi, and Ried did wit legislation to complex and that once the first piece of it kicks in, repeal will be next to impossible.
What this means is, we redouble our efforts to get Obama out of office. Come the day after the election, regardless of outcome, we start a third party.