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You are here: Home / The Broccoli Mandate

The Broccoli Mandate

by John Cole|  March 28, 20125:09 pm| 72 Comments

This post is in: Teabagger Stupidity

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I just discovered what it is, and it distresses me to no end that our wingnuts are actively trying to make us dumber. Of course no one is going to be mandated to buy broccoli, you wankers. But you know what I am mandated to buy because of the actions of a bunch of midwestern conservative pols? Corn. There is a live, actual corn mandate. Every time I go to the gas station to buy gas, I am forced, against my will, to buy corn products.

So you know where you jackasses can stick that broccoli…

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Previous Post: « Scary Diseases; Agribiz Denialism; and Why We Need Health Care Reform (It’s more than just coverage)
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Reader Interactions

72Comments

  1. 1.

    mark

    March 28, 2012 at 5:13 pm

    a thousand times THIS

  2. 2.

    Tonal Crow

    March 28, 2012 at 5:13 pm

    Topical repost from open thread:
    __
    On the ACA mandate, I don’t get why Verilli didn’t answer the broccoli question with:

    Hell yes, the federal government can force us to buy broccoli. Just as, since its founding, it has forced each of us to buy every manner of good, service, intangible, and imaginable; whether it benefits us directly, indirectly, speculatively, or not at all; and whether we support it, know nothing about it, or vehemently oppose it. That usually Congress has done this by taxing us money and purchasing the provisions itself, rather than requiring us directly to buy them, is a distinction without a difference. In both cases the federal government uses its power to take money from us in exchange for some kind of provision. The exact nature of the exchange is a political matter for Congress to determine and for citizens to ratify or disapprove at the ballot box and on the soapbox. It is not a legal matter for courts to second-guess.
    __
    That doesn’t, however, mean that the government can force us to eat the broccoli, as this Court’s long line of substantive due process cases illustrate. Everyone is still free to decide whether, when, and from whom to seek medical care….

    __
    Is this too forward for a Democratic administration?

  3. 3.

    wasabi gasp

    March 28, 2012 at 5:16 pm

    Broccoli is not a vaginal probe.

  4. 4.

    havent you noticed, i am the scotus

    March 28, 2012 at 5:17 pm

    But you don’t have to go to the gas station. You can just stay in your basement all day. Obamacare is forcing you to buy corny gas whether you want to buy gas or not.

  5. 5.

    Martin

    March 28, 2012 at 5:17 pm

    Every time I go to the gas station to buy gas, I am forced, against my will, to buy corn products.

    No you aren’t. You could ride your bike. Buy a diesel powered car. Buy a Leaf. Buy a natgas powered vehicle. You aren’t forced to buy corn.

    Now, the refineries are forced to buy corn, however. I’m not sure that’s a distinction with a difference, but you’re correct that government mandates the purchase of all sorts of things either directly or indirectly.

    Relative to the cost of buying mandatory health insurance, a lot more of my money is going to buying military equipment, every dollar of which flows to the private sector.

  6. 6.

    Martin

    March 28, 2012 at 5:18 pm

    @wasabi gasp: What a boring sex life you lead.

  7. 7.

    Hill Dweller

    March 28, 2012 at 5:20 pm

    Not that he gives a shit, but Scalia thoroughly embarrassed himself the last three days. Cornhusker Kickback? Really?

  8. 8.

    Zifnab

    March 28, 2012 at 5:20 pm

    Every time I go to the gas station to buy gas, I am forced, against my will, to buy corn products.

    That’s totally different, John. And I’m sure you’re curious to know why. Well… STFU, that’s why.

  9. 9.

    gnomedad

    March 28, 2012 at 5:20 pm

    Every time I go to the gas station to buy gas, or to the supermarket to buy damn near any kind of food, I am forced, against my will, to buy corn products.

    Enhanced.

  10. 10.

    wasabi gasp

    March 28, 2012 at 5:20 pm

    @Martin: Go toss your salad.

  11. 11.

    redshirt

    March 28, 2012 at 5:20 pm

    Yeah but subsidies good, cuz we say so.

    Taxes bad.

  12. 12.

