Pelosi & Boehner's responses to today's decision.


TIS

I think it's important to keep in mind the complexity of most Supreme Court decisions. This one was about 200 pages long. Although it is being touted as constitutional support for the Act, one should read the majority decision and the dissenting decisions before giving too much credence to the popular interpretation. There are important statements in those decisions which may mitigate the Act and future federal law.

I agree, Oli. When you go through the fine print you never know what you may find. But I also agree with Ronnie, as far as certain liberals being "defeatist." Doomsayers never do anyone any good.

Forget left vs. right for the moment. Candidates and presidents have been touting wanting to provide health care insurance since at least the days of Ronald Reagan. Obama was the first one to get it done. Is it perfect? No, of course not. But how could it be with the divisiveness our Congress has shown over the past dozen years?

To be honest, I've been less than impressed with a lot of Obama's first 3.5 years. But at the end of the day, he got this passed and was upheld by the Supreme Court (barely). Plus he got bin Laden. The economy is finally starting to come back after the near-Great Depression Part II from 2008-09. Far from perfect, but some goods steps in the right direction.

What a disgusting comparison .

Asshole shitkicker from Indiana. Was he anywhere near Manhattan on September 11th?

Fucking guy should die of hemorrhoids.

These teabaggers are amazing.

Jesus Congress can't even pass that seemingly common sensical bill on student loans, a bill (in concept) that both national candidates of both parties agree. But God forbid the incumbent might get a legislative win of any kind.

I think what I admire is that Obama has staked his Presidency on a domestic bill that whether how much it succeeds or not, it's a bill striving to help the masses in the pursuit towards a problem to be solved previously by free enterprise and government. Considering the fight and consequences in the HCR war, a cautious incumbent would've waited (if not ever do it) as reportedly Hillary Clinton would've done if she had won.

As partisan as this is, what would be the GOP equivalent in a domestic agenda? Cutting taxes for the ultra-rich? Maybe economically on an intellectual front that works or not, but is that as noble and righteous of a justice crusade for the American people? (Romney thought once upon a time that even as a "conservative," it was a goal worth striving for too. Shit Obamacare was originally conceived by the right-wing Heritage foundation.) The rest of their domestic agenda would amount nothing more than worrying about those gays trying to enhance a conservative institution like marriage, unlike the great role model Bristol Palin.

AAC is a start, and yes it is a mess with some holes and problems. But the solution to those flaws isn't to throw the baby out with the bathwater, but try to remedy those gaps. I mean doesn't common sense dictate you try to solve a problem, and if a solution fails to satisfy it, then you try another. Do cops quit a murder investigation if their first suspect gets an alibi? Of course not.

Whether he wins re-election or not, Obama has left his stamp on the American political landscape, I like to think for the positive. For all his failures and faults, I do respect and admire that he decided at some point that losing another term is a price worth paying if it meant making a long-held democratic dream (dating back to Truman, and earlier than that back to Teddy Roosevelt) reality.

And I think that's an inspiring thought. In our times we are so (justifiably) cynical about government and the officials we elect to it, we've lost the powerful idea that perhaps the pursuit for political power isn't to stroke ego or eleviate your stock in society, but for some sort of greater good beyond yourself. (Not like the Clintons when Bubba was merely satisfied by the cheap pops. Asides from the economy doing good, what were his accomplishments? I don't see many people inspired by NAFTA's signage even if techncially it was the right course of action.)

From Mitt Romney's own campaign website:



http://www.mittromney.com/issues/courts-constitution

Actually, he should get in his car and drive 100 mph into a telephone pole. That may be the most ridiculous comparison ever uttered by a politician.

I don't know if anyone here was watching FOX News this morning, but at 10:22 AM they reported breaking news that the individual mandate was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. They went live to one of their cute blondes (named Shannon) at the Court, who held the decision, read a few sentences of Roberts' holding that the Commerce Clause does not constitutionally support the mandate, and then she looked directly into the camera and said, "The individual mandate is GONE."

I guess someone, who was actually able to understand the decision informed FOX News during the day of the actual decision.

