Predictably, there has been about 48.6 scads of commentary written since yesterday’s SCOTUS decision on the Affordable Yada-Yada Obama is Great Act. Much of it speculates on just exactly what drug Roberts was under the influence of, while more speculates that he was in some manner “gotten” to. Both are possibilities.
A number of others speculate that Roberts is playing history’s highest stakes game of poker with the future of the country at stake. Old NFO has a very good write up of that; I’d urge you to have a read. One of his points is that the decision may open up a route where states can opt-out without penalty; another good one is, as I noted yesterday, that this is a tax, rather than a further torturing of the Commerce Clause, which is still whimpering in the corner of it’s cell after the last time these bastards had their way with it.
There is another route that may come into play, and it has with this thing being a tax. The Obama crowd may already be working to nullify this line of reasoning, since they’re still contending that it isn’t a tax. There’s this little beauty known as the Anti-Injunction Act, the upshot of which is that you can’t sue over a tax until the tax has actually been levied. No taxes (or fines or whatevers) will be levied until 2104.
Following me here?
That means that once they collect the first dollar from J. Random Person, this thing might start winding it’s way through the court system again.
It’s a faint hope, but at least it’s something. However, I still contend that, Republicans being more than a little spine-impaired and about half the country thinking that this is the greatest thing since the Band-Aid (because they get free Band-Aids, birth control, bread and circuses), the odds to driving a stake through it’s heart and burying its removed head by the crossroads at midnight are slim at best.
I have began considering just what my response to this needs to be. It throws my carefully crafted plan for the next decade into the dumper, and I need to figure out a response. I’m seriously investigating going Galt on their ass.