DADT repeal is inevitable. Even the Pentagon was warning of a court challenge forcing the change. The remaining republicans that are in the way are going against the military they spend so much time campaigning behind. There is every possibility the President will abandon the legislative approach, if it indeed fails, and order the change. The military report would support that.
The tax crap is going down a predictable path, despite the raised hopes and histrionics.
The demise of the health bill is overstated. There were always going to be challenges, but many important and vital provisions are still surviving those challenges.
at least the White House believes so:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/11/30/another-health-care-court-victory___ Since the enactment of health reform legislation in March, several state Attorneys General and others opposed to the law have filed lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act. Legal challenges like this are nothing new. Challenges to the Social Security Act, the Civil Rights Act, and the Voting Rights Act all failed.
Now, challenges to the health care law are failing in court. In October, a federal judge in Michigan found that the Affordable Care Act is constitutional. Today, a federal judge in Virginia dismissed a lawsuit brought by Liberty University that challenged the constitutionality of the health reform law. The judge upheld the law and said that the requirement that individuals maintain health insurance is constitutional, writing:
“I hold that there is a rational basis for Congress to conclude that individuals’ decisions about how and when to pay for health care are activities that in the aggregate substantially affect the interstate health care market…Nearly everyone will require health care services at some point in their lifetimes, and it is not always possible to predict when one will be afflicted by illness or injury and require care…Far from ‘inactivity,’ by choosing to forgo insurance, Plaintiffs are making an economic decision to try to pay for health care services later, out of pocket, rather than now, through the purchase of insurance. As Congress found, the total incidence of these economic decisions has a substantial impact on the national market for health care by collectively shifting billions of dollars on to other market participants and driving up the prices of insurance policies.”
We can’t predict the outcome of each case, but we are confident that we will ultimately prevail in court and continue to deliver the benefits of reform to the American people. ____What was the rest . . . ?
This looks like about where I expected we'd be, looking at the balance of power and motivations in the legislature. I really didn't see the health bill passing tho . . .