SCOTUS votes on Healthcare

The six hours of oral arguments have ended and the speculation has begun. One thing is for certain, the Supreme Court has already decided the outcome of the Obamacare lawsuit. Don’t expect to hear that decision before this summer. This is common practice for the Supreme Court, after hearing oral arguments, the Justices take a private poll on how they stand on the case they just heard. This doesn’t mean they can’t or won’t change their mind before the rulings are publicly announced. The first day of arguments, the Court heard whether the case could actually be heard. The Anti-Injunction Act of 1867 prohibits the Court from hearing a case before the tax is actually collected. The government has argued since the law was passed, that the penalty for not obtaining insurance was not a tax. Day one of the arguments, the government argued that the individual mandate penalty did not constitute a tax. The second day of arguments, the government argued that under the tax and spend power; Congress has the ability to impose the tax penalty on its citizens. Yes, you read that correctly. Day one, Obamacare penalty IS NOT a tax but in day two, Obamacare is justified under the tax and spend power given to Congress. So the government wants it both ways. The major argument on the second day was whether Congress has the power to force Americans to engage in commerce under the so called “Commerce Clause.” The commerce clause has been abused to “allow” Congress to do just about anything they want. In the case, of Wickard v Filburn, Congress used the commerce clause to justify penalizing a farmer for growing wheat on his private property for his personal consumption. If the government can force us into commerce, what can’t they force us to do? Day three of the landmark Obamacare lawsuit was focused on the severability of Obamacare, whether the Court can throw out parts of the law and retain others or if the entire law must be ruled unconstitutional. If you listened to the Solicitor General stumble through the cross examination by the Supreme Court, you would think that this law has little chance to survive, but stranger things have happened. Most legal analysts seem to think the law will be struck down along “party” lines, 5 to 4 This could have a profound effect on Las Vegas. Las Vegas leads the nation in unemployment and foreclosures. The central theme of Obamacare is the individual mandate, which forces every person under penalty of law to purchase a product from a private company. With economic hardships among the worst in the nation, forcing people to spend their limited resources on products or services they may or may not want does not make sense. According to President Obama, we are in the worst recession since the great depression; families have had to tighten their belts, so according to the President, the government should make us all spend more money that we don’t have. As always, see here for my article with links.