Obamacare Is Headed For Another Supreme Court Showdown, And It Puts The Law In 'Dangerous Territory'

Business Insider ^ | November 7, 2014 | Brett LoGiurato

[PJ-Comix]

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to take up a new challenge to the Affordable Care Act, a move that will again thrust the law into a high-profile battle before the high court.

The Supreme Court's move is somewhat surprising, considering there is still no split in the lower, circuit courts. But the high court agreed to King v. Burwell, a case in which the Fourth Circuit court upheld an IRS rule that extends the distribution of health insurance subsidies to states served by the federal insurance marketplace.

The challenge to the law is viewed as having the potential to cripple Obamacare in the 36 states where the federal government provides subsidies for low-income people to buy health insurance.

[NonValueAdded]

No, the 2014 tax return will raise the howl to repeal beyond the pain threshold.

[PJ-Comix]

Um...I believe your math is way off.

[PJ-Comix]

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Most of those who voted FOR ObamaCare didn’t even read the bill so they don’t know about this very SPECIFIC wording.

[Verginius Rufus]

Shouldn’t that be $6.60 instead of $6,600,000?

[basil]

I have no idea. My hope is sooner rather than later, and that it gets repealed.

I wonder if it would do any good if a whole of freepers VERY POLITELY individually gave them our thoughts on their health care bill and how it will affect us individually………..

[Sans-Culotte]

The only thing "big" I see in the news is that it will be big entertainment to see how many knots John "The Human Pretzel" Roberts will tie himself into in order to somehow make the subsidies work. He already did it once when he deemed ACA a tax.

Roberts is Souter II.

[morphing libertarian]

congress won’t but should proceed on their own to revise and defund. If the supremes rule for OBCare they will have wasted another year.

[Goreknowshowtocheat]

Yes. June of 2020.

[InterceptPoint]

There is a record of debate on the floor of congress where this was discussed.

I'm sure you are right but I have no idea how to go find it. I would if I could.

Any ideas?

[SteveH]

Perhaps most important for court-watchers, the plaintiffs further noted that contrary to the government’s claims, “there is still technically a conflict between the two Circuits.” That’s because under the D.C. Circuit’s rules, the decision to grant en banc review “vacated the panel’s judgment, but not its opinion.” So yes, Virginia, there’s still a circuit split.

Yes, Virginia, There Is Still a Circuit Split between Halbig and King
Forbes
10/14/2014
Michael F. Cannon

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3217242/posts

[brownsfan]

“The really ironic thing is that, the website’s costs alone (~$2.1 billion) divided by the US population (316.1 Million) is $6.6 million — that’s right, for what it’s cost on the website alone we could have given every person in the country a check for $6.5 million dollars and come out ahead.

That’s how corrupt the system is.”

It’s corrupt alright, but your math isn’t all that great. (2.1E9/315E6)=6.667. That’s $6.67 per person.

[Starboard]

That’s what I was wondering. Could this be a USSC tactic to quickly legitimize Obamacare BEFORE the Republicans start dismanteling it?

[Sgt_Schultze]

I wonder if it would help if both the new House and the new Senate file a “Sense of the House/Senate” to affirm that when they, as a body, defined those parties eligible for subsidies, they intended the definitions and instructions used, to be understood explicitly as stated. Anything else would leave legislating to courts, which have no Constitutional role in crafting legislation.

[tbw2]

The only defense for defining the law as the law (though the court should do this anyways), is that there are interviews with the law architects saying that the “no subsidies without a state exchange” was deliberate to force the states to set them up - thus not an oversight.

[Beagle8U]

You need to check your math, it’s roughly $6.50 each.

[PJ-Comix]

I think Roberts’ kids might have already grown up and flown the coop so no blackmail material there any more.

[Logical me]

ONLY states with a state exchange can have subsidies paid for their residents.

That is probably what the backward idiots in the SC will come up with. Tax money cannot be handed to anyone unless it is approved by he House and voted positive by the Senate. King Obama, the communists black Muslim traitor, as king just does what the hell he wants. We have lost America and may never be returned.

[OneWingedShark]

Um...I believe your math is way off.

Hm, could be.

2,100,000,000  : 2.1 Bn
  316,100,000  : 316.1 Mil
-------------
2,100,0ØØ,ØØØ  : Zero Canceling
  316,1ØØ,ØØØ  : Zero Canceling
-------------
21,000         : Post-Canceling
 3,161         : Post-Canceling
-------------

         5+1+ noninteger-remainder
     ________
3161 | 21000
      -15805
       -----
        5195
       -3161
        ----
        2034

2034 / 3161 is approx. 2/3 (OR .666)
So the 6.6 is correct...

Ah, I got it -- I left the M marker on my notes -- (stupid order-of-magnitude errors!) -- it's $6.6.
Thanks for the catch.

This article puts the website cost at $5bn, and I don't think I've seen anything about what's been paid for it in government-employee/-hardware-infrastructure costs... So this all is just a lower-bounds anyway.

[OneWingedShark]

I did; it was an order-of-magnitude error.

[OneWingedShark]

Already corrected; thanks.