ACA Decision: Area Dino Declares Chief Justice Roberts Honorary Dinosaur

So nobody is going to write up today's SCOTUS decision?  You're leaving it to the simple lizard who is more or less beneath good and evil? 

Well, Chief Justice Roberts and the SCOTUS majority deserve this dino's praise for taking the nonpartisan high road: apparently, he saw the Court's job as consisting mainly in finding a reasonable way to square the ACA's mandate provision with the constitution, and along with four other justices, he did so.  If you call it a tax instead of insisting that the Commerce Clause backs you up in "regulating" this kind of commerce, it's okay.  I think the Administration can live with that, though I suppose it's a spot embarrassing to call the enforcement mechanism a "tax" on people who refuse to pony up for some health insurance.  Same goes for the Medicaid part of the ruling, which was sterner. 

The point is, the legislative branch of gubmint had passed this thing, and Chief Justice Roberts didn't see it as his prerogative to find easy ways to crush it.  He seems to have rewritten or reconceptualized the ACA somewhat to make it fit his reading of the constitution.  The SCOTUS looks pretty damn good today, thanks in large part to one John Roberts, Bush 43 appointee.  He is hereby declared an honorary dinosaur.  That's the highest award I can bestow on a human.  It's sort of like getting a Congressional Medal of Honor.  The majority's decision was wise, and they deserve praise for it.  They won't get it from the ultrapolarized 'Baggery, of course, but it should be obvious why that's the case.

I think people will become more positive about the ACA as more of its provisions come online.  It isn't perfect and a lot of us would prefer something more thorough, but it's certainly going to move us closer to where we should be.  I watched the president's brief announcement after the ruling, and as usual he impressed me.  He comes across as decent, earnest and thoughtful, which is a hell of a lot more than I can say about any of his most dedicated opponents.