Two Plus Two Still Equals Four

I'd love to see Rob do a podcast about his experience at seminary so far . . .

Stad (View Comment):

I’d love to see Rob do a podcast about his experience at seminary so far . . .

Steve and I have talked about recording something like that—as a special episode for either this show or 3WWHH. It just came up a few weeks back, so stay tuned.

Rob's point about entitlements and the older generation never, ever, being willing to give up a dime is about as rock-solid a statement as, well, granite. Unfortunately I see this in some of my relatives, to a shocking degree, particularly when I point out how quickly the benefits of Social Security exceed what they put into it - and I tell them that right now, they're getting paid out of my taxes and social security contributions, not their own money, which was long ago burned through, even if they haven't yet received more in benefits than they put in.

Reactions are a mix of serious confusion and outright anger - at me, for pointing it out. One small glimmer of hope once appeared, though - my mom was reading the newspaper or watching the news, this was during a Christmas visit, and she was stunned to learn of the regular shenanigans Congress whips up annually with Social Security contributions and benefits. Basically the accounting shell game that kicks the entitlement disaster down the road, annually.

She said "How can they do that?", to which I replied "You voted for these people, Mom. Remember?" And that was the end of the conversation. I wish this awareness had happened 40 years earlier, but maybe it's never too late.

Government Is How We Steal From Each Other™

Brother Rob takes us out with some thoughts on walking one’s path even in tough times.

Without actually answering a relatively simple question about how Rob and his fellow seminarians feel about the rampant ubiquitous institutionalized anti-semitism being exposed of late.

Rob made a superb point about how John Marshall - without textual justification in the Constitution - appropriated to the Supreme Court the power of judicial review, in the seminal case of Marbury v. Madison. I see that as one end of a spectrum. At the other end of the spectrum is Chief Justice "Squish" Roberts declaring that the Obamacare penalty was a tax, in order to uphold the Affordable Care Act.

The Obama administration did NOT argue at any time that the Obamacare penalty was a tax, not even in oral argument. Had they done so, they would have admitted that the Affordable Care Act was in fact unconstitutional, since it had not originated in the House of Representatives, as the Constitution requires.

I don't know if modern search engines will permit anyone to review the facts: Scott Brown had won a special election for U.S. Senator to replace Ted Kennedy, and Brown specifically campaigned on his promise to vote against the Affordable Care Act. The Democrats needed his vote to invoke cloture on the bill in order to vote to pass the bill that had in fact originated in the House of Representatives. The Senate never held that cloture vote, and so the Affordable Care Act bill that the Senate had earlier/otherwise voted to approve was sent to the House of Representatives for approval through the "reconciliation" process.

No one disputes that the Affordable Care Act did NOT originate in the House of Representatives. The individual mandate could not be a tax, else the Act would facially violate the Constitution. This fact was never in dispute. Yet John Roberts, in his infinite wisdom, chose to declare the ACA's individual mandate a tax, and never concerned himself with the constitutional implications.

Thus John "Squish" Roberts completed the usurpation, permitting the Supreme Court to cover the full spectrum. At one end of the spectrum is Marshall's usurpation of the power of Judicial review, whereby the Court can strike down laws it deems unconstitutional. At the other end of the spectrum, the Supreme Court can uphold facially unconstitutional laws, such as Squish Roberts did for the Affordable Care Act in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius.