(My new American Thinker post)
As you know, the Supreme Court decided 6-3 to save the subsidies.
They did so by reading what the Congress intended to write rather than what they wrote in the statute.
Am I the only one who finds that a bit scary?
Justice Scalia is right:
“Words no longer have meaning if an Exchange that is not established by a State is ‘established by the State."It's another legal victory for ObamaCare but a huge political defeat for Democrats.
First, the decision does not change the objective reality of the law, from deductibles to premiums. Furthermore, the GOP will not have to spend the next six months taking positions about restoring subsidies. I agree with Ben Domenech:
By losing at the Court, conservatives missed out on a chance for another squishout and for that reason should be breathing a sigh of relief. The hard truth was that the Republican Party was absolutely going to cave on the subsidy question anyway, and do so rapidly, and probably get a bag of basketballs and the medical device tax in exchange. That would’ve both depressed the base and put politicians in an untenable position. Given the certainty of Republicans caving on the subsidies, Obamacare would have emerged with Republican fingerprints all over the idea that we need to be taxing people in order to continue subsidizing able bodied working age adults (as it is, only a handful of Republicans have endorsed that idea). Now Republicans get the added benefit of railing against a law that remains unpopular and that drives health insurance costs ever higher across the country without having to put their legislation where their mouths are.Second, this blatant "judicial activism" will not go down well with a public already fed up with a federal government out of control. After all, Americans live in a world where words mean what they mean.
Finally, this decision is a huge opportunity for Republicans to finally take the health care issue away from Democrats in a serious way. It is not an iron law of politics at all that health care reform remain a Democratic issue any more than education policy or welfare policy. President Obama and the Democrats now own every bad thing about the health care status quo.
In the real world, words have meaning. Can you imagine a judge settling a lease agreement dispute saying that "first of the month" does not really mean that the landlord meant the first of the month?
Let me say it again: The reality has not changed a bit. It is a still a mess and getting messier! The economics of ObamaCare are still a disaster.
The Supreme Court has kept ObamaCare in the political arena and that helps the GOP.
P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.
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