Legacy Does Matter
by Denis G. Campbell
Speaker Boehner was so confident his side would prevail, party reservations were made all over Washington. He had to warn his giddy party members that they should not “spike the ball in the end zone” when they defeated the signature programme, the Affordable Care Act, of President Barack Obama’s first three years.
Looks like they forgot to tell the Supreme Court. Chief Justice John Roberts a Bush appointee and considered very conservative, crossed ideological lines to join with the court’s more liberal members and affirm the decisions of other lower court conservatives. He provided the 5th and deciding vote keeping the Affordable Care Act’s insurance mandate intact.
While I earlier predicted this result, I was certain Anthony Kennedy, the ultimate swing vote on the court would join in and deliver a 6-3 majority. But Roberts, in an uncharacteristic show of judicial restraint sided with the majority in a case that would have destroyed the Commerce clause of the Constitution and rendered Universal Single Payer Care as the only option.
While they do not yet see it, the GOP dodged a bullet. Had the court ruled the other way, many of those currently with insurance would have lost it and the GOP and the right would have been to blame.
Still feel like spiking the football Mr. Speaker?
Denis G Campbell is the author of 6 books including 'Billionaire Boys Election Freak Show,' 'The Vagina Wars' & 'Egypt Unsh@ckled.' He is the editor of UK Progressive Magazine and provides commentary to the BBC, itv Al Jazeera English, CNN, MSNBC and others. His weekly 'World View with Denis Campbell' segment can be heard every Thursday on the globally syndicated The David Pakman Show. You can follow him on Twitter via @UKProgressive and on Facebook.
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The Democrats let no forget that the penalty for not buying government mandated healthcare was not a tax. In that light, the court’s ruling is rather Orwellian. To wit, a tax is not a tax unless it needs to be called a tax to be constitutional.