Obamacare

Supreme Court issues orders on immigration executive orders, ObamaCare individual mandate, and abortion restrictions

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Back in January I posted that The Mass Deportation Party wants the US Supreme Court to delay ruling on the Obama administration’s executive orders on immigration:

ImmigrantsThe 26 “red states” that brought the legal challenge to the Obama administration’s executive orders on immigration do not want the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on the appeal this term in the middle of an election year. They would rather use the case for political propaganda purposes during the election.

So the 26 “red states” are asking the Court (1) not to rule on the Obama administration’s appeal, or (2) to expand the scope of the appeal to address the underlying constitutional issues (which has not been addressed by the trial court nor the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals). This would be extraordinary for the Court to depart from the regular order of legal procedure.

The GOP desperately does not want the Court to rule on this appeal until after a new president takes office in January 2017 — leaving hundreds of thousands of immigrants who qualify for the Obama administration’s DACA and DAPA programs in legal limbo and uncertainty, because the Mass Deportation Party does not care about their situation.  They are hoping that a Republican will be elected in 2016 who will reverse Obama’s executive orders, rendering this appeal moot, and putting those individuals in the DACA and DAPA programs in jeopardy.

The U.S. Supreme Court today issued its orders list from last Friday’s conference, and granted the Obama administration’s request to hear this appeal from the 5th Circuit this term. There will be a decision on the administration’s executive orders before the end of June.

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Tea-Publicans vote to take away Americans health care and to defund Planned Parenthood; government shutdown looms

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kabukiWith the wall-to-wall media coverage of shootings in America this past week, you may have missed that the Senate used the budget reconciliation process to pass a partial “ObamaCare” repeal and to defund Planned Parenthood. This is part of the Kabuki theater that GOP Congressional leaders must engage in to appease the radical extremists who want to shut down the federal government to take the country hostage and to extort ransom from the Democrats and President Obama — “give us everything we want or we will kill the hostage.”

A government shutdown remains not only possible but likely this Friday, December 11, if the GOP Congressional leadership loses control of their Kabuki theater strategy.

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GOP House Freedom Caucus preparing a ‘Contract on America’

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Cartoon_19When we last heard from the farther far-right GOP House Freedom Caucus, they were engaged in a mutiny that forced their captain the TanMan, Weeper of the House John Boehner, to walk the plank, and his first mate, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, into house arrest confined to his quarters.

Now these radical extremists are back with another list of demands – a “Contract on America” —  meet our terms or we will kill the hostages, beginning with the GOP leadership. Bloomberg Business reports, House Republican Hard-Liners Drafting ‘Contract With America II’:

U.S. House Republican hard-liners who helped force out former Speaker John Boehner are readying their next act: a multi-point manifesto demanding quick action on long-time conservative priorities.

Members of the House Freedom Caucus are preparing a “Contract With America II” that would call for House votes in the first 100 days of 2016 on replacing Obamacare, overhauling entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare, and repealing the estate tax.

An early draft of the plan obtained by Bloomberg News also calls for legislation to slash government regulations by 20 percent, cut corporate tax rates and expand offshore oil drilling. Efforts are still under way to finalize contents of the “contract,” which lawmakers say they hope will become the basis of House Republicans’ 2016 agenda.

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SCOTUS grants review of religious objections to contraceptive coverage in ‘ObamaCare’

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ProtestorsThe broadly expanded “religious liberty” argument which is being wielded like a sword by the religious right to exempt themselves from having to comply with any law with which they disagree as a matter of a “personal sincerely held moral conviction or religious belief” is once again being  wielded against contraceptive coverage in the Affordable Care Act aka “ObamaCare.”

This is the natural progression of appeals resulting from the U.S. Supreme Court’s controversial decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby (.pdf). The coming decision on the birth-control mandate will have the title of the first such case filed at the Court: Zubik v. Burwell.

Lyle Denniston at SCOTUSblog writes, Court to hear birth-control challenges (UPDATED):

On Friday, for the fourth time in three years, the Supreme Court agreed to rule on challenges to the new federal health care law — this time, religious non-profit institutions’ objection to the Affordable Care Act’s birth-control mandate, which requires employers to provide their female employees with health insurance that includes no-cost access to certain forms of birth control.  The Court accepted parts of all seven cases on that issue filed with it under the ACA.  It has not yet spelled out how those will be consolidated for a hearing — planned for late March.

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When good people do bad things by not voting

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It may be time to revisit the eternal question Why good people do bad things in the context of voting behavior, specifically NOT voting even when their own self-interest is at stake.

Ballot-boxOn Tuesday, Kentucky held an election for governor. According to the Secretary of State’s web site, Unofficial Election Results, there are 3,201,852 registered voters in Kentucky, but only 982,259 bothered to vote, for a shockingly low 30.68% voter turnout, which is even lower than the low 46.37% voter turnout in last year’s midterm election with a marquee race between  Senator Mitch McConnell and Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes that received so much national attention.

Kentucky voters elected  far-right Republican Matt Bevin governor over Democratic Attorney General Jack Conway.  From GOP ‘con man’ to newly elected governor:

A year ago, the right-wing candidate, who’s never served a day in public office, launched a primary fight against incumbent Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). Republicans quickly labeled Bevin a “con man” who lies “pathologically.” The first-time candidate was exposed a man who lied about his educational background, and who even struggled in the private sector — his business needed a taxpayer bailout.

At one point, he even delivered a speech at a cockfighting gathering and then lied about that, too.

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