CORRECTION: CNN is now saying "Correction: The Supreme Court backs all parts of President Obama’s signature health care law." Now how the fuck could an org like CNN make a mistake like that? Somebody's ass should be fired...
UPDATE about 9:30am CT: fuck CNN; here's a tiny bit more from TPM Editor's Blog, David Kurtz:
Because of the archaic way the Supreme Court releases its decisions, there was lots of initial confusion about what the holding in the case was. We’re still awaiting the actual opinion, but the upshot is that the individual mandate survived under the taxing power of Congress, not under the Commerce Clause. ...Brian Beutler of TPM has details.
Scott Lemieux of Lawyers, Guns and Money has a tidy list of important facts.
ADDED: The estimable Laurence Tribe at SCOTUSblog explains, in "Chief Justice Roberts comes into his own and saves the Court while preventing a constitutional debacle," how this decision makes constitutional sense even as it disagrees with the opinions of the other conservative Justices.
AFTERTHOUGHT: of course I have some thoughts of my own on the Affordable Care Act. It is far from the legislation I would have preferred, which for brevity I will call "Medicare for all" or "single payer." But the most disgusting thing is that when Obama, as he so often does, adopted a Republican position almost intact, the GOP, as a purely political act, with no redeeming motivations of aiding America's ill and infirm, turned 180 degrees and did everything they could to kill it... despite having effectively authored it themselves. They even turned loose their nakedly partisan Supreme Court on it, but one of their regulars (Roberts) betrayed them. The degree of acid-tossing raw enmity almost all Republicans exhibit toward Obama, who aside from being Black is almost one of their own, is... well, actually, no, it is no surprise. The GOP has sunk to the bottom, and is feeding on the toxic waste down there. Couldn't they at least, you know, like... pretend to advocate the good of the nation and its society? But noooo...
Republican evil knows no bounds.
Sigh....I guess we can kiss the Public Option goodby now.
ReplyDeleteDon't get too effusive towards TPM, they had an ad out that showed a 6-3 decision that included Kennedy in error.
ReplyDeleteThis rush for a 'scoop' is a PITA. It is better to get it right, than to be the first to get it wrong.
Roberts found a pathetic way to back the interests of corporations, who are the people he really works for, and has for his entire professional career. He represents the US Chamber of Commerce on the Supreme Court, not the law or people.
And the Repubs will demand that this 'tax' be cut almost immediately - count on it.
Effusive, Bryan? where did I wax effusive toward TPM? I no longer even have a commenting account on TPM, but I do make use of them when I need something. They're not obliged to meet my standards; I can determine whether something they publish is gold or crap.
ReplyDeleteThe first source I tried, CNN, fucking got it wrong. The second source I tried, ABC, was slow in posting. I am told Fox fucked up, but I never visit the Fox News site. MSNBC got it right, but it took them a while. TPM got it right. SCOTUSblog got it right, and I would have added SCOTUSblog to my blogroll if I hadn't had things to do after wasting the morning seeking correct info that I expected CNN would give me in an instant... that's the last time I'll trust them!
Sourcing can be a serious problem in blogging, and in general, ordinary fourth-rate bloggers like me don't have the luxury of picking up the phone and confirming something with the Supreme Court or one of the presidential campaigns. We do what we can. And I am anything but "effusive" in my response to TPM.
Sorry, Steve, I was just being snarky.
ReplyDelete