If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
The Blog
It would be seen as a sign of strength if the President announced that, no matter what the Supreme Court decides, he intends to make sure that health insurance companies don't get a free ride in this country.
Before we are quick to judge, rant, and push the political rhetoric buttons, let us take the time to educate ourselves on all aspects of health care reform. Perhaps some of the provisions of this law are in our favor.
The challenge to the Affordable Care Act not only asks the Supreme Court to enforce the limits on congressional power explicitly listed in our Constitution, it asks for the return of some measure of humility to a Congress that self-interestedly ignored constitutional limits.
No matter how the Supreme Court rules on health reform, one thing is certain: the court is now viewed largely as a suspect partisan institution alarmingly contented with its own impropriety.
While the Supreme Court wrestles with how to untangle the constitutional complexities of the Affordable Care Act, the politics are becoming crystal clear -- and they may ultimately benefit those of us who would like to see affordable, high-quality health care for all Americans.
Every time in recent memory the conservatives on the Supreme Court have stepped in thinking that they could give an advantage to the Republicans, it has instead ended in catastrophe for them.
If the Supreme Court rejects the mandate, millions of people will go without health coverage, thousands of them will continue to die prematurely each year because they lack coverage, and tens of thousands will continue to suffer from crippling medical debt.
In a Court of logic and precedent, a Court without aversion to the channels of popular democracy, the challenge to Obamacare would be a total non-starter. But here we are again, waiting to see whether the Court will follow the path of justice or the path of power.
The United States Supreme Court -- the highest court in the land -- one of the most powerful institutions in the world -- is afraid of something most of us would relish: being on television.
The health insurance mandate was a compromise that effectively guaranteed the health insurance market in America for years to come by making that market more efficient and guaranteeing it paying customers into the future. Why, then, is the right attacking it?
Americans know government safeguards drive dirty polluters to clean up their act. With these new carbon limits in place, we can count on a new generation of power plants that will create jobs, help stabilize the climate, and allow us all to breathe a little easier.
If you've been listening to the uproar about the Affordable Care Act, then you're probably scared out of your wits from tales of "death panels" and "government takeover." And you'd have good reason to be concerned -- if those allegations were accurate.
When the Justices hear the six hours of argument on the constitutionality of healthcare reform this week, there will no doubt be much talk about "states' rights." But it is important to remember that the one arguing doesn't truly represent "the states" v. the federal government.
By week's end, America will have witnessed a deeply serious and probably quite revealing conversation about the Constitution and what it might mean 225 years after it was written.
With a bit of political jujitsu, the president could turn any defeat handed to him by the Supreme Court in the Affordable Care Act case into a victory for a single-payer healthcare system -- Medicare for all. Here's how.
As ObamaCare heads towards its day in the Supreme Court, how can we make sense of competing claims about whether Congress has exceeded its authority under the Commerce Clause? A bit of history might be helpful.
