Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Obamacare: It'll take years to reach the high court

NOBODY IS giddier these days than Ken Cuccinelli, Virginia's Republican attorney general, who is claiming total victory after his favorite Virginia federal judge's ruling that health care reform is unconstitutional. In his euphoria, Cuccinelli has yet to recognize that the ruling has a long route before it (maybe two years, legal scholars tell us) until the U.S. Supreme Court decides the validity of the new law. That doesn't dissuade the AG from issuing such loopy statements about the verdict as
"if the government can order you to buy health insurance they can order you to buy a car, to buy asparagus, even cauliflower...or join a gym. (Notice how far he goes in spreading public fear and contempt by including asparagus and cauliflower in government mandates instead of gelato!.) "
Anyway, as it has often been noted, the government can't force you to buy a car, but if you do, it will force you to buy car insurance.

By the way, wasn't it Cuccinelli who asserted that public universities and colleges should erase any policy banning discrimination against gays? The next thing you know, this guy will be running for president.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

He is setting himself up to run either against Senator Jim Webb or run to replace Governor Bob McDonnell who can only serve 1 term.

David Hess said...

Just as school boards can require certain vaccination of children as a way to protect the spread of disease, and states mandate the purpose of liability insurance by car owners to protect others from damages wrought in crashes, why shouldn't the federal government be empowered, under the Constitution's Commerce Clause, to mandate the purchase of health insurance to promote broad public health? Such coverage also assures that those of us who are insured don't end up paying the bills of the uninsured to doctors and hospitals, as a simple matter of equity in the realm of commerce.

Even knowing Federal judge Hudson's 19th Century perspective of constiitutional law, I was surprised when he handed down his tortured decision finding the new health care statute unconstitutional. As for Virginia AG Ken Cuccinelli, his antedeluvian views on a host of public policy issues skirts the edge of misanthropomorphic anarchism that imperils the foundations of our rationale of governing ourselves in a human, practical and affordable fashion now, including an overdue law that protects the public health of our large and diverse populace. Should his view on this issue eventually prevail more than 30 million Americans would continue to live in dread of economic ruin or worse from calamitous illness.

Elena LaVictoire said...

There are exemptions to the vaccination requirements. No one mandates that everyone drives!

You shouldn't have to buy a product simply because you're breathing!

Grumpy Abe said...

,,,But if you are in fact still breathing, Elena, it may very well be the concern of the big bad government that makes sure that toxic air won't kill you. But that, too, costs money that we don't have. You would do well to stop cherry-picking your objections

Elena LaVictoire said...

Gosh Abe - can you respond to a comment without dancing the Strawman Polka yourself?

Grumpy Abe said...

Although I grew up in a coal mining town in the mdst of many good Polish families, I must admit that I have no idea what a Strawman Polka is,Elena . Is it anything like a Chicken Dance that I learned in Rudesheim, Germany? Can anybody help me?

Mencken said...

Elena, why are you here?

FoxNewsFan84 said...

Menchken,

Elena is just here giving her opinions on the issues of the day, just like the rest of us.

Do you not want to have your views challenged? Who do you think you are, Keith Olbermann???????