Bill Press: “All this (Florida) decision proves is that there are some judges who are idiots.”

[cal04]

Bill Press has a very short piece up over at his place.
http://thepoliticalcarnival.net/2011/02/01/bill-press-all-this-florida-decision-proves-is-that-there-are-some-judges-who-are-idiots/


Bill Press: “All this (Florida) decision proves is that there are some judges who are idiots.”
http://www.billpressshow.com/2011/02/01/flawed-reasoning-in-florida/

OK, here we go again. Another federal judge, this one in Florida, has ruled that last year’s health care reform legislation is unconstitutional – because it requires every American to buy health insurance.

Right-wingers are celebrating because, they say, this proves the Obama plan is fatally flawed and must be repealed.

But they are dead wrong. All this decision proves is that there are some judges who are idiots.

Look, you don’t have to be a lawyer to figure this out. If the federal government can force you to pay income taxes. If the federal government can force you to use seat belts. And if the state government can force you to buy car insurance…Then, for damned sure, the federal government can force you to buy health insurance.

[Maine_Nurse]

1. The feds can't force seatbelt use. Not all states do that.

And it is not the judge who was an idiot for following the rules.

[dennis4868]

3. The Feds do it...

through the spending clause of the constitution....if a state wants money to build highways they are sometimes required to limit the speed limit and have a seat belt law....it's called a regulation through the tax & spend powers of congress.

[Maine_Nurse]

4. No,the feds don't and can't force anyone or any state...

The states have the right to say no as NH did. Maine is also looking at rewriting their seatbelt standard.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. They will lose highway funds

federal funds...

[Maine_Nurse]

7. Maine won't go that far, but it never stopped NH from not having a seatbelt requirement.

[opiate69]

6. by the same token, nobody's forcing anybody to buy health insurance either..

[Abq_Sarah]

9. No, or course not

Because when the federal government says : Do this or we will punish you, there's no coercion involved.

:eyes:

[opiate69]

12. Ahh.. another genius who views tax as punishment.....

:eyes: :eyes: :eyes:

[Abq_Sarah]

14. Speaking of Genius....

It doesn't take a genius to see this isn't really a tax, it's a punishment. This isn't levied on income or investment, it's instituted to punish people who disobey the federal government. Calling this a tax would be like saying: Americans, eat broccoli once a week or we'll tax you $2,000 a year. Smart people realize that's not a "tax", it's punishment for refusing to obey.

[Raine]

11. I guess do it or suffer the consequences

is not being forced. :eyes:

[dennis4868]

2. And why are repubs for...

a mandate from the government that a woman cannot get an abortion post viability....that's a mandate.....

[Abq_Sarah]

8. Why on earth

Would anyone want to cede to the federal government the power to force us to purchase any product?

We sure could help the automobile industry and create new jobs by forcing every American to buy a new car every two years.

This position is not a win with the voters.

[Gravel Democrat]

16. At one time, Obama agreed with you

Don't miss this clip!

http://www.eyeblast.tv/public/checker.aspx?v=hdqGnz6UqG

Candidate Obama speaking from Duncanville TX
...appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. In the interview, Obama made the following distinction between his health care proposal and Hillary Clinton’s:

“Both of us want to provide health care to all Americans…. But, she mandates that everybody buy health care. She’d have the government force every individual to buy insurance and I don’t have such a mandate because I don’t think the problem is that people don’t want health insurance, it’s that they can’t afford it.

So, I focus more on lowering costs. This is a modest difference. But, it’s one that she’s tried to elevate, arguing that because I don’t force people to buy health care that I’m not insuring everybody. Well, if things were that easy, I could mandate everybody to buy a house, and that would solve the problem of homelessness. It doesn’t.”

—Senator Barack Obama, February 28, 2008, on The Ellen DeGeneres Show



Then Max Baucus, Rahm Emanuel and Karen Igagni walked into the scene...

[old mark]

10. But we already knew that.....nt

[Kingofalldems]

13. They are not idiots--they are repub vandals

[TheKentuckian]

15. Press like many want some form of something they can call health care reform so badly

that they have lost any sight of how the form of government is suppose to work.

We grant our government powers, it has no authority but the people and the Constitution.

I thought I had always held a fairly broad view of the commerce clause but to actually willfully, gleefully, and stridently call for the government to have the ability to dictate goods sold on the "open" market compounded by the fact that most of us will have our choice of this forced product made by our employers isn't just stupid but patently insane and doubly so in our current corporate capture of government environment.

The very premise of limited government is dangerously lost on too many from the absurd regressives who misinterpret this as "small government" willfully or stupidly to bizarre statist and plenty of corporate friendly "sensible centrists".

We are supposed to be a free people, not the absolute property of the state and to no small extent, your employer.
You are pressing an argument that has very little to contain it and having the gall to call others stupid, when you are so desperate for a shadow of your goal that you have fucking lost it.