Still Reflecting…

Here is a good piece of information from the SCOTUS ruling: It was declared a tax, which keeps the ObamaCare, but being a tax it only requires 51 votes in the Senate because you can’t filibuster a tax bill.

Today it only takes four Senators, and a president willing to sign it. That is doable in November, just four months away. It might be possible today to get a few Democrats to switch, and the forcing President Obama to veto it before the election.

Now, obviously as a tax this becomes the largest tax in world history. Close to two trillion dollars over the next decade. That’s pretty important for someone running for president who promised no taxes on the middle class.

On the very pages today of the Washington Post, immediately after the SCOTUS decision, two separate articles from small businesses announced their intent to fire workers immediately.

One small business in Temecula and one in Austin said they would stop funding their employees health insurance and certainly not hire more people but rather prepare to lay off employees.

That may be premature, because this legal setback is easily recoverable politically at the ballot box.

Time to get to work. The last time ObamaCare was the subject in an election, the Republicans trounced the Democrats, and a Channel 10 News California poll tonight showed 45% of Californians oppose ObamaCare, and 44% support.

If you can’t do better than that in deep Blue California, you are in trouble.

In some ways (actually a lot of ways) Chief Justice Roberts was right — he said it is not the purpose of the Court to protect the voters from the consequences of their votes,

Elections have consequences.

Now admittedly, Justice Roberts saved the ObamaCare bill through a bit of judicial ju-jitsu but everyone condemns him for giving into pressure — I think he was just saying, “Look, Dummies, if you want to know how to rewrite the bill, I’ll do it for you if you are not smart enough…and that is why I am the Chief Justice, and you are not!”

The problem is, the taxpayers must pay for his showboating.
But, indeed, elections DO have consequences.

Reflections

Now that we know more about the SCOTUS decision, it doesn’t get any better, ObamaCare still stands, but…

Here is a good piece of information from the SCOTUS ruling: It was declared a tax, which keeps the ObamaCare, but being a tax it only requires 51 votes in the Senate because you can’t filibuster a tax bill.

Today it only takes four Senators, and a president willing to sign it. That is doable in November, just four months away. It might be possible today to get a few Democrats to switch, and the forcing President Obama to veto it before the election.

Now, obviously as a tax this becomes the largest tax in world history. Close to two trillion dollars over the next decade. That’s pretty important for someone running for president who promised no taxes on the middle class.

On the very pages today of the Washington Post, immediately after the SCOTUS decision, two separate articles from small businesses announced their intent to fire workers immediately.

One small business in Temecula and one in Austin said they would stop funding their employees health insurance and certainly not hire more people but rather prepare to lay off employees.

That may be premature, because this legal setback is easily recoverable politically at the ballot box.

Time to get to work.

Comments on ObamaCare

The approval of ObamaCare as Constitutional was a political victory for the President, but whether it can ever be implemented is another question.

I care almost nothing about ObamaCare, I wanted Wickard v. Filburn reduced, overturned, defeated, destroyed…call it what you want. The Court DID place limits on the Commerce Clause, which has been the fountainhead of great political mischief for decades.

Now, the President must admit to raising TAXES!

Readers of my columns over 32 years know that I have always believed that the Wickard v. Filburn ruling was the absolutely worst SCOTUS decision among a host of really bad decisions, and the SCOTUS now has an unmatched opportunity to at least degrade and possibly overturn that stupid decision. I would drive a stake through its heart if I could, because it has spawned really bad decisions.

You may recall that Wickard v. Filburn ruled that a farmer who raised wheat to be used ONLY on his farm for silage and family use, was thereby involved in “Interstate Commerce.” Because he had not planted excess wheat, he MIGHT have had to purchase wheat which MIGHT have come across a state lineSuch a tortured SCOTUS decision was matched, in my opinion, only by the Roe v. Wade decision, which was based not on “abortion” (which was not an enumerated power under the Constitution) but on a “right to Privacy” – which is also not in the Constitution!

(I happen to favor a woman’s right to abort right up to the time there is a cognitive brain wave on the fetus, but MY reading of the Constitution says this whole subject is a right of the various states under the 10th Amendment to the Constitution.)

SCOTUS today reined in the absolutely insane power of the federal government claimed under recent interpretations of the Interstate Commerce Clause.

As I wrote decades ago, under the current Wickard v. Filburn interpretation, YOU are subject to the power of the federal government because the fillings in your teeth, and the salt on your dinner table came across state lines.

The purpose of the Constitution was to limit the power of the central federal government, but BROAD interpretation has expanded those powers to “no limits.” There are always questions about “Original Intent” of the Founders, but those questions are simply designed to obfuscate because the Founders wrote absolute reams about what they intended. In speeches, letters and the Federalist Papers they clarified darn near ever sentence of a short document that was written in plain English.

Now ObamaCare is approved in the legal arena, and is thrown into the political arena where it is roundly disapproved, as demonstrated both in the polls and in the election results of the 2010.

It is unlikely to survive. Democrats will shrink from raising “taxes” now that the term is officially defined, and states do not have the threat of reduction of federal funding  should they not expand Medicare under ObamaCare.

ObamaCare is on very shaky economic and political grounds. The fight continues.

More iPads in Classrooms

San Diego city schools just authorized the purchase of $10 million in iPads, to place in 340 classrooms.

That is not going to take any money away from teachers, it is from a special fund established by the taxpayers through proposition.

That will, eventually, help reduce the huge teacher cadre but only over many years. We can’t afford many years.

I hope it is used to “flip” the classroom, where teachers require students to view the subject matter on the night before the class, and the class time is for on-on-one tutoring those subject matter questions not fully understood.

This takes the teacher out of “lecturer” role, and into the tutor role.

