Two Years On: Obamacare

Agreed. Having read 7 or 8 summaries , each seems to provide a different set of quotes from the justices depending on the narrative they want to project.

 

Not to mention that the general conclusion being reached -- the administration is in trouble -- is 180 degrees away from the conclusion reached after yesterday's session.

 

Exactly.

This.

It's as if few covering this have any idea of how the process of a Supreme Court case works. Or, worse, they think they know enough and can interpret every last bit of minutiae.

 

It's like trying to predict the score of a ballgame by listening in on a mound conference. But hey, they all get paid to cover the Court. They gotta say/write something.

 

I believe she has taken more than $500,000 in pay for her efforts. This would seem to be a conflict of interest as presumably he has helped himself to spending some of that money. But why let that get in the way. (See Justice O'Connor's private remarks about Bush for Bush v. Gore decision).

 

"We're not stupid. They're going to buy insurance later. They're young and need the money now. When they think they have a substantial risk of incurring high medical bills, they'll buy insurance, like the rest of us," / Justice Scalia

 

Well, I guess since Kagan didn't recuse herself even though she was involved in crafting the original legislation there's no reason for Thomas to recuse himself.

 

Who thought yesterday was good for the government? The only news regarding the mandate coming out of yesterday was that the justices were skeptical that the mandate-penalty combination could not be called a tax. If anything, that was bad for the government.

 

I think a better way of thinking about it is that Medicare Part D was simply a recalibration of the seniors' health care package. Medicare started out as hospitalization/medical insurance, because those were the primary heavy-duty cost burdens that seniors faced. Over time, however, the industry got better and better at treating things with pills, so in effect the medical care that seniors actually tended to need/use wound up being less and less likely to be covered.

 

I think that's precisely the point. There's a lot of speculation in the reporting both ways that has no business being in these stories.

 

Are there are any futures markets out there (a la the Iowa Electronic Markets) where you can bet on such things? They tend to be pretty good at summing up the prevailing mood.

 

I'm OK with both of them recusing themselves. Since that won't happen, I'm OK with both of them voting.