Disappointed, But Not Surprised

from The Gray Area:

Today’s ruling by the Supreme Court, in a 6-3 vote, said the Obama administration can continue to subsidize health-insurance purchases by lower-income Americans in all states, preserving a centerpiece of the Affordable Care Act.

I was hopeful that a decision by the Supreme Court to stop subsidies would open the door for repeal of this horrific legislation. However, I expected the Supreme Court to rule the way it did. The meaning of the ACA law was clear and the four words in question, “established by the state”, was clear in the context of the law. Any other ruling would make this Court appear to be an activist Court with its 5-4 conservative leaning majority. A left leaning 5-4 majority I believe would be activist in its decisions as you see with the lock step voting block of the liberal justices on every issue they review. John Roberts appears to be a professional Chief Justice who will not have any of that and as such he has stood tall. We may not like his decisions, but they are consistent, well thought through and by no means activist.

A little review of commentary about the decision.

Shortly after the ruling came down, Obama declared that his signature health care law is “here to stay.” “The point is, this is not an abstract thing anymore,” Obama said from the White House’s Rose Garden. “This is not a set of political talking points. This is reality. We can see how it is working. This law is working exactly as its supposed to. In many ways, this law is working better than we expected it to.”

House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) said Republicans will continue to push for a broad repeal of the health law, underscoring the political fight that remains. “Republicans will continue to listen to American families and work to protect them from the consequences of Obamacare,” Mr. Boehner said. He added, “We will continue our efforts to repeal the law and replace it with patient-centered solutions that meet the needs of seniors, small-business owners, and middle-class families.”

The majority opinion effectively said Congress intended the subsidies to be available for all. “Congress passed the Affordable Care Act to improve health insurance markets, not to destroy them,” Roberts wrote in the majority opinion. Scalia wrote for the opposition that if that’s the case, “words no longer have meaning.” “We should just start calling this law SCOTUScare“.

But the majority opinion effectively said Congress intended the subsidies to be available for all. “Had Congress meant to limit tax credits to State Exchanges, it likely would have done so in the definition of ‘applicable taxpayer’ or in some other prominent manner,” Roberts wrote.

Today’s decision doesn’t change the fact that this law is broken. Obamacare is the final entitlement straw (behind Social Security, Medicare, and welfare state programs) to bankrupt the country. It raises costs, reduces healthcare quality, reduce overall acccess to healthcare, reduces doctors, increases regulations and thereby cost to business, raises premiums and deductibles to citizens, reduces jobs and reduces pay due to healthcare cost increases for businesses. It is bad for America -period!

I hope Boehner’s word is good and he will continue to propose repeal & replace changes to this horrific law. Even in the face of President Obama’s vetoes.

It took 15 years for Prohibition to be repealed, don’t give up.