Erick Erickson's Blog, page 37
June 29, 2012
Awake.
In the past twenty-four hours I have gotten a lot of heat from friends over my take on what John Roberts did. What’s done is done and I really could not get all worked up about it because Obamacare in the Courts has been such a distraction. Yet again the GOP expected a court to save them from something they did not like.
The GOP has largely turned its nose up at the tea party, which is its salvation. The tea party movement provided the GOP with the energy, man power, and money to take back the House in 2010 and come close in the Senate. For that, the GOP has routinely given the tea party the middle finger and, instead of fighting for repeal of Obamacare, excused itself while the Supreme Court did the heavy lifting.
John Roberts, the man who gave us the Citizens United case has now, with a laughably inane ruling, told us we have to fight politically. The millions of people who joined the tea party in 2009 only to go back to their jobs and families after the 2010 election are now awake.
In waking, what they are seeing is a government claiming that food stamps will make you look amazing and that encourages people to party with food stamps. They are seeing a corrupt tourism program. They are seeing tax cheats getting billions from Barack Obama. They are seeing high unemployment, the United States Attorney General held in contempt of congress, the GOP cave on fiscal issues, and the Supreme Court deciding something the vast majority of Americans hate is constitutional.
And they are seeing that, just like in 2010, they are the only ones who can stop Barack Obama and the Democrats. The GOP is nothing without the tea party. Tea Party activists are awake again. And thanks to John Roberts they are mad as hell.
Mitt Romney raised more than $2 million between the time John Roberts sold liberty down the river and sunset. Barack Obama’s campaign would not comment. And thanks to John Roberts, the Democrats who want us all to know how popular individual portions of Obamacare are, will now have to campaign on “vote for us to save the biggest tax increase in American history that 60% of Americans want repealed.”
A giant woke in 2009. It went back to sleep thinking it had saved the republic in 2010. It’s awake now and I don’t think it is going back to sleep.
Morning Briefing for June 29, 2012
RedState Morning Briefing
June 29, 2012
Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.
1. Awake.
2. I’m Not Down on John Roberts
3. I Am Down on John Roberts.
4. How the NRA Helped ObamaCare
5. 10 Reasons to Oppose Highway/Student Loan/Flood Insurance Omnibus Bill
6. Hold Mitch McConnell To His Word
7. The Repeal Pledge: Another Reason to Support Ted Cruz
———————————————————————-
1. Awake.
In the past twenty-four hours I have gotten a lot of heat from friends over my take on what John Roberts did. What’s done is done and I really could not get all worked up about it because Obamacare in the Courts has been such a distraction. Yet again the GOP expected a court to save them from something they did not like.
The GOP has largely turned its nose up at the tea party, which is its salvation. The tea party movement provided the GOP with the energy, man power, and money to take back the House in 2010 and come close in the Senate. For that, the GOP has routinely given the tea party the middle finger and, instead of fighting for repeal of Obamacare, excused itself while the Supreme Court did the heavy lifting.
John Roberts, the man who gave us the Citizens United case has now, with a laughably inane ruling, told us we have to fight politically. The millions of people who joined the tea party in 2009 only to go back to their jobs and families after the 2010 election are now awake.
In waking, what they are seeing is a government claiming that food stamps will make you look amazing and that encourages people to party with food stamps. They are seeing a corrupt tourism program. They are seeing tax cheats getting billions from Barack Obama. They are seeing high unemployment, the United States Attorney General held in contempt of congress, the GOP cave on fiscal issues, and the Supreme Court deciding something the vast majority of Americans hate is constitutional.
And they are seeing that, just like in 2010, they are the only ones who can stop Barack Obama and the Democrats. The GOP is nothing without the tea party. Tea Party activists are awake again. And thanks to John Roberts they are mad as hell.
Please click here for the rest of the post.
2. I’m Not Down on John Roberts
Having gone through the opinion, I am not going to beat up on John Roberts. I am disappointed, but I want to make a few points.
Please click here for the rest of the post.
3. I Am Down on John Roberts.
We do not choose justices, on our side, because of policy results; we choose them for process, which we believe will usually, but not always, produce better results. Process matters in the law, because process is the law. When the law upon which the majority of our citizens through their representatives have agreed is followed, the result is axiomatically better either substantively or educationally, that is, because it shows us where our process is wrong.
Please click here for the rest of the post.