    Tara the Antisocial Social Worker

    March 28, 2012 at 5:21 pm

    I’d be happy if I didn’t have to keep purchasing their miserable ****ing wars.

  13. 13.

    Bludger

    March 28, 2012 at 5:24 pm

    Real Americans like corn.
    Liberals like broccoli.

  14. 14.

    Southern Beale

    March 28, 2012 at 5:26 pm

    I actually really love broccoli. So a broccoli mandate works for me.

    But really what this boils down to is just a rehash of the conservative lament that they have to pay for shit they don’t want to pay for. Poor peoples’ food stamps. Unemployed peoples’ unemployment. Women’s birth control. Whah whah whah. They are always whining about paying for shit they don’t want to buy, it just always boils down to that.

    And as Jon Stewart said, GET IN LINE, ASSHOLES. I had to pay for Derek Dye the Abstinence Clown, which was a real thing, then you can shut the fuck up about your imaginary broccoli mandate.

    Hey, some of those wingnuts could stand to eat a little broccoli. Just sayin’.

  15. 15.

    kindness

    March 28, 2012 at 5:27 pm

    Do they have to suit up with two wet suits before placing that broccoli there? Or is that after? I get confused.

  16. 16.

    MattF

    March 28, 2012 at 5:28 pm

    Possibly OT, that JetBlue Airways pilot was just trying to persuade the passengers to pray:

    http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2012/03/28/us/ap-us-flight-disrupted-captain.html?_r=1&hp

    instead of going to Las Vegas. What’s so bad about that?

  17. 17.

    Spaghetti Lee

    March 28, 2012 at 5:28 pm

    @Hill Dweller:

    Ha ha! Little do you know, liberal, that Scalia can’t BE embarrassed, because he has no shame!!

  18. 18.

    EdTheRed

    March 28, 2012 at 5:29 pm

    You don’t have to buy broccoli, but you do have to buy food for your family. If you can’t afford to buy food for your kids, the government has – despite Mitt Romney’s lack of concern – programs in place designed to keep you from starving.

    If you *can* afford to buy food for your kids, but you *choose* not to? The government can take your kids. Oh, and throw you in prison. Also, too.

    Health care isn’t like broccoli, it’s like food. Sure, some foods are better for you than others, and some are more expensive than others, but ultimately, you need food or you die. Likewise, some forms of health care are better than others, some are more expensive than others, but ultimately, if you don’t have any health care, you will die a nasty, premature death, presumably of some shit like tetanus, or blood poisoning from a burst blister, or pneumonia, or a septic incarcerated hernia that you couldn’t afford to have surgically repaired…it’s a long list.

    So while it might ultimately be better for society to have everyone eat a balanced diet that includes plenty of fresh, organic vegetables (including, yes, broccoli), if the best we can do is school lunches packed with pink slime and lots of fast food, well, at least people aren’t starving in the streets. Likewise, while it might ultimately be better for society to have everyone covered under a single-payer public health insurance plan, if the best we can do is the Affordable Care Act, well, at least people won’t be dying of abscesses or going bankrupt trying to pay for chemo drugs.

  19. 19.

    WJS

    March 28, 2012 at 5:30 pm

    It feeds the wingnut need to try and say that libruls are making people do stuff they don’t wanna do. Libruls are taking our freedom fries away! Libruls want the terrorists to win!

    Um, who wants metal things with cameras shoved into their crotch?

  20. 20.

    Linda Featheringill

    March 28, 2012 at 5:30 pm

    @Southern Beale:

    “Hey, some of those wingnuts could stand to eat a little broccoli. Just sayin’.”
    __
    I agree. Aside from the antioxidants and vitamins, they could use the roughage.

  21. 21.

    maya

    March 28, 2012 at 5:31 pm

    When buying any kind of health care aren’t we all forced to agree to ” arbitration” as opposed to our Constitutional option of getting a high priced contingency lawyer and suing a CEO’s sized annual bonus off those mo’fo’s?

  22. 22.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    March 28, 2012 at 5:31 pm

    I hadn’t thought of the corn mandate, but all this broccoli nonsense has made me wonder: Is Scalai still considered the grand intellect of the conservative judiciary? I heard today he was talking about the Cornhusker kickback and how unpopular the mandate is. It sounds to this non-lawyer like he doesn’t much fucking care anymore, and he’s just trolling.

