Time Magazine
Virginia U.S. District Court Judge Henry Hudson finds key provision of health reform law violates Commerce Clause.
Congressman Eric Cantor (VA-07) today issued the following statement in support of the ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Henry Hudson of the Eastern District of Virginia, which declared the Democrats’ health care law to be unconstitutional: [...]
Washington Post
U.S. District Court Judge Henry E. Hudson found that Congress could not order individuals to buy health insurance.
In a 42-page opinion, Hudson said the provision of the law that requires most individuals to get insurance or pay a fine by 2014 is an unprecedented expansion of federal power that cannot be supported by Congress's power to regulate interstate trade.
"Neither the Supreme Court nor any federal circuit court of appeals has extended Commerce Clause powers to compel an individual to involuntarily enter the stream of commerce by purchasing a commodity in the private market," he wrote. "In doing so, enactment of the [individual mandate] exceeds the Commerce Clause powers vested in Congress under Article I [of the Constitution.] [...]
Virginia U.S. District Court Judge Henry Hudson finds key provision of health reform law violates Commerce Clause.
Congressman Eric Cantor (VA-07) today issued the following statement in support of the ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Henry Hudson of the Eastern District of Virginia, which declared the Democrats’ health care law to be unconstitutional: [...]
Washington Post
U.S. District Court Judge Henry E. Hudson found that Congress could not order individuals to buy health insurance.
In a 42-page opinion, Hudson said the provision of the law that requires most individuals to get insurance or pay a fine by 2014 is an unprecedented expansion of federal power that cannot be supported by Congress's power to regulate interstate trade.
"Neither the Supreme Court nor any federal circuit court of appeals has extended Commerce Clause powers to compel an individual to involuntarily enter the stream of commerce by purchasing a commodity in the private market," he wrote. "In doing so, enactment of the [individual mandate] exceeds the Commerce Clause powers vested in Congress under Article I [of the Constitution.] [...]
One small piece has, the bit requiring people to buy insurance.
ReplyDeleteHere's the problem.. Let's say this ruling stands. So, insurance companies won't be getting business from healthy 20 year olds.
Meanwhile, in another part of ObamaCare which wasn't rejected, insurance companies can't use pre-existing conditions as reasons to refuse coverage. So, their costs will go up a great deal, but the expected source of revenue (making the healthy pay for the less healthy) won't materialize.
-micha
Oh, but that's just the thing of it: You can't force the healthy to pay for the less healthy! Hence why it was deemed "unconstitutional."
ReplyDeletePoliticians go very wrong when they promote an unconstitutional act/requirement in order to finance a policy that was supposed to solve a given problem. By doing so, they are not solving problems but creating more problems. The trick is to formulate a policy that solves problems but does so within the actual bounds of constitutional law! Otherwise it's breaking the rules of the game.
Might as well look at the constitution as the "halacha" of American legislation. Lehavdil, we can't legislate outside of the halacha. Unfortunately, politicians, much like lehavdil many assimilated Jews have done with Judaism, have discarded the founding documents and stomped on them as they look for new ways to define life. So, many people do not even realize how far society has fallen or how much we have strayed from the document which everyone of course pays lip service to. Many don't realize how much that document's been marginalized.
We do not live in a marxist society and the country was not founded on marxist principles.
Perhaps I wasn't clear... The section about accepting people with pre-existing conditions could end up standing as law without the plan for funding it. Leaving a financial nightmare that will bring down the insurance industry.
ReplyDeleteI am not arguing constitutionality. I am saying the result that the current ruling points to is an even worse disaster than the one the claimant was trying to prevent. One needs to bring down the whole edifice, as part of the plan is worse than nothing.
In any case, the comparison to halakhah fails because the "Orthodox" and "Conservative" decisors sit on the same Supreme Court.
-micha
And you think these "conservative" belong there? Just like in Judaism, they do not. They have no say in halakha, but they certainly make their voices heard and certainly represent the majority of American Jews. That's the tragedy of it. And so the comparison does not fail. You have strengthened it.
ReplyDeleteThe Jews have put "conservative" calling themselves rabbis above themselves, and the American people have put mini-marxists who know nothing of founding principles above themselves.