Justices questioning briskly in health care case

[xchrom]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SUPREME_COURT_HEALTH_CARE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-03-26-11-54-23

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court plunged into debate Monday on the fate of the Obama administration's overhaul of the nation's health care system, starting with pointed questions about a legal issue that could derail the case.

Eight of the nine justices fired two dozen questions in less than half hour at Washington attorney Robert Long. He had been appointed by the justices to argue that the case has been brought prematurely because a law bars tax disputes from being heard in the courts before the taxes have been paid.

Under the new law, taxpayers who don't purchase health insurance will have to report that omission on tax returns for 2014 and will pay a penalty along with federal income tax. At issue is whether that penalty is a tax.

Some of the justices reacted skeptically to the idea that the penalties encapsulated in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act were actually a tax.

[Botany]

1. Eight of the nine justices fired two dozen questions .....

Anybody want to guess who the one who didn't ask any questions was?

My guess ...

[xchrom]

3. that was the first thing that jumped in my head as well. nt

[sharp_stick]

4. Great minds think alike I guess :) n/t

[sharp_stick]

2. 8 of the 9 justices

asked questions and Thomas fell asleep at the fucking table again. Clarence Thomas is the biggest embarrassment to the Supreme Court since Roger B. Taney stained the robes.

[elleng]

5. 'Some of the justices reacted skeptically to the idea

that the penalties encapsulated in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act were actually a tax.

"What is the parade of horribles?" asked Justice Sonia Sotomayor, if the court decides that penalties are not a tax and the health care case goes forward? Long suggested it could encourage more challenges to the long-standing system in which the general rule is that taxpayers must pay a disputed tax before they can go to court.'

Wish AP had mentioned which other justices reacted skeptically, but this little bit is good news.

[Uncle Joe]

6. You can call a skunk; a black cat with white paint on it but it's still a skunk.

The mandate and penalties are taxes but they serve to benefit the for profit health insurance industry.

This is along the same lines as this Krugman piece re: the privatization of government.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/101621040

"What this tells us, in turn, is that ALEC’s claim to stand for limited government and free markets is deeply misleading. To a large extent the organization seeks not limited government but privatized government, in which corporations get their profits from taxpayer dollars, dollars steered their way by friendly politicians. In short, ALEC isn’t so much about promoting free markets as it is about expanding crony capitalism."

I honestly don't know where ALEC stands on the issue of the mandate but it makes no difference because the PTBs that fund ALEC can simply fund other orgs to accomplish those ends, just playing both ends against the middle to obtain the same goal; corporate supremacy.

Thanks for the thread, xchrom.