Ronnie,

Clinton wasnt that bad. I liked Bill. As president, Clinton presided over the longest period of peacetime economic expansion in American history. He implemented Don't ask, don't tell, an intermediate step to full gay military integration. He successfully passed welfare reform and the State Children's Health Insurance Program, providing health coverage for millions of children among others.

Speaking of Bubba, last year I had the former president of the American Political Science Association as a Professor. He used to refer to Bill as the "last great Republican president", with the implication being that Bill championed many Republican proposals such as deregulation of the financial industry, free trade, etc.

CNN did the same thing. Fortunately for me, I had to turn my tv off at 10 for a conference call so when I turned it back on 30 minutes later I didnt event notice the error.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-...sa98V_blog.html

Hilarious. FOX and CNN would rather be first than right. Dewey Defeats Truman all over again.

FOX reported the wrong story at 10:22 AM. I'd like to go on the record that I posted the reported result correctly here at 10:19. If only they had consulted me...

MSNBC just showed an older clip of Romney stating how an individual mandate was necessary. Whatever way the wind blows.



TIS

Romney blows.

Is it too early to vote for Post of the Year?

CNN & others are really getting the business for jumping the gun. Here's a photoshop pic reminiscent of familiar media slip-up.

TIS

I have mixed feelings on this.

On one hand, I couldn't help but enjoy seeing the Republicans eat this. They've always paid lip service to health care reform but never had any real intention of actually doing it. So now this is what they get.

On the other hand, I'm still not sold on everything in the bill itself. At least the things we've all heard about, assuming they're true to any degree.

The bill is a mess, if at the least because Congress "wrote" it, that 535 head monster. And we all know they can't wipe their own ass without writing 400 pages and 70 amendments.

Anyway, good ole Michael Savage claims Justice Roberts made his swing vote because he has epilepsy.



http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2..._cognition.html

I wonder what Dubya thinks of all this? Does he regret appointing Roberts?

We go live now to Wolf Blizer's replacement: Klydon. What's the latest?

You could replace any of the dolts on Fox and it would be a huge improvement.

Hosts and guests of both radio and tv talk shows are manifesting paroxysms of frustration and anger over the Court's ruling. Of course, the mantra that they all now voice is about the law's tax component. It all sounds likea temper tantrum.

I don't know about that, goombah. But I often first hear news here on the BB from ronnie, olivant and others.

For all the ranting and raving from the right, I have yet to hear an alternative plan.

While driving yesterday, I listened to Limbaugh for 5 minutes. He blamed the Colorado forest fires on Obama because he scaled back funding for the planes, which are being used to drop retardanton the flames. Then he blasted the overturned medicaid provision and said that states that don't expand the medicaid eligibilty better not have a natural disaster because out of spite Obama will withhold federal relief from them.

I couldn't make this up.

Well Kly, he may be on to something. In several pics of the great Chicago fire, there are a few discernable faces that bear an errily close resemblence of Barack Obama. Of course, he can't account for his whereabouts at the time of the fire. Iknow. I know. He wasn't born at the time, right? Well, let's check that birth certificate again!

He may have had something to do with the San Francisco Earthquake in 1905 also, although he may have been a baby in Kenya at the time.

By MACKENZIE WEINGER | 6/29/12 3:02 PM EDT

Americans are starkly divided over the Supreme Court’s health care ruling and three in 10 say they want the law repealed entirely, according to a poll released Friday.

It’s an even split, with 46 percent agreeing and 46 percent disagreeing with the court’s Thursday decision, the Gallup poll shows. The results reveal sharply partisan lines — 79 percent of Democrats applaud the ruling while 83 percent of Republicans are against it. But independents are divided, with 45 percent agreeing and 42 percent disagreeing with the court’s decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0612/78031.html#ixzz1zIVgezFr

CBS reports what's been rumored for days, that Roberts did switch his vote after initially siding with the conservatives.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3460_162-57464549/roberts-switched-views-to-uphold-health-care-law/

So can we blame Scalia now?

The Republicans will come after the President with everything they've got. It's too late to look up the links now (WSJ/NYT/Politico) but actually there are quite a few liberal legal experts and law supporters who think that the limitation on the Commerce Clause and the rejection of forced Medicaid expansion are poison pills that over the years will enable greater conservative resistance to and revanchism against the modern welfare state. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out.