Rasta Rants

Many are still in shock from the Supreme Court ruling last week on PPACA. I received an email from a friend the day after the ruling reminding me that in a speech a year prior I predicted this outcome. He reminded me that I said it would be upheld in a 5-4 vote and that I even mentioned that Roberts might side with the liberals on the court. I hate being right and this is certainly not an article about my luck in predicting this outcome – far from it. The point is that it was pretty obvious to many that this would happen. Actually the only surprises were the surreptitious manner in which Justice Roberts covered the mandate with a side step to taxation and the blow that was delivered on the Medicaid expansion. Many felt that the Court might not rule on the mandate because it was indeed a tax and as such was not in their privy till such a tax was actually levied (2014). Roberts took this thinking a bit further and bent the rules by saying “it is reasonable to construe what C

So there has been rampant debate about HHS proposing to change the Clinton landmark welfare legislation of 1996. Yes, it is true they are trying to change the regulations in the law. The debate is whether that change is good or bad. Here are the facts; The HHS secretary does not have the legal right to change the law and here is why: “Section 415(a)(2)(B) of the welfare reform act, now codified at 42 U.S.C. § 615(a)(2)(B), expressly states that ‘a waiver granted under section 1315 of this title [the one that HHS now claims it is acting under] or otherwise which relates to the provision of assistance under a State program funded under this part (as in effect on Sept. 30, 1996) shall not affect the applicability of section 607 of this title [which applies the work requirements] to the State.’ In short, whatever else might be said of the scope of the waiver authority, the Secretary has no lawful authority to waive the work requirements of section 607, which is what HHS is contemplatin

As we settle into the post Supreme Court decision era and face the mounting battle for the presidency, some clarity emerges. Clarity does not mean promise or hope in this case. Simply put the philosophical difference between the 2 parties is more evident than it ever has been. While the economy is the single most important thing to all Americans it seems obvious that a great deal of the Presidential debate will be about taxes. The SCOTUS decision has created a huge new tax in US. We can’t argue that because the Court actually says so in their majority opinion and uses it as the basis to uphold PPACA. Democrats would like to pretend it is not so but it is. So one might think this gives the Republicans an advantage – something to run on. Well that would be wrong. Yesterday the president made a speech about the Bush Tax cuts and in that short oration America really saw his agenda. I suspect most missed it and the main stream media is definitely not going to highlight it. What he said wa