By Eliot Nelson, Ryan Grim & Arthur Delaney
POLITICAL EVENT SOMEHOW BENEFITS NON-ELECTED HUMAN BEINGS - Mary Duffy said she was terrified the Supreme Court would strike down health-care reform. The 62-year-old small-business owner in Redwood City, Calif., has had insurance since 2010 thanks to the Affordable Care Act's small health plan for people with pre-existing conditions. Duffy, a three-time breast cancer, lost her insurance after she lost her job in 2008. "I was looking at $1,080 in meds again and having to beg my doctors to see me," Duffy said, describing what would happen if the Supreme Court invalidated the entire law (which is the outcome dissenting justices wanted). "I was absolutely convinced there was no way this court would uphold the law. I personally believe [Chief Justice John] Roberts took a look around and started reading what people thought of the Supreme Court and found a loophole." Duffy is one of 67,000 people enrolled in the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan, which offers market-rate health care coverage to people excluded from the individual health insurance market because of health conditions like diabetes or heart disease. The program will be phased out in 2014, when the rest of the health-care law's reforms kick in. [HuffPost]
JP MORGAN BUCKLES UNDER THE WEIGHT OF THE ACTIVIST COURT'S SOCIALISM - So much causality! NYT: "Losses on JPMorgan Chase's bungled trade could total as much as $9 billion, far exceeding earlier public estimates, according to people who have been briefed on the situation. When Jamie Dimon, the bank's chief executive, announced in May that the bank had lost $2 billion in a bet on credit derivatives, he estimated that losses could double within the next few quarters. But the red ink has been mounting in recent weeks, as the bank has been unwinding its positions, according to interviews with current and former traders and executives at the bank who asked not to be named because of investigations into the bank." Elizabeth Warren tells HuffPost Hill she finds the timing awful convenient. "He steps out on his front porch and whispers, 'We lost nine billion instead of three billion,' and then runs back inside," she said. "Is there anyone else dropping anything today? Is this the day some famous couple will announce their divorce? Is somebody going to admit to an extramarital affair? Because this is the day to do it." [NYT]
SPEAKING OF CLEVER TIMING: HOUSE VOTES TO MAKE ERIC HOLDER SIT ON DUNK TANK - Given the timing, the lower chamber could've proclaimed Holder to be "EWWWW STINKY" and (almost) no one would've noticed. Roll Call: "For the first time in history, the House today held a sitting attorney general in contempt of Congress. The final vote, 255-67, reflected the absence of scores of Democrats who walked off the floor in protest rather than vote on whether Attorney General Eric Holder was in contempt. The stage is now set for a protracted court battle over whether the Justice Department can shield internal documents under executive privilege. Speaker John Boehner said the contempt vote was necessary to defend Congress' constitutional oversight authority and get to the bottom of a botched gun-smuggling investigation that played a role in the death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent... But Democratic leadership ripped the GOP for 'rushing' into the vote, and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) led Members in walking off the floor in protest, refusing to even participate in what they called an 'illegitimate' charade." Debbie Wasserman Schultz, on House leadership burying the embarrassing Holder vote under the health care pile: "Nothing is a coincidence with them." [Roll Call]
Holder
@mpoindc:The two Republicans opposing contempt for Holder: Ohio Rep. Steve LaTourette and Virginia Rep. Scott Rigell.
THE NUTSO-BUTSO FAST & FURIOUS CONSPIRACY THEORY - Thursday's vote on holding the attorney general of the United States in contempt of Congress is being watched closely by the National Rifle Association, which says it will give bad marks to those lawmakers who don't condemn Eric Holder over his handling of Operation Fast and Furious and its aftermath. But why is the NRA even involved? What does any of this have to do with gun rights? Strange as it may sound, Republicans in Congress are arguing that the Justice Department deliberately allowed the anti-gun trafficking operation to unfold in a way that would create a crisis, outraging the public and giving Democrats the cover to implement stricter gun controls. [HuffPost]
CONGRESS PLANNING TO FINISH UP EVERYTHING TONIGHT, BECAUSE WHY NOT? Harry Reid said this evening on the floor he expects to get the highway bill from the House soon, which includes the student loan and flood insurance provisions, and will try to get a unanimous consent agreement tonight, which'd let both chambers get out of town until after July 4th. God bless America.
