Supreme Court ACA Watch Open Thread
Today is supposed to be the last day of this Supreme Court session so all of the breathless press vamping waiting on the ACA decision officially turns into lots of breathless punditry sometime after 10AM today. I’m posting this thread for everyone to have a place to start posting your own prognostications and links to people who are doing a good job at discussing the issues involved.
In the meantime, here are some links:
1. Jonathan Cohn over at TNR is one of the people who simply owns the subject of health care policy in the US — the politics, the policy, the application. He wrote a post yesterday providing an excellent overview of what today’s decision should settle and what it won’t.
2. Look who thinks that we’ll get single payer if the ACA is struck down! Ben Nelson (the Nebraska one)is telling his constituents:
“Many expect an activist Supreme Court will strike down part or all of health reform,” Nelson said in a prepared statement. “If they strike down the mandate, the Supreme Court will be paving the way to a single-payer system, or back to the old broken health care system — neither of which are good for Nebraskans.”
It is to laugh.
3. Ezra Klein discusses how Republicans built the space for the conservatives on the court to put their activist hats on and upend the current understanding of the Commerce Clause. Would that progressives would start taking note.
4. Nate Silver depressingly reminds us that the nuance and detail of the implications of any ruling aren’t likely to be absorbed by the public.
5. Jim Romenesko catches the Sun-Times posting up their prep copy for the ACA decision.
6. Intrade is predicting (as of this writing at 10 PM on 6/27) that there is a 70% chance the mandate is overturned.
7. Not quite Supremes coverage, but this just blows me away — thousands of federal firefighters fighting the Colorado (and other places) fires have no health insurance. Firefighters, people. Doing one of the most dangerous jobs on the planet. dKos has posted up a petition to ask Boehner and Reid to make this right. Please go sign it.
8. If you are looking for someplace online to monitor for the decision (and some smart analysis and reaction to it), check out SCOTUSBlog (who is liveblogging the announcement, I think); Judge Richard Posner, Emily Bazelon, Walter Dellinger, and Dahlia Lithwick have been having an online roundtable discussing this week’s decisions over at Slate; Ezra Klein’s Wonkblog will likely be on top of the issues; as will Jonathan Cohn at TNR. In more traditional media — Nina Totenberg at NPR is always an excellent source for Supreme Court reporting.
What do you think the Supreme Court will do this morning?
Tags: ACA, Supreme Court
Here’s some music while we are waiting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sj_9CiNkkn4
http://www.scotusblog.com/cover-it-live/
scotus blog is liveblogging it. I’d highly reccomend it.
edited to add: oops, didn’t see it was already in the link list. seriously though, go there.
One other outlet that will be interesting is Netroots Radio, where David Waldman and Armando will be talking about the decision and taking calls.
ps. Thanks, V!
SC ruling is in – Individual mandate is a tax and is constitutional (via scotusblog)
Medicaid expansion is limited.
WOW!!!
So it looks like ACA is mostly upheld (with Roberts joining in!), with some narrow curtailing of parts of the law.
Interesting. Any early thoughts on the implications?
Damn – shoulda bought Obama on Intrade.
I have mixed feelings. The individual mandate is bad policy and I’d like to see it gone. I hate to see the Court validate it. And I hate to see Democrats rewarded for turning social insurance over to private companies. What’s next, mandatory private annuities replacing Social Security?
On the other hand, overturning would have been horribly inconvenient politically to Democrats, and probably would bring another Republican Presidency and thirty more years of a conservative Supreme Court.
Defining the individual mandate as a tax might cause some political heartburn in this election. But if it is a tax, that makes it a more viable steppingstone to a public option or single payer.
I can’t wait to hear the backstory behind Roberts’s vote. We assume he was inclined to vote to overturn. On the other hand, the Chief Justice hates to be in the minority.
I can’t wait to read Scalia’s dissent (Scalia did dissent?)
And don’t forget – this challenge to ACA was brought to the Court by TWENTY-SIX states. That’s something to consider going into an election.
Summary from Amy Howe at SCOTUSBlog:
Apparently Kennedy is making a statement on the dissent and the dissenters find the law invalid in its entirety.
26 AGs brought the challenge. Not sure that has a lot of relevance during the election. After all, most people do not even know who their AG is.
As an aside, I really like this liveblog software that SCOTUSBlog is using. Earlier they said they had more than 880,000 people watching their feed.
Welp. Awesome.
