Quote of the Day, Memory And The Supreme Court Follies edition.

Megan McArdle, while discussing the increasingly amusing flailing about by the Left over King v. Burwell:

…contrary to apparently popular belief, “drafting error” is not a magic word that forces the Supreme Court to give you a mulligan.

Read, as they say, the whole thing.  There’s some good bits in there about why it is that our legal system has a certain bias against leaning too heavily on individual memory as evidence.  Simply put: people remember things essentially by telling themselves stories in their heads.  When the story changes, the same people will often forget the old version.  And they can get a nasty, but legitimate shock when actual evidence appears that demonstrates that the new story is incorrect.  This is actually an interesting neurological… condition? Situation? Party trick? One of those, anyway.

Moe Lane

PS: I can’t help but notice that a lot of the non-lawyer defendant arguments about King v. Burwell are starting to sound like rationalizations for why the Left should be angry about the Supreme Court’s upcoming decision in King v. Burwell.  Go figure.

Quote of the Day, The Left Is Really Worried About King v. Burwell now.

I imagine that writing this may have almost caused Jeffrey Toobin physical pain:

If the Obama Administration loses in the Supreme Court, the political pain will fall almost exclusively on the President and his Party. To paraphrase Colin Powell and the Pottery Barn rule, President Obama will have broken health care, so he owns it. To the vast mass of Americans who follow politics casually or not at all, Obamacare and the American system of health care have become virtually synonymous. This may not be exactly right or fair, but it’s a reasonable perception on the part of most people. The scope of the Affordable Care Act is so vast, and its effects so pervasive, that there is scarcely a corner of health care, especially with regard to insurance, that is unaffected by it. So if millions lose insurance, they will hold it against Obamacare, and against Obama. Blaming the President in these circumstances may be unfair, but it’s the way American politics works.

Mind you, it’s not unfair at all. The President was given every opportunity to compromise with the Republican party on this issue, and in his arrogance and myopia President Barack Obama declined to do so.  So… Obama purchased Obamacare on credit; or, if you like, he purchased it with his own credibility.  It’s hardly the GOP’s fault if the man can no longer cover the charge.

Via Instapundit.com.

Politico more or less gives the game away on King v. Burwell.

The weird part is, they were talking about the EPA at the time:

Questions abound about how the [EPA] would impose its own climate plans on behalf of states or make sure the states that do submit plans actually stick to them.

Also up in the air: whether the agency has the right to hit the violators with penalties that could even include the loss of federal highway dollars — one of the main fiscal weapons Washington has used to get states to toe the line on everything from motorcycle helmet laws to underage drinking.

Wait, what?  Is Politico admitting that the US government engages in the habitual practice of using federal subsidies to force individual states to do its bidding? And that such a tactic is used in a variety of circumstances and situations? I mean, I know that it’s true – and the practice is not exactly new – but usually people don’t want to talk about it…

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy gave only an indirect answer last week after Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman Jim Inhofe asked her how the agency would handle states that drag their feet. “Would the EPA consider withholding federal highway funding?” the Oklahoma Republican asked. “Or would you say no?”

Continue reading Politico more or less gives the game away on King v. Burwell.

Tweet of the Day, @BarackObama Acts Like A King WRT #Obamacare Again edition.

It’s like Barack Obama’s trying to provoke calls for his impeachment.

Mind you, in Barack Obama’s shoes I’d… be doing a better job, sure. God knows the bar isn’t hard to clear. But I’d also be totally trying to provoke an impeachment crisis, not so much because it’s a good option for the President with regard to securing his legacy as it is about the only option that he has left.

Moe Lane

PS: Hey, remember when the Left complained and complained about unitary executive theory? Good times, good times.