Early reporting is that Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the Supreme Court’s liberals to uphold Obamacare almost in its entirety.
The mandate was upheld as a tax, even though if it were only being looked at as a Commerce Clause question, it would have been found unconstitional 5-4.
There is a narrow ruling regarding Medicare, but the important parts of the Act, including the mandate are upheld.
This is nothing short of a disaster for the nation, and a huge black mark on John Roberts’ legacy.
In reading from his dissent, Justice Kennedy said “In our view, the entire Act before us is invalid in its entirety.”
In speaking with others, I noted that Roberts was the Court member who worried me most; more than Kennedy. Still, I am fairly stunned by this outcome and can’t help but feel that the soul of our nation has just been lost.
Politically, this is probably a modest win for Barack Obama, though it will also motivate a certain sector of the electorate (including most readers of these pages) to work hard to defeat Obama and get Republican control of the US Senate.
As for Republicans, they need to keep saying “tax.” Obama can no longer claim to have cut taxes without being laughed off the stage, as this will probably represent the largest tax imposition in modern American history.
Early stock market reaction to the ruling is very negative, with the market having dropped from being down just over half a percent to being down about 1.25 percent. I don’t blame them, but to me the loss here is far more than financial, though it is certainly that as Obamacare will do to the US what similar plans have done to Greece.