ACA Supreme Court Opinion – http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/11-393c3a2.pdf
Cassandra – The coveritlive software is a great way to liveblog, but only as a broadcast, not usually as an unmoderated discussion. We can look into it for events that we want to cover, but not necessarily interact with readers.
I am amazed that Twitter didn’t go kablooey. Well except for CNN’s twitter reputation.
Thanks LG. That might be cool for Election Night coverage. Although the best thing about our current liveblogging setup is interacting with everyone. It’s like cutting up in the back of the class with all of the other cool kids.
Exactly! I think readers can comment, but it requires a moderator to approve every comment. I’d have to put down my drink for that…
im a little disapopinted. Scalia’s in the dissent but he doesn’t have an individual statement. I was hoping to see him rip himself in half from rage.
So I went to Red State to collect some salty tears. There was the usual stuff – calling Roberts a traitor, threats of secession, etc. But all the comments crackled with unintentional humor:
I dont see this ending well… 50 new nations in the next five years looking like a possibility… And that scenario is starting to look good…””
LOL:
It is at times like this when leaders must lead… When will Romney, McConnell, and Boehner speak?”
But this one is my favorite. Unfortunately, I don’t think this guy is joking:
How Did This Happen?!?! … Hannity & Rove were so sure and everything pointed to this scum going to Davey Jones Locker where it belongs, how could they do this to us? … Isn’t there a International Court or UN that we could go to and appeal this? … Please, what can we do to stop this?
Now here is one wingnut who is starting to catch on:
My eyore fear is… The majority of folks who are and have been against Obamacare, will now look at the law as being Constitutional. The Democrats will be looked at as doing something unpopular yet bold. The public will then, as a result, decide that they are now allowed to accept it and thus support it. Obama and the 2009-2010 Congress HAS changed America.
On some live blogging software you can choose to open certain commenters to not being moderated and they can post comments. Not sure how that works. Maybe you promote commenters to blogger status. That’s happened to me on some other live blog operations. Maybe they just got tired of my questions and figured I wasn’t going to be disruptive.
Boehner’s making a statement momentarily. maybe he’ll cry.
the house is already saying they’ll move to repeal it.
Dave – Yeah, to be honest, I haven’t looked very hard at these things in a while. Time for a review.
America as we know it is finished. Welcome to Europe.
I weep for the future.
Thank you, Preston, for giving us the uneducated dolt’s perspective.
Correction:
Je vous remercie, Preston, de nous donner la perspective de l’imbécile inculte de.
Vielen Dank, Preston, dass er uns die ungebildete Tölpel Sicht.
Gracias, Preston, por darnos la perspectiva del idiota ignorante de.
and just to be sure, Esperanto!
Dankon, Preston, por doni al ni la sen eduko dolt la perspektivo.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/daves4/people-moving-to-canada-because-of-obamacare
BWAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Can they send back some lower-price prescription drugs?
Nein, [ed: redacted] und liberale Aussenseiter, ich werde rehabilitiert werden. Jetzt beide von Ihnen entlang laufen, wird die Retard-Bus immer bereit zu verlassen. Ich werde nicht meine Zeit mit dir zu verschwenden.
Go fuck yourself [ed: redacted].
Preston, we hardly knew you.
I wonder if they can get out of the country before Election Day. See? This is why we need Emigration reform!
Or…
The conservatives are self-deporting!
So how long before the teabaggers start calling Roberts an activist judge and demand his removal from the court.
“Hannity & Rove were so sure”
Almost fell off my chair when I read this.
That comment just reinforces my belief that conservatives are, basically, children, or more specifically pre-teens — mature enough to see the world isn’t fair, but too immature to understand that they can’t win them all.
This is why they flock to media that reinforce their beliefs — like children, they fear the chaos of the real world and seek constant reassurance from their authority figures that they are safe. If they weren’t so dangerous, they would deserve our pity.
MJ, Salon.com has a start of the inventory of conservatives turning on Roberts.
“Chief Justice Roberts was the worst part of the Bush legacy,” Ben Shaprio, a conservative columnist and editor at Breitbart.com, said on Twitter.
😆
One of the SCOTUS blog guys is on fox news: “It will be hard not just this year but for the next 10 years to criticize the John Roberts Supreme Court and the conservative direction that it is headed in as partisan.”
well that’s a little disturbing. now everytime they do something terrible it’ll be “but… but…. obamacare!”
http://mediacast.realgravity.com/sharing/abd3f6b0-4082-012f-2a8c-12313d00d151/adf36cd0-a35f-012f-30c4-12313d00d151.html
Link to a great montage of the stupid echo-chamber of CNN and Fox.
