You Should Have Paid Attention In Law School....

Wow, just wow...that is my only reaction after digesting the response by Team Obama to the Judge's decision in Florida to rule Obamacare unconstitutional...it gave me indigestion....let's march through some of these points in a hopefully simple format...



First, the administration was appalled the judge tossed out the entire Act, rather than just the 'individual mandate' requirement. For us simpletons, the severability clause is taught in "Federal Legislation-101". If you have a severability clause, the legislation can proceed forward, even if one of the components is ruled unconstitutional. You simply have to delete/modify the issue determined by the Courts. If you lack the clause, the entire cookie must crumble and one must start again. Why did Obamacare not have a severability clause---well, in Obama's best off-teleprompter voice-- "uhhhh, wellll, dohhh, duuhhh, mmm--we forgot ". The smartest administration evah forgot? Or, if you don't like that explanation, the simple reality is it may have been omitted knowing if the individual mandate falls, then there simply is no way to fund this albatross.



Next, what is all this talk about the "commerce clause"? Their take--they can impose the Act on all of us as the commerce clause allows them to regulate economic activity. The Court's take--the commerce clause is used to regulate commerce activies that individuals choose of their own free will to engage in. It has never been used to force individuals to participate in commerce. Yes, they are regulating people who are NOT participating in the purchase of health insurance---inactivity! To quote the judge if you can mandate the purchase of health insurance, "then the decisions of whether and when (or not) to buy a house, a car, a television, a dinner, or even a morning cup of coffee, which all have a financial impact" could be regulated.


Third, as this Act marches to the Supreme Court, the Obama attorneys commented "History and the facts are on our side. Similar legal challenges to major new laws — including the Social Security Act, the Civil Rights Act, and the Voting Rights Act — were all filed and all failed". Well geniuses, history might be on your side, but intelligence is not. Seriously, what product did the Social Security Act, Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act require all citizens to buy? For my simple audience:
 N O T H I N G !



Finally, the absolute best quote (and yes, political poke) from the Judge Vinson's ruling- " “I note that in 2008, then Senator Obama supported a health care reform proposal that did not include an individual mandate because he was at that time strongly opposed to the idea, stating that, ‘If a mandate was the solution, we can try that to solve homelessness by mandating everybody to buy a house". Yes, another You Tube moment turns into a You Boob moment..


Summary:
1) Pay attention in every law class. Remember to include a "severability clause" so the remnants of your legislation can stand when pieces of it fall apart. You would have thought our Harvard constitutional law grad would have known this...
2) You cannot regulate commerce that does not exist...you cannot force the people to buy a product sold by private enterprise...
3) Comparing Obamacare to the previous Soc Security, Voting and Civil Rights legislation is another apple meet orange moment, or as we say around these woods, smoke meet mirror...
4) When you become President, remember what you once claimed as a campaigner...

 
Every day it becomes clearer to me why Pres. Obama will not reveal his college transcripts....