Kudos to Justice Roberts for finally doing something of significance in Washigton that isn't meekly following party lines: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2012/06/john_roberts_broke_with_conservatives_to_preserve_the_supreme_court_s_legitimacy.html We need politicians like Roberts....right or left....and we need em bad.
Not rubbing Dem dirt in Sid....just spiking the football for an almost unheard of event in Washington these days.... a non-partisan decision based on what the decision maker felt was good government. Finally!
The decision maker didn't feel that the law was good government, he felt that the Constitution allowed Congress to pass the law. Justice Kennedy is recognized by most as the swing vote, the non-partisan justice. He voted against it. Maybe someday the 4 lefties might decide a case on the law and not their leanings but I doubt it.
A Supreme Court that just votes blindly along party lines is full of nothing but glorified senators. Since Bush-Gore they haven't seemed to want to stick their neck out. This guy did....for whatever reason.
Here is one view.... http://www.theatlantic.com/national...arshalls-playbook/259121/#.T-2lt_MabcA.mailto
Justice Roberts is a coward and he has lost the respect of serious people everywhere. What he ruled, was that the law was unconstitutional, but he will allow it to stand anyway by declaring the mandate to be a "tax." The other eight justices were unanimous in ruling that the mandate was NOT a tax. Obama said it was not a tax. Both political parties said that it was not a tax. So what have we got now? The greatest political mess since the Civil War: nothing less than that. - Twenty-six of the fifty states will NOT have to participate in the program. When has our country ever had a law that most states don't have to obey? Not since the Civil War. "A house divided against itself cannot stand." - The "Affordable Healthcare" law is now the largest, single tax increase on the American people in the history of our country. It's also the largest tax increase ever levied upon the middle class or working class. - The people who're now fighting the hardest against Justice Robert's interpretation are the Obama administration and the Democratic Party, who must run for reelection after slapping the American voters with the biggest tax increase...ever. - The new healthcare "tax" becomes the first tax in American history that the people will NOT pay to the federal government. They will pay that tax to the large, private insurance companies. Somewhere...out there... Mayor Daley is smiling. - The new law includes 21 new taxes and tax increases, including increases in general income taxes; dividends; interest; small business; businesses with more than fifty people; medical device makers (that will cost 43,000 jobs); and contributions to medical savings accounts will be limited to just $2500 per year. As Nancy Pelosi said, "We have to pass the law to find out what's in it." Well now we know.
How about the 17 Democratic members of the House who voted to hold Holder in contempt. Not only did they not walk out like the clowns led by Pelosi but actually had the courage to make a statement that lying to Congress and withholding requested documents is contempt of congress. As usual, when caught lying the Democrats have the usual response blaming Republicans for calling them on it "racist" or "playing politics." More and more the TRUTH is becoming a foreign concept for the left.
Roberts labeled ity as a tax which make sit easier to repeal down the road. He also made a statement that the people could not expect the court to protect them from any mistakes they may have made in elections; that was up to the people to rectify.
I'm still waiting for our resident lawyers here to explain this whole deal to me. Has this ever happened before? A Chief Justice just ruled that a law was unconstitutional, yet allowed that law to stand anyway for reasons that he made up out of whole cloth. If justices are going to do that, then why review the laws at all? I know I'm just a teacher, but doesn't this ruling put a huge dent in Marbury vs. Madison? Justice Roberts seems to have undermined the only real power that the Supreme Court has. What the hell am I supposed to teach now? :?
To put it in simplistic terms 5 or the 9 Justices ruled that Congress had the power under the Constitution to enact the Health Care Bill. The administration argued that the Commerce clause gave Congress the power to enact the law. The 4 libs on the Court agreed. While Roberts didn't buy that arguement, he ruled that under the provision that allowed Congress to tax, the act was within the powers given to Congress by the Constitution. Roberts therefore didn't rule the law unconstitutional, he just didn't accept the arguement that the administration made to justify it. (he avoided setting precedent that would expand the power of congress indefinately under the commerce provision which prompted Justice Ginsburg to write an opinion dissenting from Roberts majority opinion. Very unusual.)
Florida Governor Rick Scott not sold on Obamacare — It kills jobs, increases the cost of healthcare, and makes Medicaid worse — He won’t implement it (FOX News) — Florida, the state the led the fight against President Obama’s health care law, will not comply with the Supreme Court opinion. Gov. Rick Scott tells Fox News that he and his Attorney General, Pam Bondi, will work tirelessly to make sure the law is repealed. He feels that can be done by electing officials, like Mitt Romney, who have vowed to fight the law before 2014, when most of its provisions kick in. If that doesn’t happen, Scott insists he still won’t “implement these exchanges that will increase the cost of health and make Medicaid worse.” Scott claims Medicaid has been growing in Florida at three-and-half times the state’s general revenue. He calls the law the “biggest job killer ever” and says Floridians cannot afford the $1.9 billion dollar increase he believes the law will cost. Gov. Scott doesn’t believe the law will go into effect in 2014. As a result, he’s also not expanding his state’s Medicaid program. And he says Florida can do without the federal money it will lose. “That’s still Florida taxpayers paying that,” he said. “It’s not like there’s free federal money. Every program cuts back and you create this dependency and then they cut back like they did with our schools.”
http://tampa.cbslocal.com/2012/06/30/florida-gov-rick-scott-not-wanting-to-comply-with-president-barack-obamas-healthcare-program/ The guy is a crook....plain and simple. As the article states for the past three years the state of Florida has ranked 3rd in the nation in the numbers of unisured. He refuses to comply with a US Supreme Court mandated law and as the the article says his "numbers" are undocumented and unsubstantiated. His background of privately managed healthcare drives his every move and motivation......to the detriment of the people of Florida. I can olny hope that there will be a strong candidate who opposes this loose cannon in the next election who can expose him for what he is. Of course the lunatic conservative fringe in the state would vote for him over any Democrat even if he stole from his own mother.
Florida has out of control Medicaid spending. Over three times revenues. For the budgetarily "challenged" I will explain. ... You have $1.00 coming in. You Have $3.00 going out. The difference is ($2.00). That is a LOSS. But if Obama says it's OK......
Florida also has a disproportionate amount of elderly who are not always sitting pretty on the waterfront with huge retirement accounts and yachts and other perks they brought down with them. But chances are these other retirees were at one time hard working tax paying American citizens who just might benefit from the money offered up to the state of Florida by Washington. Florida's economy also is tourisim based in many ways and also has been fed over the years by the now defunct housing boom. Tourism service type jobs typically are low paying....non-insurance providing jobs which helps to contribute to the unisured here and the better paying construction jobs are no longer without much chance of returning. If ever there was a state that could use some federal money to help alleviate it's healthcare problem it's Florida but it's crooked Governor would rather prove political points than do the right thing for the people of the state of Florida and as long as there are voting idiots out there in this state who also believe in that philosophy then this state will suffer.
Spent time with my friend here yesterday who happens to be a judge in Florida. He has nothing good to say about Scott....and yet he has friends who are judges in the Florida judicial system all the way up to the State Supreme Court who are conservative that he respects and he has told them so.. I guess he is paranoid for not thinking the same of Scott.
Where is GONZO when you need him......... I bet he knows these judges and has a few comments to make.... sometimes I really miss him