Mar 28, 2012

Great Irony

(Sarah Kliff / Washington Post)
As the Supreme Court turned into a circus this week, as arguments of the legality of the Affordable Care Act, AKA ObamaCare - It's hilarious, to me, in the chaos, that it's come out that almost no one disputes that single payer, such as Medicare for All, would be Constitutional. Even Michael Carvin, one of the lead lawyers arguing (for the non-state private opponents) that the individual mandate is unconstitutional admitted today that single payer would be clearly legal. From the Supreme Court transcript:
JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR: So the — I — I want to understand the choices you’re saying Congress has. Congress can tax everybody and set up a public health care system.
MR. CARVIN: Yes.
JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR: That would be okay?
MR. CARVIN: Yes. Tax power is -
JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR: Okay.
MR. CARVIN: I would accept that.
If Democrats had created a simple, straight forward single payer system or merely provided the uninsured with a default public insurance program, the constitutionality of health care reform would likely never have gotten to the Supreme Court.

I also suspect such a simple and easy to understand law would also have been radically more popular than the Affordable Care Act, and maybe Harry wouldn't be sweating bullets about losing the Senate and Nancy would still have her giant gavel?

Oh, and how do I know this thing is in the ICU waiting for someone to pull the plug? James Carville has already been spinning how the loss will be Democrat's gain. He's about as brain dead as the bill.

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