    As to one of our Vestal Virgins of the USSC bringing up the popularity of the legislation.. WTF? Again, non-lawyer here, but I suppose it would be unlawyerly and even shrill to ask him about the popularity of Citizens United, or Bush v Gore, or Brown v Board of Education? I imagine Dred Scott was considered most reasonable by Elihu Broder and Ezekiel Russert.

  23. 23.

    MikeJ

    March 28, 2012 at 5:31 pm

    @Southern Beale:

    Unemployed peoples’ unemployment.

    Actually unemployed people have already paid into unemployment insurance.

  24. 24.

    Tone In DC

    March 28, 2012 at 5:31 pm

    Scalia has been embarrassing himself for quite some time. That’s a big part of why Colbert skewered him so aptly back in 2006, with Bush, Jr. looking on.

  25. 25.

    J.

    March 28, 2012 at 5:33 pm

    It’s been scientifically proven that people who eat broccoli have less sex… with Republicans.

    Now watch this video of Peter the Elephant (no relation to the GOP) using the Samsung GALAXY Note. It will make you feel better.

  26. 26.

    redshirt

    March 28, 2012 at 5:33 pm

    I lived for a bit in McLean VA back in the day and several times walked by Scalia’s house with him sitting right in front of the big picture window and even then, way back when, I thought, “What if I….”

    But I did nothing. So you can blame me for everything since.

  27. 27.

    S. cerevisiae

    March 28, 2012 at 5:34 pm

    The conservative gloating is so strong right now. I went over to some wingnut sites and they are crowing so loud that if they lose this there will be a huge outcry of bribery or fraud. Which of course is the only way they can possibly lose.

  28. 28.

    WJS

    March 28, 2012 at 5:34 pm

    @EdTheRed:

    If you can afford to buy food for your kids, but you choose not to? The government can take your kids.

    Well, don’t tell that to the Tea Party’s favorite Congressman:

    Freshman U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh, a tax-bashing Tea Party champion who sharply lectures President Barack Obama and other Democrats on fiscal responsibility, owes more than $100,000 in child support to his ex-wife and three children, according to documents his ex-wife filed in their divorce case in December.

    Who the hell came up with the mandate to force people to pay child support? Libruls! Damn their assault on the freedoms given to us by our forefathers to let deadbeat dads step off the front porch and head west for parts unknown all by their lonesome.

  29. 29.

    calliope jane

    March 28, 2012 at 5:36 pm

    I too looked up what this was and now feel dumber. And frustrated. And sad. Granted, Scalia’s also the one who mentioned 24 as absolute proof–that we need to torture, I think, so his concept of logical reasoning–and reality–is shaky as it is. And do I understand correctly thain the ‘analogy’ was in the opposing brief? it’s just really dumb. It’s a sound bite, which is what they wanted, but it’s dumb.

    I did think that Ginsburg had a great comment, tying this back to social security.

  30. 30.

    Mark S.

    March 28, 2012 at 5:36 pm

    I think any constitutional problems with this law would disappear with a public option.

  31. 31.

    Face

    March 28, 2012 at 5:38 pm

    @Hill Dweller: according to TPM, that provision isnt even in the bill. Which leads me to conclude he hasnt even read it. Which would seem to me to damn near unethical to rule on something he hasnt ever reviewed. Of course, since a Dem passed it, he doesnt need to know what it says to know its wrong.

    What a joke the USSC has become.

  32. 32.

    kdaug

    March 28, 2012 at 5:39 pm

    @Linda Featheringill: See, I see what y’all are doin’ there. And while I don’t disagree that some ColonBlow(tm) is needed here, I don’t think a broccoli mandate is the way to go.

    I prefer kale. Lots and lots of kale.

  33. 33.

    Calouste

    March 28, 2012 at 5:41 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Is Scalai still considered the grand intellect of the conservative judiciary?

    I’m fairly sure Scalia is considered the intellectual-judicial giant of the land. Of course, that land is Lilliput.

  34. 34.

