Extra, Extra, Extra

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About 2:00 pm Central Standard time on Monday January 31, 2011, a United States District Judge, Roger Vinson, in Florida ruled that the "Individual Mandate" (the forcing of individuals to buy insurance) was unconstitutional and could not be severed from the rest of "Obamacare" which resulted in the entire Health Care Law being struck down. While, in my opinion, that was good news the fight is far from over. The Administration, within hours of the Judge's decision, announced that it had been appealed and whatever decision the Appeal Court makes will be appealed to the United States Supreme Court. The final decision is probaly a long way off. The only likely way it can be kept out of the Supreme Court is if this decision coupled with the earlier decision in Virginia gives the Administration the incentive to seek a compromise in order to save some of the most popular parts of the health care law which is now in limbo. I am in favor of some kind of law dealing with pre-existing conditions and could agree with children staying on parents insurance until age 26. That would have helped us when ours were that age. Of course you already know that I favor tort reform (medical liability), insurance sold over state lines, absolutely no tax money going for abortions except in certain cases and since the states don't seem to be doing their job we may need some kind of Federal oversight to keep insurance companies in line.

On the same day it was announced that former representative Newt Gingrich came out in favor of a law mandating that all cars be capable of running on a mixture of gasoline and ethanol. Even though I already buy that mixture I'm not really happy with it because I get at least 1 mile less per gallon of gas on it and ethanol being subsidized is not helping with our debt. Also the using of grain to make ethanol is causing a shortage of corn and wheat which drives up the prices of many of our necessities. If we are to mandate the use of ethanol in our gasoline then we should go one step farther and think about lifting the embargo on the importation of it from South America. I'm sure we can work out some kind of deal with our southern neighbors. It's something to think about.

This, being an Extra and as it should be, turned out to be shorter but if you have nothing else to say then you should just shut up. Right? Thanks for your time and input. Stay tuned. -William