IMHO, Justice Roberts was playing chess. It was a strategic move. Now Obamacare goes back to Congress, budgets originate from the House, Romney has enough fodder to campaign on from now until 2020. Agreed, ANYONE who stays home in November has voted FOR Obamacare.
It looks BAD, but the Chief Justice is no dummy.
We need to wait to read/hear the opinion. It may not be what we expect.
Yes! (Too much crying in our beer here)
Roberts is not stupid. They are not going to declare something unconstitutional, just because they (or we!) don’t like it. If you are a constitutional “originalist”, as I suspect many at FR are, then you have to decide whether the decision went with or against the Constitution (or else, we can all support the “living constitution” beloved of the left).I think a lot revolved around whether it would be a tax or some edict from HHS. They seem to be saying it is and has to be a tax. If the majority of citizens, through their reps, voted to impose this as a tax, what would be the counter argument?
Where do revenue measures originate? In the House. Most polls already say Obamacare is not popular. Those are voters.
This gives a greater incentive to work for (and contribute however small amounts I can) to conservative candidates, particularly in Congress.
The House is already Republican. I doubt Obama could get such a tax moved through the House.
House, Senate, President. Of these, I think the first two will be the most important. This can be repealed or significantly changed through Congress.
I certainly hope Obama loses (and I hope some of the Romney detractors here understand staying home and weeping is a useless gesture).
House and Senate are the key (why a lot of the Tea Party folks have been concentrating on lower levels of government, I think... it is an effective counterstroke to the vaunted “march through the institutions” of the left).
Even if Obama wins, he won’t be able to do much if he has a significant opposition in Congress. There is one important exception to this of course... appointees to the Supreme Court, but even there , getting them approved would be much harder. I believe in the end you support nominees who interpret the Constitution as the founders intended, whether you may like their decision or not.
I am reserving judgement on Roberts, waiting to see how this plays out.5-4 decisions are tough on one’s psyche, no matter which way it goes (the Roberts/Kennedy flip is interesting), but yes, I think Roberts is a pretty good chess player.
I think that this will turn out to be much less to the advantage of Obama’s re-election prospects than might appear at first sight.
This is what I am thinking, too.
If not, we are doomed.