This article and Jim's final comment touches on the real issue, but with little sophistication.
Obamacare presently says you have to pay a penalty to the US government if you do not have health insurance (the individual mandate). Obama could have avoided all constitutional problems if, instead of the individual mandate, the law raised taxes on income by some amount and then gave a corresponding credit if the taxpayer (or the employer) purchased health insurance. This is because what (arguably) cannot be accomplished through regulation under the Commerce Clause could be accomplished through the Taxing Power. One could legitimately say this puts form over substance. But sometimes, form IS substance. Obama did not want to say he raised taxes. He was adamant that the mandate was not a tax. This was politically important to him, apparently because he believed he could not pass the legislation if it was characterized as a tax. This reflects the Constitutional structure, which implicitly, if not explicitly, reflects a view of politics and public choice. The tax and spend power of the Congress is more broad and powerful than the power to regulate commerce precisely because legislators always have an incentive to highlight the benefits and hide the cost of legislation. Obama (and the legislation supporters) wanted the ability to take credit for the benefits of the legislation while hiding the costs as much as possible. He, politically, preferred to do that through regulation, where tracing increased costs through a maze of institutions is hard, as opposed to the simplicity of raising the additional revenue through taxes, where the costs are more visible and more likely to create political resistance. David Shemano -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jim Devine Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2012 8:47 AM To: Pen-l Subject: Re: [Pen-l] the SCOTUS health care decision By Ditching the Public Option, Obama Gave His Enemies a Path to the Supreme Court By Matthew Rothschild, March 27, 2012 [the PROGRESSIVE: http://www.progressive.org/ditching_public_option_obama_gave_enemies_path_to_supreme_court.html .] The sad thing about the rightwing Supreme Court challenge to President Obama's health care policy is that it was totally avoidable. It would have been impossible if Obama had offered a robust public option, like "Medicare for All Who Want It." Rather than forcing people to buy private insurance largely from the companies who've been ripping us off every step of the way, Obama could have and should have given people a choice. If you want to keep your private health insurance provider, fine. But if you want the government, in essence, to be your insurer, then join the Medicare program. This option the Supreme Court couldn't invalidate unless it threw out the entire Medicare system, which has stood for 47 years. My bet is that everyone but the most drunken devotee of Ayn Rand would have leapt at the Medicare for All option. Why? Because most people on Medicare are very happy about the coverage and grateful for the program. Just ask someone who's on it. It's not perfect, but it's a whole lot better than the private insurance market offers you. And the administrative costs aren't bloated because huge amounts of money aren't wasted on CEO salaries and glossy ad budgets. Unfortunately, Obama failed to present the option of Medicare for All Who Want It. Instead, he bought in-and told everyone else under 65 who is not disabled to buy in-to the private insurance model. And that's the core of his problem today at the Supreme Court. [of course, if Obama had proposed "Medicare for all who want it," not only would the insurance companies have gone ape-shit, but his inner technocrat/compromiser would have revolted.] -- Jim Devine / "In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite." -- Paul Dirac _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
