The
United States Supreme Court will soon hand down its opinion in King v.
Burwell and we will get to see just how stupid the GOP is.
To recap, the case centers on whether states that do not set up state
based exchanges can get subsidies from the federal government to
subsidize healthcare costs.
The law, as drafted, had a section on state based exchanges. That
section gave federal subsidies. The law had a separate section on
states that did not create state based exchanges. The law allowed
federal exchanges, but did not have language giving a federal subsidy
in the federal exchanges. That language was there, but was removed
before final passage.
The healthcare expert Democrats relied on to help draft Obamacare,
Jonathan Gruber, was recorded saying this was done to incentivize the
establishment of state based exchanges. The Democrats now pretend none
of this happened and it was a “drafting error” the Supreme Court should
fix for them.
I have no idea how King v. Burwell will be decided, but given how much
pressure the Democrats are trying to put on the Court, the odds are
they think it will be decided against them. Who knows. If it is decided
against them though, they will scramble quickly to make Republicans own
it.
Republicans, of course, lack any and all testicular fortitude — it
having been drained by the yellow stripe down their backs.
Here’s the great test for the GOP. If King v. Burwell is decided
against the Democrats, Republicans need advertisements ready to go
across the fifty states with a very simple message.
“They never read it, they rushed it through, and now you’re paying the
price. Tell Barack Obama we need to repeal Obamacare and start over.”
Use Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) 18%‘s clip that they had to pass the law
to find out what was in it.
Democrats passed this law over Republican objections. They drafted it.
They screwed it up. Make them own it.
If Republicans do not do this we can be assured that (1) they are
interested in fixing Obamacare, not repealing it and (2) are political
and moral cowards. -
: Erick
Erickson 
RINOs are retromingents, as the artwork, above, shows. I expect nothing that requires a brain from them.
ReplyDeleteLobbyists are pushing both parties to keep this. Big Corporations were able to offload pensions for 401K's and the second biggest cost is health insurance. If the SCOTUS decides against it the Republicans will help retool it under the guise of we couldn't just leave all those depending on it without health care. The truth is they have and have always had health care but not health insurance.
ReplyDeleteElections are won at the margins, by the voters who may tend one way or the other. If you were a Republican and wanted to get re-elected you have to appeal to the margins, since you already have the base. The people on the margins kind of like the idea of Obamacare and don't care about the reality. Therefore the law (like nearly all) will never be repealed.
ReplyDeleteLuigi
Ah, Luigi, that's Rovian theory.
ReplyDeleteThe Repubs may not realize it, but they no longer have "the base". Four million Repubs failed to show in the 2012 presidential election compared to 2008, and I do believe that the RINOS' lack of gratitude for the gift of the House and Senate from conservatives, evidenced by their continuing enabling Uhbama, that many more will not show up in 2016 if they nominate another gray RINO.
Lt. Col. Gen. Tailgunner dick
Problem is that Obamacare has screwed up the health insurance market so badly that simply repealing it isn't an option.
ReplyDeleteBTW, the specific language re subsidies for state exchanges was in virtually every draft of the bill and was re-inserted at the last minute before being sent out for a vote. It was not a mistake. As you point out, even Gruber has gone on record as saying it was intentional.
Now the Supreme Court's job is (or at least is supposed to be) to interpret the law as written and not to determine "intent". Fact is the law, as written is stupid but it's not absurd so they can't throw it out on those grounds. The wording is clear so there is no ambiguity they can play with. And, given it's history it's not a scrivener's error (i.e., a typo).
Of course, given the mental gymnastics that they had to go thru to find Obamacare constitutional there is no predicting the outcome but "them's the facts"
.
Each state can open its own insurance market. They can also allow insurance from other states to be bought, which was a serious shortcoming before. Obamacare will be fast and easy to replace.
ReplyDelete