Odds and Ends after Scotus

++Women may like to know that since the passage of the Affordable Care Act,20 million women had preventive care without a co-pay. Cancer screenings,birth control and HIV testing. The number will be larger if the Affordable Care Act survives.  


++The Los Angeles Times writes that the Act is DOA and quotes Anthony Scalia that Congress will have to go back to the drawing board. Charles Pierce, writing in Esquire, says that Scalia has now grown bored, an increasingly intolerant of his colleagues because he believes they are intellectually inferior and less Catholic than him. He's become a "heckler at this point."


++The Obama Administration is trying to warn all the pessimists not to take the justice's questions as telegraphing the decision. Hmmm. O.K.


++Wendell Potter, formerly with CIGNA and a health insurance whistleblower,says the health insurance industry truly, genuinely do not want the Act invalidated. Potter explains the insurance companies now want to elect Republicans to undercut the consumer protections in the bill.


++Early words from the health care industry seem to bear Potter out. Blue Cross-Blue Shield warns that killing the individual mandate would force an increase of 40% in premiums. Other insurance companies have cried that the loss of the individual mandate would send them into a death spiral.


++So--Dead. Well, not so fast, Stuart Taylor, a long-time legal writer, suggests that the impact of overturning the law would create such chaos and unintended consequences that two judges will be brought back from the edge. He mentioned on the Diane Riehm show that he expected Kennedy to come around and ,if so, Roberts would follow. The reason Taylor thinks Roberts might is that as the Supreme Justice he can write the majority opinion and in it insert the limitations on the implications of the individual mandate ,which he so desires. He ended up, even after the last three days, predicting a 6-3 decision to affirm. He also expects the court to affirm extending Medicare. While I am skeptical, Taylor reasons that a 5-4 defeat would be seen as purely political and that Roberts is very sensitive to his legacy and the recent criticism of the Court. Hmmm.


++While Bill O'Relly predicts  Obama will lose in a landslide if gas prices continue to soar, he might have to find another party. The CNN poll of yesterday, which showed Obama handily beating Romney, revealed a much more serious phenomenon. The GOP's favorability was the lowest since CNN started polling twenty years ago. It stands at 35%, thirteen points lower than the Democrats. The Democrats at 48% are now more popular than at any point in two years. While this has implications for the presidential elections, it really has a tremendous impact on congressional elections.


++Dan Rather came back from the dead to appear on Rachel Maddow and said that this year's election will be very close and that Romney will pivot totally for the general election, despite efforts by Democrats to ensure he can't. 


++Rachel Maddow also did a major public service in underscoring Republican past support for Planned Parenthood. George H. W. Bush endorses Romney, who wants to outlaw Planned Parenthood. As Rachel pointed out, both George and Barbara Bush were big supporters of Planned Parenthood. George's father,Prescott was the Connecticut state treasurer of Planned Parenthood. And the kicker is that George's nickname in the House of Representative was "rubbers" because of his advocacy of family planning. Oh, how long ago that seems!