Droppin' the Knowledge on Obamacare -- Post Supreme Court

Today the Supreme Court upheld The Affordable Healthcare Act.  Chief Justice Roberts, not wishing to be on the wrong side of history, wrote for the majority.  Justice Thomas is still trying to figure out why Plessy v. Ferguson was wrong.  The 198 page decision boils down to this:  Congress can levy a tax on U.S. citizens who choose not to purchase healthcare.  it also allows citizens to buy affordable health coverage if they cannot afford private insurance. 

There's a lot more to it than that, and in the coming week scholars and pundits alike will dissect the decision with a magnifier.  Already, people are arguing that Justice Roberts should have upheld the law under the commerce clause.  Others are decrying the strike-down of the medicare incentives.  There will be more, but for now,  the gist of it is you can get affordable healthcare, and if you don't want it, you'll put a little in the government's till.

For those who don't understand the decision, or the legacy that got us here, cries of socialism and marxism and communism can be heard emanating from the backwoods outhouses of red states where the only news source is Rush Limbaugh and Mike Hannity.  But the word, we're looking for here..  is "civilized nation."  

The Republican right has re-interpreted the message to suggest that The Act requires citizens to jettison their current insurance plans and adopt a medical plan imposed by the government; a claim that is patently false.  That said, we're pretty sure they're going to ride that lie for all it's worth.  That is, until history begins to surface, and the Republican right learns that their greatest icons are in favor of affordable health care.

Romney's health care mandate -- while he was in the top job in Massachusetts -- is old news, and most people know about it, despite his attempts to distance himself from ever proposing it.  Fewer people, however, know that Ronald Reagan, the king of trickle-down economics, was in favor of a universal healthcare plan.  Nixon, who opened the door to China and paved the way for real partisan politics (aka lying to stay ahead) was also in favor of universal healthcare.  From a conservative thinking-person's perspective, it's more economical to provide health maintenance than to use our emergency rooms as dumping grounds for the poor; moreover, it drives health care costs down and creates a more competitive market (right, Mr. Greenspan?).  Reducing the deficit and creating a fully functioning competitive market sound like the kind of old fashioned conservative values that got folks like Nixon elected.  Of course, since Obama proposed them, no telling how Fox News will construe it.

Republicans have already labeled the Act, "the largest tax increase in history" and have vowed to repeal it.  What they can no longer argue, however, is its constitutionality.  Bully for men, women, and children everywhere.

WHE HAVE A (V)AGENDA.

This Blog started largely as a series of comments from a Facebook post.  The gist of the post is that Rand Paul is holding up a weather relief bill until his state declares that life begins at conception.

It struck the funny-bone of enough smart women to get a series of interesting comments going.  It also solidified in our minds the real and outrageous attacks on the female body being levied by conservative men.  Vaginas, like the church, really ought to be a-politics, but if they're going to show up, then the agenda (or vagenda) needs to be taken over by women, you know, the people who actually have vaginas.


Enter VAGENDA.  Stay tuned.