THE SUPREME COURT’S SESSION….CLOSES WITH A BANG
(leaving everyone….all shook up!)

The Supreme Court closed its session with a bang, leaving everyone….all shook up!

In a 5-4 split decision it left Obama care standing, except for a few tweaks here and there. As expounded upon by Chief Justice Roberts from the bench the rationale for doing so is, to put it mildly, fuzzy legalese logic, if not just plain weird.

On the one hand, if Obama care was considered within the framework of the –Commerce Clause – of the Constitution; then, as written, it was clearly unconstitutional. On the other hand, if Obama care’s individual mandate’s penalty provision was considered as a “tax”; then, that placed it under the umbrella of Congress’s powers of taxation, and thus, made it constitutional. Such was Chief Justice Roberts convoluted “theory” for siding with the four justices who were for upholding its constitutionality. Yet, even with these dissenting from that “theory”, since his was the deciding vote on the issue, that’s how the 5-4 split decision came about.

Sorry, folks, but something doesn’t smell right here. If the Supreme Court can’t be depended  on to make decisions based upon purely constitutional terms, rather than on personal “theory”, then where does that leave us….we, the people? To be blunt about it….it leaves us hanging by our thumbs, to gaze reverently upon our founding parchment-under-glass, realizing that by such a twisted decision, it no longer governs anything we do, and is now….just another irrelevant historical artifact. Of course, this is not the first time that the Supreme Court has come up with a controversial decision. Nor will it be the last, but this one, raises some very, very serious concerns about the court’s reliability as the ultimate independent and non-partisan arbiter and decider on what the Constitution means, and what is or is not in compliance with it.

Another important question this decision raises is….who are the primary beneficiaries of this Obama care legislation, now that the Supreme Court has decided on its “constitutionality”? Few of us taxpaying voters have the opportunity of sifting through its 2700 odd pages to really find out how it “benefits” us, except that, our instincts tell us if it’s that complex and needs that many pages to explain it all, it more than likely won’t do what it claims it will do for us. That is, to provide us all with access to affordable health care, and in a way that will control its costs for us. Instead, what little we’re able to discern about it seems designed to, one way or the other, gather us all into one giant health insurance pool. One that limits our choices of providers for health care services, and thus the right to have competitive pricing for these, and, leaving us as the mercy of as yet to be determined bureaucratic regulatory powers, with little or no means to challenge any of that.

If that is the case, the question needs to be not just raised but answered. Who might be the beneficiaries of such a legislative and judicial 3-card Monte deal?

Well, it so happens they are a health insurance “cartel” composed of a dozen or so mega-conglomerates all headquartered in good old Nashville, TN, in a plushly landscaped and architecturally dazzling enclave that makes those of New York or Los Angeles look like slums. A health care cartel that either directly owns, or controls through subsidiaries and affiliates of one kind or another, just about everything related to health care in this country….hospitals, ambulance services, medical laboratories, medical supplies, durable and otherwise, and even medications. The tentacles of its octopus-like reach makes OPEC look like a bunch of amateurs. If anyone doubts the existence of such a cartel….just go to Nashville and see it for yourself. Folks there sardonically refer to it as -Health Care Row-

So guess who had a direct hand in drafting this Obama care legislation? Certainly not any of our “honorables” in Congress who, by their own admissions, never read or saw any of the provisions in it until it came up for vote, and in a way that was maneuvered in a very dubious manner. And now, with this Supreme Court decision, the happiest folks in the land about it are all those fat-cat Health Care Row executives who are probably lighting up their Cuban cigars, filling their brandy snifters with the best of Cognac, noshing on forbidden (in CA) pate de foie, while making further even more generous campaign contributions to all those congressional benefactors who helped make it come about.      

Ain’t America grand!

CENTURION