Quote of the Day:
The Supreme Court’s ruling in King v. Burwell is disappointing. But it also provides a welcome moment of clarity: We can finally dispense with the false belief that the Supreme Court will save us from Obamacare.
–Bill Kristol and Jeffrey Anderson in the Weekly Standard
In an important editorial in the Weekly Standard, Kristol and Anderson say that repeal of ObamaCare is now the only course.
It is important to remember that the Court did not rule on whether the law is a good one. The case was limited in scope: it was on whether the administration is administering the law as written. With a lot of verbal gymnastics on the part of Chief Justice John Roberts, who wrote the majority opinion, the Court held that it was. But the law remains as bad as it always was. Kristol and Anderson say that the only adequate outcome is repeal:
The reasons are clear: Obamacare consolidates and centralizes money and power to an unprecedented degree. At its core is an (unfixable) individual mandate that requires, for the first time in all of United States history, that private American citizens must buy a product or service of the federal government’s choosing. Its 2,400 pages shift the power over America’s health-care decisions from patients and doctors to bureaucrats and politicians. Instead of offering real reform, it raises health costs, diminishes quality, increases federal spending, raids Medicare, balloons the size of government, and undermines Americans’ liberty.
It was passed as “comprehensive” legislation. It cannot be fixed. It must be repealed — comprehensively. . . .
So let the Court step aside. Let us see which presidential candidates, which members of Congress, will seize this moment and lead us to repeal. Obamacare should exist until 2017 and no longer. And a party that fights for that result, a party that brings about repeal and then real reform, will cement its place as the new majority party. A party that fails to fulfill its promise will fracture and recede — and deservedly so. For the Republican Party, therefore, this is a time for choosing.
It is a brief editorial and I urge you to read it.