    Shinobi

    March 28, 2012 at 5:41 pm

    I don’t understand why it is somehow better to have the state force you to buy something, instead of the federal government. Isn’t it the state that requires me to have a certain level of car insurance? How is that in any way different to me than the federal government forcing me to have a certain level of car insurance?

    Is there an actual legitimate reason for this? Or is it just more people worried about our freedumb?

  35. 35.

    elmo

    March 28, 2012 at 5:47 pm

    If EMTALA is constitutional, the mandate is constitutional. Period.
    __
    EMTALA is the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. It is a Federal law (!) which requires (!!) hospitals to treat and stabilize emergency patients, regardless of ability to pay. (!!)
    __
    How that’s substantially different from a Federal law which requires people to obtain medical insurance, or pay a penalty for doing so, has never been clear to me. In both cases, you’re “regulating inactivity.” In both cases, you’re requiring a private citizen to engage in a commercial transaction with another private citizen. Seriously. How is it different for Commerce Clause purposes?

  36. 36.

    danimal

    March 28, 2012 at 5:47 pm

    So you know where you jackasses can stick that broccoli…

    The same place they used to put the corn cobs???

  37. 37.

    The Dangerman

    March 28, 2012 at 5:48 pm

    Just out of morbid curiosity, if Congress passed and the President signed the “Eat Your Damn Brocolli You Fucking Losers” bill, exactly what part of the Constitution would that violate?

    Congress can make you do all sorts of things you may not want to do (drafted into wars or perhaps be drafted into being the lucky person to give Rush Limbaugh his next Brazilian). They can pass the law if it isn’t unconstitutional…__

    …so, where is the lack of constitutionality?

  38. 38.

    Citizen Alan

    March 28, 2012 at 5:51 pm

    @redshirt:

    Scalia spoke at my law school my last semester. I spoke with him briefly at a reception afterwards and was actually close enough to touch him. Looking back, security seemed minimal. Eight months later, he raped the Constitution to put the Deserting Coward into office. Ever since, I’ve wondered whether I should have done … I dunno, something. Probably something violent.

  39. 39.

    Mike Lamb

    March 28, 2012 at 5:52 pm

    @Shinobi: It’s not a function of better or not, it’s whether the Constitution grants the federal gov’t authority to require that people carry insurance or face a penalty.

    And with regards to that matter, I don’t see how it’s particularly different than having to register for selective service.

  40. 40.

    Bubba Dave

    March 28, 2012 at 5:54 pm

    @The Dangerman:

    or perhaps be drafted into being the lucky person to give Rush Limbaugh his next Brazilian

    I’d volunteer for that job!

    “Oh, Mr. Limbaugh, I was supposed to use melted WAX instead of molten LEAD? I’m terribly sorry about my mistake, sir. Maybe you need to pop a handful of Oxycontin….”

  41. 41.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    March 28, 2012 at 5:54 pm

    Charlie Pierce is thinking along the same lines as I am on El Nino (which is an unpleasantly wet, warm wind, isn’t it?)

    Here’s the deal. I think Justice Antonin Scalia isn’t even really trying any more. It’s been clear for some time now that he’s short-timing his job on the Supreme Court. The job bores him. All these inferior intellects coming before him. All those inferior intellects on the bench with him, now with some other Catholics who aren’t even as Catholic as he is, Scalia being the last living delegate who attended the Council of Trent. Inferior Catholics with inferior minds. What can a fellow do? He hung in there as long as he could, but he’s now bringing Not Giving A Fuck to an almost operatic level.

    Read more: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/#ixzz1qS0QLwgg

  42. 42.

    Tim C.

    March 28, 2012 at 5:55 pm

    Look, it’s pretty simple. Four of the Supremes are now full wingnut operatives. Three of those four (Roberts, Thomas, Alito) were always that. Scalia may have at one time had a shred of an idea that connected to a legal theory, but he clearly abandoned that a long time ago. It’s going to be 5-4 to strike down the whole law, followed by some torturous non-logic that tells us everything the government did prior to Jan 20th 2009 is just ducky and and everything since then is an assault on our basic freedoms.

    Oh and at least Ayn Rand didn’t pretend to like and listen to Jesus.

  43. 43.

