"Obamacare" Gets Clean Bill of Health

Official 2005 photo of Chief Justice John G. Roberts (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld most of President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act Thursday by a narrow 5-4 margin.  Which is a surprise because most folks in and out of Washington believed all or part of the law would be struck down.

What's even more of a shocker is that Chief Justice John Roberts, who normally votes with the conservative majority, went with the progressive justices on the Court in this matter as the deciding vote.  Maybe Roberts doesn't always want to be seen as this conservative sellout who happens to be Chief Justice.

Most of the provisions in "Obamacare" (some of which are already in effect)--no denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions, young adults being insured until age 26 on their parents' policy, banning lifetime financial limits--will remain.  Expanding coverage to more low-income folks will not.

What the Court modified was the provision that everyone has to have health insurance by 2014, which is when the law goes into effect.  Now consumers face a choice:  Get covered now, or face a big tax bill later.  Some choice.  Many of those who can't afford health insurance now surely don't have the money to pay the IRS.

This is a huge win for the President in an election year, and for a Democratic party that's been mostly in hiding since Republicans have been beating their chests over wanting to repeal health care reform.  After the Supreme Court's decision, GOP leaders in the House still want to get rid of it and replace it with . . . whatever.  The Democratic-controlled Senate and the President will likely turn those notions back.

Meanwhile, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney loses more credibility every time he talks about repealing "Obamacare" once he's in the White House.  Wasn't this the guy who, as Governor of Massachusetts, was for health care reform before he was against it?

Because the Affordable Health Care Act has been so controversial for so long, this will be a campaign issue long after the dust has settled on what the Supreme Court thinks about it.  When was the last time Republicans and other conservatives got so up-in-arms over the Court's opinion about a public health issue?  Well, it's been forty years since that ruling, and we're still seeing protests (some of it violent) at medical clinics and states making restrictions about what kind of care these particular patients are allowed to have.  The political and social landscape has never been the same since that ruling.

Maybe you've heard of it.  It's called Roe v. Wade.

Supreme Court: Waiting for the Main Course

US Supreme Court building, front elevation, steps and portico. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Everyone was waiting on Monday for the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on President Obama's health care reform laws.  That's everyone from the White House to Congress to health insurance companies to the media to ordinary folks, ready to react if justices rule one way or another.

But the notoriously camera-shy justices opted to apply an old showbiz maxim before releasing their decision on Thursday:  "Make 'Em Wait".  Until then, here's a roundup of some of the rulings the Court has made so far.

• The Arizona law where immigrants who are arrested or detained have to show their papers (should they have any) to police was upheld, with the other parts of the law struck down.  Which means, with Obama signing an executive order easing laws for children of undocumented workers, the states have less power to do what the government can't or won't do to control the border as they see fit.
• A 100-year old Montana law limiting the amount of money companies can give to political campaigns was struck down, making it consistent with the Citizens United ruling of a couple of years ago.  Which means the (conservative) justices seem to know which side their bread is buttered on, not to mention who's doing the buttering.  Remember kids, corporations are people, too.

This also happens to be the 40th anniversary of the Watergate scandal, arising out of a burglary at the Democratic National Committee headquarters.  The litany of dirty tricks and corruption brought down President Richard Nixon, put several of his cronies in prison, and made campaign finance reform the law--at least for awhile.  Is that what it's going to take before Citizens United rears its ugly head?

• The Court struck down fines levied by the Federal Communications Commission against Fox and ABC for showing celebrities swearing on awards shows and naked female backsides on police dramas in a fleeting fashion (in that order), saying that the government's rules against that sort of thing are too vague.  The justices did not address the constitutionality of what the FCC considers indecent.  So nothing really changes.  The broadcast networks still can't air certain words or body parts on the allegedly  public airwaves without being heavily fined.  It's just that the FCC needs to clarify its rules a little.

Without minimizing the importance of those rulings, it's safe to say that the preliminaries are out of the way.  When the Supreme Court's decision on Obamacare is handed down Thursday, this is going to set the tone for the rest of the presidential campaign.  And the justices will be nowhere near Washington when that happens.

Rude Awakening at the White House

President Barack Obama has many challenges to deal with every day, which is typical of any Chief Executive regardless of party.  In an election year, those challenges multiply if you're running for another term, and all the nitpickers are watching your every move.

If it isn't running against Republican Mitt Romney, it's an economic crisis in Europe that threatens to damage the recovery here (and some of you are wondering:  What recovery?).  If it isn't awaiting a Supreme Court decision on health care reform, it's criticism about the lack of response to the violence in Syria and the elections in Egypt.

With all that going on, the last thing the President needed was to be interrupted during a speech by a member of the media.  During a White House event announcing the news that Obama had signed an executive order allowing children of undocumented workers the same rights as American citizens (without actually being American citizens), a reporter named Neil Munro of the conservative blog Daily Caller started shouting questions at the President before he was finished talking.

The media was aghast.  How dare Munro treat the President like this?  How rude and unprofessional.  Even conservatives agreed that Munro went too far.

Tucker Carlson, Munro's boss, tried to drag Sam Donaldson into this by saying that the former ABC White House correspondent used the same tactics during Ronald Reagan's presidency.  Donaldson replied that the difference was, he shouted his questions after the president spoke.  Not before.

We don't live in Donaldson's world any more.  Rudeness and unprofessional behavior have become standard operating procedure in Washington during this era of political hyper-partisanship, with neither Republicans nor Democrats giving an inch while the country burns.  Conservatives and progressives regularly bash each other on their own cable news channels.  The rest of us either cut in line or yak away on our smartphones, regardless of who else is in the room.

Why should we be surprised by Munro's attention-grab?  He's no different than protesters who shout slogans during political speeches, or Tea Partiers who ambush town hall meetings.  Except that Munro wasn't led away in handcuffs.  Freedom of the press, you know.  He has a right to ask his questions so long as he's patient enough to wait for the President to finish speaking.

President Obama has been dissed so often by the GOP that he should be used to guys like Munro by now.  Remember the State of the Union address a couple of years ago, when South Carolina congressman Joe Wilson shouted "you lie" while the President was talking?  It raised Wilson's profile with conservatives, at least for awhile.  Munro and Carlson are probably hoping that this little dustup can raise the recognition bar for their online publication.

Most of us want to see a return to civility not just in our politics, but in our daily lives as well.  It's conservatives who seem to want it more, and they're hoping it starts the moment Romney's elected.