Maybe John Roberts did us a favor by saving ObamaCare

[Blizzardnh]

I’m not going to lie to you. I was as mad as anyone at Chief Justice Roberts when he - not once but twice - saved ObamaCare by engaging in legal gymnastics to avoid finding it unconstitutional - which it clearly was. First he pretended individual mandate fine was a tax, even after the Obama Administration had explicitly said it was not while trying to sell it to the public. Then he ignored clear language about who had to run the exchanges in order for them to be eligible for subsidies.

The other conservative Justices (even Anthony Kennedy) were ready to throw out the entire law on the grounds that it exceeded the authority of Congress. We thought Chief Justice Roberts saw the law the same way, and we suspected when he decided otherwise that he was worried about his “legacy” as Chief Justice and about how he would be pilloried by the media and by liberal historians.

As an ardent defender of George W. Bush and his presidency, I had long pointed to Chief Justice Roberts as one of the reasons Bush couldn’t be fairly tarred as “not a true conservative.” Go and rescue ObamaCare, Chief Justice Roberts, and you’re not making this easy for me!

But let’s consider what would have happened if the Supremes had indeed tossed out ObamaCare - either in the 2012 case or in the 2015 case - compared with where we are now. If ObamaCare is tossed during 2012, the Republican-controlled House certainly has leverage to bargain with Obama in coming up with an alternative. But it still has to deal with Harry Reid in the Senate and with Obama himself in the White House. Given the way these battles tended to go during the Obama presidency, how much better do you think the ultimate bill would have been?
more. http://canadafreepress.com/article/maybe-john-roberts-did-us-a-favor-by-saving-obamacare

[Applewood]

Interesting take.   Unfortunately, it appears that most voters threw away the opportunity to make better choices and opted for a former reality TV star instead.   

[Jazzhead]

I’m not going to lie to you. I was as mad as anyone at Chief Justice Roberts when he - not once but twice - saved ObamaCare by engaging in legal gymnastics to avoid finding it unconstitutional - which it clearly was. First he pretended individual mandate fine was a tax, even after the Obama Administration had explicitly said it was not while trying to sell it to the public. Then he ignored clear language about who had to run the exchanges in order for them to be eligible for subsidies.

The other conservative Justices (even Anthony Kennedy) were ready to throw out the entire law on the grounds that it exceeded the authority of Congress. We thought Chief Justice Roberts saw the law the same way, and we suspected when he decided otherwise that he was worried about his “legacy” as Chief Justice and about how he would be pilloried by the media and by liberal historians.

As an ardent defender of George W. Bush and his presidency, I had long pointed to Chief Justice Roberts as one of the reasons Bush couldn’t be fairly tarred as “not a true conservative.” Go and rescue ObamaCare, Chief Justice Roberts, and you’re not making this easy for me!

But let’s consider what would have happened if the Supremes had indeed tossed out ObamaCare - either in the 2012 case or in the 2015 case - compared with where we are now. If ObamaCare is tossed during 2012, the Republican-controlled House certainly has leverage to bargain with Obama in coming up with an alternative. But it still has to deal with Harry Reid in the Senate and with Obama himself in the White House. Given the way these battles tended to go during the Obama presidency, how much better do you think the ultimate bill would have been?
more. http://canadafreepress.com/article/maybe-john-roberts-did-us-a-favor-by-saving-obamacare

Roberts may be THE most conservative of the justices - because he knows the proper role of the Court in the scheme of our Constitutional system.    The job of fixing or junking ObamaCare should be left to the people acting by means of their elected representatives,  not unelected judges.   

[Cripplecreek]

Interesting take.   Unfortunately, it appears that most voters threw away the opportunity to make better choices and opted for a former reality TV star instead.

Newt Gingrich says he's like a combination of Andrew Jackson, Teddy Roosevelt, and PT Barnum and he says it as if its a good thing.

To me it sounds like the opening of a bad joke.

A democrat, a progressive and a carnival barker walk into a bar.....

