I have always felt somewhat better about George Bush than many libertarians apparently do. Two recent events have reinforced my feelings.
The first is the very recent ruling against Obamacare in the U.S. District Court. When pressed for things I think Dubya did right, I have had two quick replies: “Sam Alito” and “John Roberts.” He should be proud of his two appointees to the Supreme Court; they have been superb. Without them, it is doubtful we would have an explicitly recognized individual right to keep and bear arms. But I now have a third quick reply: “Henry Hudson.”
U.S. District Court Judge Hudson was the one who ruled that Obamacare’s key provision, requiring all people not covered by health insurance to purchase it (called the “Minimum Essential Coverage Provision”), exceeds the commerce clause of the Constitution. He was placed on the court in 2002 by Bush.
As Hudson put it, “The unchecked expansion of congressional power to the limits suggested by the Minimum Essential Coverage Provision would invite unbridled exercise of federal police powers. At its core, this dispute is not simply about regulating the business of insurance — or crafting a scheme of universal health insurance coverage — it’s about an individual’s right to choose to participate.”
If Obamacare is ruled unconstitutional, it will be largely because the judges Bush put on the Supreme Court uphold the ruling of one of the judges he put on the district court.
This just seems obvious. It is one thing to regulate interstate commerce, it is quite another to mandate it universally, i.e., to require individuals to engage in commerce (here, buying insurance) if they don’t want to. The argument given by proponents of the bill, that people who don’t buy health insurance wind up requiring the public’s support when they get sick and have to go to the emergency room, is very feeble. Hospitals can and often do bill people without insurance directly. And if Congress had been worried about those who can’t afford health insurance, it could have passed a voucher scheme for healthcare. In that way, anyone who wanted to participate could accept the voucher and go buy at least minimal health insurance, and anyone who didn’t could just refuse the voucher.
Moreover, if you take the pro-Obamacare argument seriously, there is no end to what it would sanction the feds to force us to buy. If I refuse to purchase a car, I will have to use public transportation, so doesn’t that mean that the government can make me buy an American car? No doubt Obama, who nationalized GM and Chrysler to pay back his financial supporters in the UAW, would love that idea. But it is sheer moonshine.
It now seems likelier than not that this issue will make it to the Supreme Court. And it is quite possible that the Court will side with Judge Hudson on the mandate issue. Considering that the wise solons who passed Obamacare forgot to include a severability clause, it is even possible that the Supreme Court could declare the whole bill unconstitutional. If that happens, it will be largely because the judges Bush put on the Supreme Court uphold the ruling of one of the judges he put on the district court.
The second area in which Dubya’s ghost haunts Obama is tax policy. During the present lame-duck session of Congress, Obama reached a surprising last-minute compromise with the Republicans — a compromise that renews Bush’s tax rates for two years. Obama had spent more than two years bashing Bush’s tax cuts “for the obscenely wealthy” and blaming the cuts for our lingering economic difficulties, but he was finally forced to compromise.
He did so very ungracefully, claiming that the Evil Republicans were holding middle class tax cuts hostage, and that while he normally wouldn’t negotiate with terrorists, he had to save the hostage. This was as ludicrous as it was infantile. What was held hostage was the rest of Obama’s presidency, which would have been annihilated had the rates gone up, tumbling the economy back into recession. Obama had to pitch his leftist supporters and his congressional myrmidons on the merits of tax cuts as a way to stimulate the economy, after denying that claim all through his presidency.
But perhaps the most farcical turn came when Obama had to call in Bill Clinton to lead a news conference justifying the compromise to outraged congressional Democrats. Farce devolved into pure camp as the ex-prez, who had jacked up the tax rates to begin with, endorsed the compromise that would preserve the lower rates his successor managed to enact. Dubya must have laughed at that one.
