The 5-to-4 ruling — with conservative Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. the unexpected swing vote — reaffirms the most ambitious and controversial undertaking of Obama’s first term: attempting to guarantee that most of the 45 million Americans without insurance will get better access to medical care.
Comments
"Conservatives criticized the court's maneuver, pointing out that Congress never called the mandate-and-penalty combination a form of tax, instead referring to it as a "penalty" and a "shared responsibility payment" to be collected by the IRS"--------------- That's right. The Health care Act is nothing but a huge TAX! And it's mainly on poor people with incomes below $250,000.
The individual mandate was developed by the Heritage Foundation, a right wing think tank, and introduced into the health care discussion by Republicans in Congress in the 90s. In fact, most Republicans liked the individual mandate, right up until it became part of the ACA. Combine that with the fact that insurance companies love the mandate, and there was no way that the reflexively pro-business Roberts was ever going to vote against it.
Please tell me that's a typo and you actually meant $25,000.
I am hoping the change in the political landscape is to force the Democrats and the Republicans (and Independents) in the House and Senate to quit posturing and actually work with one another to take care of legislating, which is what we elected them to do in the first place!