In his dissent to Edwards v. Aguillard, Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia made a neat distinction, sidestepping the issue of “legislative intent” that he finds so troubling: it is possible to discern the objective “purpose” of a statute (i. e., the public good at which its provisions appear to be directed), (The dissent is obsessed with […]
[T]oday’s victory may have been even more decisive than it looks at first glance. It isn’t just that the Court ruled six-to-three in favor of the government’s position, with John Roberts and Anthony Kennedy joining the Court’s liberals in support of a single, non-splintered decision, though that’s important. It’s also that Roberts’ opinion may have precluded […]
Michigan is pitifully gerrymandered due to state Republicans controlling the state legislature in 1990, 2000, and 2010 and controlling redistricting. Michigan sends fewer Democrats to The House than how the state votes which is 54+% Democrat in national elections. Democrat Congressman Sander Levin is one of those Congressmen. Listen to his response to Republican Congressman […]
In about one month, the US Supreme Court will announce a decision on King Vs Burwell in which the plaintiffs argue that subsidies may not be paid to people who purchased health insurance on exchanges operated by the US Federal Government. The risk that they will win terrifies, among others, Senator Ronald Johnson (R-Wisconsin) who […]
A recent Kaiser Poll shows favorable results for the PPACA the first time since 2012. 43% have a favorable view of the PPACA and 42% have an unfavorable view of it. While the report shows a favorable view, it is within the margin of error (+ or – 3%) and not statistically significant (Click on […]
Jeff Jacoby had an interesting article in the Boston Globe on Sunday where he argue that if the demand for something doubled the price must increase—it is basic introductory economics. What price is too high for a miracle drug? His argument is so typical of how so many columnist and/or bloggers demonstrate that a little […]
Right. So the the same day that I posted about the substantial fall in the uninsured rate for adults that we have seen since Obamacare went into effect, a conservative writes at the Wall Street Journal making exactly the same arguments that Matt Yglesias had refuted. Cliff Asness writes in the WSJ: That more people […]
Tax day has come and gone and nothing extraordinary happened (at least nothing extraordinary enough to be reported by the Washington Post or the New York Times). This non news should be news, because the much hated Obamacare mandate has been applied. Some Refund checks (many of which have not have been mailed yet) were […]
As any conservative can tell you, Obamacare is a job-killing “train wreck.” Not only is it a job killer, there is no way that it could possibly work. Except, of course, it does. When I last visited this issue, the percentage of adults without health insurance had fallen from its peak of 18.0% in the […]
Brad DeLong made a case for big government and higher deficits. Paul Krugman wrote an exagerated pun of praise. The part he liked was the appeal to myopia and paternalistic proposal “The problem is that as we move into the twenty-first century, the commodities we will be producing are becoming … more subject to myopia […]