Hopefully it can lead to a lowering of the outrageously expensive teacher corps.

Administration Found Its Inner “Imperial Presidency”

The federal government does what it does best at its worst — it found its inner “Imperial Presidency.”

The president announced that although the SCOTUS said that Arizona could demand papers under certain circumstances, the federal government would not take illegal immigrants into custody except those it wished to take.

The federal government simply admitted to selective enforcement, and said, “So what?”

The “what” of course is to turn them out of office.

Every administration is involved in some selective involvement — there are not enough resources to do everything, but seldom does an administration simply say they will not enforce the law for purely political reasons.

Certainly, states had laws against sodomy on the books for decades without enforcing it.

In this case the Feds publicly and forcefully stuck their finger in the eye of not just a state but the UNANIMOUS verdict of the Supreme Court of the United States!

We have an Imperial Presidency. He demonstrated it previously with amnesty for illegal alien children, and with Fast and Furious declaring Executive Privilege when he had previously denied any knowledge.

It seems a good time to send an extra stipend to Judicial Watch — they do good work in this area.

It’s All in the Numbers

It’s all in the numbers: 40% of the total California budget must be spent on schools, and 80% of that number on salaries. (Those are minimums.)

There are 330,000 California active teachers, K-12, and their average salary is $67,000.

(The total US teacher corps is 3,200,000 which is more than TWICE the total size of the US Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force. Combined!)

Teaching is a profession that has not been brought into the 21st Century. It uses the same teaching methods used 3,000 years ago in Greece – a teacher standing in front of a limited number of students.

It is the purpose of every labor union since the days of Henry Ludd to keep technology from replacing labor, and to fight efficiency. Few professions have been so successful as has the teaching profession, because using the phrase, “It’s for the children” they have successfully tugged at heart strings even when brain cells said otherwise.

We simply have too many teachers – at least too many to pay and provide benefits at the current level – and yet great individual teachers may well deserve more pay. There is no current Quality Control over teachers – we simply do not know who is good and who is bad.

In California, we are a “Top Five” paid teaching corps, and a “Bottom Five” student achieving corps.

This seems like a good time to reform what is so obviously a broken, and unsustainable system. California once stood at the forefront of change in America, but in education it is a backwater to the changes going on around the nation.

Are Apple Product Buyers Richer?

FOX News reports that Orbitz travel data mining has determined that those who search with Apple computer products make $20,000 a year more than those who have a WinTel PC, and those with Apple products spend 20% more in food and hotels than do those WinTel travelers.

Consequently, Orbitz proposes higher level hotels and restaurants to those who search with Apple products.

So, if you “dress down” to shop for products like automobiles, better shop with your WinTel product, assuming you have a choice.

Liberals Finally Get ONE Right

Lord knows I hate to agree with liberals, but blind chickens and broken clocks…

The Montana decision by SCOTUS  was wrong. ( Of course, I understand that you may disagree…)

SCOTUS decided that Montana must conform to previous national ruling on Citizens United giving corporations “Free Speech Rights” with their money.

“Congress shall make no law…”

It does NOT say “The Montana Legislature shall make no law…”

Is the reading of plain English a lost art?

(Yes, I know that SCOTUS expanded the Constitution coverage to the states – but apparently they cannot read the actual wording of the Constitution. The original intent, expressed in writings widely published, was for states to compete with different ideas and for other states to either accept the ideas if they are successful, and reject them when they fail in different states. We have been “homogenized.” That was not the idea!)

The SCOTUS Ruling on Arizona

Everyone is gripping their part of the elephant and declaring victory in the Arizona Immigration Ruling.

In the end, it all depends on who is president.

A strong conservative president has the tools to enforce immigration law, and President Obama is NOT that guy.

Elections have consequences.

I would love to tell you that Mitt Romney is a strong conservative who would enforce immigration law, but he is waffling before November.

I have written a proposal on how to handle the 11 to 20 million already here because no one currently in politics at the national level is going to deport all illegal immigrants.

Period.

We need to find a “nuanced” solution because there is absolutely no support to deport every illegal alien. This is not being discussed.

It will take months to see what states can do to immunize their state from the scourge of illegal activity when that activity costs serious money in schools, emergency rooms and in the tight job market. It is money we do not have to spare.

It was instructive to me that the vote to uphold the police ability to ask about a persons immigration status when stopped for a violation was UNANIMOUS! Well, at least 8-0, since the Elena Kagan recused herself. That means that the “Wise Latina” voted for the law enforcement being able to say, ” Show me your papers.”

The SCOTUS decision is not even a dead bang win in the 8-0 vote, because if you read the fine print, the Justices said, in effect, go ahead and enforce the provision that permits law enforcement to check immigration status, and in the future we (SCOTUS) will re-examine whether the provision is being used in a discriminatory manner

Neither Romney nor Obama is going to deport all illegal aliens, but there is certainly going to be a difference between their activity over the next four years depending on which is elected. President Obama, being in his last term would be more likely to move aggressively toward Amnesty. Romney would be more constrained even if he was not such a naturally constrained person, anyway, but being in his first term constrains him even further.

You must remember that George Bush waited until his second term to introduce his “Comprehensive Immigration Bill” which actually was, in the Senate, the McCain/Ted Kennedy bill.

This Ends Today’s Lesson

I am loathe to pass along things I get in e-mail — most are pure junk or worse yet — BS!

THIS I Liked:

“Today’s Lesson

The Food Stamp Program, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is proud to be distributing the greatest amount of free meals and food stamps ever.

Meanwhile, the National Park Service, administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior, asks us to “Please Do Not Feed the Animals.” Their stated reason for the policy is because the animals will grow dependent on handouts and will not learn to take care of themselves.

This ends today’s lesson.”