The Obama Presidency

[Diff-chan]

I already told you. The Medicaid expansion covers 17 million new people but the law was designed to cover an extra 35-45 million new people. The Medicaid expansion was not the ONLY part of the law. The Medicaid expansion applies to people who are 133% over the poverty line. The other part was, obviously, the mandate. What about the people 200% over the poverty line? They need insurance. No matter what state you live in (and there are subsidies for those people). The people who live in those states still need to comply with it.

I can easily see this being used as a way for Republican governors to act like dicks, but that's the ruling.

[Advocate]

I meant about the AL opting out of Fed Income Tax.

Are you reading the ruling? Its rather interesting.

[Diff-chan]

No, Alabama cannot have its citizens opt out of a federal tax. Congress has taxing powers that individual states have no say in. That was my point. I read the summary but I'm not going to read 193 pages anytime soon.

[Razor Ramon]

This shit is getting confusing.

[sleeve]

Bottom line is very simple.

ACA affirmed on 5 votes. Individual mandate affirmed under Congress' power to tax, and not the Commerce Clause. Chief Justice Roberts authored the majority opinion.

The particulars are really meaningful only to constitutional law scholars. But the fundamentals are simple. Look at the way the tax code works. The government provides tax incentives for specific behavior all the time. If you have a home mortgage, you pay less taxes than someone who doesn't. If you don't donate money to charity, you pay more taxes than someone who does. This concept has been uncontroversial for decades.

The individual mandate isn't really any different than that.

And the breathtaking cynicism of the dissent, joined by four members of the Supreme Court (including Anthony Kennedy), tells you more about the current makeup of the Court than it does about our Constitution.

[Razor Ramon]

I got that much but what the hell is going on with the debate above this?

And can someone post how the decision was split? Since it was 5-4 I'm assuming someone crossed party lines because I am pretty sure the more conservative judges voted along their party lines just like the liberal judges did. Who got off the fence!

[Advocate]

Chief Justice Roberts was the one who crossed party lines.

[Diff-chan]

Yea, Anthony Kennedy joining up with the Alito/Thomas/Scalia gang surprises me. But maybe it shouldn't. The past 12 years have not been kind to him.

[Razor Ramon]

I'd rather the mandate be a tax taken out through goods than having a yearly bill appear at my door, IMO. It only makes sense so it's a huge pool to collect from. But whatever.

[Yoshi]

1. No, Obama can claim victory, as this was his signature domestic policy achievement. It doesn't matter what something was sold at.

It's such a huge accomplishment that a lot of it doesn't go into effect until after he knew he be out of office.

It's an absolute joke that the Supreme Court weaseled this into being a tax, because Congress was clearly overstepping their bounds.

edit: Even sleeve's examples further this point. He used two optional ifs to compare to the mandated purchase of a product.

Unemployment will be further impacted as more of this goes into effect, because companies now know they really will have to pay for this bullshit.