WHY MUST IT ALWAYS BE ABOUT MONEY? PARANOID SELF-LOATHING GOP LOBBYIST'S LAMENT - Even though we're pretty sure PSLGOPL is working tirelessly to commoditize letters of the alphabet, he was nevertheless upset to see the DCCC trying to fundraise off of the Supreme Court's decision. "We Won!!!!" PSLGOPL writes atop a fundraising appeal from the president that references the ruling. "Can I have 3 bucks???" Thanks, PSLGOPL!
PSLGOPL bonus: "Oh, and I'm not a conservative. I'm a partisan."
DAILY DELANEY DOWNER - Unemployment claims are DOWN again from the previous week's UPWARDLY REVISED estimate. Life is pointless. "In the week ending June 23, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 386,000, a decrease of 6,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 392,000," the government said today. "The 4-week moving average was 386,750, a decrease of 750 from the previous week's revised average of 387,500." [Labor Department]
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HOLY SHIT: SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT - Mike Sacks: " The individual health insurance mandate is constitutional, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday, upholding the central provision of President Barack Obama's signature Affordable Care Act. The controlling opinion, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, upheld the mandate as a tax, although concluded it was not valid as an exercise of Congress' commerce clause power. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan joined in the outcome. The decision in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius comes as something of a surprise after the generally hostile reception the law received during the six hours of oral arguments held over three days in March. But by siding with the court's four Democratic appointees, Chief Justice Roberts avoided the delegitimizing taint of politics that surrounds a party-line vote while passing Obamacare's fate back to the elected branches. GOP candidates and incumbents will surely spend the rest of the 2012 campaign season running against the Supreme Court and for repeal of the law." [HuffPost]
Anthony Kennedy, writing for the minority, was not pleased. Also, it appears he spent most of the deliberations perusing RedState.com message boards and, you know, abosrbing stuff. Politico: "Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy slammed his colleagues for 'a vast judicial overreaching' on Thursday by upholding key provisions of President Barack Obama's health care law... 'In our view, the act before us is invalid in its entirety,' Kennedy said." [Politico]
Nancy Pelosi: "What a great victory!"
George Miller: "You bet your ass."
Nancy Pelosi: "I did!" [LA Times]
Romney was given something to rail against for the next four months but he's still very upset for some reason. Amanda Terkel: "Speaking on Capitol Hill shortly after the Supreme Court's historic decision, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney said the fact that health care reform was upheld as constitutional on Thursday makes it more urgent than ever for the American people to vote President Barack Obama out of office in November. 'If we want to get rid of Obamacare, we're going to have to replace President Obama,' Romney said... 'What the court did not do on its last day in session, I will do on my first day if elected president of the United States, and that is I will act to repeal Obamacare.'" [HuffPost]
Tomorrow in Roll Call, a look at how the tea party is responding: "'From a political standpoint, this is the best decision,' said Sal Russo, chief strategist for the Tea Party Express, told Roll Call from his Sacramento, Calif. 'Obviously this kind of a setback will reenergize them.'"