4. How the NRA Helped ObamaCare
It’s tough to accuse the National Rifle Association of being left-wing, but events on Thursday highlight just how useless the organization can be to the conservative movement at large. On the day that the Supreme Court found the most odious provisions of the Affordable Care Act – ObamaCare – constitutional, the House of Representatives took the historic step of holding a sitting attorney general in contempt of Congress.
Please click here for the rest of the post.
5. 10 Reasons to Oppose Highway/Student Loan/Flood Insurance Omnibus Bill
While everyone is focused on how to deal with the impending government takeover of healthcare, we must continue to battle the forces of big-government in Congress. Yesterday, in another display of venerable bipartisanship, leaders from both parties agreed to roll the $120 billion Democrat highway bill, subsidies to fuel the Big Education bubble, and a 5-year extension of government-run flood insurance into one omnibus bill, H.R. 4348.
The House and Senate plan to vote on the bill tomorrow. We’ll be keeping score.
Please click here for the rest of the post.
6. Hold Mitch McConnell To His Word
In February, Mitch McConnell told Senate Republicans he would not bring up any votes on Obamacare repeal.
Please click here for the rest of the post.
7. The Repeal Pledge: Another Reason to Support Ted Cruz
Today the United States Supreme Court left Obamacare in tact.
That means every Republican Primary left now matters even more significantly.
In Texas, Ted Cruz is in a runoff with David Dewhurst.
Only Ted Cruz has sided the repeal pledge pledging to repeal Obamacare. David Dewhurst has not. These differences matter. Go support Ted Cruz right now. We’ll need every vote we can muster in the Senate next year to repeal this thing and only Ted is on record willing to repeal Obamacare.
By the way, the Dewhurst campaign reached out and said they signed the repeal pledge on May 26th. I reached out to the repeal coalition and they can find no record of a Dewhurst signature until yesterday . . . after Ted Cruz yet again made an issue out of it.
June 28, 2012
Hold Mitch McConnell To His Word
On March 1, 2012, the Senate considered Senator Roy Blunt’s amendment to the Senate version of the highway bill. It was the only amendment the Senate GOP offered.
On its surface, it was a good amendment. It would allow religious employers to opt out of the new Obamacare mandate on contraception and abortifacient drugs. But strategically, it is another lame effort by Senator Mitch McConnell to let Senate Democrats in swing states absolve themselves of any blame for what Barack Obama has done.
Consider the alternative. There is another amendment Senator McConnell expressly refused to bring up that week as an alternative — an amendment by Senator Jim DeMint for full repeal of Obamacare.
“Wait,” you say, “It’d never pass.” True. But neither did Roy Blunt’s and they knew it going into the vote.
At the time, McConnell’s loyal lieutenants went on record that McConnell did not want to anger Harry Reid with Obamacare votes.
The outrage over McConnell’s refusal to bring up the DeMint amendment caused McConnell to promise several outside groups he would dedicate an entire month, the month of March, to efforts to repeal Obamacare and get Democrats on the record.
Now it is time for him to do so.
There are a number of close Senate races with incumbent, endangered Democrats. It is time to put them back on record on whether or not they support the most massive tax increase in American history.
It is time for Mitch McConnell to keep his word.
The Repeal Pledge: Another Reason to Support Ted Cruz
Today the United States Supreme Court left Obamacare in tact.
That means every Republican Primary left now matters even more significantly.
In Texas, Ted Cruz is in a runoff with David Dewhurst.
Only Ted Cruz has sided the repeal pledge pledging to repeal Obamacare. David Dewhurst has not. These differences matter. Go support Ted Cruz right now. We’ll need every vote we can muster in the Senate next year to repeal this thing and only Ted is on record willing to repeal Obamacare.
By the way, the Dewhurst campaign reached out and said they signed the repeal pledge on May 26th. I reached out to the repeal coalition and they can find no record of a Dewhurst signature until today . . . after Ted Cruz yet again made an issue out of it.
I’m Not Down on John Roberts
Having gone through the opinion, I am not going to beat up on John Roberts. I am disappointed, but I want to make a few points.
First, I get the strong sense from a few anecdotal stories about Roberts over the past few months and the way he has written this opinion that he very, very much was concerned about keeping the Supreme Court above the partisan fray and damaging the reputation of the Court long term. It seems to me the left was smart to make a full frontal assault on the Court as it persuaded Roberts.
Second, in writing his case, Roberts forces everyone to deal with the issue as a political, not a legal issue. In the past twenty years, Republicans have punted a number of issues to the Supreme Court asking the Court to save us from ourselves. They can’t do that with Roberts. They tried with McCain-Feingold, which was originally upheld. This case is a timely reminder to the GOP that five votes are not a sure thing.
