From the beginning, people questioned the constitutionality of Obamacare's individual mandate, and now that it's landing in front of the Supreme Court things do not look good for the law. In fact, some are even calling it an "absolute train wreck". Why? It turns out a lot of the Justices have an issue with it and are not hiding it.
The guys played audio from Jeffrey Toobin, a legal analyst from CNN, who said:
This was a train wreck for the Obama administration. This law looks like it's going to be struck down. I'm telling you, all of the predictions, including mine that the justices would not have a problem with this law were wrong. Justice Kennedy, the swing vote, was enormously skeptical. Justice Alito, Justice Scalia were constantly skeptical. Justice Thomas didn't say anything, but we know his position on the issue. The only conservative justice who looked like he might uphold the law was Chief Justice Roberts who asked hard questions of both sides. All four liberal justices tried as hard as they could to make the arguments in favor of the law, but they were -- they did not meet with their success with their colleagues. Most surprising to me, perhaps, Donald Verrilli, the solicitor general, did a simply awful law defending law.
How bad a job is Verrilli doing? Below is an actual transcript of his testimony. Does it make sense?
"Insurance has become the predominant means of paying for healthcare in this country. Insurance has become the predominant means of paying for healthcare in this country, because it -- because the -- and -- and -- because this is a market in which --"
Regardless of his poor performance, the Justices themselves were already very critical of the law.
Stu explained, "Kennedy, as everybody knows, is the swing vote here. Most people believe he was among, I would say, the most skeptical. He was one of the guys questioning the hardest."
For all the audio, check out the latest Stu Blog!
Glenn pointed out that this case would be key in determining the future of the country. "This is either the end of the Constitution or the end of the progressive movement. One of these two has got to end. The Constitution cannot bend any farther. It's over. If it bends this far, it really is over," he said.
"We've all been focused on the upside of this, okay, well, if they overturn this case, Obamacare might go away, it's fantastic. If they let this case stand, they (the government) have the right to do anything," Stu added.
But, thankfully, the Justices are really taking this case seriously and are questioning it.
"It feels good to have some adults in the room holding people accountable for their logic," Glenn said.
Glenn added that it's clear that the progressives will never be able to get healthcare through the Congress again. Doing it again would require dictator-like powers for someone to step in and fix a "crisis". Coincidently, Ben Bernake has said that joblessness has now become a crisis, leaving the possibility that the government will have to step in order to save the country.
"Never let a crisis go to waste," Stu said.
For all the audio, check out the latest Stu Blog!