Conservatives still kinda won, though, via WaPo: "If you read the opinions, [Roberts] sided with the conservative bloc on every major legal question before the court. He voted with the conservatives to say the Commerce Clause did not justify the individual mandate. He voted with the conservatives to say the Necessary and Proper Clause did not justify the mandate. He voted with the conservatives to limit the federal government's power to force states to carry out the planned expansion of Medicaid. 'He was on-board with the basic challenge,' said Orin Kerr, a law professor at George Washington University and a former clerk to Justice Kennedy. 'He was on the conservative side of the controversial issues.'" [WaPo]
Read the ruling's full text here
What does the health care ruling mean to you? Plug in your family size, annual income and marital status and this nifty WaPo calculator will tell you... [WaPo]
@byrontau: RT @garyhe: Barack Obama looking at CNN on his iPad. yfrog.com/hw7ozrfj
CANTOR ANNOUNCES OBAMACARE REPEAL VOTE - Though it might not accomplish the GOP's high-priority goal of "repealing Obamacare," it will advance the agenda of the American people by accomplishing that other big-ticket GOP goal, "having the media pay attention to us." Washington Times: "Majority leader Eric Cantor said the House will vote to repeal the health care law next month, delivering on GOP promises to try to repeal the rest of the law even if the court upheld it. 'The Court's decision brings into focus the choice the American people have about the direction of our country,' he said. 'The president and his party believe in massive government intrusions that increase costs and take decisions away from patients.'" [Washington Times]
@radleybalko: Nuanced! MT @SteveChapman13 Tea Party sober take on Obamacare: "The hideous abomination from hell must be eradicated." http://www.teaparty.org/endobamacare.php
CNN AND FOX REPORT WRONG HEALTH CARE VERDICT - Katherine Fung and Jack Mirkinson: "CNN and Fox News were left with egg on their faces on Thursday, as they got the Supreme Court's ruling on President Obama's health care law wrong -- and even managed to make Obama initially think his health care law had been partially overturned... 'Wow, that's a dramatic moment,' Wolf Blitzer said, as a chyron saying 'SUPREME CT. KILLS INDIVIDUAL MANDATE' flashed on the screen... Fox News made the same mistake, initially saying the mandate had been struck down before switching its headline. 'We have breaking news here on the Fox News Channel,' anchor Bill Hemmer said. 'The individual mandate has been ruled unconstitutional.'" [HuffPost]
And the president was watching CNN when the bad news hit. Don't expect any "Which news outlet does the president turn to?" commercials to come from this. ABC News: "President Obama was just outside the Oval Office Thursday morning when he got the news -- erroneous, as it turned out -- that the U.S. Supreme Court had struck down the individual mandate in his signature health care law, deeming it unconstitutional. Standing with White House chief of staff Jack Lew and looking at a television in the 'Outer Oval' featuring a split screen of four different networks, the president saw graphics on the screens of the first two cable news networks to break the news -- CNN and Fox News Channel -- announcing, wrongly, that he had lost." [ABC News]
BECAUSE YOU'VE READ THIS FAR - Tiger cubs playing!
LOCAL BAR MADE WORSE BY INCOMPETENT REALITY SHOW - HuffPost DC: "It can be tough running a pirate-themed bar. Just ask the crew over at Piratz Tavern, an establishment that's had trouble making ends meet. The bar's owners, Tracy and Juciano Rebelo, decided to apply to be part of the second season of the Spike TV reality show 'Bar Rescue.' They were accepted. But 'Bar Rescue' host Jon Taffer and his team 'did the polar opposite of rescuing,' Tracy Rebelo said." [HuffPost]
COMFORT FOOD
By @bradjshannon!
- Guy finishes the internet. Don't tell us the ending! [http://bit.ly/OANv9P]
- It's probably a good thing that Americans don't like soccer. [http://bit.ly/OAO4AI]
- In case you weren't paying attention (SAVE YOURSELF), here are some of the internet's better reactions to the SCOTUS ruling. [http://bit.ly/OAPX01]
- Wait, so dipping gummy bears in potassium chlorate is now a bad idea? [http://huff.to/OAUxve]
- Subway riders attacked by gravity, assumptions about stair height. [http://bit.ly/OARmDU]
- John Cleese on how to get yourself thinking creatively. [http://bit.ly/OAUW0X]
- Lest you forget we're floating around on a pale blue dot, here's some fascinating graphics about solar storms. [http://bit.ly/OAQkIe]
TWITTERAMA
@Pourmecoffee: On this day in 1919, Treaty of Versailles was signed ending WW1. Today, Obmacare was decided starting WWW3 online.
@samsteinhp: This is just Roberts paying back Obama for screwing up his inauguration
@delrayser: "I really hated Obamacare before, but now that Obama's explained what's in it for the hundredth time, I really support it!" - nobody
ON TAP
TONIGHT
6:00 pm - 7:30 pm: Because you'll be busy on Independence Day celebrating Independence day, why don't you celebrate, uh, Independence Day at the DSCC's July 4th BBQ on the 28th! [The Mott House, 122 Maryland Ave NE] Corrected date -- yesterday we said this was on 6/27
6:30 pm: The African American Leadership Council, the LGBT Leadership Council and former NFLer Wade Davis raise funds for the president's reelection. This being an African-American event, the president will naturally be somewhere else. [Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, 1152 15th Street]
TOMORROW
9:00 pm: A whole host of movie stars and film types convene in LA for a "Gen 44" party benefiting the president's reelection. If you see Olivia Wilde, please propose for us. [Los Angeles, CA]
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