Third, while Roberts has expanded the taxation power, which I don’t really think is a massive expansion from what it was, Roberts has curtailed the commerce clause as an avenue for Congressional overreach. In so doing, he has affirmed the Democrats are massive taxers. In fact, I would argue that this may prevent future mandates in that no one is going to go around campaigning on new massive tax increases. On the upside, I guess we can tax the hell out of abortion now. Likewise, in a 7 to 2 decision, the Court shows a strong majority still recognize the concept of federalism and the restrains of Congress in forcing states to adhere to the whims of the federal government.
Fourth, in forcing us to deal with this politically, the Democrats are going to have a hard time running to November claiming the American people need to vote for them to preserve Obamacare. It remains deeply, deeply unpopular with the American people. If they want to make a vote for them a vote for keeping a massive tax increase, let them try.
Fifth, the decision totally removes a growing left-wing talking point that suddenly they must vote for Obama because of judges. The Supreme Court as a November issue is gone.
Finally, while I am not down on John Roberts like many of you are today, i will be very down on Congressional Republicans if they do not now try to shut down the individual mandate. Force the Democrats on the record about the mandate. Defund Obamacare. This now, by necessity, is a political fight and the GOP sure as hell should fight.
60% of Americans agree with them on the issue. And guess what? The Democrats have been saying for a while that individual pieces of Obamacare are quite popular. With John Roberts’ opinion, the repeal fight takes place on GOP turf, not Democrat turf. The all or nothing repeal has always been better ground for the GOP and now John Roberts has forced everyone onto that ground. Oh, and as I mentioned earlier, because John Roberts concluded it was a tax, the Democrats cannot filibuster its repeal because of the same reconciliation procedure the Democrats used to pass it.
It seems very, very clear to me in reviewing John Roberts’ decision that he is playing a much longer game than us and can afford to with a life tenure. And he probably just handed Mitt Romney the White House.
*A friend points out one other thing — go back to 2009. Olympia Snowe was the deciding vote to get Obamacare out of the Senate Committee. Had she voted no, we’d not be here now. Snowe gave it bipartisan cover coming out of committee, but she actually wasn’t the deciding vote.
The Supreme Court Forces Us To Deal Within the Political System
In a 5 to 4 decision, Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, upheld the individual mandate as a tax increase — something Barack Obama said the individual mandate was not.
Along the way, the Supreme Court did two things. First, it restricted Congress’s power under the Commerce Clause, though showing just how expansive the tax clause in Article I, Section 8 is.
Second, the Supreme Court struck down Congress’s ability to penalize states for refusing to go along with the medicaid expansion, thereby showing the Court still believes in federalism.
I’m disappointed by the decision, but not terribly surprised given I had no idea which way it’d go. I do take away a few things.
First, John Roberts’ opinion seems to clearly suggest he wants to keep the Supreme Court out of political fights and was willing to destroy his reputation with conservatives to do it.
Second, this forces everyone to deal with the issue politically. The President and Democrats did, according to the Court, impose a tax increase. Because it is a taxation issue, the GOP now, should it take back the Senate, have even more grounds to deal with the matter under reconciliation, bypassing the 60 vote filibuster threshold.
It’s a big win for the President and a bad day for freedom. But we can deal with it. It is not the end of the world, the republic, or freedom. It just means we have to fight harder.
In the meantime, following Obama’s lead on illegal aliens, I think Mitt Romney should declare that if he is President he’ll seek “prosecutorial discretion” to not go after people who don’t pay their individual mandate tax.
OPEN THREAD: Programming Notes for a Very Big Day
Today is the day the Obamacare decision will come out.
It should happen after 10 o’clock this morning.
Come by RedState and we will be live streaming the award winning Coffee & Markets podcast with live coverage of the decision and its implications.
At 1pm on WSB Radio, the nation’s most listened to talk radio station, I’ll be hosting a two hour radio special about the ruling. Guests will include Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens and Karen Harned, Executive Director of the NFIB’s legal center. The NFIB is a lead plaintiffs in the case.
You can listen live online on the WSB live stream and call in at 1-800-WSB-TALK.
I’ll be back on WSB from 6pm to 8pm tonight, still talking about the case. Additionally, I’ll be on Erin Burnett’s show on CNN at the top of the 7pm ET hour.
Throughout the day here at RedState we will have continuing coverage and analysis regardless of how the decision goes.
