Cato has now posted my remarks from last week’s “Obamacare in the Supreme Court” conference:
The full conference will be available here soon.
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Cato has now posted my remarks from last week’s “Obamacare in the Supreme Court” conference:
The full conference will be available here soon.
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the U‑turn performed by Mauricio Funes, president of El Salvador, who initially supported the proposal of Guatemala’s President Otto Pérez Molina to discuss drug legalization in Central America and then came out against it. I wondered if Funes’ change of mind had anything to do with pressure from Washington regarding the renewal of the Temporary Protected Status program (TPS) that grants migratory benefits to Salvadoran citizens in the United States. I also noticed that the TPS benefits nationals from Honduras and Nicaragua too.
This past weekend, president Pérez Molina hosted a Central American summit to discuss his proposal of drug legalization. Even though the presidents of all Central American countries had confirmed their attendance, three of them called off in the last moment. Want to guess which ones? Yes, the presidents of El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua.
Just a coincidence?
My latest podcast, “IPAB: ObamaCare’s Next Constitutional Hurdle.”
The Federal Trade Commission issued a report today calling on companies “to adopt best privacy practices.” In related news, most people support airline safety… The report also “recommends that Congress consider enacting general privacy legislation, data security and breach notification legislation, and data broker legislation.”
This is regulatory cheerleading of the same kind our government’s all-purpose trade regulator put out a dozen years ago. In May of 2000, the FTC issued a report finding “that legislation is necessary to ensure further implementation of fair information practices online” and recommending a framework for such legislation. Congress did not act on that, and things are humming along today without top-down regulation of information practices on the Internet.
By “humming along,” I don’t mean that all privacy problems have been solved. (And they certainly wouldn’t have been solved if Congress had passed a law saying they should be.) “Humming along” means that ongoing push-and-pull among companies and consumers is defining the information practices that best serve consumers in all their needs, including privacy.
Congress won’t be enacting legislation this year, and there doesn’t seem to be any groundswell for new regulation in the next Congress, though President Obama’s reelection would leave him unencumbered by future elections and so inclined to indulge the pro-regulatory fantasies of his supporters.
The folks who want regulation of the Internet in the name of privacy should explain how they will do better than Congress did with credit reporting. In forty years of regulating credit bureaus, Congress has not come up with a system that satisfies consumer advocates’ demands. I detail that government failure in my recent Cato Policy Analysis, “Reputation under Regulation: The Fair Credit Reporting Act at 40 and Lessons for the Internet Privacy Debate.”
The Washington Post puts public opinion on gas prices in stark red and blue:
Pretty clear Red Team/Blue Team answers. Republicans in 2006 accepted that there wasn’t much the president could do to reduce gas prices, but most of them think Obama could. Democrats show an even sharper shift; they overwhelmingly said that Bush could bring prices down, but few expect Obama to do so. I hope the fact that both Independents and Americans as a whole are 12–13 points less likely to think that presidents set gas prices is a sign of improvement in general economic understanding.
Back around 2003 or 2004 a colleague was escorted through the hallways of CNN by a junior staffer or intern, who asked him, “Do you think Bush is raising gas prices now so he can lower them before the election?” With perceptions like that among budding journalists, is there any hope for better public understanding of economics?
For examples of informed and nonpartisan analysis of gas prices, check out
Last week, I appeared on NPR’s Tell Me More program. My discussion with host Michel Martin gives a good synopsis of why ObamaCare is both harmful to consumers and unconstitutional. Listen to the segment here.
For a contrary perspective, listen to former Obama administration acting solicitor general Neal Katyal, who appeared on the program the next day. If you do listen to both programs, let me know what you think about Katyal’s comments, specifically this part:
MARTIN: First, I want to play a short clip from Michael Cannon of the Cato Institute who spoke to us yesterday as we said. This is a little of what he told us. Here it is.
MICHAEL CANNON: If the Supreme Court were to uphold this unprecedented and really breathtaking assertion of government power, there would be nothing to stop the Congress from forcing Americans to purchase any private product that Congress chose to favor. That could be a gym membership. That could be stock in Exxon Mobil. That could be broccoli if Congress decided that any of these products move in interstate commerce and that forcing you to buy it was essential to the regulatory scheme they wanted to enact.
MARTIN: What is your response to that?
KATYAL: Well, I mean, that’s a lot of rhetoric and not really a legal argument because it’s not responsive to what the government is asking for here. What the government is saying is, look, everyone consumes healthcare in this country, you and I. And, you know, even if I might say to myself, I don’t need health insurance. I won’t get sick. The fact is, as human beings with mortality, we are going to get sick and it’s unpredictable when.
You could get struck by a heart attack or cancer or hit by a bus and wind up in the emergency room and then it’s average Americans who have to pick up the tab for that. And so the government is not saying here we have the power to force people to buy goods. They’re saying, look, you’re going to already buy the goods. You’re going to use it. And the only question is, are you going to have the financing now to pay for it.
And so the government is regulating financing. It’s kind of like a government law that says you’ve got to pay cash or credit. It’s not the government coming in and saying, oh, consume this product you wouldn’t otherwise consume. And as for the kind of, you know, ludicrous suggestion that this would somehow lead to the government forcing people to eat broccoli or the like, I mean, I would think that someone from the Cato Institute would know that the Bill of Rights and the privacy protections in the constitution would protect against such drastic hypotheticals.
Now, I’ve been at this for a while. I’ve seen people evade uncomfortable questions and mischaracterize things I’ve said. But for some reason, this instance really surprised me. Maybe Katyal was nervous.
As most readers are no doubt aware, the Supreme Court this week takes up six hours of argument in the Obamacare litigation. Constitutional claims that were originally dismissed as “frivolous” and “easy” are now getting three days of hearings — unprecedented in the modern era. The Court has thus signaled what the American people have known all along, that the government’s breathtaking assertion of power goes beyond anything attempted in the history of the Republic.
Rather than repeat my previous writings on the subject, here’s a sketch of each of the four issues the Court will examine, along with a link to my recent op-ed on the subject (this month I’ve written on three of the four) and the relevant Cato amicus brief:
Are there any constitutional limits on what the federal government can do in the name of regulating interstate commerce? The government hasn’t offered any and we’ll see this week whether that’s good enough for the Supreme Court.
Here further is an analytical point-counterpoint I did with University of California-Irvine Law School dean Erwin Chemerinsky previewing the arguments, and here are a series of blogposts by Cato adjunct scholar Tim Sandefur doing the same. Finally, you can view Cato’s recent conference on the subject here (individual mandate panel) and here (Medicaid expansion panel).
Let’s hope that the Court says that we have a government of laws rather than men, allowing Congress then to get back to the hard work of crafting a true national health reform that both improves the system and stays within constitutional bounds.
May the odds be ever in liberty’s favor!