[Sanguine]

Interesting take.   Unfortunately, it appears that most voters threw away the opportunity to make better choices and opted for a former reality TV star instead.

I'm not sure he is a "former".

[jmyrlefuller]

Roberts may be THE most conservative of the justices - because he knows the proper role of the Court in the scheme of our Constitutional system.    The job of fixing or junking ObamaCare should be left to the people acting by means of their elected representatives,  not unelected judges.   

The problem is that he set a terrible precedent: that the government can coerce people into things the government cannot constitutionally mandate through the tax code. Any future despot in waiting is going to take advantage of that and use Roberts's ruling to justify it.

[jmyrlefuller]

If ObamaCare is tossed during 2012, the Republican-controlled House certainly has leverage to bargain with Obama in coming up with an alternative. But it still has to deal with Harry Reid in the Senate and with Obama himself in the White House. Given the way these battles tended to go during the Obama presidency, how much better do you think the ultimate bill would have been?

Yet the default would have been no bill. We'd still be free of the bill, we'd have a precedent in which it could never happen again, and the Democrats would have been neutered with the only option they'd have being a directly taxpayer-funded scheme like single payer.

[txradioguy]

Robert's is going to turn out to be as bad a pick for the right as Kennedy and IIRC Brenen. Not were picked by Republican Presidents and then went left after confirmed.

The two Conservatives left on the bench are Thomas and Alito.

Robert's decisions on immigration...gay marriage and especially Obamacare have been huge disappointments.

[skeeter]

Roberts may be THE most conservative of the justices - because he knows the proper role of the Court in the scheme of our Constitutional system.    The job of fixing or junking ObamaCare should be left to the people acting by means of their elected representatives,  not unelected judges.   

Hogwash. If Roberts wanted to make a point about judicial activism he should've picked a case where the congress had actually acted within the bounds of the Constitution.

In this case he had the chance to exercise his one and only responsibility as a member of the Supreme Court - determine the Constitutionality of a sweeping and utterly intrusive new law - but instead he punted.

[Bigun]

Hogwash. If Roberts wanted to make a point about judicial activism he should've picked a case where the congress had actually acted within the bounds of the Constitution.

In this case he had the chance to exercise his one and only responsibility as a member of the Supreme Court - determine the Constitutionality of a sweeping and utterly intrusive new law - but instead he punted.

     and 

[Blizzardnh]

 

Hogwash. If Roberts wanted to make a point about judicial activism he should've picked a case where the congress had actually acted within the bounds of the Constitution.

In this case he had the chance to exercise his one and only responsibility as a member of the Supreme Court - determine the Constitutionality of a sweeping and utterly intrusive new law - but instead he punted.

[Cripplecreek]

Robert's is going to turn out to be as bad a pick for the right as Kennedy and IIRC Brenen. Not were picked by Republican Presidents and then went left after confirmed.

The two Conservatives left on the bench are Thomas and Alito.

Robert's decisions on immigration...gay marriage and especially Obamacare have been huge disappointments.

I'm guessing they probably don't think of Alito as a conservative any more.

If you recall some years ago we conservatives cheered Justice Alito speaking up during the state of the union address when Obama lied about the citizens united decision. However since then Donald Trump has taught us to hate money in politics as much as your average Bernie Sanders fan but apparently only for Trump's opponents.

However ASlito may be a conservative again now that Trump has decided to fill his cabinet with the very same billionaires he said were destroying politics and America.

[TomSea]

It's about time the Supreme Court gets cleaned up, Trump will have his nominees and the Femi-Nazi, Home-Fascist regime of what we've had to put up will be a thing in the past as we know from Civil War days, evil can be conquered.

[corbe]

It's about time the Supreme Court gets cleaned up, Trump will have his nominees and the Femi-Nazi, Home-Fascist regime of what we've had to put up will be a thing in the past as we know from Civil War days, evil can be conquered.

[Hoodat]

The problem is that he set a terrible precedent: that the government can coerce people into things the government cannot constitutionally mandate through the tax code. Any future despot in waiting is going to take advantage of that and use Roberts's ruling to justify it.

