Virginia calls health law unconstitutional

Miscellaneous Current Events
1

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703727804576017552229615230.html

This makes me very happy, though I probably shouldn’t get my hopes up.

2

Yeah, don’t get your hopes up. This merely refers to the mandate. As far as I know all other portions of the bill would remain in effect. This means private insurance will still have to take on all applicants, regardless of previous conditions, and all the other mandated conditions placed on them. This will likely cause a massive increase in the cost of health insurance, and probably a call for more state assistance.

Bittersweet ruling indeed.

3

People are making a great mistake in thinking that such rulings are good for freedom. They’re not. They are actually good news for Statists.

First, the government itself exists by forcing you to buy its services. So basically, according to this ruling and the rationale behind it, it’s OK to force you to buy anything as long as it’s provided by government employees. So a full blown nationalized health care system, like the public school system, would be OK, but if the government forced you to buy the services of “private” schools, then that would be against your rights or something.

Second, the government can and does already force you to buy (or prohibits you from buying) an endless list of things from the private sector that have to do with health insurance, health care, and just about anything else related or unrelated to health care, once you decide to engage in certain economic activities, like buy health insurance. Basically, this mandate just says: You have to buy some health insurance.

So basically, forcing you to buy B & C once you decide to buy A is OK apparently , but forcing you to buy A, B & C is against your rights or something. In both cases, the government forces you to buy stuff. In principle, there isn’t any difference. But the misguided libertarians and Constitutionalists are going to foster the myth that former is freedom while the latter is Socialism. Give me a break!

4

Hilarious. Cannot wait for what happens on appeals.