Earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments as to the constitutionality of the ACA's individual mandate, which in 2014 will require all of us to carry health insurance. Actuarially, this is entirely sensible, not to mention a good idea in general.
But sense and good ideas be damned. The Rightards hopped on this requirement as some sort of evil thing: Government is taking away our freedom! They're making us do something we might not want to do! If they can force us to buy insurance, what else will they force us to do?
The most popular and most absurd of these stupid slippery-slope hypotheticals goes like so: "If they can make you buy insurance because it's 'good for you', then by the same token they can force you to eat broccoli." In the past two years, there are numerous examples of right-wing pundits making this flimsy insurance-broccoli comparison. Fox News and Rush Limbaugh have both been heavy users.
Well, guess who trotted out the same feeble insurance-broccoli connection during oral arguments? No, not the lawyers. It was Justice Antonin Scalia. While deciding an historically important case, he sits on the bench parroting the typical Tea Party talking-point crapola. I guess we know how he spends his free time.
The fucker couldn't even pretend to be impartial. I'm disgusted and discouraged.
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