June 25th, 2012
07:33 AM ET
11 years ago
All sides preparing for political fallout from health care decision
Washington (CNN) - Karen Harned has been going to the Supreme Court every day it has met since June 11 so there would be no chance she would miss the health care law ruling.
Harned is director of the small business legal center of the National Federation of Independent Business, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit that seeks to strike down the law. She and her group have worked through all of the possibilities and are ready to react to the court's ruling immediately.
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No matter what, this healthcare law is this nation's very dire need. It is passed with bonafide intention. 48 million kids are covered and many per-existing condition patients are covered under it. Elderly covered under Donut-hole. Yes, on Obama12.
It is clear what Republicans will do if the Supreme Court strikes down individual mandate. They will make a lot of noise but ignore the fact that individual mandate was their idea in the first place. They will stay mum on what their alternative will be if the Supreme Court strikes down the mandate. They may propose letting people buy insurance across state lines, but doesn't that make it interstate commerce? Of course, health care is interstate commerce. Anything that is one sixth of the nation's economy is interstate commerce. If a Republican president had proposed this plan, there would not have been a legal challenge in the first place. A Republican governor, Romney, did propose this plan, and there is no meaningful difference between Obama's plan and Romney's plan. Obama's plan is a national version of Romney's plan. Since health care is interstate commerce, the federal government has the power to regulate it.
Arguments with today's Republicans are futile. They simply ignore your arguments. Their plan in this election is to use their money to make a whole lot of noise, and hope that people don't notice that Republicans are offering the same policies that got Obama elected in the first place. The numbers don't add up in Republican's budget plans. Republicans say that they want to cut runaway government spending, but refuse to be specific. The military, Social Security and Medicare are the three biggest items in the federal budget. They makes up almost two thirds of the 3.7 trillion budget. In contrast, the ten-year cost of Obama's plan is 1.1 trillion. according to the CBO's latest estimate (this averages to 110 billion a year). Since Romney wants to increase military spending AND cut taxes, there is no doubt where the spending cuts will come from.
Do NOT strike down the law. The American people need this since the health care industry refuses to behave in a responsible and non-greedy manner. If they did, then more people could afford healthcare.