Posted on 06/08/2015 10:06:00 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
The Supreme Court should not have taken up the lawsuit challenging ObamaCare subsidies, President Obama said on Monday.
“This should be an easy case, frankly it shouldn't have even been taken up,” Obama said during a news conference at the Group of Seven (G-7) summit of leading industrial nations in Germany.
The Supreme Court is expected to hand down a decision this month in the King v. Burwell case, which threatens to eliminate subsidies for millions of Americans who receive their health insurance from federal exchanges.
Obama rejected the basis for the challenge and said it is “well documented” that the authors of the Affordable Care Act “never intended” to block people on federal exchanges from obtaining the subsidies.
“There is no reason why the existing exchanges should be overturned through a court case,” he said.
He declined to answer questions about his contingency plans for a Supreme Court decision against the law, and said people should “assume” that it will be upheld.
“I'm not going into a long speculation anticipating disaster,” Obama said.
“I think it’s important for us to go ahead and assume that the Supreme Court is going to do what most legal scholars who've looked at this would expect them to do.”
The Obama administration has repeatedly declined to discuss plans for people in at least 34 states that could lose subsidies. A total of 6.3 million people could lose subsidies, and Obama and his health secretary have stressed that they wouldn’t be able to blunt the impact.
When asked why his administration was not preparing a backup plan, Obama paused.
“I want to make sure that everybody understands that you have a model, where all the pieces connect, and there are a whole bunch of scenarios — not just related to healthcare — but all kinds of stuff that I do where, if somebody does something that doesn't make any sense, it's hard to fix,” he said.
He did say there was one way to resolve the dispute over the law: “Congress could fix this whole thing with a one-sentence provision,” he said.
Congressional Republicans are still working on their own plan B for the court ruling. GOP leaders have backed a plan that would repeal both the individual and employer mandate in exchange for allowing the ObamaCare subsidies to continue.
That plan would be vetoed by the president, however — a scenario that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) acknowledged last week.
Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) issued a sharp statement Monday pushing back against Obama's remarks, warning that the GOP would not pass "a so-called 'one-sentence' fake fix."
“Instead of bullying the Supreme Court, the president should spend his time preparing for the reality that the court may soon rule against his decision to illegally issue tax penalties and subsidies on Americans in two-thirds of the country," said Barrasso, who is leading the Senate's working group for King v. Burwell contingency plans.
“Fortunately, there's no reason to have to do it. It doesn't need fixing,” Obama said.
The Supreme Court case centers on whether a clause in the healthcare law — "established by the state" — means that subsidies for buying insurance cannot be distributed through the federal exchange HelathCare.gov.
Thirty-four states opted to not create their own exchanges, and it is the people in those states who would lose financial aid if the administration lost the case.
Obama said he is puzzled by the legal challenges against his signature healthcare law, arguing there is ample evidence that the system is working.
“Part of what's bizarre about this whole thing is, we haven't had a lot of conversation about the horrors of ObamaCare because none of them have come to pass,” he said.
Obama is losing this case. He knows he is losing this case. And his minions are trying to figure out how to lay the blame for all of this on Republicans for 2016.
Anyone who thinks King vs Burwell is not welcomed by Democrats hasn’t been watching what is going on. Obama loses this and it is Cloward-Piven X 100. The entire system will break down. Not because Republicans can’t fix it, but because the media and the Rats won’t let them.
A SCOTUS ruling favorable to zerocare will solidify the irrelevance of SCOTUS
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More likely it will signify the irrelevance of the Constitution. Game, set, match.
“Obama rejected the basis for the challenge and said it is “well documented” that the authors of the Affordable Care Act “never intended” to block people on federal exchanges from obtaining the subsidies.”
No ass, they did not intend to block, they intended for states to decide whether they wanted the subsidies given the later downside to accepting them. Otherwise, why make it an option if there was not to be one? This guy indeed was taught to be a 3 card monte dealer...now you see it, now you don’t. The point is he does nothing but turn around the meaning of something to mean something which it never intended to mean.
I’ve well documented my brilliance here on FR. It doesn’t mean that I am?
Similar case with me. Used to be no cost/no deductible for my family, now $430 per month plus $1,000 individual deduction or $2,000 for my family of four.
Or some other line of horse hockey like that.
For most of the middle class these policies are horrible. Massive deductibles are turning all but most expensive policies into incredibly expensive catastrophic policies. This means many in the middle class are paying 6 to 700 a month for the privilege of paying all their medical expenses out of pocket. This is just a massive transfer of wealth.
“This should have been an easy vote; frankly Obama shouldn’t have even been elected.”
There; fixed it.
Well, there is that, too. God save America!
The vote on this happened months ago. The decision was probably written a while back too. Anything he says today is for his base consumption only, it will not change or tweak the decision in anyway.
Ever notice that every time Obama is outside the US, he always bad mouths our country?
Exactly. I remember this happening the last time.
He came out with some statement about SCOTUS and this abomination of a law just prior to them rendering their ruling and what happened? Justice Roberts magically changed the law into a “tax”, thus upholding this “crap sandwich”.
Now, it’s happening again. With his mole on the court in the form of Elena Kagen (sp?), she’s probably telling him (or one of his bots in the administration) which way the court is leaning and he comes out with this stupid, reality-free statement about the court. Watch, Roberts will lead the way with uphold this monstrosity by redefining the subsidies or some other nonsense. You’re right; the fix is in!
The decision has been made. It’s being written up. This one will go against Obungo.
“He did say there was one way to resolve the dispute over the law: “Congress could fix this whole thing with a one-sentence provision,” he said.”
Dear Justices,
The President just asked you to overturn the law and allow Congress to “fix it.” It is exactly as you should be doing...
That is the FIRST thing that struck me.
I can’t tell what is real and what is satire any more...
This one ticked me off the most:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/obama-brings-ferguson-un_806086.html
I'm leaning that way, too. Not just as it relates to this case in particular but by ruling in favor of BHO, the court would be setting forth a precedent that the president alone decides laws in this country
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