Althouse: "Conservatives wanted the White House to stop spending on the health care law until the Supreme Court rules on whether it’s constitutional."

June 23, 2012

"Conservatives wanted the White House to stop spending on the health care law until the Supreme Court rules on whether it’s constitutional."

"But the administration has forged ahead, spending at least $2.7 billion since oral arguments in the case ended on March 28. That’s more than double the amount that was handed out in the three-month period leading up to the arguments...."

21 comments:

edutcher said...: That was always part of the strategy. Get so much in place that the Conservatives, Libertarians, and Republicans would be faced with a fait accompli by election time because, of course, the promise of it would be so popular.

They didn't count on Miss Sarah and those 2 little words, did they?; 6/23/12, 10:20 AM
Beta Rube said...: Many of us knew that granting massive power to tax, spend, regulate, etc. to an adolescent would not end well. Restraint is a learned trait.; 6/23/12, 10:24 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Obama and Pelosi promised us that "The Affordable Care Act" (laughs) would save money! So much for that.; 6/23/12, 10:24 AM
cubanbob said...: And the ad campaign money spent telling us just how good it is for seniors.; 6/23/12, 10:29 AM
Jason (the commenter) said...: Until the Supreme Court says otherwise, Obamacare is the law of the land. And what's a few billion dollars to these people?; 6/23/12, 10:30 AM
ricpic said...: To stop spending is to die!

--Secret Democrat Oath Upon Assuming Office; 6/23/12, 10:31 AM
ricpic said...: It is also, not coincidently, the secret yenta oath.; 6/23/12, 10:33 AM
Tim said...: One can sue a private company for damages; who can sue a government that enjoys sovereign immunity?

Yet too many idiots persist in believing private companies are a threat to freedom, while an ever-growing government increasingly protects freedom.

Too many idiots are unimaginably stupid and immune to learning from experience.; 6/23/12, 10:34 AM
Tim said...: AprilApple said...

"Obama and Pelosi promised us that "The Affordable Care Act" (laughs) would save money! So much for that."

Not just them.

One of the liberal commenters here (RV) pimped the lie of "ER care is expensive, so the ACA saves money by providing cheaper care," conspicuously ignoring the simple fact that the ACA will cost many times more than what ER care now costs us.; 6/23/12, 10:38 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Romney should runs ads that show Obama spouting his BS about the "Affordable Care Act"(laughs) and then talk seriously about the reality. The reality that the "ACA" (laughs) has done nothing but drive people out of their current plans, it has raised premiums for everyone across the board, and it is killing completive insurance programs. Everyone knows this is the democrat's ultimate goal. ACA (laughs) will force everyone into the government exchange. Soon to be Single Payer – an unsustainable unaffordable poorly run government system.
The ACA (laughs) has also forced Urgent Care facilities to cut back on nurses replaced by unaccountable government bureaucrats. These new-hires are not there to help with patients, no no. They are hired to write the cumbersome and ridiculous software that will help the democrats and with their absurd goals.; 6/23/12, 10:38 AM
I'm Full of Soup said...: Wow that is 2,700 million dollars.

That is a bit more than what Philly public school district spends per year on its public schools.

That is what we would have spent if we gave 750,000 people $3,600 each to subsidize their purchase of health insurance.

That is what we would have spent if it was used to pay for 36,000 firemen, teachers and cops at an average gross salary of $75,000.

That is what Althouse could make if we all went crazy and spent an aggregate total of $70 Billion via Amazon. Heh.; 6/23/12, 10:41 AM
virgil xenophon said...: Obama et al are simply following on the practice of NYCs famed builder Robert Moses (see: "The Power Broker" by Robert Caro) who realized that "sunk costs" were everything. He would keep his work crews going 24/7 on controversial projects to lay as much concrete & steel as possible before anyone could even THINK of getting a stop-work order or injunction--by which time so much money would have been spent and so much constructed that the court of public opinion viewed not completing the project as an even bigger waste of money than halting work.; 6/23/12, 11:06 AM
virgil xenophon said...: PS re the psychology of sunk costs: A classic example is the decision on Monday to go on a large group picnic on Saturday, weather permitting. . During the week much expensive food and drink is bought and much preparation time expended. Come Saturday the urge to go on the picnic anyway rather than cancel despite the fact the weather looks very unpromising is huge because of all the effort, expense and planning already done..; 6/23/12, 11:13 AM
Michael K said...: " the simple fact that the ACA will cost many times more than what ER care now costs us."

It is a myth that lack of insurance drives up ER visits. It's been shown that providing insurance (and Medicaid) increases ER use. There is a subset of the population that does not plan ahead and do things like establish a relationship with a family doctor. They are the ER clientele. Urgent care clinics have siphoned off some of them but the real ER patient group always seems to show up at the ER.; 6/23/12, 12:11 PM
Darrell said...: Doctors' revenues are down 25-50% in some cases because of Medicare cuts. Thank all of those that helped make that possible with a good swift kick when you can't find a doctor to accept Medicare.; 6/23/12, 12:27 PM
I Have Misplaced My Pants said...: Yep, I have a friend who runs the office of her husband's medical practice. They already received a bunch of money to put new computers in their office along with paperwork that they have Obamacare to thank for it. They didn't need or want new computers, but by golly they got them!; 6/23/12, 12:35 PM
Bender said...: Conservatives wanted the White House to stop spending on the health care law until the Supreme Court rules on whether it’s constitutional

Then Boehner's House of Representatives should not have appropriated the money in the first place!

It is rather dishonest to blame Obama for spending when House Republicans (including Ryan) had the means to stop him and, instead, handed the treasury over to him to spend, spend, spend, spend, spend.; 6/23/12, 12:51 PM
stan said...: Professor,

Any take on this comment from a new poll of SCOTUS clerks:

“From what I read of the initial survey results, compared to the surveyed group as a whole I was more bullish before oral argument that the justices would strike the individual mandate as an unconstitutional exercise of the Interstate Commerce Clause power. I was less surprised by the tenor of the oral arguments than others. But: although the usual caveats apply, the collegiality and tone the Court as a whole has shown since then makes me less bullish than I was. If you look at other terms where the "conservative" majority prevailed on divisive issues like this one (see for a very specific example OT2006), well before this time in the term calendar the "liberal" justices often show significant frustration with forthcoming conservative decisions by issuing stinging dissents or oral argument lines of questioning in what would otherwise be less divisive cases. For example, I wonder whether we would have seen the gentle tone we saw in the AZ immigration case from Justice Sotomayor if a decision was forthcoming that will strike down a central feature of President Obama's signature bill. Probably reading too much into it but the Court's tenor lately gives me pause.”; 6/23/12, 1:46 PM
susan said...: Thank-you, Bender. We gave the pathetic GOP the people they needed to at least stop billions going out the door for ObamaCare and what did they do? They told us to shut up and sit down. Obama obviously knew this. He knew he could spend whatever he wanted without a peep from them and he was right. Paul Ryan? He helped Obama by going on an extended vanity tour about his 'plan' to diffuse the momentum we gave the GOP and the country to stop funding ObamaCare. As far as the liar on the GOP Appropriations Committee, the GOP stuck a measure to stop funding ObamaCare in that GOP controlled committee for a year. The GOP establishment loves ObamaCare and they're fine with Obama. It's we the people they can't stand.; 6/23/12, 3:26 PM
Paul said...: Obama promised so many people so much graft he had to spend the money, even if Obamacare is unconstitutional.; 6/23/12, 4:12 PM
Nora said...: It certainly looks like Obama never looses an opportunity to dump some more of people money down the drain.; 6/23/12, 7:37 PM