I don’t think that they meant to, but then: that’s not my problem, is it?
“I can’t even say how big a relief it is that—hello? Hello?” http://t.co/DkN8pY51hk pic.twitter.com/F9vkigM1X5
— The Onion (@TheOnion) June 25, 2015
Don’t get me wrong, folks: speaking as an American I think that the courts got it wrong today. But speaking as a Republican I’m very much aware that the fundamental problem with Obamacare is not that it was passed in such a slipshod fashion (although that is still a big problem). No, the real, fundamental problem with Obamacare is that it’s a festering pile of pig shit. That ain’t gonna get fixed with a 6-3 Supreme Court decision.
Moe Lane
So far, one optimistic analysis of the decision I’ve heard goes like this:
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The SCOTUS all vote, Roberts votes last.
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Roberts keeps score, and sees the lib bloc all vote to keep the subsidies.
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Roberts sees Kennedy waffle and .. side with the lib bloc.
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Roberts decides that letting the Notorious RBG writing this decision would be a disaster, letting Kagan or Sotomayor write it would be worse, so ..
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Roberts votes with the lib bloc and assigns *himself* the decision.
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Roberts then lies through his teeth in the decision and achieves two things:
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1 – by insisting that the *law* meant “exchanges”, Roberts blows up the liberal narrative that agency rules can overwrite laws .. you can bet that’ll be cited a time or three in the future.
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2 – by ignoring what the authors of the bill meant – note that there’s *zero* analysis of Gruber – Roberts shiv’d “original intent” in favor of “original public meaning”, which .. if you think 2nd Amendment for a moment .. you’ll see is also a win.
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Does this decision still suck [redacted]? Yes.. but it’s got potential .. *and* it’s timed to kick Jeb Bush in the nuts.
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Mew
I don’t think we can give Roberts the benefit of the doubt on this any longer. I’m not so certain this is where he wants to be on this (I’m with those that believe he’s being held at gunpoint, either via his children or something else), but I don’t think there’s any use hoping he’s playing the long con rather than giving the left an unmitigated victory on obamacare, willingly or not. sigh.
Yeah, I gave him benefit of doubt on the first one. However, looking at the dissent, I guess the next bit of litigation is suing states for insecurities of the federal exchange. You know that securing the federal exchanges are beyond the current bunch. Maybe by the time it escalates, the composition of the supreme court will have changed.
Great. Now align that with the above scenario.
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They vote. Roberts votes last.
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How does Roberts sway this to *not* make it a 4/4 tie when 5 vote for the subsidies before he votes?
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Mew
They want single payer? I give them the VA.
No need to thank me; you’re welcome.
I’ve proposed putting Congress and the D.C. drones on the VA for years now ..
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Oh, with the additional requirement that all dependents of the congresscritter must seek medical attention at either the VA hospital in their district or .. if they don’t have a VA hospital but do have a BIA hospital, they go there .. *then* they may go to private care facilities, using TriCare or equivalent.
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Mew
And the Democrat elites what pushed it through own every scrap of that pile. Chow down, boys.