Boehner’s on!
and now Cantor
repeal vote on July 11th.
repeal vote on July 11th.
Oh great, another teabagger summer. Just what we need is more morans with Obama=Hitler signs and pistols strapped on their hips. Unless they have all moved to Canada by then.
The Tea Party is revolting! and they are protesting, too.
Teajadi Rand Paul is in complete and utter denial.
“Just because a couple people on the Supreme Court declare something to be ‘constitutional’ does not make it so.”
You should not be allowed to serve in public office if you don’t have a basic understanding of civics. Following his (il)logic, W was never president.
Thank (God or your choice of personification of a Supreme being.)
“Just because a couple people on the Supreme Court declare something to be ‘constitutional’ does not make it so.”
Hold on now, Rand Paul is right – actually it takes FIVE people on the Supreme Court to make it so.
Although Paul’s comment does lay bare the delusion of the teabaggers – that they are the keepers of the true meaning of the Constitution. Also includes originalists and Libertarians.
Rand Paul is proof that children can be produced through defecation.
This is a good result. Major changes are truly needed in our healthcare system, and with this ruling, the Democrats can (at least) negotiate from a position of strength.
And if it takes a dozen years to fix things, at least the situation now is better than it was.
The one down side is that this takes the pressure off of creating a single payer system. And that’s too bad.
Be careful what you wished for. While I agree our healthcare system as constituted is in need of a overhaul–this gargantuan legislation was not the way to go. And this is not an “uneducated golt’s perspective”.
My bumper sticker sums it up best–“You think healthcare is expensive now–just wait till it’s free” (or mandated).
And my stock tip of the month? Get in early on Walmart–the “Doc in a Box” concept will go as viral w/ kiosks like an H and R Block, being staffed w/ mid-level providers giving mid-level or rubber-stamped care. Heaven help you if you have any ailment a fully trained discretionary eye could and needs to diagnose. It will be bandaids on an arterial bleed. May it never be your artery.
Mid level health care is better than no health care, and cheaper to taxpayers than exploding emergency room costs for patients who can afford neither insurance nor treatment.
That’s correct x–which is why having mid-level in ERs w/ DIRECT access to real, emergent care is more affordable than the free standing gas stations we are heading for. There are models already in place of “Fast Trak”, and Urgent Care that don’t bill at ER rates, yet provide the protection of integrated care if necessary to upgrade the intervention. Silos of care don’t work–but patients view it as “well I saw the doctor….” when in fact, it was a quick quasi-solution, or “treat and street” of MANY health situations requiring follow-up/ and or follow through.
Just buy the Walmart stock now, because the train has left the station.
The following is for all those Teabaggers types and their ilk who think that the affordable health care act is unconstitutional and the founding fathers would have condemned it.
http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/102620/individual-mandate-history-affordable-care-act
PS will someone send this to the Fat man down here in Sussex
thanks.
Does Roberts at least get a pass for fucking up the oath at this point?
There is very little occasion for gloating. The Court did find the mandate violates the Commerce clause, which validates the teabaggers’ objections. Nobody saw the tax argument coming, let alone succeeding.
But the tax argument is the hook for future improvements to the law, to slowly convert it to a traditional tax, with progressive brackets, that is used to pay for direct health care rather than health insurance. We’ll need to start electing some real Democrats for that.
That’s a clown question, bro.
Good one, LG
Harry Reid style! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOw9vMh8A6M
Kovach has a statement out. He wants it to go the way that Joanne is warning the ACA will take us:
So he wants to deregulate care so that Walmart can provide efficient service to the poor.
No LG–don’t confuse efficient w/ deficient.
Tweet found via DailyKos:
Speaking of our Supreme Court, one of their truly awful decisions was Citizens United. Unfortunately they recently reinforced this ruling. There are going to be upcoming hearings on the constitutional amendments being proposed in Congress because of Citizens United.
However, the amendments on the table do not go far enough and overturn the doctrine of corporate personhood. If you think they should, you would probably like the organization Move to Amend that has been working on this issue. They are trying to get a seat at the table and are doing a call-in today.
If you want to help, visit: http://movetoamend.org/
Amazing that Markell would take a lowlife like “Rielle Hunter” (real name Lisa Druck when she lived in my NJ neighborhood), seriously and have an actual conversation with her. It’s a sad commentary on the state of our nation that all one has to do is screw or blow the right person, preferably get pregnant by a rich man to be set for life with child support payments, and weirdest of all, become famous.
George: I agree she’s scum, but what would you expect Markell to do?
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