Republican fears grow over court challenge to ObamaCare

[DonViejo]

By Sarah Ferris - 03/01/15 06:00 AM EST

Republican fears are mounting over a Supreme Court case that the party has long hailed as its best chance to undo ObamaCare.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday on a GOP-backed case that threatens to erase healthcare subsidies for 8 million people. The vast stakes are raising alarm among Republicans, particularly in the Senate, who increasingly fear a backlash at the polls if their party can’t find a fix.

A plaintiff victory would bring Republicans the closest to repealing ObamaCare. But the party has begun to fret about the fallout from King v. Burwell, fearing the sudden loss of subsidies could put pressure on lawmakers and governors to restore them.

The loss of subsidies for millions of people would also put the Obama administration on the offense for the first time to protect its signature healthcare law.

A White House crusade against the GOP would mean a firestorm of accusations that the party is taking away care and endangering lives – building up for the 2016 election.

more
http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/234191-gop-fears-grow-over-obamacare-challenge

[Demeter]

1. If the GOP really wanted to do an injury

They would demand Universal Single Payer, NOW!

And put the disgrace on the cowardly Democrats who support this crappy ACA program. Because Obama.

With leadership like that, the GOP could OWN the White House (until they did something stupid like war).

[Doctor_J]

2. The whole thing is a charade

Big Insurance will not let Heritage Care go away now or any time soon. Anyone who still thinks there is going to be a "repeal of Obamacare", or that the Repukes actually WANT to repeal it, is really, really dumb.

[Dan]

3. What the GOP actually wants

versus what the SCOTUS will hand down as a decision, are two different things.

[Doctor_J]

4. What makes you say that?

[Ex Lurker]

15. Because the SCOTUS justices have life tenure and don't face electoral consequences.

Scalia and that bunch have no brakes on their ideology.

[cheapdate]

6. Really? Becuase I'd suggest the opposite.

That is, that anyone who doesn't believe that a significant number of Republican politicians are absolutely committed to repealing the PPACA is "really, really dumb." Well, I wouldn't say THAT, but I would say that I believe they are badly underestimating the intensity, seriousness, and numerical support that repeal has inside the GOP.

Maybe my judgement is skewed from living in a red state, but here in Tennessee, the Republican governor's Insure Tennessee plan, which the governor worked on for two years, and which had the support of hospitals, doctors, insurers, and business, was killed last week by Republicans in the General Assembly. These were leaders who came to office with strong promises that they would never, ever support anything having to do with "Obamacare". They said what meant and they did what they said.

I say the only reason that the PPACA hasn't been repealed is because we have kept enough Democrats in the senate to block it, and obviously we hold the White House.

If you look at the states where the GOP has total government control, and look at what they're capable of, and then tell me that they're not serious about repealing "Obamacare", then I don't know what to say. The litany of horrible legislation that passes in these states is so numerous and awful that it becomes numbing. It tends to run together and be forgotten.

This shit has easily passed the GOP house over and over, it would pass a GOP senate with if they could pick up only a small number of additional seats, and a GOP president would sign it.

[Doctor_J]

8. well they have now voted to repeal it 50 times, sued to repeal it another bunch of

times, and yet it lives on as a monument to the power of corporate rule and the fecklessness of the democratic party. Maybe the drooling limbeciles think their heroes are trying, but it is not going to happen. And yes, Fox nation is really, really dumb.

[cheapdate]

9. It lives on because they don't have the votes in the senate.

And because there's a Democrat in the White House. It's entirely possible for that equation to change. If the 2012 elections didn't prove anything, didn't prove that magical thinking about a progressive movement doesn't win elections, then I don't know what will.

Republicans in Tennessee voted this month against a plan to give health insurance to 280,000 uninsured Tennesseans, exactly as they promised they would.

You might underestimate the strength and resolve of the ACA repeal sentiment out there, but I think that's a mistake. Its a uniting issue for the GOP.

[Doctor_J]

12. so what? it's not going to happen.

[cheapdate]

16. That's your expectation. I don't share your confidence.

Lots of people here on DU confidently believed that the Democrats were going to walk away with the senate in 2012. They ignored the polls, or believed the polls were missing the alleged enormous shift in public sentiment away from blatantly flawed Republican ideas. What was your expectation then?

Does your crystal ball show a Democrat in the White House in 2017?

Republicans win the White House in 2016, hold the house (obviously) and lose no ground in the senate. Republicans pick up more senate seats in 2018. ACA repealed and replaced with Republican "alternative". Impossible?

Of course not.

[Cali_Democrat]

10. Why did Bernie vote for Heritage Care?

You know Bernie, right? The dude in your avatar.....

[Doctor_J]

11. because the president sold him out too

I have posted at least a dozen times quotes from senator Sanders that obamacare is a sell out, a republican plan, written by the insurance industry, and so on. If you are now going to claim that heritage care is healthcare, you are lying or have lost your mind. Do you still believe it is "a step toward single payer"? Vermont shot down that fantasy didn't they?

Your dedication to ridiculous republican policies has killed the party. Wake up.

[Cali_Democrat]

13. In 2012, two years after his pro-Obamacare vote, he praised the Supreme Court decision

upholding Obamacare. He said millions of Americans will benefit from Obamacare.

You know Bernie, right? The dude in your avatar. You calling him a liar?

So who am I gonna trust...some anonymous poster on a message board....or Bernie Sanders?

[jeff47]

5. So they finally clued in to the fact that winning the case only hurts red states? (nt)

[blkmusclmachine]

7. Republicans don't give 1 whit about Main Street. Only Wall Street matters in their Richey Rich world

[Ex Lurker]

14. I have a bad feeling about this

I don't think the Scalia Four would have voted for Cert and risk humiliation again if they didn't have a good idea Roberts would vote with them this time.