Monday, July 2, 2012

SCOTUS Obamacare decision – is it a blow to government coercion

One of the bright points of the Obamacare decision, was that the Court struck down the penalties for states that elect not to expand Medicare. What they were basically saying is that the Federal Government does not have the right to demand action by a state using coercion. In this case, the liberal Democrats threatened to take all Medicare funding away from the states if they did not expand the program as required by the Affordable Care Act. Since the decision, a number of states, mostly red states, have signaled that they will opt out of the requirement to expand Medicare. 

Will this decision have ramifications beyond the ACA? Obviously, lawyers will have a field day with this one, and some have already started to look at the Clean Air Act as ripe for litigation. The Feds have been able to successfully force states to enact clean air standards with threats to withhold highway funding. State speed limits, drinking age and helmet laws have all been implemented under these same threats.

The most beneficial result of this decision may not be its application to what has already happened, but for its future effect on limiting Congressional power and returning control back to “we the people”.

 Go to Examiner.com article here.

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