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PoliGAF 2012 Community Thread |OT2| This thread title is now under military control

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onipex

Member
If the mandate is struck down, I'm most interested in what happens to the rest of the bill since the mandate is such a critical part of it. Won't be fun.

I keep hearing that there really isn't a mandate since no penalty will be enforced on people who choose not to get insurance.
 

AlteredBeast

Fork 'em, Sparky!
So, we're less than 12 hours away from the HC ruling announcement, assuming the SC doesn't hold it off until Thursday.

When is the last day they are in session? Lol. They want to avoid fallout either way. This is one of the biggest decisions of the last 30 years on the court, so there is going to be fallout either way.
 
So, wait...I concede on one point and thus my entire argument is null and void?

Yeah, great logic.

Your general point was that there was no difference between democrats and republicans, including on gay rights. You've conceded gay rights apparently, I'm just saying your general point is still wrong.

With respect to Iraq you're right most democrats voted for it - and if Obama was in congress at the time I truly believe he would have voted for it, or voted present of course.

The problem here is that the positions of both parties changed drastically as the war progressed. Republicans demanded we double down, democrats began opposing the war (while often voting to continue to fund it, which I think is understandable/justifiable).

Multiple issues have been brought up where democrats and republicans fiercely disagree, both in ideological principle and party platform.
 

PantherLotus

Professional Schmuck
Appeasing morally and ethically bankrupt private insurance companies.

The big joke is that they're fucked if the mandate goes down. Ezra points out in the video I posted above that the mandate was originally designed to protect them in the event universal healthcare/single payer ever passed.
 

Diablos

Member
The big joke is that they're fucked if the mandate goes down. Ezra points out in the video I posted above that the mandate was originally designed to protect them in the event universal healthcare/single payer ever passed.
Heh heh heh.

I really do wonder if I'm going to see a significant increase in my monthly payment for health insurance, though. The lack of a mandate is going to make them lose their shit.
 
The big joke is that they're fucked if the mandate goes down. Ezra points out in the video I posted above that the mandate was originally designed to protect them in the event universal healthcare/single payer ever passed.
Ultimately this is about Republicans destroying their own personal gain in favor of political expediency.

It's the new wave of tea party conservatism!
 

Diablos

Member
Ultimately this is about Republicans destroying their own personal gain in favor of political expediency.
How awesome it would be in 10 years if single-payer passes, and as a result of this decision striking down the mandate, the GOP cannot try to sneak in any kind of measure to combat single-payer such as a mandate on private insurance.

Ohh how sweet that would be.
 
How awesome it would be in 10 years if single-payer passes, and as a result of this decision striking down the mandate, the GOP cannot try to sneak in any kind of measure to combat single-payer such as a mandate on private insurance.

Ohh how sweet that would be.
Man, we both know that's not going to happen. :(

I could see single-payer being proposed as a viable option if the mandate does fall and premiums spike as a result. But there'd really have to be a fundamental shift in American politics for that to happen. We'd need another Teddy Roosevelt who just doesn't give a shit about the establishment, and then 60 of those in the Senate and 218 in the House (and 5 on the Supreme Court).

Obama's idea is incremental reform within the system, which is nice but I'd think after the next big recession hits (in a bear and bull market it's inevitable) the people will have had enough.
 

Chichikov

Member
The devil lies in vagueness. As I'm going through both platforms, I see that on issues of foreign policy, neither parties are different, including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (seems like one party paraphrased the other), the Iranian issue, the Afghanistan and Iraq issue (although the Republicans are being particularly dishonest by portraying the Democratic position as defeatist), vagueness on Pakistan and India, vagueness on Asia and Africa besides developmental goals, and so on.

On issues of economy, one side is crying about the other removing the former's tax cuts, whereas any sane economy with such a big deficit would seek to raise taxes, especially for bigger corporations. Bush went against his own party's platform (bailing out private institutions) and so did Obama (promising to repeal all laws that allowed violation of privacy, promising to end rendition, promising to close Gitmo, promising to end torture rather than redefine it, promising to end indefinite detention). In fact, just go through this site: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/obameter/browse/

It is hard to see any real differences at a national level when it comes to these platforms since a lot of the promises that if Obama would have kept them, they could have made him distinct from Bush, but since he didn't, a lot of what he's done pertains to ongoing development in the war or to create a foundation for both insurance companies and patients for the mandated healthcare plan. He has even backed out on cancelling the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy.
I feel like you're going in circles.
Yes, the two parties are pretty close to each other on a number of issues, and yes, this country could use more diverse views in Washington.
Yet that does not mean that there is no difference between the two.
There are a number of important (at least to me) issues that they are undeniably different on.
Few have been pointed out to you, I'm sure you can find many more even in vague and broad document as the national platforms.

