Elena Kagan: How Can Giving a Boatload of Money to Poor People be Unconstitutional?

Rush Limbaugh.com ^ | March 30, 2012 | Rush Limbaugh

[Kaslin]

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I have the Elena Kagan sound bite. I know that I have total, 100% credibility with you. When I tell you something, you know it's true. But I want you to hear it. This was Wednesday at the Supreme Court during the third day of oral arguments on the constitutionality of the health care reform law. This is the most junior justice, Elena Kagan, a former solicitor general for Obama, who openly cheered the passage of Obamacare when it went through the House. And she then worked on its defense at the Supreme Court. She should have ethically recused herself. But she didn't. And here is her opinion, in the form of a question to one of the lawyers, doesn't matter who. She's talking about the commerce clause and coercion. She doesn't understand the argument that forcing people to buy health insurance violates the commerce clause.

This is a woman who taught law at Harvard. She was the dean of Harvard Law. Which means she's smarter than anybody else. She's smarter than the dean of law at Columbia and she's smarter than the dean at Stanford. She's just as smart as the dean over there at Oxford. There's nobody smarter. When you're the dean of Harvard Law, you're it. And she has no clue. She cannot conceive, she has no concept of the notion that the federal government cannot force citizens to buy anything. By the same token, the government can't force you not to buy anything. Works both ways. So the lawyers are talking about this using the term coercion, coerce people. This compulsory contract, which is an oxymoron. And she's frustrated. She doesn't understand why people don't understand this. She doesn't understand why people think this is unconstitutional. It's a mystery to her. You mean we can't give people health care? I don't understand. Here's how she said it.

KAGAN: Why is a big gift from the federal government a matter of coercion? In other words, the federal government is here saying: We're giving you a boatload of money. There are no matching funds requirement. There are no extraneous conditions attached to it. It's just a boatload of federal money for you to take and spend on poor people's health care. It doesn't sound coercive to me, I have to tell you.

RUSH: I am sitting here, if you're not watching on Dittocam you can't see me with my mouth all the way open, in stunned disbelief. Folks, this is why all week I have been urging you: Don't think they're smarter than you are. Don't fall for that. Don't grant them that. These are some of the most uninformed, ill-informed, arrogant, conceited people you will ever encounter. I'm not even gonna assume she knows what she's talking about. What it could be is that the federal government is passing the burden of Medicaid to the states. In Obamacare they are off-loading some of the costs to the states. They're demanding that states pick up Medicaid costs, and she is of the belief that the states are gonna get the money that the federal government currently spends on Medicaid, but they aren't. The states aren't going to be able to afford this. And unlike the federal government, they can't go print money.

They have to balance their budgets at the state. It's very difficult for them to even borrow. They do, they sell bonds and so forth, but it's not nearly as easy to deficit spend in the states as it is at the federal government. And Obamacare takes the money in Medicare and shifts it to the states so that they can show on paper that the overall cost on the federal side is not nearly as high as it really is. And to her, this is a boatload of money, what could possibly be wrong? A big gift from the federal government. Obamacare is just a big gift. We're giving this money, and there aren't any strings attached to it. Boatload of federal money for you to take and spend on poor people's health care. That doesn't sound coercive. What it sounds is clueless. I mean totally, genuinely clueless. And this woman's a Supreme Court justice.

END TRANSCRIPT

[goodnesswins]

YEP...I’ll say it....DUMB as a BOX of ROCKS!

[depressed in 06]

Does anyone believe that Kagan has not called DumBO with the results?

[metesky]

What a keen judicial mind, sharp as a tac that girl, eh?

[ScottinVA]

There are no extraneous conditions attached to it.

Oh, really, Miss Piggy? How about THE ISSUE BEFORE YOU THIS WEEK??? Y'know... that "mandate" thing?

[goodnesswins]

I’ve been wondering if there’s a betting pool somewhere to when the decision will be leaked....because I AM SURE for the first time ever it WILL be leaked...and we will know who did the leaking!

[Diogenesis]

A box of rocks has more ethics than Justice Kagan.

SCOTUS will FOREVER be remembered as having no ethics
in 2012 after devious Ms. Kagan interrupted a lawyer
criticizing the very notorious Law
she wrote/directed/crafted — and then “ruled” upon.

[Pining_4_TX]

Bingo!

[Buckeye McFrog]

Barack took many many interviews on Chicago’s public radio station to essentially say the same thing.

[fhayek]

Why is it that when I hear her talk about a 'boatload' of money for the poor, the only boat I can think of is a Chinese Junk?

[tumblindice]

Yeah, I’m saying she should stick to driving that UPS truck and let us decide what to do with our own money.
The only people her position appeals to are those who pay no taxes, but she’s oblivious to this, I’m convinced.

“We’re from the federal government and we’re here to help you.”
Elena “Buttload” Kagan

[Fledermaus]

Thanks to all the spineless, cowardly, RINO establishment senators that wouldn’t filibuster this moron.

McConnell, Hatch, Lugar, Alexander, Corker, the bobsie twins of Maine, etc.

A total bunch of losers.

[hal ogen]

This kagan creature is such a fool. That she is on the supreme court means that senators voted for her to be there. Are we doomed as yet? Good bye Freedom...we hardly knew ye. Truly disgusting.

[MrB]

Hmmm... maybe I DIDN’T see what you did there...

I thought it was a Blazing Saddles ref.

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

thanks I feel better now

[stephenjohnbanker]

” Thanks to all the spineless, cowardly, RINO establishment senators that wouldn’t filibuster this moron.

McConnell, Hatch, Lugar, Alexander, Corker, the bobsie twins of Maine, etc.

A total bunch of losers.”

To me, they are borderline criminals.

[pieceofthepuzzle]

She is clearly a clueless ideologue who never should have been appointed, let alone confirmed.

[etcb]

Actually, Rush got it wrong here. This quote is from the third day of arguments which had nothing to do with the Commerce Clause or with the individual mandate. The issue was whether the expansion of Medicare was "coercing" the states.

You are correct. It does seem Rush sometimes uses the "Ready, Fire, Aim" method, especially when accuracy would get in the way of the point he wants to make.

[Vendome]

Speechless...

[DJtex]

Yes, Rush conflated two similar coercion themes from Obamacare, forcing individuals into commerce to regulate commerce and forcing states to agree to eventually foot the bill for a huge number of new Medicaid recipients.

What was the biggest of the “big lies” from Obama—

“If you like the coverage you have you can keep it.” —unless you are a Christian who objects to funding abortions.

“This is about cost containment, not rationing care.”

“We are going to cover the 40 million uninsured and it’s going to actually save money.” — CBO says that 10 years from now, 27 million will still be uninsured.

[IronJack]

1). Where did you get the money?
2). Why are the poor people poor?
3). Who paid for the boat?