Supreme Court To Hear Obamacare Case: Kill It NOW, Or Kill It LATER?
Not to bum you out, but BE PREPARED (AND VOTE).
This is your daily reminder, in the lead-up to the November election, that Donald Trump is actively trying to take away health insurance from millions of Americans, including those with pre-existing conditions. So vote like your life depends on it, because it does.
Also, too, sorry this post is kind of technical and not so funny, but honestly NONE OF THIS SHIT IS FUNNY AT ALL.
This morning, the Supreme Court agreed to hear another Affordable Care Act case challenging the individual mandate to buy health insurance. In 2012, Chief Justice John Roberts "saved" the ACA , upholding the law by declaring that the individual mandate is a legal "tax." But in 2017, when Republicans seized control of the House, they zeroed out the penalty for failing to buy health insurance, and immediately turned around and claimed that the tax rationale was no longer operative.
Texas led a consortium of Republican states suing to have the entire ACA struck down on the rationale that the individual mandate undergirds the entire apparatus, and in December 2018, US District Judge Reed O'Connor of the Northern District of Texas agreed with them, holding that the entire law must fall, pre-existing conditions and all, without the individual mandate.
The House of Representatives and a consortium of Democratic states led by California defended the law at trial and appealed to the Fifth Circuit. At which point, the Justice Department, which had previously argued that the individual mandate was illegal, but that the rest of the ACA must stand, reversed positions and said the whole law had to go. So when Donald Trump says he's trying to protect health insurance for people with pre-existing conditions, HE IS LYING HIS ORANGE FACE OFF.
In December 2019, the Fifth Circuit agreed with the trial court, holding that the entire ACA was illegal without the mandate, and sending the case back to the trial judge to assess congressional intent to see if any part of the original law could survive without it.
The House and the California consortium requested expedited review by the Supreme Court, which was denied. Texas and the rest of the goon squad wanted the case to go back down to the trial court before working its way back up to the Supreme Court. This would reduce its immediacy as an election issue in November, since they just got hammered in 2018 on healthcare, and increase the odds that one of the liberal Justices will no longer be there to hear it. (Sorry, it's just a fact.)
This morning, the court agreed to hear the case this fall, which means a decision is likely some time in 2021. Which is a huge dodge, since it allows Trump to lie his way straight through the election, claiming that he's trying to protect Americans' healthcare, rather than gut it.
But, more to the point, here's some tough love from me to you: Sooner or later, the Supreme Court is going to kill the ACA. Because of the 2016 election, we are now stuck with Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh forever, and there's nothing we can do about it. I support universal healthcare, and you support universal healthcare, but we may well end up with a Democratic nominee who doesn't take that position. Which sucks, I get it. But unless you want the GOP to design whatever comes next, YOU NEED TO SHOW UP AND FUCKING VOTE FOR THE DEMOCRAT.
Okay? OKAY????
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Sticking with the purity candidate didn't help in 2016. Some Bernie or Bust members continued attacks on Hillary up to election day, I guess hoping for some reason she would be forced to drop out and Bernie would charge in on his white horse. It didn't work out that way, for many reasons, but at least part of it was continued vilification of not just Hillary, but the entire Democratic Party. Meaning it affected down ticket candidates too.
Most Democrats are moderates. That does not mean they do not support better access to health care, reasonable college costs, assistance for the lower income families, and individual rights. They do. But most of the time when you shoot for the moon, you fail. And in 2016, the purity ponies having a snit and not voting, or sending a message by voting for Stein, or a totally unexplainable vote for libertarian Gary Johnson, ended up going backwards in health care, environmental and financial protections, women's rights, minority rights, higher minimum wage, and virtually every liberal and progressive policy.
What Bernie proposes will cost upwards to $50 trillion in new spending. Rich people are not rich enough to pay but a small part of that. When the GOP does their socialist racing swiftboating, lots of people may reconsider who they will vote for. And another four years of Trump will effectively wipe out everything Democrats have done for the last 60 years.And probably put a 6-3 conservative block in the Supreme Court for decades.
Most people think Bernie almost no chance of actually getting his Medicare for All passed. It's much more generous than what any other country has, including the UK. And that is only a part of the spending he proposes. Ask Americans if they want to pay a 40% marginal income tax on their $60,000 annual income, and a 25% sales tax on many purchases, even when you describe the benefits it may provide, and they will quickly tell you no way. "I don't have kids", "I get free (or cheap) insurance at work/Medicare/VA/Medicaid", or those trillions in infrastructure will not help me so why should I pay more taxes so people in Atlanta can get more city transit.
People won't even support bond issues that may cost $150 a year on their $300,000 house to fix run down schools their own kids go to. Telling them to pay more tax so someone else's kid can get free day care will not fly. Lots of them don't even want poor kids to get free lunches. The only way to overcome that is incrementally, a little a year. Not seeing your tax bite go from $10,000 this year to $15,000 two years from now. Americans want European level social benefits, they just refuse to pay for them. And given the choice of Bernie saying he wants to spend $50 trillion more in the next ten years (and the GOP pointing out how much that will increase everyone's taxes) or Trump saying (lying) he will cut spending and cut taxes, way too many people will pick Trump. And America and the world will be screwed.
HORRIBLE for her. And Shithead parties at "Mar A Lago" every weekend on our dime. Which includes HER dime.