“Medicare For All was the right solution in 2009, is the right solution now, and is the ultimate destiny at which our nation will arrive. The only question is whether Democratic leaders are strategic enough to start the process of marching through that door as it opens,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. “If the Supreme Court is so political that it overturns the Affordable Care Act despite clear legal precedent, that illegitimate ruling would call for outrage — but it also would blow the door to Medicare For All wide open. The march to Medicare For All would be a marathon, not a sprint, but an absurd ruling this Thursday would be the opportunity for Democrats to start marching.”
Moreover, the argument goes, it would create for Democrats a useful tool to bring Mitt Romney’s radical plans for Medicare into sharper focus.
“If the Supreme Court opens the door for Democrats to campaign in 2012 on Medicare For All and Republicans are left campaigning on Paul Ryan’s plan to end Medicare, that clean contrast could be the game changer that gives Democrats a clean sweep in November,” Green said.
Obama kept these more aggressive reformers at arms length during the year-long fight over the Affordable Care Act. But in the run up to an election, and if the conservative Supreme Court deals a death blow to Obama’s signature legislation, the calculus could change.
“We would certainly encourage him … to say, ‘OK the court didn’t like the way this law was drawn up, ok then let’s go back to square one, let’s do a law that has no constitutional problem — Medicare,’” Idelson said. “And they could probably do this in one page.”
= new reply since forum marked as read
