Obama's Big Political Win Sets Stage for More Battles

Wall Street Journal ^ | June 28, 2012 | CAROL E. LEE and NAFTALI BENDAVID

[lbryce]

President Barack Obama won a monumental legal victory Thursday when the Supreme Court upheld the vast majority of his health-care law, but the fight for public opinion—and votes in November—showed signs of growing more heated.

Mr. Obama can argue that he has secured long-held Democratic goals: Expanding health insurance to millions of additional Americans and limiting the power of insurers to deny coverage. That could help the president motivate core parts of his party's base that he needs for re-election, including college-educated women, younger voters and minorities.

But the ruling is likely to re-energize Republicans, who swept to a majority in the House in 2010 partly by attacking the health law as government overreach. The court also handed the GOP a new cudgel: It upheld the law's central plank by calling it a permissible form of taxation, giving Mr. Obama's opponents ammunition to argue he has imposed a new tax.

Read a timeline of events surrounding President Barack Obama's health-care legislation, from the bill's path through Congress to the legal challenges. Looking Back: Health Care in America

Read about past efforts to change how Americans receive and pay for health care.

Declaring the law a tax increase sets the stage for a reignited debate over the proper size and role of government, which has deeply divided the two parties.

Mr. Obama declared the ruling a historic victory while also vowing to work to adjust it, in an apparent nod to the law's unpopularity among many Americans. "We will continue to implement this law, and we'll work together to improve on it where we can," he said. "But what we won't do, what the country can't afford to do, is re-fight the political battles of two years ago or go back to the way things were."

[ScottinVA]

Yep.. immediately followed by Adm. Yamamoto`s spot-on observation that a sleeping giant had been awakened.

[Biggirl]

Won the battle, but LOST the war.

[Heart of Georgia]

We’ve already begun experiencing the effects of it.

Our insurance premium went from just over $12,000/yr to over $17,000/yr — some of it employer paid, of course, which is going to lead to employers opting out — exactly the purpose of this evil admin.

[madison10]

I’m there with ya. Add October 2008 and the election of 2000 and that about sums up how I feel. No wonder I’m so tired today...