Consider this an open thread to sing praises or vent on SCOTUS’s decision.
Hey reporters, why not step away from the left-wing talking points for just a minute
Many of the up and coming members of the Gang of 500 in Washington, DC — those reporters and pundits who help shape and cover inside the beltway conventional wisdom — lean left of center. In so doing, they are sympathetic to the talking points of the left.
I’m sure for the last 72 hours, in the run up to the Obamacare decision, many reporters have been meditating over the talking points from Center for American Progress and the Obama campaign.
The basic talking point goes like this: the five Justices of the Supreme Court have usurped democracy because everybody that’s anybody knows the individual mandate is constitutional.
We won’t know until later today what the Court decides. What we do know is that the left’s last minute spin willfully chooses to ignore a few points that reporters, if they are competent, should notice.
First, while the left would rather focus on the conservatives on the court, the implication can be countered that the left-wing justices are less persuadable than the conservatives. Everybody is pretty sure that Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan will vote with the Administration. Kagan was a part of that Administration while it passed this law, after all. Yet many Republicans voted to put her on the Court – while President Obama himself voted against Chief Justice Roberts and attempted to filibuster Justice Alito.
We do not know about John Roberts or Anthony Kennedy, two Republican appointees. It seems the left-wing spin is actually more damning against the left than the right considering, even with the left-wing handwringing they are subtly admitting the Republican appointees are more persuadable.
Second, the majority of Americans oppose Obamacare and most Americans, or at least a sizable plurality, think it is unconstitutional. What does it say about the arrogant pretentiousness of the left that they’d rather us look to a group of liberal law professors than the American people?
Third, if we are going to look at liberal law professors, consider some of these law professors less hysterical commentary about Chief Justice John Roberts. They viewed him as a cypher during oral arguments and many are now speculating that he will write the majority opinion. Some have speculated that, should Kennedy go with the liberals, Roberts will go too so he can control and write the opinion, making it as limited as possible in scope.
If Roberts does write the opinion and comes out swinging against the over reach in Obamacare, I wonder how many liberals will remember that Roberts and his wife are pro-life Catholics and his wife has been very active in the pro-life Catholic community. Maybe, just maybe, some liberals will conclude Kathleen Sebelius should have waited until after the decision to go to war with the Catholic Church. In fact, should the case go against the Obama Administration, I give it no more than 12 hours before some liberal pundit points out the number of Catholics on the Court and tries, yet again, to blame the Church.
The Stupid Party Expands Government Again
House and Senate Republican leaders, collectively the Stupid Party, are yet again set to expand government, government spending, and engage in Keynesian economic policies they’ve criticized Barack Obama for.
Somewhat wisely, they are releasing all this as the Supreme Court releases its Obamacare decision so no one will pay attention. Ironically, as we wait to see if the Supreme Court gives Congress plenary power through the Commerce Clause, Congressional Republicans are feeding the Leviathan on their own.
Republicans and Democrats have agreed to a massive increase in federal gluttony with a highway bill. The Republicans decided to drop demands for approving the Keystone XL pipeline and demands that the EPA stop its ridiculous regulations on coal plants that will harm our energy future. In exchange, Democrats will not fund bike paths and highway landscaping.
In other words, Democrats should not be at all worried about Republican plans for Obamacare should any portion of it be declared unconstitutional later today. The GOP will just get scared and cave.
We’re at $16 billion TRILLION in debt and as the sun rises this morning we are reminded of two things: the Republicans are not serious about paying down the debt and many outside conservative groups will politely avert their eyes arguing that we must fight Barack Obama, not stop the Republican’s complicity in bankrupting our nation.
So much for credibility in the argument on spending.
Morning Briefing for June 28, 2012
RedState Morning Briefing
June 28, 2012
Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.
Today is the day the Obamacare decision will come out.
It should happen after 10 o’clock this morning.
Come by RedState and we will be live streaming the award winning Coffee & Markets podcast with live coverage of the decision and its implications.
At 1pm on WSB Radio, the nation’s most listened to talk radio station, I’ll be hosting a two hour radio special about the ruling. Guests will include Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens and Karen Harned, Executive Director of the NFIB’s legal center. The NFIB is a lead plaintiffs in the case.
You can listen live online on the WSB live stream and call in at 1-800-WSB-TALK.
I’ll be back on WSB from 6pm to 8pm tonight, still talking about the case. Additionally, I’ll be on Erin Burnett’s show on CNN at the top of the 7pm ET hour.
Throughout the day here at RedState we will have continuing coverage and analysis regardless of how the decision goes.
