Obamacare decision roundup

  • “We won everything but the case.” Ilya Shapiro at SCOTUSBlog on what it’s like to have your arguments succeed while your client goes down. Recommended;
  • David Kopel applauds, especially the Medicaid ruling limiting strings on federal support of states;
  • Michael Greve turns thumbs down: “the Chief’s supposed act of statesmanship has bought nothing that is worth having.”
  • Clark Neily: “as litigators know very well, it is always more important what a court did than what it said. … Notwithstanding the majority’s assurances … the Court ratified what many perceive as the most significant expansion of federal power in 75 years.”
  • John Podhoretz: Roberts’ artful dodgery on tax issue does the Court no credit. Similarly: Jim Huffman;
  • From a David Frum reader: did Roberts bail because the four justices to his right got too frisky on severability?
  • And Cato’s star-packed event looking at the meaning of the NFIB v. Sebelius decision will take place live on the web this coming Monday, Jul. 2, 1:30-4:45 Eastern.

Earlier here, here, and here.

One Comment

  • Anyone can save up for a new car, a down payment for a house, or for retirement through a 401k. We create value in some way to earn the income to save, but that part of our income has to be stored somehow for later consumption in buying the car, house, or rent in Florida.

    There just isn’t any way for everybody to save for retirement as the reserves in a traditional retirement scheme for Social Security benefits would equal or exceed the entire value of the United States. We would have to rent our houses and lease our cars from the Social Security System. By tying benefits to a dedicated FICA tax, we provide for our current roster of retirees and build pseudo assets as entitlements. Social Security has to be that way.

    When free market funding of hospitals broke down, Blue Cross was established to provide prefunding of benefits. The mechanism was set up as insurance through group policies that allowed for needed socialization of costs with respect to age and pay. It worked beautifully for me in that care for my mother who died at age 32 and my father at age 72 was taken care of by the Blues.

    The decay of family and work attachment, and the interference of Ralph Nader, led to the collapse of the individual market in New York State. Something needed to be done and the ACA is a reasonable response to the problem. Any solution would be a transfer of the Blue Cross tax to the government. That has to happen.

    Chief Justice Roberts gave me new hope for rationality. And, unlike Justice Scalia, he did not advise us to let them (the uninsured poor) die.