General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRe: The ACA. With Biden in the WH, the Repubs have put themselves in a no win situation.
If it is struck down, everyone will want it replaced with the something bigger and better that Trump promised. And it will be Biden that gets the credit when it comes.
If they lose the case, Biden is free to build on it, making it the bigger and better health care system that Trump promised- getting the credit when it comes.
And if the Republicans try to obstruct any of this, they will get the blame for any part of the bigger and better that doesn't happen.
SlogginThroughIt
(1,977 posts)They have the power unless we win the runoffs. It all comes down to the runoffs.
mucifer
(23,523 posts)Hav
(5,969 posts)The reps will obstruct everything that could be seen as a success even it clearly helps the country. The notion that there'll be something better than the ACA if there is no more Obamacare is naive. The Reps had 10 years to propose anything and they have nothing. They have no interest at all, even less under Biden and their base supports that.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)rule all current and future federal social welfare programs unconstitutional in their entirety.
Bernie Sanders, who (like Trump for the same reason) ran on "bigger and better," and much cheaper, knew, of course, even as he ran on a promise of "MfA" while telling voters it didn't really matter if Dems or Repubs won because there really wasn't any difference.
(Fwiw, my best guess after wondering for years is that, while intellectually he could recite enormous differences between Repubs and Dems if he chose, emotionally he believes that everything he says reflects a bigger truth: there's no meaningful difference.)
Rustynaerduwell
(663 posts)Doing so will cost them.
Wounded Bear
(58,634 posts)sadly, if they kill it, I'm sure that Repubs will shift blame onto the Biden Admin, because if/when they kill the ACA, folks won't really feel it until the next renewal cycle.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)conservative majority can and will do just that. Most of the justices were appointed TO put an end to federally mandated social programs. There would be NO bigger and better because they would declare them all unconstitutional.
The main justification for Social Security and all the rest of these programs, including a future "MfA," depends on a liberal interpretation of "the general welfare clause." Not on words. NOWHERE in the Constitution is authority explicitly granted for them.
Anti-government conservatives, and many others, have always believed that was an unjustifiable interpretation for political purposes. And it is a fragile foundation.
The anti-government passion for ending them is enormous in an enormously powerful minority. My guess is they'd try to get them ALL ruled unconstitutional this term if it weren't for political considerations. Justices are supposed to be above worrying that angry mobs could literally or figuratively (impeachment) storm the high court and drag them out, or just vote those who put them on the court out of office for the next decade. But they're not, so they have to do it carefully in conjunction with RW political prepping of the populace.
Auggie
(31,156 posts)what's the incentive for a corporate-controlled SCOTUS to eliminate a plan that's business friendly?
If they're ideologically oppose to the fee mandate, or just want to be douchebags, that's something else.