Republicans Make Me Sick

The worst of the storm affecting the country hasn't come to pass in the Northeast yet, so I'm still here as of this writing (obviously). And while I am, I'd like to pick apart the Republicans who are working tirelessly to end health care reform.

While Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell pushes for a repeal vote in that chamber, a federal judge in Pensacola, Florida has decided that the health care law as passed by Congress - not just the individual mandate, but the entire legislation (including the part that bars denal of coverage for pre-existing conditions) - is a violation of the interstate commerce clause in the Constitution. Then-Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum - one of the prosecutors in the impeachment and trial of President Bill Clinton - filed suit against the new health care law last year and saw to it that it was tried in Florida's most right-wing city. Two judges in the federal court system have upheld the law, but two others - including the Pensacola judge, Roger Vinson - have ruled against it, and so now it is being appealed by both sides.

Does the law stand a chance of staying on the books? It now depends on the Supreme Court. Which is my way of answering, "No."

I'm giving up on the idea that this country can make any meaningful strides toward progressive reform. It's not that Americans don't care; it's that the right is too daunting an enemy to fight. They have the courts on their side (especially the highest court in the land), and they're bankrolled by wealthy business leaders who like the status quo - a status quo in which workers and middle-class Americans keep getting held back or keep being forced to run in place. Their support for the status quo isn't a conservative position; it's a reactionary position.

I could suggest that when the Supreme Court does hear this case, the justices will strike down only part of the law (the mandate, say), but of course that's not a plausible scenario. If you disagree, go to last year's Citizens United decision, which struck down campaign finance laws dating back to the presidency of Roosevelt - Theodore Roosevelt - and opened the floodgates for corporate campaign money with no realistic chance of closing them. Citizens United was suing on a free speech question of a smaller scope - the proposed broadcasting of an anti-Hillary Clinton film that could be called a "documercial." In any event, this country is ruled by people who would stand to lose a lot of power and influence if the health care law is allowed to kick in. If the law gets kicked out, the losers will by the fifty million Americans who can't get health insurance otherwise. And don't expect Barack Obama to do something about it in Washington. He's only the President down there.

I'm hoping Ed Schultz comments on this revolting development sometime the week. I only hope that, when he does, I'll have the cable and/or electrical service to see it. In the meantime, I saw his show last night and he's lost little if any of his fire due to the change of format and time slot. And - telephone and text message surveys are back! "Psycho Talk" is gone, but at least there's the daily survey.