Face the Nation panel discusses Obama's 1st and 2nd terms.

[No Elephants]

Host: Shieffer. Panel: Robert Woodward, Condaleeza Rice, Peggy Noonan and Dee Dee Myers.


Nothing stacked there. I hope Myers wasn't too lonely.

Still, they didn't think Obama's first term was bad.

Given the panel, I don't exactly find that encouraging.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50139341n

On Meet the Press, everyone agreed: less Medicare and Medicaid, more war.

Okay, means test Medicare maybe, and raise the premium maybe, but Medicaid is already means tested.

So, what do people whose Medicaid is cut do?

[Enthusiast]

1. What do they do when Medicaid is cut?

[No Elephants]

2. Exactly, but it is not only a Republican plan. Democrats talk about cutting Medicaid and.

Medicare, too.

Not to mention that the Supreme Court, including Third Way appointees Kagan and Breyer, took away the only leverage the Feds had under ACA to "encourage" states to expand Medicaid. So, the very poor will continue to get whatever Medicaid they get, but the tier just above them may get nothing. (Whether that subjects them to the individual mandate, I don't know.)

We heard hardly anyone mention that part of the ACA SCOTUS opnion.

Everyone was just so gleeful that Obama and the SCOTUS set the precedent that the feds can force all of us to buy whatever they want us to buy from private sources or face a tax penalty if we don't. Just wait until the next time the feds think we should buy something.

And, even here, people said things like, "I'm happy about the decision because I have a pre-existing condition." The SCOTUS said absolutely nothing about pre-existing conditions or kids up to age 26 or any of the things people like about ACA. The only issues before it were the individual mandate and the ability of the feds to deny states all Medicaid money unless they expanded Medicaid.

Off the top of my head, I cannot recall a single case in which that kind of condition on federal money was declared unconstitutional.

That is a very dangerous SCOTUS decision, IMO.