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Firstly, it reiterated two earlier holdings of the Court that ended the expansion of the commerce clause.

  Roberts could have just as easily struck the law as unconstitutional and used this re-iteration in the majority opinion as supporting argument.

Secondly, for the first time since the New Deal the Court rejected a law for exceeding the spending power of Congress.

  The same point could be made had the law been found unconstitutional.

Thirdly, the Congress can now tax us for not doing something, but this power is not nearly so dangerous as the power that the Court limited, namely, the commerce power.

  It was *completely* unnecessary to grant the Congress the ability to do one evil in order to deny them another evil. The author's point is so incredibly stupid I can't believe he wasted ink on it.

All things considered we conservatives did not come out so badly

  Horse Pucky. This is lipstick on a pig. Roberts did the American citizenry no favors.

Agree, but why isn’t anyone commenting on the fact that government is now allowed to take away (shorten) my life? Roberts could have done the country a great favor by striking down the law. Instead we will now have decades of debate, higher taxation, a growing government, a more polarized congress, a shortage of physicians, and an economic system that will remain in turmoil. In the end I think SCOTUS will be held responsible for damages inflicted on all of us by virtue of a bad decision rather than a bad law forcefully passed by Democrats.

“Thirdly, the Congress can now tax us for not doing something, but this power is not nearly so dangerous as the power that the Court limited, namely, the commerce power.”

This is an absolute lie. It is equally as dangerous as the commerce power. Either way, federalism and limited government is up. Congress can do whatever it wants, unless it runs afoul of the reserved rights the court has arbitrarily graced us with choosing to protect. And, no, the commerce power was not limited; it was only not extended. There’s a difference.