Set me free, why don’t ya, Baby? Get out my life, why don’t ya Baby?
Because you don’t really love me, you just keep me hangin’ on. You don’t really need me, but you keep me hangin’ on.
Why don’t ya get out of my life, and let me make a new start?
You don’t care a thing about me, you’re just using me.
Go on, get outta my life, and let me sleep at night. Set me free.
The Supreme Court of the United States will tell us, circa next June, how free we remain by determining whether the individual mandate in Obamacare—and perhaps the entire law—is constitutional. If it is, there will remain very few limits impeding the centralization of medicine and the economy under an overarching federal control. From the AP Story:
The Supreme Court said Monday it will hear arguments next March over President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul — a case that could shake the political landscape as voters are deciding if Obama deserves another term. This decision to hear arguments in the spring sets up an election-year showdown over the White House’s main domestic policy achievement. And it allows plenty of time for a decision in late June, just over four months before Election Day. The justices announced they will hear an extraordinary five-and-a-half hours of arguments from lawyers on the constitutionality of a provision at the heart of the law and three other related questions about the act. The central provision in question is the requirement that individuals buy health insurance starting in 2014 or pay a penalty.
The timing of this decision could not be better for democratic governance. Obamacare was forced down the throat of an unwilling nation and hasn’t become more popular in the more than a year since passage. Whichever way the Court decides, the ruling will place the law smack, dab in the middle of the presidential campaign, right where it belongs. If the law fails, Obama will have to defend why he and his Democratic super majority wasted wasted the nation’s time writing such a poorly crafted law. If it passes constitutional muster, the last, best chance to repeal Obamacare will be to defeat the president for reelection, and opponents will become very focused.
My prediction: The individual mandate is declared unconstitutional by a 5-4 vote. But the odds of that are only about 60-40, as the courts tend to reflect the attitudes and desires of the ruling class—whcih likes increasing its own governing power.
You have a decision to make: double or nothing.
For this week only, a generous supporter has offered to fully match all new and increased donations to First Things up to $60,000.
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So what will it be, dear reader: double, or nothing?
Make your year-end gift go twice as far for First Things by giving now.
