Breakdown of the ObamaCare Decision

Ok folks, so let's talk about the biggest political news so far of the summer: the Supreme Court's decision on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or otherwise known as ObamaCare. On June 28th, the Supreme Court released its decision on the law in the case National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, immediatley re-igniting a heated debate about the powers of the national government.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's recap the major aspects of this law that the Court was dealing with. Long story short, the two most controversial aspects of the ObamaCare law were
        - the individual mandate that all Americans must have health insurance, either by privately  purchasing it, having their employers provide it, or being enrolled into a government-run program like Medicaid; otherwise they must pay a penalty,
        - and the requirement that the states had to enlarge the number of people enrolled in the Medicaid program, or risk losing all federal money in running these programs.. Medicaid is a joint program run by both the federal and state governments, helping poorer folks afford health coverage. However, Medicaid costs make up quite a bit of a state's budget, and many states were very upset at being forced to spend more on health coverage.
So we have two main issues involved here: first, can the federal government force individual citizens to buy a product? And second, where are the boundaries between the federal and state governments?

So, let's talk about the decision, because it gets a bit complicated. You may recall that the Obama administration argued that the individual mandate was within the government's powers under the Commerce Clause in the Constitution. The Court rejected this argument, saying "The Federal Government does not have the power to order people to buy health insurance." However, the Court decided that the penalty for not getting health insurance could be considered to be a tax, and that could be considered to be allowed under the Taxing Power in the Constitution, "The Federal Government does have the power to impose a tax on those without health insurance." So in other words, you can not be forced to buy something by the federal government....however, you can be heavily encouraged to buy something by facing an additional tax if you don't. Makes perfect sense, right?....Right???

I know that seems very contradictory, but it is not entirely unheard of. The government does use its taxing power to encourage its citizens to do certain things. For example, there are taxes on alcohol and cigarettes in order to encourage people to abstain from buying these products. There are tax credits (i.e. you pay less in taxes) if you buy a home, or adopt a child, or give to charity. What's different in this ruling is that you will pay a tax for NOT doing something, in this case obtaining health insurance.

As for the second part of the case, can the federal government force the states to expand Medicaid? In a surprise, the Court ruled that the federal government does NOT have this power. The Court found that the states have every right to not comply with the new rule, and still be able to recieve their current levels of Medicaid funding. For the first time in quite a long time, the Court drew a clear line limiting what the federal government can require of the states.

So what does all this mean? Well, conservatives and Republicans are upset that ObamaCare was upheld, and are worried about the possibility that this will open up the possibility of new taxes and requirements from the federal government. However, they are happy that the Supreme Court has decided to uphold the theory of federalism, by keeping a distinct line between the federal and state governments. And finally, they won't publicly announce it, but they are quite happy with this ruling because it gives them ammunition!

What do I mean by this? Simple. A majority of Americans were against the individual mandate of ObamaCare. After the Supreme Court decision, the Republicans and Mitt Romney can now portray themselves as the ONLY chance to repeal ObamaCare, and they are hoping that the American people remember that come November. And they can do this by using President Obama's own words, when he routinely said throughout the debate over ObamaCare that the penalty for not getting health insurance would be a penalty or a fine, and most certainly not a tax. Ouch!

Good grief, that was a lot of info! If you have questions, concerns, comments, haikus, please share! Stay groovy!

ObamaCare (Decision) is Coming!

For the Class of 2012, goodbye and good luck! For the Class of 2013, welcome to the No Sheep Zone. Here you better be be able to think for yourself and not follow the crowd. In other words, DON'T BE A SHEEP!

It's summer time, and maybe you think you can relax and not worry about government or politics or work....but you'd be wrong! First, you have to worry about your summer assignment, so don't forget that. But in the world at large, there are some significant events happening this summer that we want to keep an eye on and be ready to discuss. These are Mr. G's MAJOR EVENTS TO WATCH FOR THIS SUMMER:

June
- The Supreme Court's decision on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as "ObamaCare". This is going to be a huge decision...so huge that in the future it will be one of the cases I'll require for the summer assignment! In case you haven't been paying attention, ObamaCare was passed in 2010 with great controversy. Long story short, the law will guarantee health insurance for almost everyone in the country, no one can be denied coverage for a pre-existing condition (like if you were born with heart condition or a weasel in your kidney or something), allows more low-income families to enter the Medicaid program, and allow college students to stay on their parent's health insurance plans while they're in college. Also, there is a tax on tanning beds, so don't fake bake if you want to save some money.

Sounds great, right? Well, this is where it gets tricky. See, everyone will have guaranteed health insurance, but that's because the government will require you to have it. Either you pay for it, your employer pays for it, or you enter a government-run program (like Medicaid). This would be the first time in history that the national government would require its citizens to buy a product. President Obama is claiming he has this power under Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution, granting the federal government the power to "regulate interstate commerce". You're going to get sick sometime, medical supplies cross state lines, therefore, the government can force you to buy health insurance....Yes, I know that sounds kind of flimsy, but the government has used that exact same power (interstate commerce) to do everything from forcing restaurants and hotels to stop discriminating against minorities (YAY!) to regulating the size of pickles on fast food sandwiches (HUH?).

Obama's opponents, of which there are many, are outraged by what seems to be a substantial power grab by the federal government. They fear that by allowing the federal government this kind of power to force its citizens to buy a certain product, then what would be the limit to that power? Could the government force its citizens to buy an American-made car in order to support the American economy? Does this open a Pandora's box of other possibilities? (Pandora from Greek mythology...not the Internet radio station). Whatever the Court decides this month, it is immediately going to become an issue for the November election. So we definitely will be discussing this throughout the summer and fall, so be sure to be paying attention!

Wow, I did not expect to spend so much time talking about that. So let me just give you a teaser for the other major events coming up this summer, and we'll discuss those at another time:

Also in June
- French parliamentary elections will take place June 10th and 17th. Yes, we do care about what the French are doing!
- The Greeks will also be voting for their legislature on June 17th. Pay attention, and then Greek politics will no longer be Greek to you! (Wow, that's lame even for me).

July
- On July 1st, Mexico will be having its presidential election. Grande stuff happening with our southern neighbor that we'll want to be paying attention to.
- July 20th, The Dark Knight Rises comes out. No, it has nothing to do with politics. But come on......BATMAN!

August
- The last week of August will seek the Republicans hold their national convention in Tampa Bay. Obviously, Mitt Romney will be the nominee (barring something unforeseen like his death or a major scandal). The big news for the convention will be 1) Who will be his vice-president nominee? and 2) Will Ron Paul have gained enough delegates to force some major changes to the Republican movement from inside?

September
-The first week of September will be the Democratic convention in Charlotte. Honestly, not much is expected from this one...unless Obama pulls a major switcheroo and drops Biden as his VP candidate...but that's not expected.

Ok, we'll keep an eye out this summer and be discussing these and other events. So be sure to leave your comments, thoughts, feeling, appropriate jokes, haikus, etc! Also, I'll be in Florida from the 11th through the 23rd for.....let's call it research into fairytale monarchical systems.

My Internet connection may be spotty while there, so don't get discouraged if I don't post or respond for a while. Stay groovy AP!