A Year Later We’re Still Here

One year ago yesterday, the Affordable Care Act became law.  Despite its many flaws, it has also done a lot of good in the last year and promises to do more.  I remember the dire predictions of Armageddon Republicans made a year ago.  Today they seem even more laughable than they did then, so it is an appropriate occasion for Rachel Maddow and Ed Schultz to have a little fun, giving them the ridicule they deserve.  But more important, the extreme Republican activism on SCOTUS may pave the way for the Public Option.

First, Rachel debunks several Republican lies.

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And Ed does his best to outdo her.

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Now, here’s Anthony Weiner’s (D-NY) take on a possible future.

Rep. Anthony Weiner, a strong defender of the Affordable Care Act and a stronger proponent of a single-payer system, believes that the Supreme Court might strike down the law because of the mandate. Not because he believes that the mandate is unconstitutional, but because of the highly politicized and conservative majority of the court.

He wasn’t glum about it, though—if the mandate goes he said it will pave the way for Congress to pass the public option.

"If lightning strikes, and it turns out that as many of us believe, the Supreme Court turns out to be a third political branch of government and they strike down the mandate—big deal," Weiner said, expressing a ‘so what?!’ sentiment. "Big deal!"

….

"We pretty much see the direction the Supreme Court is going," he told an audience at the Center for American Progress. "The solution, if the mandate is struck down, is not that the bill falls like the house of cards … the solution is going to be offering something everyone agrees is constitutional and that’s the public option in the exchange."

He later told TPM’s Brian Beutler: "The Supreme Court unfortunately is a corporate-dominated arm of the Republican Party right now…. I put nothing past them. But they would have to take a Bush v. Gore like leap to strike down the constitutionality of the whole law. Even the mandate is a pretty thin reed."

He’s right in the public option being constitutional and that it could easily take the place of a mandate… [emphasis original]

Inserted from <Daily Kos>

For the Extreme Court declare the mandate illegal would indeed be an outrage, but it’s an outrage we can live with, because Democrats could then campaign on saving HCR by making it better with a Medicare for all single-payer, option.

But this does serve as a reminder of why no Republican must ever occupy the White House for at least a generation, until the fascist four, Roberts, Alito, Scalia, and Thomas have retired or been impeached.