Dems on ObamaCare: Supreme Court? What Supreme Court?

March 28, 2012

Top Democrats Have Made Clear That They Will “Keep Going” With Government Healthcare Takeover No Matter What the Supreme Court Decides

Yesterday was probably the roughest day ObamaCare has had in its two years since passage, as the government takeover of healthcare faced aggressive questioning from the Supreme Court over the constitutionality of its individual mandate to buy health insurance.
No matter what the court rules, however, there is little chance the Democrats will abandon their devotion to ObamaCare. Top Democrats have signaled they will “keep going” with ObamaCare even if one of its key tenets is ruled unconstitutional.
Count this as just the latest evidence that the Democrats will defend their failed agenda at all costs, even with public disapproval of their healthcare law at sky-high levels.

Yesterday was probably the roughest day ObamaCare has had in its two years since passage, as the government takeover of healthcare faced aggressive questioning from the Supreme Court over the constitutionality of its individual mandate to buy health insurance:

CNN ANALYST: OBAMACARE’S SECOND DAY IN COURT: A “TRAINWRECK FOR THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION”: “CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin walked out of the Supreme Court’s hearing on the health care mandate Tuesday afternoon, calling today’s talks a ‘trainwreck for the Obama administration,’ and adding that it ‘looks like it’s going to be struck down.’” (Alex Alvarez, “CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin Walks Out of Supreme Court, Bets ‘Court Will Strike Down The Individual Mandate,’” Mediaite, 3/27/2012)

MORE TOOBIN: OBAMACARE IN “GRAVE DANGER”: “Jeffrey Toobin, CNN’s senior legal analyst, said questions asked at oral arguments often show how justices are thinking, and based on what he heard Tuesday, the health care reform law could be in ‘grave danger.’” (Bill Mears, “Supreme Court Divided Over Health Care Mandate,” CNN, 3/27/2012)

“AGGRESSIVE QUESTIONING” ON CONSTITUTIONALITY OF MANDATE: “The aggressive questioning from conservative justices led Tom Goldstein, the publisher of SCOTUSblog and a prominent Supreme Court litigator, to declare that ‘there is no fifth vote yet’ for the mandate.” (Carrie Budoff Brown, Josh Gerstein and Jennifer Haberkorn, “Conservative Justices Skeptical of Individual Mandate,” Politico, 3/27/2012)

“ROUGH DAY FOR OBAMA HEALTH LAW”: “Supreme Court justices lobbed tough questions at the U.S. solicitor general defending the healthcare law’s insurance mandate in the second day of oral arguments in the case.” (Ian Swanson and Sam Baker, “Rough Day for Obama Health Law: Kennedy Among Mandate Skeptics,” The Hill, 3/27/2012)

No matter what the court rules, however, there is little chance the Democrats will abandon their devotion to ObamaCare. Top Democrats have signaled they will “keep going” with ObamaCare even if one of its key tenets is ruled unconstitutional:

OBAMA HHS SECRETARY KATHLEEN SEBELIUS SAID WHITE HOUSE WILL “KEEP GOING” EVEN IF SUPREME COURT DEEMS MANDATE UNCONSTITUTIONAL: (Sam Baker, “Sebelius: ‘We Keep Going’ if Court Strikes Down Mandate to Have Insurance,” The Hill, 1/24/2012)

DEMS DOUBLE DOWN ON THEIR HEALTHCARE DISASTER: NOW IT’S OKAY TO CALL IT “OBAMACARE”: (Dylan Byers, “Media Now Allowed to Say ‘ObamaCare’,” Politico, 3/23/2012)

“DEMS OWN IT. DEMS OWN OBAMACARE”: “Embracing the Obamacare label is partly about acknowledging that the term has entered our language, and partly about disarming the stereotypes in hopes of having more success in focusing the public on the provisions in the law and how people benefit from them. I don’t know whether reformers will win the argument, or if they do, how long that will take. Major reforms aren’t easy, and aren’t easy to sell. But look: Dems own it. Dems own Obamacare.” (Greg Sargent, “Embracing the ‘ObamaCare’ Label,” The Washington Post, 3/23/2012)

WHITE HOUSE PROMOTES “#ILIKEOBAMACARE” HASHTAG ON ANNIVERSARY: “The White House did not mark the event themselves, but democrats did signal that they will not run away from their association to health care reform. The official Barack Obama twitter page retweeted and fired off messages of their own under the hash tag banner ‘#ilikeobamacare’. The move is a significant development because ‘ObamaCare’ is a generally used as a negative name for health care reform designed to attach the president to its passage.” (“GOP Targets Virginia in Anti-ObamaCare Call,” NBC 12 Decision Virginia, 3/23/2012)

JUST DAYS AGO, PELOSI COMPARED OBAMACARE TO THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE: (Peter Kasperowicz, “Pelosi Speech Connects the Healthcare Law and the Declaration of Independence,” The Hill, 3/21/2012)

Count this as just the latest evidence that the Democrats will defend their failed agenda at all costs, even with public disapproval of their healthcare law at sky-high levels:

NATIONAL JOURNAL POLL: 66% OPPOSE MANDATE, ONLY 28% SUPPORT:“The mandate on individuals to purchase insurance or pay a penalty, as in earlier national polls, remains an idea without any significant constituency. Overall, when asked if ‘the federal government should or should not be able to require all Americans to obtain health insurance or else pay a fine,’ just 28 percent of those surveyed said they supported the mandate, while 66 percent opposed it.” (Ronald Brownstein, “Public Still Opposes Health Care Mandate,” National Journal, 3/27/2012)

NEW CBS/NEW YORK TIMES POLL: 47% OPPOSE OBAMACARE, JUST 36% APPROVE: “In the latest poll, 47 percent said they oppose the law while 36 percent approve, with the rest having no opinion. The results are similar to previous surveys that have consistently found the law’s detractors outnumbering its supporters.” (Dalia Sussman, Helene Cooper, and Kate Phillips, “Most Americans Oppose Health Law, Poll Finds,” New York Times, 3/27/2012)

ABC NEWS/WASHINGTON POST POLL: 55% FAVOR REPEALING ENTIRE HEALTHCARE LAW, ONLY 37% OPPOSE: (Greg Holyk, “As Health Care Law’s Trial Approaches, Two-Thirds Say Ditch Individual Mandate,” ABC News, 3/19/2012)

TWO-THIRDS OF AMERICANS SAY THE SUPREME COURT SHOULD RULE THE MANDATE UNCONSTITUTIONAL: (Greg Holyk, “As Health Care Law’s Trial Approaches, Two-Thirds Say Ditch Individual Mandate,” ABC News, 3/19/2012)

AP POLL: OBAMACARE “STILL UNPOPULAR”: “The poll found that 35 percent of Americans support the health care law overhaul, while 47 percent oppose it. That’s about the same split as when it passed. Then, 39 percent supported it and 50 percent opposed it.” (“Poll: Obama’s Health Overhaul Still Unpopular, But Fewer Expect Own Care to Worsen,” Associated Press, 3/8/2012)

STUDY: OBAMACARE COST DEMOCRATS THE HOUSE: “A top Democrat acknowledged Thursday that President Obama’s health care bill hurt his party in 2010. And a new study suggests it cost the Democrats something pretty specific: their House majority…The study, by five professors from institutions across the country, looks at the health care bill alongside other contentious votes in the 111th Congress and determines that, more so than the stimulus or the cap-and-trade energy bill, it cost Democrats seats. In fact, they lost almost exactly the number of seats that decided the majority.” (Aaron Blake, “Study Shows Health Care Bill May Have Cost Democrats the House,” The Washington Post, 3/9/2012)