The Swing Vote

I celebrate the victory of the Affordable Care Act in the Supreme Court today! It delivers a solid thwacking to the president's bitter foes who choose party over country. It shall be delightful to see them squirm and spin over the next week. Right now it matters little what the fight was about, but merely that the battle was joined and won. The bullying shall be dealt a second and perhaps fatal blow in November, I hope.

Many Republicans in Congress sought to, as Senator DeMint put it, make health reform Obama's "Waterloo". We should invest in the pillars of our economy: education, health and infrastructure. But all efforts to govern were opposed by any means necessary and all means available. Liberals should not be allowed to govern; they are altogether illegitimate however reasonable and decent they may seem. Compromise is a four letter word.

Liberals would have preferred a single payer system, like those that work so well in Japan, Taiwan and Europe. But that was a non-starter and even the 'public option' was stricken from the bill. So the issue of cost was side-lined. But at least the lack of health insurance for over 15% of the population will be addressed starting in 2014. The double irony is that not only was the mandate a Republican idea, it was Mitt Romney's baby. The party that opposes its own ideas is surely the party of nope and hopefully voters will see this.