    JPL

    March 28, 2012 at 5:56 pm

    @elmo: Well if you listened to Scalia, he is questioning EMTALA. Personally, I am to although for different reasons. Forcing folks into emergency rooms is expensive for all of us. That’s why Obamacare is so important so all can have access to better medical care .

  44. 44.

    maya

    March 28, 2012 at 6:00 pm

    My take on Scalia, father of Father Scalia, is that he is just having fun poking his stick in the cage. It’s what release and shoot big game hunters like him do.

  45. 45.

    David Koch

    March 28, 2012 at 6:00 pm

    great interview today with Reagan’s solicitor general on how crazy-radical-out-of-the-mainstream the court has become

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/reagans-solicitor-general-health-care-is-interstate-commerce-is-this-a-regulation-of-it-yes-end-of-story/2011/08/25/gIQAmaQigS_blog.html

  46. 46.

    LiberalTarian

    March 28, 2012 at 6:01 pm

    Closest topic I could find, incredible injustice in progress because someone afflicted the comfortable:

    http://www.peacefuluprising.org/breaking-tim-dechristopher-placed-in-isolated-confinement-20120327

  47. 47.

    elmo

    March 28, 2012 at 6:02 pm

    @JPL:

    Oh, agreed and agreed. I think EMTALA is a thin and ragged band-aid over a sucking chest wound. But as far as I know, nobody ever has made even a hint of a suggestion that it was unconstitutional.

  48. 48.

    The Sheriff's A Ni-

    March 28, 2012 at 6:04 pm

    Is the sky falling yet?

  49. 49.

    pragmatism

    March 28, 2012 at 6:04 pm

    i have met three supreme court justices. unfortunately they are scalia, thomas and kennedy. sometimes i ask the FSM what i have done. anyhoo, i watched scalia berate a terrified server at the lunch we attended. it was frigging awful. it was kind of like that scene in mulholland drive where one of the Castigliane (sp?) brothers spits back out the espresso.
    @redshirt: i was laughing this morning at rand paul fighting for the oil subsidies and saying that we should revere the oil “producers”. if they were so fucking good, they wouldn’t need subsidies.

  50. 50.

    pragmatism

    March 28, 2012 at 6:04 pm

    i have met three supreme court justices. unfortunately they are scalia, thomas and kennedy. sometimes i ask the FSM what i have done. anyhoo, i watched scalia berate a terrified server at the lunch we attended. it was frigging awful. it was kind of like that scene in mulholland drive where one of the Castigliane (sp?) brothers spits back out the espresso.
    @redshirt: i was laughing this morning at rand paul fighting for the oil subsidies and saying that we should revere the oil “producers”. if they were so fucking good, they wouldn’t need subsidies.

  51. 51.

    JPL

    March 28, 2012 at 6:10 pm

    @elmo: The first time I heard about it was today when Scalia said something about ACA patching over a bad law. I live in Tom Price’s district and I’ve written him and asked if the mandate is not constitutional why is EMTALA. I’m just daring him. Reagan passed the law when there was patient dumping and he wanted to show how compassionate he was. (kidding)

  52. 52.

    slim's tuna provider

    March 28, 2012 at 6:17 pm

    @The Dangerman: actually, they can’t pass a law unless they have explicit authority under the constitution. hence, they cannot draft you to wax a supreme court justice. they can draft you to fight war though, under Section 8:

    “The Congress shall have Power…

    To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

    To provide and maintain a Navy;

    To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;”

  53. 53.

    Roger Moore

    March 28, 2012 at 6:33 pm

    @redshirt:

    But I did nothing. So you can blame me for everything since.

    Only if you did nothing during a Democratic administration. If you had done something about him during a Republican administration, he would have been replaced with a different but no less troublesome sociopath.

  54. 54.

    Martin

    March 28, 2012 at 6:49 pm

    @The Dangerman:

    Just out of morbid curiosity, if Congress passed and the President signed the “Eat Your Damn Brocolli You Fucking Losers” bill, exactly what part of the Constitution would that violate?

    Presumably the unwritten ‘right to privacy’. Laws are only valid if they are enforceable. How would the government know whether you are eating your broccoli or not unless they can monitor not only your purchases (how do they enforce that everyone buys broccoli? What if they grow their own?) but also peer into your home to determine whether or not you consume it.

