In my last post I argued that Justice Elana Kagan is obliged by 28 U.S.C. 455 (b)(3) of the federal recusal statute, which applies to Supreme Court justices, to recuse herself from the challenge to the Obama Health Care law. The provision requires a judge to recuse if he or she “has served in governmental employment and in such capacity participated as counsel, adviser… concerning the proceeding or expressed an opinion concerning the merits of the case in controversy.”

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‘Galatea’ is a columnist writing about her experience looking for work after her recent downsizing. Previous entries in her series can be read here.

Were you aware that there is at least one (1) conservative-ish person who is a fan of Romneycare? Hint: it’s me.

I know! My mom is a resident of Massachusetts and gets all your free health care money! Awesome, right?

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Elena Kagan meet Bill Rehnquist. That Bill Rehnquist.

Like Kagan, Rehnquist was once young, smart, and ambitious. Like Kagan, Rehnquist served as a political appointee at the Department of Justice. And like Kagan, Rehnquist was once an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

But Kagan and Rehnquist have one more thing in common. And it is a big one. As a Supreme Court Justice, each was asked to pass upon the assertions of constitutionality invoked by their former bosses.

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The U.S. Supreme court has agreed to hear essentially all of the challenges to the constitutionality of the Affordable Care and Protection Act, President Obama’s health care law. The AP is reporting that there will be five hours of oral arguments in March or April, after all of the briefs are submitted.

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Judge Silberman has issued another tour de force in the extremely interesting opinions generated by Obamacare. I have noted other opinions on Obamacare’s constitutionality but this one is full of interesting tidbits.

The first and most interesting tidbit is who wrote it. The Honorable Laurence H. Silberman is no hippie.

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By a 2-1 vote a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has upheld the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, President Obama’s healthcare law.

The plaintiffs, taxpayers rather than states, contended that the mandate to purchase health insurance exceeded Congress’ powers under the commerce clause of Art. I of the constitution.

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Writing in The New Republic, Jonathon Cohn argues that the demise of the CLASS act in no way undermines the validity of the Affordable Care Act (surely a misnomer now). Unfortunately, his argument falls under the rubric of sophistry rather than analysis. CLASS, or the long term care component of Obamacare (even the President likes the name now), was an important part of the Act because it was an important mechanism to assure the apparent financial viability of Obamacare.

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Revelatory Headline: “White House used Mitt Romney health-care law as blueprint for federal law.”

I am no fan of Obamacare. The notion that a top down system will control costs flies in the face of the fact that virtually every advanced country on earth that has a top-down scheme to manage its health care system has a rate of growth in costs that matches ours. The only difference is that we start at a much higher baseline, the result of high prices and high availability of services and technology.

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In my column for The Week, I discuss ways in which the Affordable Care Act could be streamlined into a workable solution for health care reform:

If the election were held today, President Obama would probably lose. The Republicans would very likely score gains in the Senate, but probably lose seats in the House – maybe even lose their majority altogether.

In such a case, after January 2013, the US would have a president committed to the repeal of the Affordable Care Act (aka, “Obamacare”) – but lacking the votes to carry out his pledge.

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The Associated Press reports that a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that health insurance premiums rose last year by 9%. Let’s try to affix blame by looking at some of the common arguments that try to explain this.

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