That is not so.   The established precedent was that the Constitutionality of taxes cannot be challenged until AFTER they go into effect.  Roberts did not deviate from that precedent.

Unfortunately, no one saw fit to challenge the tax aspect of the law since it has gone into effect.  So Roberts has been denied the opportunity to now declare it 'unconstitutional'.

[TomSea]

Yes, I guess if Trump picks Cruz or whomever else qualified individual; we all can celebrate that we helped get them nominated with our vote! Right?

[corbe]

@TomSea if your are truly coming around to Ted, maybe there is hope for my TDS after all.

  Edited to add 'I just took you OFF Ignore......'

[txradioguy]

@TomSea if your are truly coming around to Ted, maybe there is hope for my TDS after all.

No he's actually taking a swipe at Cruz supporters.  Hes claiming we'll jump on the Trump bandwagon if he puts Cruz on the SCOTUS bench. 

[TomSea]

@TomSea if your are truly coming around to Ted, maybe there is hope for my TDS after all.

Don't patronize me, I supported the nominee as I did in '08 and '12.  I never voted for Trump pre-election anywhere, not in online polls, not in the primary.

Now, all I said was all of us whom voted for the nominee if he makes conservative court appointments like Ted Cruz or others. That's a simple statement.

"Coming around to Ted", skip the basura (garbage in Spanish), I voted for him. Don't be self-righteous or evasive, I know nothing gets done without teamwork; and all of us who worked as a team can take credit for those nominations. That is a true statement.

[TomSea]

So, really, if Cruz were nominated to the Supreme Court, in hindsight, we can say those who helped get Cruz there were Trump voters and in turn, sort of more supportive of Cruz than many of his supporters.

I don't expect this logic to fly with the Cruz-Cult; it's not the most difficult thing in the world to not pass bills, lose most of your Supreme Court cases, not win anywhere virtually in the Bible Belt in the primaries and repeat what Rush Limbaugh says; but I suppose Ted is adequate.

[txradioguy]

So, really, if Cruz were nominated to the Supreme Court, in hindsight, we can say those who helped get Cruz there were Trump voters and in turn, sort of more supportive of Cruz than many of his supporters.

I don't expect this logic to fly with the Cruz-Cult; it's not the most difficult thing in the world to not pass bills, lose most of your Supreme Court cases, not win anywhere virtually in the Bible Belt in the primaries and repeat what Rush Limbaugh says; but I suppose Ted is adequate.

[corbe]

Don't patronize me, I supported the nominee as I did in '08 and '12.  I never voted for Trump pre-election anywhere, not in online polls, not in the primary.

Now, all I said was all of us whom voted for the nominee if he makes conservative court appointments like Ted Cruz or others. That's a simple statement.

"Coming around to Ted", skip the basura (garbage in Spanish), I voted for him. Don't be self-righteous or evasive, I know nothing gets done without teamwork; and all of us who worked as a team can take credit for those nominations. That is a true statement.

   @TomSea I didn't mean to come off as patronizing, and I too held my nose in 2008 and voted for Palin, in 2012 I sprayed some Glad and Flushed. 
   I would have rather had Ted as the nominee knowing Rock Solid Conservatives were no doubt being appointed to the USSC.   
   If this experiment in populism fails I expect that everyone I know will be saying 'I was for Cruz all along'.
   Unlike Rush wanting obummer to fail, I want Trump to succeed, I'm just not as optimistic as you are that he can do that.

   

[TomSea]

Anyway, this is definitely off-topic, but if Cruz were nominated for the SCOTUS; I was more supportive than the Beckites and others.

[corbe]

   Cruz did screwup letting Beck anywhere near his campaign, looking back, marrying that globalist goldman sachs girl was probably a mistake too. 

[Cripplecreek]

No he's actually taking a swipe at Cruz supporters.  Hes claiming we'll jump on the Trump bandwagon if he puts Cruz on the SCOTUS bench.

Progressives are always nasty self righteous scumbags. Its why I don'[t respect any of them in the least.