Are you arguing this point philosophically or practically vis-a-vis the 2012 election?
 
The big joke is that they're fucked if the mandate goes down. Ezra points out in the video I posted above that the mandate was originally designed to protect them in the event universal healthcare/single payer ever passed.

What's to stop the SC from ruling single payer is unconstitutional as well?
 

Chichikov

Member
Never forget!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/06/23/hypocritic-oath/

Seriously, watch this video. Ezra Klein highlighting the beautiful tragedy of Repubicans moving against something of which they conceived.
I have a friend who have been saying for a while that throwing out the mandate is the best thing that can happen to healthcare in this country.
His point is that conservatives doesn't have any ideas outside the mandate, that the voucher system is too simple to fool people and that; he, like Ezra Klein, think this will force a single payer.
He can be quite persuasive, especially after a couple of drinks, but man, that's a lot of uninsured people in the meantime.

What's to stop the SC from ruling single payer is unconstitutional as well?
Medicare.
 

Particle Physicist

between a quark and a baryon
He repealed DADT, sure, I'll give him that but what has been the bigger issue: DADT, which affects a handful of people in an optional field or gay marriage, which affects every member of the LGBT community, whether in the army or not?

Obama only bothered to speak his mind when that vote against gay marriage was being cast in North Carolina. Obama is a slick politician.

He's done way more than just repealing DADT. You should look some of this stuff up.
 

Diablos

Member
Man, we both know that's not going to happen. :(

I could see single-payer being proposed as a viable option if the mandate does fall and premiums spike as a result. But there'd really have to be a fundamental shift in American politics for that to happen. We'd need another Teddy Roosevelt who just doesn't give a shit about the establishment, and then 60 of those in the Senate and 218 in the House (and 5 on the Supreme Court).

Obama's idea is incremental reform within the system, which is nice but I'd think after the next big recession hits (in a bear and bull market it's inevitable) the people will have had enough.
Well yeah. But ten years is a long time. And in that time frame there would probably be another big Democratic wave (if not 10, then 15 years) and by then single payer could be more politically viable as the boomers aren't around as much and we are starting to get older.
 

Averon

Member
The mandate being struck down will not lead to single payer any time soon. Rather, the GOP will just advocate buying health insurance across state lines and more tort reform.
 

Amir0x

Banned
Man, though, wouldn't it be amazing if it was all upheld? Now that everyone is expecting it to be tossed out, it would make the news cycle 10x more hilarious
 

Plinko

Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
The mandate being struck down will not lead to single payer any time soon. Rather, the GOP will just advocate buying health insurance across state lines and more tort reform.

GOP backed off tort reform after that study was released saying it wouldn't do anything to substantiallly lower costs. A few years ago that was all they'd talk about.
 

Oblivion

Fetishing muscular manly men in skintight hosery
I figure there's gonna be a lot of depressed people later today when the SC rules medicare the mandate unconstitutional, so how about we enjoy one last bit of schadenfreude before that:

In his first interview since Kingdoms of Amalur developer 38 Studios' abrupt failure last month, famed Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling says he lost "just north of $50 million" of his own money trying to keep the studio he founded solvent, alongside hefty loan guarantees and investment from the Rhode Island government.

"I'm tapped out," Schilling told sports radio station WEEI.

Relevant quotes:

Schilling also defending himself against charges of hypocrisy from some commentators who say Schilling's outspoken criticism of government handouts and programs goes against his acceptance of hefty state funding to support his game studio. "I’m not sure where my stance and opinion in that we need a smaller government—I’m not sure how that correlates to this," he said. "The program was there for local businesses to use. ... That money was literally coming out of the budget into our company, going right back into the local economy."

Socialism for me, not for thee.

