Obama’s Health Care Law
Yesterday, President Obama’s health care law was saved from being relegated to the dustbin of history by the unlikeliest of heroes: erstwhile Conservative golden-boy John Roberts. And he did so on the unlikeliest of grounds, holding that the individual mandate at the heart of the law was a “tax,” and thus a valid exercise of Congress’s authority under the Taxing and Spending Clause of the Constitution. To be sure, Chief Justice Roberts’ exceedingly narrow reading of the Commerce Clause and newly imposed limits on the Congress’s spending power should give pause to those who believe that the federal government has, and needs, broad power to pass social welfare Legislation. But, for today, supporters of Obamacare can breathe a deep sigh of relief and carry on the fight to achieve universal health care.
