Why anybody believes anything that comes out of this man’s pie hole is beyond me. He says whatever is politically expedient and most beneficial to him (and him alone) at the moment.

It’s almost like he doesn’t know we have this way-back thing called the internet, where we can go back and verify things you said in the past, and match them up with the complete opposite thing you said today.

A federal judge in Virginia has ruled that the individual mandate requirement in Obamacare is unconstitutional:

Neither the Supreme Court nor any federal circuit court of appeals has extended Commerce Clause powers to compel an individual to involuntarily enter the stream of commerce by purchasing a commodity in the private market.

This of course is not over — and it won’t be until decided on by the Supreme Court of the United States. Hopefully by the time that happens, the new GOP majority in Congress will help to repeal this monstrosity before the court ever even hears it.

Here is Gov. Rick Perry’s response:

Today’s court decision on the federal health care bill is promising news for Texans and all Americans, who have had enough of the ongoing federal intrusion into their lives, and who reject this one-size-fits-all approach to dealing with health care.

The federal government’s attempt to force every American to buy government-approved health insurance is an egregious violation of our Constitutional rights. The 10th Amendment and individual liberties must be protected, and I am committed to fighting the overreach of Obamacare and challenging these unconstitutional mandates, which have gone far beyond both the letter and spirit of the Constitution.

_______________

OTHERS:

PJ Media:

Watching the WH press briefing.  Robert Gibbs just went Orwellian, describing the mandate as “individual responsibility,” as opposed to the mandate/tax/penalty that it is.  “Individual responsibility” seems to be their new sales line — he just used it again.  Watch for that phrase in ongoing WH comms on ObamaCare.

This obviously an effort to soften ObamaCare, but it shouldn’t fool anyone.  It’s a tax, one which puts the IRS inside the health care decision loop, and can result in Americans going to jail for the crime of not purchasing health insurance.

Bill Jacobson:

It is interesting how the politics of the mandate have come back to haunt the administration.  Because Obama did not want to be seen as raising taxes on people making under $250,000, during the debate and drafting the Democrats went out of their way to disavow the mandate as a tax, and to rely on the Commerce Clause.  After the mandate was challenged in court, the administration tried to backtrack and justify the mandate under the general taxing power.  But the Judge did not accept that flip-flop, ruling that the congressional record and text of the legislation prevailed.

Michelle Malkin:

Hey, remember when conservatives objected to the Obamacare federal individual mandate on constitutional grounds and the liberal establishment laughed.

Liberal Taylor Marsh has a fair assessment:

The individual mandate has always been a loser without a public option. It’s the worst aspect of the Affordable Care Act, which has very important elements that benefit people, but ultimately pushes them into an insurance industry maze without true competition or options.

[snip]

The individual mandate has always been about cost, especially when pre-existing illnesses are covered, something that is important to health equity…Now Democrats are squealing about this, but the fact is the way it’s been constructed in the ACA it’s anything but democratic.

Much more at Memeorandum.

Scheduled for a 2p.m. hearing today, in the M. Steger Federal Building in Tyler, Texas, a group of doctors from a tiny 20 bed physician owned hospital will challenge the constitutionality of ObamaCare.

The hospital that filed this action in March of this year, is Texas Spine and Joint Hospital of Tyler, Texas. A small specialty hospital with an outstanding reputation with its patients and the business community.

Specifically, they are citing Section 6001 of the health care legislation which prohibits expansion of physician owned hospitals. It’s another one of those landmines that we are discovering in this legislation that had to be passed so we could find out what is in it.

The hearing today is to decide if the case has merit and should proceed to trial.

If this case goes to trial, and if the court rules in favor of the doctors at TSJH and declares Section 6001 as unconstitutional, with subsequent government appeals failing, then ObamaCare is dead!

The entirety of the legislation fails if any one provision is upheld as unconstitutional for one simple reason.
There is no severance clause in this ram it through while we still can legislation.

From an article a few weeks ago, ObamaCare’s Fatal Flaw, a full explanation is made.

Normally, all comprehensive laws contain a boilerplate severance clause: it says that if any portion of the law is found to be unconstitutional, that portion is severed from the rest of the law — that is, the rest of the law stands.

But ObamaCare contains no severance clause. Virginia is asserting that if it prevails on its substantive claims, the whole law is unconstitutional. (If Virginia does not prevail, any one of the twenty-plus legal challenges have the same severance argument available.)

We are still almost four years away from this horrendous piece of legislation going into full effect, plenty of time to kill it and salt the earth from which it came.

I would find it a little amusing, and some what thrilling, to see a tiny hospital from my beloved East Texas be the source of the demise of this historic Washington power grab, called ObamaCare.