Obama's Discretionary Enforcement of Obamacare Plan Has a Fatal Flaw -- But Don't Worry! He's OK!

[jordan179]

maxgoof points out in "Discretionary Enforcement" that

Obama is claiming he can delay the enforcement of the Individual Mandate as well as the Employer Mandate through discretionary enforcement, basically saying, oh, we simply won't enforce that part of the law

Comments

[pathia]

I signed up for it on day 4, no issues. Though my state has its own exchange so I suspect I had it easier than most. It is distressing to see the huge cluster it's become though unsurprising, something like 94% of government IT projects fail on launch.

[ford_prefect42]

And this is why the law will fail. As will the system. Because only those that need the most will sign up. The rest will pay the $95 per year "penalty", which will result in a "death-spiral".

For the next year though, until the whole thing fails catastrophically, congratulations. I hope it helps. I hope *someone* benefits from the catastrophe that this will be.

[pathia]

It already has helped. All I can do is hope when it collapses they replace it with something I can still use.

[ford_prefect42]

Sadly, I doubt that will be the case. It'll be replaced with *nothing*. Get while the gettin's good, and stockpile whatever it is you need, because the failure of this will be quite ugly.

[maxgoof]

One major point:

Recently, the supreme court said that Arizona could not enforce Federal Law, since Obama, by executive action, was not enforcing it.

In other words, the SCOTUS held that an executive action that resulted in the law not being enforced WAS THE SAME AS LAW!!

That scares me.

[schpydurx]

Link please?

[maxgoof]

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/06/25/Partial-Defeat-for-Arizona-at-Supreme-Court

The part in question is paragraph nine: "The majority held field preemption invalidates the provision making it a state crime for noncitizens not to carry federally-required documents showing they’re allowed in the country."

In other words, because federal agents have been instructed not to check for federally-required documents, a state could not check for them, either. Thus making an executive action the same as revoking a law.

[ford_prefect42]

Not precisely. because anything that's done by executive action can be undone by executive action.

It is an absurdly, incredibly major increase of presidential powers, and in a functioning constitutional republic, would result in an impeachment proceeding, complete with imprisonment, but hey, obamaphone!

[x_eleven]

The hour is very late indeed. The O should never have gotten a second term in the first place. Driving Dems out of Congress, taking the Senate, is just the first step. We'll still have to keep their feet to the fire to make certain repeal of this monstrosity goes forward.

I have my doubts, however.

Nixon was driven out by Watergate. The big difference: no one died as a result of Watergate. Benghazi, Fast 'n' Furious have gotten people killed. Still, nothing has come of it, and they used to accuse Reagan of being a Teflon president. Nothing sticks to the O-ster. Ever. Regardless of what outrages he commits, he can always count on the lap dog press to cover for him.

Japan faced a "lost decade"; America may be looking at a lost century: it may take that long to clean up the messes The One has made.

[sinanju]

An excellent argument. Save for one glaring flaw.

I have no confidence that most of the Republicans we'll be offered will be distinguishable from the Democrats. Certainly if the GOP elite get their way, that will be the case. In which case, while in theory voting Republican will make a difference, in practice it may not.

[schpydurx]

This.

[jordan179]

The Republicans aren't perfect, but they aren't as bad as the Democrats. Would the Republicans have elected a President as bad as Obama's? Would they have, had they controlled the Congress, passed a bill as bad as Obamacare? Don't let the perfect become the enemy of the better. We aren't going to get a perfect President or Congress: we can get better ones.

[sinanju]

Would the Republicans have elected a President as bad as Obama? I doubt that was possible given the candidate field, but theoretically? I wouldn't put it past them

pulling together?

[sekhmetsat]

How are we supposed to pull together when it seems like government's only purpose anymore is to pull us apart in the name of ethnic spoils....

Re: pulling together?

[jordan179]

When we get to the time of the Emperors, they will only care about providing ethnic spoils to groups whose armed support they need. So the unpopular ethnic minorities will get cut out of everything save for the dole anyway. Better to stay with a free society: more social mobility in the long run.

Re: pulling together?

[galadrion]

Aaand... even you are not thinking it all the way through, Jordan. Once those "unpopular ethnic minorities" are sufficiently disenfranchised and disarmed, why would the Emperors bother paying to keep them on the dole? That's what most people fail to understand about this mindset: it doesn't end at a massive, government-subsidized underclass - it is aimed, eventually, at a return to serfdom. With the would-be "Emperors" as the self-selected nobility, of course.

Re: pulling together?

[jordan179]

Oh, sometimes it's worth it to avoid strong political demands for greater economic and social mobility. Emperors are not in practice omnipotent no matter how many powers they have under law. But yes, a class permanently on the dole is more a feature of the transition from Republic to Empire than it is of a mature Empire.