But, as opinion polls have found, and Mr Netanyahu apparently missed, a good half of the country was uncomfortable with his decision to exercise that claim right now, at Har Homa, in the teeth of Palestinian, other Arab and international opposition.

ECONOMIST: Will Netanyahu bring in Peres?

Democrats claim it's an exercise in corporate payola insurers receive a defined contribution for covering a senior (though insurers are paid to administer most of traditional Medicare too, under government instructions).

WSJ: Review & Outlook: Another ObamaCare Concession

The fact that it is a largely cosmetic exercise is borne out by the fact that, in trying to claim that all members of the new House will be equal, the report says that, in effect, the number of elected members is so small that they will not make much difference to outcomes.

BBC: Elections don't equal democracy

And that has been enough for some to claim that once the pregnancy was announced, the whole thing became a cynical exercise aimed at boosting Mr Blair's popularity.

BBC: How to spin a baby

The federal government is claiming with the ACA the unlimited power to control every economic decision every individual makes, which not only is a fantastic overreach of its constitutional authority but also a claim to possess the power to destroy the very Constitution from which it supposedly derives the authority to exercise the power.

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