Supreme Court
The Real Obamacare Tax Increase
Here's what I don't get. Everybody on the right is screaming and yelling about how the Supreme Court has labelled President Obama a tax-raiser for imposing a financial penalty on people who don't purchase health insurance. So, okay, it's a tax, but it will only be leveled against a small group of taxpayers who can't be induced by new government subsidies to purchase health insurance. READ MORE >>
The Real Obamacare Tax Increase
GOP Govs to Uninsured: Drop Dead
That didn’t take long. Republican lawmakers from across the country are saying no to the Affordable Care Act’s expansion of Medicaid—even though it means turning down a sweetheart deal from the federal government that would create jobs in their states and, more important, provide millions of low-income Americans with health insurance. READ MORE >>
The WSJ Editorial Page Has, Er, A Point
My first reaction to the conservative fulminating against John Roberts was that the right doesn’t realize how good they have it. The chief justice finds a way to limit future government activism while preserving (actually resurrecting) the nonpartisan standing of the Supreme Court, and all for the low-cost of a affirming domestic program that, while no doubt detested, was democratically enacted, and conservatives can’t find something nice to say about him? This struck me as ungrateful in the extreme. READ MORE >>
Did Roberts Change His Vote?
Did Chief Justice John Roberts change his vote in the Obamacare case? Court observers were speculating about that possibility almost as soon as the five-to-four decision upholding the law came down on Thursday. And now it looks like Roberts really did switch. Jan Crawford of CBS News has the big scoop: READ MORE >>
Did the Court Undermine the Medicaid Expansion?
As it turns out, the scariest part of Thursday’s ruling on the Affordable Care Act was the issue that got the least attention. Yes, the Supreme Court upheld the individual mandate and its associated reforms of private insurance. But it also ruled that the law’s expansion of Medicaid was unconstitutional. READ MORE >>
Conservatives' Last Legal Option to Invalidate Obamacare
If Republicans take the White House and both chambers of Congress in November, there’s a good chance they will repeal most, if not all, of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. But after yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling, the law is safe from legal challenges, right? Not so fast. We may see one more last-ditch conservative effort to gut a major portion of the law. READ MORE >>
No, This Was Not The Better Outcome For Mitt
Welcome to the Roberts Court: How the Chief Justice Used Obamacare to Reveal His True Identity
In 2006, at the end of his first term as Chief Justice, John Roberts told me that he was determined to place the bipartisan legitimacy of the Court above his own ideological agenda. But he recognized the difficulty of the task. “It’s sobering to think of the seventeen chief justices,” he said. “Certainly a solid majority of them have to be characterized as failures.” READ MORE >>