As for my personal prediction, I think our black robed masters in false Solomonic form will split the baby.
1. The Stupid Party Expands Government Again
2. Hey reporters, why not step away from the left-wing talking points for just a minute
3. Ezra Klein’s Magical Mystery Meme Machine
4. Double Capitulation Alert: Say No to Highway and Student Loan Bills
5. The Simple Lesson of John Sullivan’s Defeat in OK-1
6. 57 Members Sign Anti-Earmark Letter
———————————————————————-
1. The Stupid Party Expands Government Again
House and Senate Republican leaders, collectively the Stupid Party, are yet again set to expand government, government spending, and engage in Keynesian economic policies they’ve criticized Barack Obama for.
Somewhat wisely, they are releasing all this as the Supreme Court releases its Obamacare decision so no one will pay attention. Ironically, as we wait to see if the Supreme Court gives Congress plenary power through the Commerce Clause, Congressional Republicans are feeding the Leviathan on their own.
Republicans and Democrats have agreed to a massive increase in federal gluttony with a highway bill. The Republicans decided to drop demands for approving the Keystone XL pipeline and demands that the EPA stop its ridiculous regulations on coal plants that will harm our energy future. In exchange, Democrats will not fund bike paths and highway landscaping.
Please click here for the rest of the post.
2. Hey reporters, why not step away from the left-wing talking points for just a minute
Many of the up and coming members of the Gang of 500 in Washington, DC — those reporters and pundits who help shape and cover inside the beltway conventional wisdom — lean left of center. In so doing, they are sympathetic to the talking points of the left.
I’m sure for the last 72 hours, in the run up to the Obamacare decision, many reporters have been meditating over the talking points from Center for American Progress and the Obama campaign.
The basic talking point goes like this: the five Justices of the Supreme Court have usurped democracy because everybody that’s anybody knows the individual mandate is constitutional.
We won’t know until later today what the Court decides. What we do know is that the left’s last minute spin willfully chooses to ignore a few points that reporters, if they are competent, should notice.
Please click here for the rest of the post.
3. Ezra Klein’s Magical Mystery Meme Machine
In the supposedly reality based community, reality is a construction of intricately woven dung huts sheltering left-wing tropes as fact. “Memes,” as the kids these days call them, get started here. They are the thoughts that affect the presuppositions people make when weighing in on the news of the day.
According to Ezra Klein, first in the New Yorker and now in the Washington Post, if the Supreme Court throws out the individual mandate it will be because “[o]ver the past two years, the Republican Party has slowly been building a permission structure for the five Republicans on the Supreme Court to feel comfortable doing something nobody thought they could do: Violate the existing understanding of the Commerce Clause and, in perhaps the most significant moment of judicial activism since the New Deal, overturn either all or part of the Affordable Care Act.”
A permission structure.
Please click here for the rest of the post.
4. Double Capitulation Alert: Say No to Highway and Student Loan Bills
While everyone is waiting breathlessly to see whether the Supreme Court will strike down Obama’s egregious power grab in the healthcare sector, a bipartisan group of congressmen and senators are working to grow government in several other sectors of the economy. We must not be complacent.
Please click here for the rest of the post.
5. The Simple Lesson of John Sullivan’s Defeat in OK-1
In what was supposed to be a snoozer election night, a little known conservative candidate, Jim Bridenstine, came out of nowhere to unseat 10-year veteran John Sullivan in conservative Oklahoma District 1. He did so by a 7-point margin, even though he was outspent 4-1 and nobody gave him any hope of succeeding.
Even among many politicos who woke up to read about this astonishing sleeper upset, there were murmurs of “John Who?” Well, there is a poignant lesson in John Sullivan’s loss that will go unnoticed in the media and political commentariat.
Please click here for the rest of the post.
6. 57 Members Sign Anti-Earmark Letter
As we’ve noted several times this year, there is a concerted effort to overturn the earmark ban in the House and reinstate some form of this onerous practice. Some conservatives might fall prey to the argument that we should focus our attention on the big-ticket items rather than the chump change that is spent on earmarks. That would be a serious mistake.
If the practice of earmarking is allowed to return to the House, we will never limit the size of government when presented with the opportunity during votes on the “big bills.” Everyone knows that it’s politically uncomfortable for a member to turn down a popular earmark for his/her district. Once earmarks are allowed to return to the legislative process, they will be used as bribes – what Senator Coburn refers to as “true insider trading” – to grease the skids of big-government legislation.
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