Hey Siri, who is Anthony Kennedy?

Quote:Joe Biden on Sunday accused President Trump of nominating Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court to “steal away” health care from millions of Americans by getting rid of the Affordable Care Act.

“President Trump sees a chance to fulfill his explicit mission: steal away the vital protections of the ACA from countless families that have come to rely on them for their health, their financial security, the lives of those they love,” he said during a news conference in his hometown of Wilmington, Del.

“There is no mystery about what’s happening here. President Trump was trying to throw out the Affordable Care Act. He’s been trying to do it for the last four years. Republican Party has been trying to eliminate it for a decade,” the former vice president continued, adding that the Supreme Court upheld the 2010 law twice.

But he said the Trump White House has found a “loophole” to kill Obamacare in the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Sept. 18.

“All it does matter is that they see an opportunity to overturn the Affordable Care Act on their way out the door. And as I speak we are still in the midst of the worst global health crisis in a century, a crisis that has already taken over 200,000 lives, between 715 to 1,000 lives a day and counting,” Biden said.

“Yet, the Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court, right now, as I speak, to eliminate the entire Affordable Care Act,” the Democratic presidential nominee said.

Biden said Trump admitted his intention in a Sunday tweet that if the Supreme Court got rid of Obamacare it would be a “big win for the USA.”

“It should come as no surprise that on Saturday President Trump would nominate judge Amy Coney Barrett, and on Sunday lay out clearly what his objective is: to terminate Obamacare,” Biden said.

He said Barrett has a written track record with “disagreeing adamantly” with the Supreme Court’s decisions to uphold the Affordable Care Act and “publicly criticized Chief Justice Roberts’ opinion upholding the law eight years ago.”

Biden urged his former colleagues in the Senate to hold off on confirming Barrett and allow the winner of the presidential election to decide who should make a selection to the high court.

“Just because you have the power to do something, doesn’t absolve you of your responsibility to do right by the American people. Uphold your constitutional duty. Summon your conscience. Stand up for the people. Stand up for our charity system of checks and balances,” Biden said.

“Americans are watching. Americans are voting. We must listen to them now. We must allow them to exercise this sacred power,” he said.

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Quote:Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in a Sunday speech urged Republican senators to “step back from the brink” and rethink their positions on confirming President Donald Trump’s pick to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Trump introduced Judge Amy Coney Barrett on Saturday in a ceremony on the White House lawn. While Democrats have admitted they have no procedural methods to stop a confirmation, they have called Republicans hypocritical for failing to confirm Merrick Garland in 2016, declaring that it will hurt them at the ballot box.

“Never before in our nation’s history has a Supreme Court justice been nominated and installed while a presidential election is already underway,” Biden declared. “It defies every precedent, every expectation, of a nation where the people, the people are sovereign and the rule of law reigns.”

Biden accused Trump and Republicans of attempting to use the vacancy to do away with the Affordable Care Act.

“President Trump sees a chance to fulfill his explicit mission, steal away the vital protections of the ACA from countless families who have come to rely on them for their health, their financial security, the lives of those they love,” said Biden, who added that Barrett “publicly criticized” Chief Justice John Roberts’ opinion upholding Obamacare.

The former vice president said the Senate “has to stand strong for our democracy” and “not act on this nomination until the American people finish the process they’ve already begun, of selecting their president and their Congress.”

“As I said before, if the people choose Donald Trump, then the Senate should give his nominee a hearing and a vote,” he said. “If people do not choose Trump and choose me, President Trump’s nomination should be withdrawn.”

Calling the installment an “abuse of power,” Biden called on senators to “take a step back from the brink, take off the blinders, the politics, for just one critical moment and stand up for the Constitution you swore to uphold.”

“This is a time to de-escalate, to put an end to the shattering of precedents that has thrown our nation into chaos under this president,” he concluded. “Just because you have the power to do something doesn’t absolve you of your responsibility to do right by the American people.”

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#wheatCent without value...

Damn stuttering problem.

He didn't say election year, he said while an election was going on.

George Washington did it three times. John Adams did it. Thomas Jefferson did it. Abraham Lincoln did it. Ulysses S. Grant did it. Franklin D. Roosevelt did it. Dwight Eisenhower did it. Barack Obama, of course, did it.

(09-28-2020 12:00 PM)fsquid Wrote:  He didn't say election year, he said while an election was going on.

Does he mean like specifically on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, when campaigning starts, post convention, etc? There a lot of ways to define that.

Until Jan 20, 2021 (at minimum) Donald Trump is our President. All this other shiiit is just noise.

(09-28-2020 12:00 PM)fsquid Wrote:  He didn't say election year, he said while an election was going on.

Is it election day yet? Then, as far as history is concerned, the election isnt going on yet.

This whole crap about 'overturning the aca' is just stupid.

87% of Democrats want some version of M4A.
Any M4A that allows what Medicaid allows today, which is supplements (both public and private) as well as 'advantage' plans provides a 'public option'. Biden says he's against M4A because of cost, but he's in favor of a Public Option...

Which is nothing but semantics.

Whether we have mandatory (because its a tax) private purchase of insurance with the option for one of those alternatives to be a 'public option' (Biden's plan) or whether we have an increase in the existing mandatory payroll tax to fund an expanded version of Medicare... or whether you simply fund it from the general fund with an increase in 'income' taxes only matters if you're trying to hide the real cost of something by not having it run through a single line item. It doesn't in ANY way change how much that care costs.

- Payroll taxes harm the poor and middle-upper middle class. You can 'fix' this by exempting lower income people... but you still have to tax anyone who is currently paying any portion of their current healthcare premiums or copays... which is most people and you don't hit the wealthy
- Income taxes harm the upper-middle class and given the size of this financial need, it would have to include people well below 250k. All of this crap about Trump paying little/no taxes only demonstrates that tax laws favor wealth over income, GREATLY. Dems are 'outing' themselves, but fortunately for them, many of their voters are too stupid to see it.
- If instead you keep it as premiums, all you're doing for most people is paying a tax AND getting a deduction for your premium, vs getting an identical, single payroll tax deduction. Politicians want this because it allows them to obfuscate the costs.

Republicans objection to the ACA is forcing people into commerce. If Democrats think 'a civilized society provides this' then let society pay for it and put it on the books. A Republican would say, if you want to fund this, do it through consumption (with a prefund) as that actually hits the wealthy.

Republicans are MORONS if they don't simply hammer on this. Healthcare and insurance is not magic.... it is math. It does not make money appear nor does it drive down costs. All if can do (at best) is shift the risks and the costs.

PERIOD