"It is not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices."

That's the quote from Roberts' opinion that he extracted up front as he began the announcement of the opinion today.

There's material throughout his opinion — which I've highlighted in my various posts today — that calls attention to the flawed mechanisms of the universal-health-coverage scheme. Most notably, the individual mandate is only constitutional because it's optional, and people can simply pay the "penalty" (now known as the tax) to the federal government as long as they don't want to buy health insurance. If people behave rationally and weigh the costs against the benefits, they won't buy insurance until their expenses (health care costs + the penalty) exceed the premiums, and the insurance companies will not amass premiums from the vast numbers of healthy people who pay in more than they receive. It seems like a design for collapse, but, as Roberts says: That's not his concern.

AND: To say it's a "design for collapse" is to set up the question whether it was a screw-up or whether it was the first move in a scheme to take us to a single-payer, government health care program.

MORE: This calls to mind the old Pelosi quote:



"But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it."

We found out today, I think. Have you noticed yet?