    In the case of health insurance, the government can simply ask the insurers. Problem solved. Further, your lack of insurance will be detected as soon as you hit a doctor or hospital. Broccoli just doesn’t have the same self-regulation mechanism that a product like insurance does.

    Expect BOB to arrive shortly to warn us how the government is monitoring how often he flushes and how that could be used to establish a statistical correlation to roughage consumption.

  55. 55.

    David Koch

    March 28, 2012 at 7:02 pm

    @slim’s tuna provider:

    they can’t pass a law unless they have explicit authority

    so the supreme court will strike down the Air Force since it’s not “explicitly” mentioned in the constitution?

  56. 56.

    InsaneCaliCat

    March 28, 2012 at 7:12 pm

    The broccoli argument is one of those “arguments” that is so dumb it’s almost impossible to counter it without sounding equally moronic yourself. The entire premise of it is absurd. We’re talking about insurance, not eating your vegetables to stay healthy.

    Besides, the government, as John said, already mandates people to pay for tons of stuff. Upholding the ACA mandate, will not “change the relationship between the government and the American people” as Justice Kennedy said yesterday. However, striking down the ACA individual mandate could potentially throw the entire U.S. economy into chaos. Suddenly, all mandates could come under scrutiny and possibly be overturned. Then what? Talk about a slippery slope. This is why I’m confident the ACA along with the individual mandate will be upheld by the SC.

  57. 57.

    Keith G

    March 28, 2012 at 7:22 pm

    @Tonal Crow: Your post is ultra spot on.

  58. 58.

    Lancelot Link

    March 28, 2012 at 7:23 pm

    if Congress passed and the President signed the “Eat Your Damn Brocolli You Fucking Losers” bill…..
    I demand the Garlic Option!

  59. 59.

    cckids

    March 28, 2012 at 7:25 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Is Scalai still considered the grand intellect of the conservative judiciary? I heard today he was talking about the Cornhusker kickback and how unpopular the mandate is. It sounds to this non-lawyer like he doesn’t much fucking care anymore, and he’s just trolling.

    __
    Well, in response to Kneedler, he also said this: “You really want us to go through these 2,700 pages? And do you really expect the court to do that? Or do you expect us to give this function to our law clerks? Is this not totally unrealistic? That we’re going to go through this enormous bill, item by item, and decide each one?”

    .
    Quite rich, after all the teabagging cries of “Read the Bill!!!”, and how mind-bendingly LOOOOOOONG it is. Isn’t that part of the job? I read it in my spare time in less than a week, snore-inducing wad that it is. You’re a Supreme Court Justice, asshole. Grow the fuck up.

  60. 60.

    Keith G

    March 28, 2012 at 7:31 pm

    @The Dangerman:

    Just out of morbid curiosity, if Congress passed and the President signed the “Eat Your Damn Brocolli You Fucking Losers” bill, exactly what part of the Constitution would that violate?

    In essence you are asking the wrong question. The proper inquiry would be, “Does the Constitution, previous court ruling, or accepted statute give Congress power to do this?”

    The best answer would be, No.

  61. 61.

    Tonal Crow

    March 28, 2012 at 7:38 pm

    @The Dangerman:

    Just out of morbid curiosity, if Congress passed and the President signed the “Eat Your Damn Brocolli You Fucking Losers” bill, exactly what part of the Constitution would that violate?

    There’s a critical distinction between making you buy broccoli and making you eat it. See my first post, above, for the outlines. To slightly expand on why they probably can’t constitutionally make you eat it, see Griswold, Roe, and all those other touchy-feely substantive due process cases about bodily integrity and autonomy that Republicans loathe until they need to cite them.

  62. 62.

    Keith G

    March 28, 2012 at 7:46 pm

    I wish that the Solicitor General would have been able to counter Scalia’s nonsense with an argument explaining that the consumption of even the most rare and expensive vegetable will not bankrupt this government. We can, and do, provide healthful foods to citizens in need without that type of mandate. However, the consumption of adequate medical care pre-ACA was/is indeed causing a economic existential threat to our society and the mandate allows a necessary funding process that will not blowout our economy.
    __
    Just one of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s lifesaving medical procedures would buy a shit ton of broccoli.

