So grateful for today's Supreme Court Decision.....

[gimmethesimplelife]

I'm sure most of you have heard by now that the Supreme Court has ruled to uphold subsidies nationwide for health care insurance under the exchanges. I can't begin to say how relieved I am.....with any luck there will be no major lawsuits against ObamaCare going forward and we will have at least this basic framework for access to health care for all going forward. I know it's not without it's issues - but does anyone really want to go back to the 24/7/365 econonic terrorism or preexisting conditions clauses? I for my part could not and would not do that, to reinstate such would be a sign that I'm best off leaving the United States.

I have to admit I'm even a little surprised by this decision - I really expected ObamaCare to get gutted. I wonder if the Supreme Court decided this way due to fear that people really would take to the streets if their insurance was taken away? This is my guess - those justices can't be so foolish as to not understand that there are millions of Americans with really no stake in the system and little to nothing to lose. Take away access to health care for such people and logically, why shouldn't they take to the streets? I doubt this take will ever make it to the media, and who knows, I could be wrong, but this is my instinct as to why ObamaCare did not get gutted. But really, as long as the law stands in some form, I guess it doesn't matter why......what is important is that basic human rights over preexisting conditions clauses triumph over corporate profits. And it looks like I'm getting that so I for one am happy. Rob

[kib]

Probably so they could push through a trade bill that's going to allow big pharma to charge the people of emerging world nations American pharmaceutical prices. Win some lose some, right?

from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/0..._7649378.html:

WINNERS
3. PhRMA: The intellectual property terms in the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership will require a host of countries to grant long-term monopolies to big drug companies on prescription medications. That means members of the industry's biggest lobbying group can charge much higher drug prices without having to deal with competition from generics.


LOSERS
5. Sick Poor People: Hello, five-figure prescription drug prices! Those long-term drug monopolies mean big profits for pharmaceutical firms, but they have deeply troubling public health implications for the global poor, who can't foot the bill. Doctors Without Borders has called TPP "the most damaging trade agreement we have ever seen in terms of access to medicines for poor people."

[Alan]

The decision shows that we've reached a point where laws, as written, have no meaning. We can now interpret plain language to mean something else if it meets the political requirements of the day. Our Republican form of government is no more and the pure Democracy we're replacing it with cannot stand.

[gimmethesimplelife]

The decision shows that we've reached a point where laws, as written, have no meaning. We can now interpret plain language to mean something else if it meets the political requirements of the day. Our Republican form of government is no more and the pure Democracy we're replacing it with cannot stand.

mmmm.....so you are OK then with 24/7/365 economic terrorism via preexisting conditions clauses? You get to believe as you wish, Alan, certainly.....I'm a 180 from you on this one based on my belief in basic human rights. I can't condone the 24/7/365 economic terrorism that preexisting conditions clauses cause for so many people. I'm just grateful this ruling came down this way. Rob

[LDAHL]

I wonder if the Supreme Court decided this way due to fear that people really would take to the streets if their insurance was taken away?

Now there's an interesting theory of jurisprudence.

[gimmethesimplelife]

Probably so they could push through a trade bill that's going to allow big pharma to charge the people of emerging world nations American pharmaceutical prices. Win some lose some, right?

from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/0..._7649378.html:

WINNERS
3. PhRMA: The intellectual property terms in the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership will require a host of countries to grant long-term monopolies to big drug companies on prescription medications. That means members of the industry's biggest lobbying group can charge much higher drug prices without having to deal with competition from generics.


LOSERS
5. Sick Poor People: Hello, five-figure prescription drug prices! Those long-term drug monopolies mean big profits for pharmaceutical firms, but they have deeply troubling public health implications for the global poor, who can't foot the bill. Doctors Without Borders has called TPP "the most damaging trade agreement we have ever seen in terms of access to medicines for poor people."

KIB, this is horrendous, I won't disagree with you one bit on this and I have no excuse for it. All I can say is that more and more people overseas will see America for what it truly is and will reject it - the American way of doing things and the American way in general. I can't say this is a bad thing - certainly we have proven to the world for years how little human rights mean via how health care has worked in the US, and also via how the police have militarized and how they until very recently have been above the law for their illegal actions. In many ways America is something not to be emulated but avoided - and I believe the world is waking up to this. I'm only afraid of more terrorist acts against the US due to greedy pharma companies, and I'm afraid if this happens, it will be spun in the US any way but how it really is - that it was greedy pharma making life saving meds inaccessible to the poor that caused such attacks. Rob

[LDAHL]

The decision shows that we've reached a point where laws, as written, have no meaning. We can now interpret plain language to mean something else if it meets the political requirements of the day. Our Republican form of government is no more and the pure Democracy we're replacing it with cannot stand.

“When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’


’The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’


’The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.”


― Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass

[gimmethesimplelife]

Now there's an interesting theory of jurisprudence.

Many people in the US these days have no real reason not to take to the streets as they have little to nothing to lose. Welcome to America as it really is is all I can say. I don't see this aspect of America changing or getting better - there is too much downward pressure on wages overall and too many good jobs have been offshored to keep the rich that much richer. Those on the edge of taking to the streets are not total fools, they understand the basics of what I have posted here. Rob

[Alan]

mmmm.....so you are OK then with 24/7/365 economic terrorism via preexisting conditions clauses? You get to believe as you wish, Alan, certainly.....I'm a 180 from you on this one based on my belief in basic human rights. I can't condone the 24/7/365 economic terrorism that preexisting conditions clauses cause for so many people. I'm just grateful this ruling came down this way. Rob

You're conflating two different things. It's great for you that your neighbors must continue to subsidize your life choices but that's not what I lamented. My point that if plainly written laws can be interpreted to meet the desires of the moment, what form of legal protection does anyone have?

[LDAHL]

Many people in the US these days have no real reason not to take to the streets as they have little to nothing to lose. Welcome to America as it really is is all I can say. I don't see this aspect of America changing or getting better - there is too much downward pressure on wages overall and too many good jobs have been offshored to keep the rich that much richer. Those on the edge of taking to the streets are not total fools, they understand the basics of what I have posted here. Rob

So you think we've entered the era of "Give us stuff or we'll hurt you"? If I believed that, I wouldn't just be talking about leaving.