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MSN News
Republicans
noisily outraged — and quietly relieved — over court decision
Karen Tumulty
The Washington Post
Even as Republicans rose in a chorus of outrage Thursday over the U.S.
Supreme Court’s refusal to gut the unpopular Affordable Care Act, party
leaders were privately breathing a sigh of relief.
Had the court gone the other way, Republicans would have faced their
most serious governing challenge since taking control of both houses of
Congress earlier this year.
Former Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie called it “a
bad legal outcome, but a good political outcome” for Republicans. But
he added that it will increase pressure on his party to come up with a
specific alternative to the law ahead of the 2016 elections.
Pollster David Winston, who advises the GOP congressional leadership,
said, “Ultimately, the challenge for Republicans is not just how to
deal with this law, but where’s the direction? Where are the
alternatives?”
More than 6 million Americans — most of them in conservative states —
would have suddenly been without the government subsidies that make
health insurance affordable under the act.
"Obamacare is fundamentally broken, increasing health-care costs for
millions of Americans," House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said
Thursday after the Supreme Court's ruling.© The Washington Post
"Obamacare is fundamentally broken, increasing health-care costs for
millions of Americans," House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said
Thursday after the Supreme Court's ruling. And it would have primarily
been the responsibility of Republicans — a party that is on record as
favoring repeal of the law — to come up with a solution that could pass
both houses of Congress and be signed into law by President Obama. A
decision to severely undermine the law also would also have presented a
tricky political challenge for conservative governors and legislatures,
and for more than a dozen GOP candidates running for president.
Not that the issue will go away...
Read the rest of the article at MSN News
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