The Truth About Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security: Ok What Do We Do Now?

President Roosevelt signs the Social Security Act of 1935

“We can never insure one hundred percent of the population against one hundred percent of the hazards and vicissitudes of life, but we have tried to frame a law which gives some measure of protection to the average citizen and his family against the loss of a job and against poverty-ridden old age.”

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt said as he signed the Social Security Act into law August 14, 1935.

“Care for the sick. Serenity for the fearful”

were the words Lyndon Johnson expressed some thirty years later

The Supreme Court Decision: It hurts to be wrong-but it hurts more to be right and still wrong!

Now that we have all heard the decision by the Supreme Court on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), perhaps it is time for some reflection.  I know as I read the decision Thursday morning, while I was waiting in the queue preparing for a radio interview on the issue, I felt both vindicated in my initial analysis, but also left wanting and inadequate for not seeing the sideways tax justification for its declared constitutionality.

First a recap

There were four questions heard by the Supreme Court in this case.