The Other McCain

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You’d Think A Supreme Court Justice Would Know This

Posted on | April 4, 2012 | 9 Comments

by Smitty

Somebody pointed me to the New England Journal of Medicine, with an interesting Elena Kagan quote from last week’s oral argument, emphasis mine:

Roberts also noted a mismatch between covered benefits and each person’s potential need. Speaking to the government’s lawyer, he said, “[T]he policies that you’re requiring people to purchase involve . . . maternity and newborn care, pediatric services, and substance [abuse] treatment. It seems to me that you cannot say that everybody is going to need [these services] and yet that is part of what you require them to purchase.”
But as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg quickly retorted, “If you’re going to have insurance, that’s how insurance works.” “This is especially true,” added Kagan, “because in this context, the subsidizers eventually become the subsidized.”

Um, how do you know that, Justice Kagan, without being a prophet? Wikipedia on the Ecological Fallacy:

An ecological fallacy. . .is a logical fallacy in the interpretation of statistical data in an ecological study, whereby inferences about the nature of individuals are based solely upon aggregate statistics collected for the group to which those individuals belong.

You might quibble that health care statistics are not an ecological study per se, but I submit that the point still holds: once you roll individuals into a population, you’re done. It’s a one-way process.

Come to think of it, all of this Socialist clap-trap is the Ecological Fallacy writ large. Clearly you have to be a believer in the Progressive Faith to unplug reason sufficiently to buy into this nonsense.

Update: crikey, what an ignoramus! I had not understood what an embarrassingly know-nothing twit the good Justice Kagan is. Adrienne is rather worked up, and has the audio:

Listen, you disgusting squid of a small minded, intellectually challenged poseur. You only sit on the Supreme Court because an equally small minded, intellectually challenged, malignant narcissist squid of a president who, in my opinion, is not even eligible to be president, and who was voted in by the small-minded losers of this country appointed you to the position.

Why so torqued? If you listen to the clip, Kagan is on about “Federal Dollars”, and wondering at what point below 100% government payment for medical care that the system would become coercive.

If dollars are horsepower in the economy, then the economy is the horse. The Federal government is a cart. Progressivism is that Federal government cart bearing a printing press called the Federal Reserve that confuses itself with the horse.

Kagan, you should recuse yourself, not merely from the ObamaCare decision, but from the SCOTUS entirely. When the history of this time period is written, yours is likely to be a special blend of infamy and idiocy.

Category: Supreme Court

Comments

9 Responses to “You’d Think A Supreme Court Justice Would Know This”

  1. Mike G.
    April 4th, 2012 @ 9:59 pm

     Our friends over at RNL asked an interesting question that I haven’t heard any one else expound on. http://therionorteline.com/2012/04/04/health-care-law-have-both-sides-missed-this/

  2. daialanye
    April 4th, 2012 @ 10:02 pm

    Taking Ginsburg’s comment to its logical extreme, health insurance should protect us from home fires and auto theft as well. And why not throw in vision, dental, hair restoration, cosmetic surgery… the list goes on. I certainly hope this woman retires next year. Or in 2017 if Obama wins.

  3. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    April 4th, 2012 @ 10:07 pm

    You haven’t heard anyone expound on them since the 1930s.  Which is a shame.  Because the principles that RNL are expounding are right.  

  4. Terry_Jim
    April 4th, 2012 @ 10:13 pm

    The funniest bit I heard from the oral arguments was Kagan guffawing incredulously at Mr.Clement wanting to know “where the money came from” if he was offerred a  $10Million/year job. 

    “Wow,wow?!” she hollered,I offer you $10Million to work for me  and you think that’s anything but a good choice?!”   .
    He replied ‘”Sure, if I told you,actually, it came from my own bank account.”.”
    About 2 1/2 minutes into this:
    http://adriennescatholiccorner.blogspot.com/2012/03/justice-kagan-has-no-business-being-on.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

  5. Adjoran
    April 4th, 2012 @ 10:17 pm

    Spot on about the “Ecological Fallacy” – nice catch.  Kagan’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

    And Ginsburg – “that’s how insurance works,” is it?  Wow, for every insurance I have, they give me options:  homeowners – deductible amounts, replacement values, riders for specific items; life – face amount, type (term or whole life), payment plans, dividend par or non par, convertibility;  auto – deductibles, collision, liability amounts, extra coverage for passengers, even dog coverage; health – deductible, add-ons, prescription coverage, lifetime limits.

    But they were Democratic nominees.  Elections matter.  Never forget it.

  6. Charles
    April 4th, 2012 @ 10:46 pm

    The RNC ought to run Kagan’s “It’s just a boatload of federal money to take and spend” quip on continuous loop.

  7. SDN
    April 5th, 2012 @ 2:26 am

    How? ORomney was relying on that boatload of Federal Medicare money to fund his “state-level” ORomneycare. ORomneycare fails at any level without stealing money from everywhere else.

  8. richard mcenroe
    April 5th, 2012 @ 10:27 am

    The really scary thing coming out these hearings, based on the judges’ questions, is how many of them see fit to rule on how we need to live our lives without having the slightest idea how our lives work.

  9. richard mcenroe
    April 5th, 2012 @ 10:29 am

    There is also $4 billion in OCare for Romney’s MA health plan, pulled from the Medicare money of 41 other states.

     Even as we speak, Romney is making up his list of 41 countries who will be mandated to pay for the national health programs he talks about “replacing” Obamacare with.