If the healthcare law is overturned, universal healthcare is dead forever

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

If the Supreme Court does overturn healthcare reform, Democrats and liberals might as well close the book on efforts to ever get universal healthcare.  The reason is that Republicans have drawn themselves a near lock on control of the House and Democrats are not likely to get 60 Senate seats again anytime soon.  Think a Republican Congress is ever going to pass universal healthcare?  Forget about it.  This is do or die for Democrats.  

The PPACA isn't universal healthcare anyway, so I don't see how this is relevant.

This.  The reason why the bill's constitutionality is being questioned is because of the individual mandate.  The court can strike it down, but I don't see how this would prevent Democrats from passing NHC in the future, especially if they propose something that doesn't include an individual mandate.  

What will prevent Democrats from passing healthcare in the future is clever REpublican gerrymandering.  Unitil Democrats can break up GOP gerrymanders in the big states, there chances of getting a House majority, let alone one big enough to pass universal healthcare are slim to none.  Obama and the DNC royally screwed the Democrats in 2010 when they refused to focus on state legislative races.  2010 really was do or die for Democrats.  

Both parties have gerrymandered quite a bit with their majorities, so I don't think redistricting will be a huge factor for the next ten years.  Even if it does prevent the Democrats from retaking the House, I certainly wouldn't think it means universal healthcare is "dead forever".  At the very minimum, we should get a public option someday, maybe.

In any case, it wasn't gerrymandering, but filibustering that killed any hope the Democrats had of passing any sort of single payer plan.  They had enough of a House majority in 2009, that single payer could have passed there, but not enough of a Senate supermajority.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Meanwhile in other news, Justice Kennedy also asks that if the health insurance mandate now, is the broccoli mandate next?  Justice Breyer and Ginsburg rejoined with the free rider issue, although not apparently tying it to something other than a public policy concern.  Plus ca change, plus ca meme chose.

The whole broccoli example is absurd if the mandate is seen as enforced through a tax, because then all the government does is force us to 'buy' things. Literally everything the government does is the functional equivalent of 'forced buying.' Witness the protestations about the funding of Planned Parenthood.

What's so bad about a broccoli mandate?  It's a very tasty vegetable.  Now if we were forced to slather it with cheese sauce, I could understand the concern.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

From the updates I've read, it looks very likely that a 5-4 vote against the mandate will occur now.

As already mentioned, this will make Mitt's campaign so much easier, removing a huge obstacle for him. And this would be a train wreck for Obama - essentially his first two years in the trash, along side his (mostly) failed stimulus.

At this rate, the guy will only be able to run on economic numbers, and even those - while a slight improvement - aren't good.....

Obama needs to hope it's not struck down. If it his, I think he's lost re-election and he is destined to be remembered as the weak president he has ultimately been.

If only the mandate is struck down then whoever wins the White House in November is going to have quite the mess on their hands.  (No way anything gets done to clean up the mess before the election.)  The Republicans need to hope that if it is struck down that the Court does not find the law to be severable so that it is a total strike.  Even if they win all three branches in November, the Democrats will have enough Senators to filibuster the GOP from doing anything to clean up the mess without extracting some major concessions on what will be a must pass bill.