MOVING TARGET: The Obama administration has shifted its legal arguments as it prepares to defend the president’s healthcare law before the Supreme Court. “The shift moves the focus of Justice’s argument from the Commerce Clause of the Constitution to the Necessary and Proper Clause, which says Congress can make laws that are necessary for carrying out its other powers. The briefs give a long history of failed efforts to expand healthcare coverage and say the new law’s purpose was to reform the overall system.”

The technical term here is “mere post-hoc rationalization.”

Related: CBO report says healthcare law could cause as many as 20M to lose coverage. “Republicans immediately pounced after the new numbers came out because they appear to violate Obama’s pledge that people who like their health plans will be able to keep them. Last year, CBO’s best estimate was that only 1 million people would lose employer-sponsored coverage.” All of Obama’s promises have an expiration date.