Category Archives: Politics
Not a Tax until it Was
The Supreme Court has determined that the only way the individual mandate gets to be constitutional is if it’s a tax. Let’s have a little fun listening to The White House insisting that it’s not a tax – here, here, and even after the ruling, here. If they are right, they would be lawless by the court’s reasoning, not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Would it be a rude to interrupt a press conference to find out?
Healthcare Ruling
Chief Justice Roberts bestowed the burden of victory on the president by calling the individual mandate a tax.
The dissenting minority accuse Roberts of rewriting the legislation. Well, can’t say we weren’t warned of conservative judicial activism.
The Hammer thinks Roberts heroically twisted and turned through narrow legal fissures to restore the integrity of the court, in the eyes of his enemies on left. Those enemies think the court soiled itself by putting George W. Bush in office in 2001 and that it has been illigit ever since.
But even as he saved Obamacare, Roberts found the use of the commerce clause to justify the mandate to be unconstitutional. So he rewrote the bill to save the bill, calling the mandate a tax. I guess we can all agree that anyone can be bludgeoned to do anything with a tax. Mission accomplished:
The Wall Street Journal is not so easily impressed. Its editorial today notes references to Justice Ginsberg’s “dissent”. Why would she dissent if she was in the majority, unless she wasn’t until Roberts switched sides?
Egypt Arab Spring
Democracy in Egypt features checks and balances. The voters elected a Muslim Brotherhood majority parliament and a Brotherhood president. The military checked the new president by stripping his office of its powers. The judiciary balanced the parliament by dissolving it.
Executive Privilege
Here’s a Rich Lowry piece about administration loquaciousness when it comes to national security secrets that make the Preezy look good but not so much for Fast and Furious.
