Buzz Blog

On May 24, City Weekly published "The Great Obamacare Scare." In that article, Sen. Mike Lee wrongly predicted the Supreme Court would strike down the Affordable Care Act 5-4, --- noting that "The federal government has very limited authority in this area except where there is a nexus with interstate commerce."

This morning, following a 5-4 Supreme Court decision upholding the ACA, Lee says it was a hollow victory for the reform. "Today’s decision makes it all the more important—and likely—that the Affordable Care Act will be repealed after the elections this November. It is essential that members of Congress, as the people’s elected representatives, act to protect individual liberty."

Earlier this spring, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff seemed similarly confident that the Supreme Court would rule against the ACA. You'll recall that Shurtleff joined Utah to a lawsuit filed by 26 states and the National Federation of Independent Business to challenge the constitutionality of the ACA. He and his Chief Deputy John Swallow made a big deal of attending the three days of arguments in March 2012, as can be seen in a number of videos, apparently filmed by staffers, B-roll style, uploaded on YouTube.

It was interesting, this morning, to see the progression of the attorney general's tweets, which he began to hashtag as #IWasThereWhenWeMadeHistory in advance of the Supreme Court decision:

I Was There When We Made History. Sunday night 3/21/10 while Congress voted on #Obamacare, I was on phone w/ few AGs finalizing our lawsuit.%uFFFD

I Was There When We Made History. Within minutes of Pres. Obama signing Affordable Care Act 3/23/10, we challenged it in Fed. Ct.

#IWasThereWhenWeMadeHistory. Our constitutional challenge of Obamacare was criticized as "frivolous." Today world awaits "historic" ruling.

Then came the ruling, which initially was misunderstood:

#IWasThereWhenWeMadeHistory. CNN just announced the Individual Mandate of Obamacare is struck down as unconstitutional!

Then the backpedaling begins:
#IWasThereWhenWeMadeHistory. Still confusion. SCOTUS blog says mandate is upheld. Waiting official statement.

Then came the disbelief:
#IWasThereWhenWeMadeHistory. SCOTUSBlog now saying Mandate upheld under TAXING power!!?? Congress passed it demanding it WASN'T a TAX!

Then the loss of the hashtag and the tweets faded away with: @SCOTUSBlog: The Court holds that the mandate DOES violate the Commerce Clause, BUT is constitutional under the taxing power! Wow!

By the way, one local luminary who actually correctly forecasted the decision was local astrologer Christopher Renstrom (named City Weekly's Best Astrologer in 2012)> He predicted the following on his website:

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act -- better known as “ObamaCare”-- was passed on March 21, 2010. It is a near-universal health-care plan aimed at providing medical coverage for millions of uninsured Americans. It was passed on the first day of Aries, which means that it is a Child of Mars.

It was also passed when Ruling Planet Mars was in retrograde. Mars retrogrades are famous for false starts, fiery controversy and long protracted delays, and these have certainly been the hallmark features of this plan’s journey from drawing board to reality.

Interestingly enough, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments on March 26, 27, and 28, 2012, about the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). This is nearly two years to the day of its initial passage and, like on March 21, 2010, Mars will also be retrograde. Now will a law that was “born” under the planet of the scrapper find itself scrapped?

Admittedly, Mars retrograde should signal a dismal defeat because Mars is moving backwards in the sky (and therefore reversed); however, I have seen people and things born under a retrograde Ruling Planet actually prosper and prevail during the time when their Ruling Planet is retrograde, which is why the PPACA should pass muster with the court.

There will undoubtedly be more technical issues cited and challenges to be surmounted (there’s a retrograde Mercury conjunct Uranus, the on-again, off-again, on-again planet hovering over the proceedings), but it looks like the PPACA will be back on track to becoming a full-fledged law by the time Mars emerges from its shadow period on June 19, 2012.