Yesterday was a good day. (And, no, I didn't make the cut for Time's Person of the Year honor this year, either.)
But I did get to spend it with some good friends – about half of our editorial advisory board – making small talk. You know, covering such light fare as HR compliance, civic responsibility and, of course, where our jobs will be in five years.
Oddly enough, we didn't spend much time dissecting that Virginia judge tossing out the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's individual mandate. We talked about it, sure, and made our share of jokes, but there's a lifetime worth of rulings and appeals between now and 2014.
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Neither side of this debate can take too much away from this.
I couldn't help but smile, though, when I saw Attorney General Eric Holder's op-ed piece in the Post yesterday, defending the law by trotting out that classic car insurance argument non grata.
Where do I start?
Didn't candidate Obama campaign against the Republican case for mandates? (Simple subsidies would save the day, he insisted almost three years ago now.)
And isn't this law drawn up to prevent severability, as a former lawyer friend of mine pointed out yesterday? (There's no throwing this thing piece by piece. We're stuck with the entire steaming pile.)
And haven't we long since torn apart the "car insurance is just like health insurance" argument by now? (Insuring against to damage to others versus yourself, regulated by state rather than the feds … the list goes on.)
While there's little doubt there are enough secret pockets of debate left in this fight, it's far from over.
Uncertainty's the only thing we can count on finding under the tree this year.
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