Jonah Goldberg: Roberts Decision 'Consolation Prize' Is That It Puts Obama In 'Uncomfortable Position'

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Jonah Goldberg doesn't have many good things to say about Chief Justice John Roberts's majority opinion in last week's health care Supreme Court decision. On Fox News today, Goldberg called it unconvincing and wondered whether the Chief Justice 'reverse engineered' his logic, but he did have something good to say about some of the political ramifications of the decision. 'I am delighted by the silver linings of this decision,' he told Gregg Jarrett today, explaining that it puts the White House in an 'uncomfortable' position.

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Jarrett began the discussion with the report that the Chief Justice had changed his opinion at the last minute, asking whether this was a 'breach of his duty.' 'It's a problem and it's a mistake,' replied Goldberg, accepting that 'courts have always paid attention to politics,' but Roberts 'didn't hide it very well,' which made it look like he was 'chickening out for political reasons.' That the story of his last-minute switch leaked was an indication to Goldberg of 'how rancorous this was.'

Of the fact that Roberts resorted to calling the mandate a tax, Goldberg did have some good words. 'This is one of these consolation prizes people keep talking about,' he noted. 'It guts the liberal interpretation of the Commerce Clause; it sets up a political issue by calling it a tax.' These, to Goldberg, were good things: 'that's all well and good, and as a conservative who wants Barack Obama to lose, I'm delighted by the silver lining.' He notes that this would 'put the Obama White House in an uncomfortable position' if the Romney campaign attacked on it, but lamented their soft-handed approach to doing so.

The segment via Fox News below:



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• Dream on guys, dream on.  

• The Romney Camp can't attack on it because the same attack would then be levied on Romney.  Are we forgetting that Romney Care also has an individual mandate?  

• hahaha

  Only one in an uncomfortable position is Willard

• Jonah knows all about uncomfortable positions, having been reared by Lucianne Goldberg.

• 'I'm delighted''

  Why are all conservatives such enormous pussies? 

• Obama doesn't need to cower from the word 'tax.'  The mandate is a tax.  But it is a tax imposed only on those freeloaders that burden the system because we have to pay for their failed gamble that they wouldn't need insurance.  Those people who already have insurance through their employer, or who buy it on their own, won't be charged with the tax.

  What's so wrong about calling the mandate exactly what it is: a personal responsibility tax.

•  It is very clearly defined as a penalty.

• Tax, penalty, whatever. While these idiots are quibbling over semantics, the American people have moved on.

  Keep F-ing that chicken, while this thing turns into a landslide.  Rmoney is on vacation, so he needs all the help he can get.

• Actually I somewhat agree with Goldberg on this one.

  If the law was thrown out, the only option would be a single payer system.  Which is exactly what the majority of Americans, the left base, and young voters want.  

• If the mandate were actually a penalty, everyone who doesn't have insurance would be required to pay it ' because to not have insurance would be a violation of the law.

  But that's not how the mandate works.  It only applies to certain individuals making over a certain amount of income who don't purchase insurance.  That's functionally equivalent to failing to qualify for a tax credit ' it has no application if you don't pay taxes in the first place.

  Congress can label the mandate however they choose, but it works as a tax.