VIDEO: Republican Governor Caught On Tape Demolishing The Legal Case Against Obamacare

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Source: ThinkProgress.org



VIDEO: Republican Governor Caught On Tape Demolishing The Legal Case Against Obamacare

by Ian Millhiser Posted on January 7, 2015 at 11:14 am
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"VIDEO: Republican Governor Caught On Tape Demolishing The Legal Case Against Obamacare"




Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI)

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R)

CREDIT: AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) spent “nearly two years” studying the Affordable Care Act, according to a live interview he gave to the Wall Street Journal in 2013, and what he discovered was that the central claim in a lawsuit seeking to convince the Supreme Court to gut Obamacare is wrong. Though Walker’s statement was not made in reference to this lawsuit, his understanding of the law has special significance in light of a particular constitutional doctrine at issue in this case, and his reading of the Affordable Care Act directly contradicts that of the lawyers seeking to undermine the law.

The Affordable Care Act gives states a choice: they can either set up an exchange where consumers can buy subsidized insurance plans or they can elect to have the federal government set up this exchange for them. Consumers with income below a certain level qualify for tax credits to help them afford this insurance. A case called King v. Burwell, however, asks the justices to cut off these tax credits in states with federally-run exchanges — an effort that could potentially collapse the individual insurance markets in those states if it succeeds. The plaintiffs’ premise in King is that Obamacare was never intended to offer credits to people in states with federally-run exchanges. Indeed, by reading one passage of the Affordable Care Act out of context, they claim that the law unambiguously states that only state-run exchanges are allowed to provide tax credits.

But that’s not the conclusion Walker reached after spending a couple of years considering the question. Rather, in his interview with the Wall Street Journal, Walker explains that there is no practical difference whatsoever between state-run and federally-run exchanges:

WALKER:...........

This really isn’t an exchange that the states run or even run in a partnership. The federal government determines what’s going to be covered. How it’s going to be covered. And the only distinction is whether or not a state can say that they’re running it, put up a sign that says they are running it. But, in the end, there’s no real substantive difference between a federal exchange, or a state exchange, or the in between, the hybrid, the partnership. And so I said, if I can’t run it, if I don’t have control over it, why would I take the responsibility of explaining to people something that I don’t have any control over.

Watch it:

Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/01/07/3608672/video-republican-governor-caught-on-tape-demolishing-the-legal-case-against-obamacare/

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Walker does come up with his own 'theories' or excuses most of the time. The thing I take away is that Walker wants Control. Yup--that describes him to a teaparty!
And if Walker can not have control--then the people of
WI will and have suffered.