  63. 63.

    noodler

    March 28, 2012 at 7:56 pm

    Well done cole. I never made that connection. one good mark.

  64. 64.

    Will

    March 28, 2012 at 8:18 pm

    In this debate, a requirement to purchase broccolli isn’t analagous to the requirement to purchase health insurance. It’s analagous to purchasing health care. And health care is actually a requirement for living. Broccolli isn’t (it just helps). So if health care is a requirement for living, everyone at some point is either going to seek it out or die, thus taking themselves out of the discussion.

    This debate gets dumber and dumber the more the 4 dwarves on the bench have at it, and it is hard to tell sometimes whether they are being willful or really are this stupid.

  65. 65.

    trnc

    March 28, 2012 at 8:22 pm

    Actually, I think one of the earlier comments was right. The “corn mandate” is just part of the budget formed by our representative gov’t, and it’s no different than citizens having to pay for a number of things they may not want to. Fried’s argument is much more convincing: broccoli isn’t a significant part of our economy. Also, there are plenty of broccoli alternatives that achieve roughly the same goal. AND as far as the “if govt can require health insurance, what’s to stop them from requiring broccoli?” Hmmmm, how about … THE SUPREME COURT. They can decide that ACA meets the commerce threshold and that broccoli doesn’t. End of story.

    By the way, about the argument that congress can’t regulate inactivity, what happens if men don’t sign up with selective service when they turn 18?

  66. 66.

    jpe

    March 28, 2012 at 8:52 pm

    @elmo: emtala applies to hospitals that get federal funds. The relevant power is the power of the purse, not the commerce clause.

  67. 67.

    Joseph Nobles

    March 28, 2012 at 8:57 pm

    The government forced me to buy an interstate highway system. It can’t force me to drive on it yet! ROUTE 66 FOR THE MFING WIN, LOSAHHHHS!

    +2 (lightweight)

  68. 68.

    newhavenguy

    March 28, 2012 at 10:10 pm

    It. Gets. Worse.

    (Orig posted under GOT open thread, d’oh!)

    Antonin Scalia, Brilliant Legal Mind. Was just comparing him to Brilliant Legal Minds Luca Brasi and Stringer Bell on Facebook when I thought to piss in your punchbowl too.

    A brilliant Conservative jurist. Yeah, maybe in a parody of a real great power. Electrolytes!

    Suspect most of you have heard of Steve Benen, but damn he’s good. Not a writer on the TNC level (Well, who is?), but between the policy chops and short/sharp political news, the guy is a national treasure.

    Cheers,

  69. 69.

    priscianusjr

    March 28, 2012 at 10:13 pm

    @Shinobi:

    Isn’t it the state that requires me to have a certain level of car insurance?

    No. no, you just don’t get it. The state doesn’t force you to have a certain level of car insurance. It’s your own decision whether to have a car or not. You could ride to work on a horse or a bicycle if you like. — The federal government, on the other hand, is forcing you to pay for a fee for health insurance … or else, to PAY A TAX!!!! — taking unfair advantage of the fact that for as long as you live, your soul is stuck in a body.

  70. 70.

    El Cid

    March 28, 2012 at 11:03 pm

    I think that paying taxes is coercion, because if I refuse, they can do stuff to me. It’s unfair.

  71. 71.

    Lex

    March 29, 2012 at 12:30 am

    Imma file this post as an amicus brief.

Comments are closed.

Trackbacks

  1. Affordable Care Act vs the Supreme Court: now we wait | Under the Mountain Bunker says:
    March 29, 2012 at 11:01 am

    […] The Broccoli Mandate: I just discovered what it is, and it distresses me to no end that our wingnuts are actively trying to make us dumber. Of course no one is going to be mandated to buy broccoli, you wankers. But you know what I am mandated to buy because of the actions of a bunch of midwestern conservative pols? Corn. There is a live, actual corn mandate. Every time I go to the gas station to buy gas, I am forced, against my will, to buy corn products. So you know where you jackasses can stick that broccoli…[John Cole] […]

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