Outside the Beltway

The first round of appellate arguments over the Constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act took place today in Richmond, Virginia.

An attempt at explaining where I am coming from on in the health care discussion.

The bottom line is that the problem with the Ryan Plan is the Ryan Plan.

Given the schedule they’re on in the Courts of Appeals, it is likely that the Supreme Court will rule on one or more of the lawsuits challenging the Constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act just before the start of the 2012 campaign.

The Federal Government has filed its response to Virginia’s request for an expedited review of Virginia v. Sebelius, and they’ve got an compelling argument against rushing things.

PP’s intensive effort to recast itself as a preventer of abortions doesn’t bear scrutiny.

Judge Roger Vinson stayed his own ruling in the Florida ObamaCare lawsuit today and acted to speed up the appellate process, but not by much.

Yet again: to the Commerce Clause!

Judge Gladys Kessler upheld the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate, but she did so by essentially ruling that the Interstate Commerce Clause means whatever Congress wants it to mean.

The Affordable Care Act has been ruled Constitutional in Holder v. Mead.

You don’t have to be Admiral Akbar to suspect that the President’s refusal to deal with entitlements in his budget proposal is a trap for the GOP.

House Democrats are calling on Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from any litigation regarding the Affordable Care Act. It’s a phony argument, but that’s because it has everything to do with politics and nothing to do with legal ethics.

Four Senators who just happen to be up for re-election next year are silently looking for alternatives to the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate.

Predicting (after a fashion) what the SCOTUS will do with the PPACA and a return to the Commerce Clause and the activity/inactivity disucssion.

Virginia will petition the Supreme Court to bypass the normal appellate process and hear the appeal of its lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act early.

It seems to me that inactivity can have just as profound affects as activity and likewise that it is rather difficult to argue that health care isn’t part of interstate commerce.

A second Federal District Court judge has declared the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional.

In a move that surprises nobody, the House voted today to repeal last year’s health care reform law. Now it goes to the Senate where it will die.

The current approach of the GOP to health care is not dissimilar to its approach to fiscal policy: not a lot of substance.

There appears to be bipartisan support for repealing one of the most egregious tax rules in last year’s Affordable Care Act

The Supreme Court’s refusal to take up the appeal of a far-reaching Commerce Clause case may indicate rough times ahead for challenges to ObamaCare

The next round in the health care reform wars is about to start.

The seemingly sensible end-of-life counseling that was originally part of the Health Care Reform Bill is making a comeback.

More on the question of health care and free markets.