ObamaCare Survives

The Supreme Court declared ObamaCare constitutional, in virtually its entirety, today in a 5-4 decision.  Conservatives had big hopes for a reversal to this horrible monstrosity, but the newest conservative on the Bench, Chief Justice Roberts, threw in his lot with the liberals on the court to form the majority.  Interestingly, the justice viewed as the perpetual swing vote on the Court, Justice Kennedy, voted with the conservatives on this decision and said the law is "invalid in its entirety".

But how the majority arrived at their decision is very interesting: basically, they rejected the Obama administration's argument that the Individual Mandate (requiring all citizens to purchase health insurance) was constitutional under the Commerce Clause and took it upon themselves to declare it was constitutional if it is considered a tax, which they (the majority on the Supreme Court) decided it was.  From Scotus Blog via Instapundit:

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. . . . Yes, to answer a common question, the whole ACA is constitutional, so the provision requiring insurers to cover young adults until they are 26 survives as well.

And here's the catch: when arguing for ObamaCare, the Obama administration and the Democrats in Congress who pushed this act swore up and down that it was not a tax.  In fact, they knew that if it were called a tax, there was no chance at all that it would be approved in Congress.  So, now we find out more about Nancy Pelosi's famous statement that "we've got to pass this bill to find out what's in it". 

Again via Instapundit and Reason, here is new conservative hero, Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA):

“In selling Obamacare, Congressional Democrats and President Obama assured the American people that it was not a tax. Today, the Supreme Court ruled it was, in fact, a tax. This tax was imposed on the American people amidst an extended recession and is one of the many reasons our economy remains stagnant under President Obama’s leadership."

But, my friends, all is not lost.  As Ace says regarding this case,

...but remember, it was only Plan B, and we had little confidence in it until this past March.

Plan A was always to win the Senate and the White House and flush this piece of shit down the toilet through reconciliation.

Let's do it.

A Revealing Episode

Micahael Burry predicted the 2008 financial crisis and made about 100 million dollars for himself and around 700 million dollars for his clients by shorting the market . He wrote an Op-Ed in the New York Times titled 'I Saw the Crisis Coming. Why Didn't the Fed?'. What happened to him as a result of writing this Op-Ed? See what happened starting from minute 14:00 to 15:40. This should tell you something.  

From Bad to Good to Bad

Washington state recently privatized liquor sales. Before June 1st the state government had a monopoly on liquor sales. The people of the state, evidently COSTCO helped the initiative, voted to give all liquor sales to private vendors.

This could have been a great thing. Privatizing any industry is almost always good. But of course there are a ton of hidden taxes and fees. (oregonlive.com)

Because of the complex nature of the new fees, and additional markups by distributors, it's unclear what the final cost of a fifth or a half-gallon will be until it gets rung up at the cash register. State analysts have predicted prices could go up by as much as 20 percent from what they were before the privatization initiative passed

A liquor store manager in Rainier Oregon said that sales had jumped 20 percent since the new legislation was passed. Many Washington residents are flocking to the government ran liquor stores in Oregon to get better prices.

So, what was supposed to be a great thing, got screwed up by the government. The link above stated that there is a 20.5% sales tax and a $3.77 per liter tax! What is this, New York City?

While we are on the liquor sales subject, I have been thinking about something. Why can't alcohol be delivered the same as pizza? It seems to me that it would be a healthy benefit to society. A lot of Americans drink a few beers, catch a buzz, run out of booze, and drive to the store. The fact that residential alcohol delivery is illegal will not stop me from getting alcohol if I want it. Why didn't we elect Ron Paul?

June 5th - The Tide Continues to Turn

Three state and municipal elections on June 5th show that the sentiment towards facing reality is growing across our nation.  As we all know, the big election, maybe even bigger than the presidency this November, was Scott Walker's (and others') recall election in Wisconsin.  The other two were municipal ballot measures in San Diego and San Jose to adjust compensation for PEUs, making them like everyone else's rather than gold-plated. 

The recall elections in Wisconsin were a continuance of a panic/temper tantrum that the PEUs of Wisconsin have been throwing (with strong support from lefty allies) ever since Scott Walker was elected governor in 2010 with promises to control runaway state spending.  Though Walker did nothing justifying a recall (ie broke no laws), the PEUs knew they had to do whatever it took to throw him out of office.  This is typical of Democrats when they lose to pull every trick they can to overturn the will of the people.  The PEUs rightly worried that if the policies Walker enacted succeeded, the PEU's power over budgets and policitians would be broken.  In other words, that one of the greatest threats to our nation's stability and functionality would be overcome.  From their perspective, they were rightly panicked and tried any and all options to get the man either neutered (through Senate and Court recalls/elections) or thrown out through his own recall.

But the people of this Blue State (still support Obama by a good bit over Romney) were swayed by someone who promised to get their fiscal house in order, by whatever means. Wisconsin went from having a $3.6 billion deficit to a $154 million surplus under Walker, even as property taxes dropped, and teachers' jobs were saved.  As I said in a previous article, results count.  Sound fiscal policies get results and people, even some Democrats, pay attention to these results. 

The Red wave of Reality is striking at the State level across the nation.  I think someone on our blog pointed this out, but the biggest and least-reported news about the 2010 Republican tidal-wave (I prefer English terms to Japanese) was at the state level - wholesale conversions at the Governors' and State Legislators' levels from Blue to Red.  This is expected to continue.  The current Governor balance of 29 Republicans to 20 Democrats is expected to change to 33 Republicans to 16 Democrats (not sure what's the deal with the missing state, maybe an Independent somewhere) after 2012.  Why?  Because it is getting through to the people that fiscal discipline is needed at the State level.  States can't print money and devalue debt to get out of their budget problems like the Federal gov't can.  They must work their way out of it, and the people know, regardless of their policital outlook, that Republicans offer their best hope of getting it done.  And in places, here and there, it is getting it done.

This, by the way, is another good reason (besides it not violating the Constitution) for all these responsibilities (Education, Health Care, Welfare, etc) to be transferred back to the states:  They must get it done in a fiscally sound way (ie, there will be greater control than if it is done at the Federal level).

The two referenda in California are interesting: one occurred in San Diego, which is a lonely Republican bastion in California, and the other in San Jose, a typical True Blue Democratic municipality.  Both faced PEU benefit obligations that they simply could not afford.  And guess what?  They couldn't afford it, so the people voted to cut their benefits in both cases.  As someone says "that which cannot go on, won't".  This should give all us fiscal conservatives hope that, when push comes to shove, the problems we worry about will be addressed, rather than bring the whole nation's/world's economy down.

Keeping my fingers crossed for November.