Monday, March 26, 2012

Will Supremes Kill Obamacare?

The day has finally come when the US Supreme Court will rule on a couple of issues that have been raised against the 2010 Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. The Supremes have set aside 3 full days to hear the case. Day One being whether there is any standing to bring suit that no one has actually been harmed yet, Day Two on the critical individual mandate – the center ring if you will – of this 3 ring circus.  Day 3 will concentrate on what should happen to the rest of the law if the individual mandate is struck down.

How will the Supremes vote? I think we are all in for a surprise. With a 5-4 majority courtesy of Dubya, one would think it is a no-brainer and they will skewer the Affordable Care Act. Not so, not so.

Remember this is the most political Supreme Court in history. They vote their politics, not principle. They vote along party lines, not along the lines of what is fair and right.

So why will the Supremes uphold the Affordable Care Act? Why give Democrats and President Obama an October surprise? With all of the rhetoric about how this Republican or that Republican will work to overturn Obamacare in their first minutes in office, what happens to that? Obamacare is the only hot button issue that Republicans have to run against Barack Obama. Without that they have nearly nothing to run on.

Just this: “It could be better.”

Just about as potent an argument as “It could be worse.”

No, the Supremes, well 5 of them anyway, are in no way going to give President Obama the gift of jerking the critical issue of Republicans out from under them in the General Election.

That would be a catastrophic mistake.

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