Prediction: Supreme Court Will Overturn Healthcare Law

Here is my prediction on the Supreme Court review of the national health care reform law...

They will overturn it. Or, more specifically, they will overturn portions of it...like the mandate that every individual has to buy insurance...such that the law is effectively negated. And thus will end, before it actually even was enacted (virtually none of the law's provisions have been enacted yet), the nation's most significant attempt at modernizing its health care system and making it more equitable and beneficial for more people. The infant law will be snuffed out in its cradle.

And if that happens? Well, we're back to where we were before the law was passed - a system predicated on earning maximum profit rather than one attempting to use the free market system to provide quality care for the maximum number of people.

Regardless of the outcome, I'll leave the bickering, taughting, celebrating and commiserating to others.

However, I will also point out something very ironic that I read today in an article about the healthcare law debate...

If the Supreme Court rules that the individual legal mandate in the health care law is not consitutional because Congress cannot compel an individual to buy private health insurance products (the law mandates you buy private insurance, not government run insurance), it will be simultaneously negating one of the primary pillars of conservative reform proposals for Social Security - namely, mandating that everyone buy commercial (private) pension funds.

Ooops.

As the article also points out, this does not mean it's likely that the conservative majority on the Supreme Court will suddenly support the health care reform act now because they want to preserve the chances for Social Security privatization in the future. No, it likely just means that those conservative judges will find a way to both call the health care mandate unconstitutional and any future Social Security privatization mandate OK. With a heavy sigh, I have to agree with that assessment.

Oh, and one more irony pointed out...if if Obama and the Democratically led House and Senate had simply enacted a single payer program back in 2009-2010, it would have been beyond constitutional challenge -- because government has an unambiguous power to tax and to use the revenues for public purposes.

The Census - It's In the Constitution

In addition to Thursday being April Fools Day, it's also Census Day in which U.S. citizens are urged to fill out and send in their Census form.

I saw an interesting article about how some on the political right are questioning if the Census is constitutional. The article points out the irony of how by not sending in their Census replies, the very people who currently want change in the government will be minimizing their representation in the government since virtually all forms of legislative districting are proportioned based on population. The article also points out how it's pretty funny that the Census is even being debated as it's so clear that its clear the Federal government is authorized to do it.

I guess this goes to show you the level of paranoia and willful ignorance of a certain element of our citizenry.

For any doubters out there...or as ammo to use when discussing the Census this evening with your "crazy right wing uncle," straight out of Article 1, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution...

The actual enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.

Other than some interesting 1700s use of capitalization, that's pretty clear...and it's in the Constitution.

Oh, and that section about "in such manner as they shall by law direct?" The relevant law today is Title 13 of the US Code, and it can be seen HERE