When Schilling absurdly insisted that he wasn't looking for taxpayer handouts, he shouldn't have been surprised when those hands turned into fists.

BOOM.
 
Dax, I don't see why you had to make numerous posts to demand an answer when you know this guy was going to be piled upon.
Really? If his statement held true then he should have NO problem finding ten Republicans that support SSM. I opened it up to state representatives because there isn't a Republican in Congress that will come out for SSM. Even though you seemingly found more than ten, his original assertion is still false. Relative the number of elected Republican legislators in the country, there aren't "many Republicans" that support SSM. And this is completely ignoring that whenever gay marriage makes any headway in states, it's under Democratic administrations.

His premise that the two parties are largely the same is false, but I took more issue with his "Americans, let me tell you what's what" attitude than anything. It was kind of insulting to be honest, and I think that's why he received the response he did.
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
"I’m not sure where my stance and opinion in that we need a smaller government—I’m not sure how that correlates to this," he said. "The program was there for local businesses to use. ... That money was literally coming out of the budget into our company, going right back into the local economy."
These two sentences right next to each other like this is hilarious...its like he's not listening to what he's saying. I'm honestly curious now, if asked, how would he define a government handout? Does he think that if the government goes to other people it won't go back into the economy?
 
I'm one of the few holdouts who thinks they'll keep the full thing intact.

That said, if they did throw it out, i recall reading that Obama COULD enact Medicare for all via a simple signing statement. From there it's just a matter of daring the republicans to undo that order, similar to the deportation issue.
Of course, I find that happening to be less likely than the SC upholding the mandate.
 
I'm one of the few holdouts who thinks they'll keep the full thing intact.

That said, if they did throw it out, i recall reading that Obama COULD enact Medicare for all via a simple signing statement. From there it's just a matter of daring the republicans to undo that order, similar to the deportation issue.
Of course, I find that happening to be less likely than the SC upholding the mandate.

If Obama does the bolded, I'll stump for him on Facebook.
 
I'm one of the few holdouts who thinks they'll keep the full thing intact.

That said, if they did throw it out, i recall reading that Obama COULD enact Medicare for all via a simple signing statement. From there it's just a matter of daring the republicans to undo that order, similar to the deportation issue.
Of course, I find that happening to be less likely than the SC upholding the mandate.

That would be a logistical nightmare. There's 0% chance of that happening.

Although it would be ironic, since Republicans have been crying "government takeover of healthcare!" for two years now, and then Obama would replace his clearly capitalistic solution with an ACTUAL government takeover of healthcare.
 

XMonkey

lacks enthusiasm.
Although it would be ironic, since Republicans have been crying "government takeover of healthcare!" for two years now, and then Obama would replace his clearly capitalistic solution with an ACTUAL government takeover of healthcare.
Exactly. Since he already gets shit for it, let's actually do it ;)
 
The mandate being struck down will not lead to single payer any time soon. Rather, the GOP will just advocate buying health insurance across state lines and more tort reform.

Wouldn't buying across state lines not only weaken state's power to regulate healthcare, but also turn healthcare reform into a federal government issue because of the commerce clause?

Seems like it would give all the power for healthcare to the federal government, which the GOP was advocating against... at the same time as wanting to hand over the power of healthcare to the federal government.
 
We should know right around 10AM EST -- 20 minutes from now.

I'm not a usual sky is falling guy, but if this gets struck down it's hard to see how it's not a major, major blow to Obama. His signature legislation is determined to be unconstitutional? Many of his opponents see him as "illegitimate" already, and this would just further the meme. Maybe I'm wrong, but an overturn by the SC would be incredibly bad for Obama.
 

GaimeGuy

Volunteer Deputy Campaign Director, Obama for America '16
Wouldn't buying across state lines not only weaken state's power to regulate healthcare, but also turn healthcare reform into a federal government issue because of the commerce clause?

Seems like it would give all the power for healthcare to the federal government, which the GOP was advocating against... at the same time as wanting to hand over the power of healthcare to the federal government.

All it means is that eveyr health insurance company would relocate to whatever state had the most lax regulations and make you agree to follow Arizona law and use Arizona courts (or whatever state they're located in) for any disputes.

It's what happened with credit cards and banks about 20-25 years ago. They all moved to Delaware
 
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