Last night, Stephen Colbert covered the health care case with Slate legal editor Emily Bazelon.
Well, once again, this decision comes down to Justice Anthony Kennedy. He was the swing vote on some big cases: Citizens United, Bush v. Gore, Alien v. Predator. A landmark case that found you could not burst out of someone's chest without a warrant. And this time, it looks like Kennedy is swinging to the right.
ANTHONY KENNEDY (3/27/2012): And here the government is saying that the federal government has a duty to tell the individual citizen that it must act... and that changes the relationship of the federal government to the individual in a very fundamental way.
Yes! I mean, if they can tell us to buy health insurance, that completely destroys the idea of limited government. Because right now, all the government can do is tax me, draft me, put me in jail, or declare me an enemy combatant and then execute me without trial using a flying death-bot.
But making me eat broccoli?? I think we'd all rather die from a preventable disease!
Video and full transcript below the fold.
Tonight, we have something big to celebrate. Obamacare is dead! It was killed by nine people in black robes. I told you there would be death panels! You lose, Mr. President! Take Obamacare and stick it where the sun don't shine, then have it removed by a doctor you have to pay yourself because he's not in a network. And folks, I am not the only one who knows this.
BILL O'REILLY (3/26/2012): I believe the Supreme Court will strike down the Obamacare individual mandate by a 5-4 vote. ... It's going to be 5-4. And if I'm wrong, I will play your clip, and I will apologize for being an idiot.
No need, Papa Bear. Of course, the lynchpin of this legislative Obamanation is the health care mandate. And it's not the good kind of man-date, where two buddies play racquetball together and then recharge over some burgers, brews, and a long steam with absolutely zero sexual tension. See ya next Wednesday, Kevin. He's a good guy, I don't understand why he can't find a nice girl. You ladies are missing out, he shaves everywhere.
No, this mandate required all Americans to buy health insurance. And folks, this Supreme Court battle over health insurance is the biggest case since Scopes defeated that monkey. I can't remember what the case was about, I think the monkey bit someone. The point is, the monkey in this case was the Solicitor General arguing in favor of Obamacare, and boy, did he bruise his banana!
BILL O'REILLY (3/27/2012): A bad day for Obamacare at the Supreme Court. ... Donald Verrilli, representing the Obama administration, did not, did not, make a strong argument.
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER (3/27/2012): The conservatives on the court just destroyed the Solicitor General, who was trying to defend Obamacare.
SEAN HANNITY (3/27/2012): There were moments where the arguments were so poor and so contradictory, that the Solicitor General was laughed at
JEFFREY TOOBIN (3/27/2012): This was a train wreck for the Obama administration.
Oh, train wreck is too kind. It was a train wreck that slammed into the Hindenburg, landed on the deck of the Titanic, and then sailed it to see John Carter. Now folks, that's no surprise, because this health care mandate is tyranny. If the government can force you to buy health insurance, well, we all know what that leads to.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS (3/25/2012): If the government can force you to buy health insurance, why can't it force you to eat broccoli?
JEFFREY TOOBIN (3/27/2012): Could Congress pass a law to require everybody to eat broccoli?
ANTONIN SCALIA (3/27/2012): Everybody has to buy food sooner or later... therefore, you can make people buy broccoli.
This case is really about broccoli. Why is the government trying to make us eat it? I'd understand if it was Kellogg's Crunchy Nut cereal. But folks, if we don't fight this, next, they're going to make us eat the rest of our vegetables, including the lima beans, and take a nap when we're not tired, and give our grandma a kiss, even though she smells like old Tupperware and I am not going to do it!!
I am not going to have my health care decisions made by Barack Obama, or should I say, Baraccoli Obama?
And even if health care isn't like broccoli, Justice Alito knows what it is like.
SAMUEL ALITO (3/27/2012): You can get burial insurance. You can get health insurance. Most people are going to need health care. Almost everybody. Everybody is going to be buried or cremated at some point.
Well said, Justice Alito. And since it is the same thing, why shouldn't we have mandated burial insurance? Because let's just say somebody dies without burial insurance. And I'm talking about really bad, chronic, incurable burial. If he doesn't have burial insurance, we're all on the hook for his continued long-term cemetery stay, with round-the-clock 24-hour dirt.
Well, once again, this decision comes down to Justice Anthony Kennedy. He was the swing vote on some big cases: Citizens United, Bush v. Gore, Alien v. Predator. A landmark case that found you could not burst out of someone's chest without a warrant. And this time, it looks like Kennedy is swinging to the right.
ANTHONY KENNEDY (3/27/2012): And here the government is saying that the federal government has a duty to tell the individual citizen that it must act... and that changes the relationship of the federal government to the individual in a very fundamental way.
Yes! I mean, if they can tell us to buy health insurance, that completely destroys the idea of limited government. Because right now, all the government can do is tax me, draft me, put me in jail, or declare me an enemy combatant and then execute me without trial using a flying death-bot.
But making me eat broccoli?? I think we'd all rather die from a preventable disease!
Stephen then looked at the latest way the GOP is trying to win back young people: a
magazine for conservative teens.
Meanwhile, Jon covered the news about your meat having
pink slime in it, which the beef industry calls
"finely textured beef". As a vegetarian, this amused me.
He then looked at
Obama's hot mic moment with Russian President Dimitri Medvedev.
Stephen then talked with actor
Mark Ruffalo about the dangers of fracking, and Jon talked with journalist
Ahmed Rashid about the Taliban, which went long. Here's the unedited interview in two parts.
Part 1
Part 2