The Supreme Court Does Not Work

I am at an age where it seems that I am constantly told that things used to be better. The Senate used to be less divided, government used to be more civil and of course the Supreme Court used to have judges that were respected and assumed to be doing what they felt was best.

The Supreme Court now is simply a reflection of the government that passes laws that it decides the constitutionality of. Everyone is to blame. Nixon lost several nominees to the Supreme Court, Bork was taken out during Reagan's day, the Clarence Thomas case was a national disgrace and since then one can expect each opening to be a battle royal. A justice being nominated to replace a Justice of a different persuasion can cause a total government shut down. We have not seen one of those in quite sometime, perhaps since Clarence Thomas in a really bad joke replaced Thurgood Marshall. If the President is reelected the possibility of him replacing one of the Conservative Justices goes up exponentially.

The case being argued before the Supreme Court is a monster. It really could decide on the overall effectiveness of the President's first term. The problem is that no one on the right or left feels like the outcome is in doubt. The right are confident that the Justices will rebuke the Administration and the mandate. The left, because they are the left continue to hope for good results from this Supreme Court. Praying to the mantle of the supposed middle ground judge Anthony Kennedy to save them is an exercise in futility. That, my friends, is the difference between the right and the left. The right knows when they have an outcome bought and paid for and the left keeps believing in better angels, hope and change, and the tooth fairy.

The fact that before the case is heard we know that the outcome is 4 to 4 , thus depending solely on Justice Kennedy's decision speaks as ill of the Democrats as it does the Republicans. All of these Justices are bought and paid for. Just as both the Democratic and Republican Party used to have a liberal and conservative wing the Supreme Court used to have Justices that surprised us with how they ruled. It is interesting to remember that it was none other than Richard Nixon who said that when the parties become strictly Conservative and strictly liberal that our system of government will cease to function properly.

This is now the case. It is too simple to judge by the questioning of the Justices to determine which way they are going to rule but I think it is safe to say that Kennedy's questions today appeared skeptical at best about the mandate. I also think it is hard to believe that he will allow his vote to be the sealant to the prestige of an Obama administration.

As I said I am not in love with his law. I think it fattens the insurance companies and mandates that the government pays subsidies for those who cannot afford insurance. Really this is not much different from Medicaid. I do like the parts of the bill dealing with pre existing conditions and the like but one wonders if having won the war the Republicans might not give on this battle.

The real answer as always is single payer health care. It is constitutional. It would provide coverage for everyone and of course the savings in administration costs alone would be conservatively twenty percent. This would also stop the practice now of Doctor's ceasing to serve certain hospitals or patients due to payment, reimbursement, or insurance issues. Doctors work hard, go to school for a long time and deserve our respect. However they need to be respectable. Realizing that your profession is noble and not just about dollars and cents would be a start.

Still debating what will happen to health care after the Supremes rule is a debate for another day. The fact that the the Supremes will overrule precedent without the bat of an eye on flimsy legal grounds, and the fact that we knew they would before the hearings even took place tells us all we need to know.

One this like many of our systems is broken. Our system depends on the better angels of men. I believe that most of those angels have been fired.

Secondly that the single most important issue to think about when you vote for President is who do you want making the life altering decisions over the next twenty years about womens rights, reproductive rights, education, seperation of church and state, health care , the coming state government meltdowns, social security and pension issues, the regulation of Wall Street and many, many more future cases that affect our daily lives.

That is what you need to think about when you pull that lever. The ruling on Obamacare should be the primer course you need.