The Surprise Supreme Court Decision on Healthcare

Are you kidding me? People must be asking themselves.


What just happened? The Supreme Court of the United States let stand “The Affordable Healthcare Act”, a/k/a ObamaCare. The ruling shocked everybody, on both sides of the issue.

However, being taken by surprise is an understatement. CNN and FOX News both reported that the Court struck down the ObamaCare mandates. In their haste to be the first to pronounce doom, they did a SNAFU by broadcasting a Breaking News false report. In the split second, between false news and its retraction, the world went bananas.

Some news analysts were already touting that this was a blow to President Barack Obama. Then, suddenly, they choked on their words, and begged their viewing audience to be cautious.

Are you kidding me? The FOX New anchorman tells me to be cautious after he realizes that he was wrong in his initial report on the demise of ObamaCare mandates. Be cautious against whom, I would ask?

SECOND: The Chief Justice prefaced the ruling by rejecting the mandates on the basis of the Interstate Commerce Act. BUT SAY NO MORE. The bean-head Twitters are off tweeting: Mandate Struck Down.

Was Justice John Roberts a wily fox? Here was a landmark decision that could etch the Roberts Court into immortal history, and he held the decisive swing 5-4 vote.

He coyly implies that the legislation may not be good policy, but its legality can stand because of the authority given it through the legislative process. Therefore, he was NOT judging the policy of healthcare mandates, he was justifying the law as a TAX.

SURPRISE, surprise. As one writer puts it, a Lucy-and-the-football surprise.

WTF? The Twitter world went crazy with acronyms. Even worse, the Republicans immediately declared war to repeal the Healthcare Act. And, it did not seem to matter to them that they kill the whole thing in one swoop.

Mitt Romney told reporters shortly before noon that he would repeal the law his first day in office if elected. “ObamaCare was bad policy yesterday, it's bad policy today,” he said. 

“Today's ruling underscores the urgency of repealing this harmful law in its entirety,” House Speaker John Boehner said in a statement.

Phrases like “first day in office” and “the urgency” indicates that the battle lines are drawn against the full Patient Protection and Affordable Healthcare Act.

Had the Court issued a partial ruling, as many watchers had originally expected, then both parties would have gone back to its respective Congressional corners and immerse itself in more gridlock. There would be more anti-Obamacare sideshows and rallies and inflamed townhall meetings.

With the ruling, there was now nothing to nitpick, not even a thread. The Act is ruled law, and therefore constitutional. What other GOP option was there, short of concession? The impulse is to strike back. But they can only do so by stirring up more public anger. In order to do that, the public again must be misinformed and incited.

After all, nobody has read the dang thing. A 1,000-page law is 999 more pages than a simpleton can handle. A false report about it is as good as the truth when hardhearted minds are set in stone.